Constantine had expected Fausta to be difficult while Crispus was in Treves. The boy was less than a decade younger than she and posed a definite threat to her ambitions for the sons she hoped one day to bear. But to his surprise, she was cordial to the youth and even gave a magnificent royal reception for him the evening before he was to depart with Eumenius for Autun. She was in one of her gayest moods and Constantine could see that Crispus was quite bewitched with her, just as he remembered being on a similar occasion in Rome. Afterwards, when they were preparing for bed, he thanked her for her kindness to Crispus.
“Why shouldn’t I be nice to your son, darling?” she asked.
“I I was afraid you would be jealous of him.”
“For what?”
“When I move on to rule the rest of the Empire, I hope to name Crispus Caesar in Gaul, Britain and Spain.”
“The Empire is large enough for all your sons,” she assured him. “Not only Crispus, but the ones I shall bear you, too.”
Relief for Fausta
Constantine drew a long sigh of relief for Fausta could be quite difficult when it suited her as in the matter of Theodora and her children. And the last thing he wanted during the days of crisis which would surely come with the death of Galerius was domestic quarreling.
“We may not be far from the time when my realm will increase,” he told her. “Dacius says Galerius is dying and Licinius will probably not be able to stand against your brother very long.”
“It will be good to get back to Rome againl” The fact that he could hardly gain control of Rome without first destroying her brother seemed not to trouble her. “You don’t know how I miss it.” “Both of us have always known our stay in Gaul would not be permanent.”
“You weren’t so sure when I first met you in Rome,” she reminded him. “Or when you tried to persuade me to run away with you at Neapolis. You see how wrong it would have been to set Father and Maxentius against you then? Everything has worked out just as I planned.”
“Even your father’s death?”
“Not the way it happened, of course. But Father could never have become Emperor of the West again. Neither you nor Maxentius would have allowed it.”
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