Chapter 33 - Soli Invicto

The news of Galerius's death reached Trier beneath a slate-grey sky, borne by a courier whose horse collapsed at the palace gate. There were no public cheers, no sacrifices of thanksgiving—only the metallic clatter of shutters being drawn as merchants and magistrates hurried indoors to ponder what the passing of the Senior Augustus might unleash. In the imperial map room Constantine received the report in silence, his lone eye fixed on the broad sweep of parchment that showed every march-road, mountain pass, and river from the Pillars of Hercules to the Tigris. Here, death was simply the subtraction of a counter, a vacancy that invited new moves.