Constantine caught his breath in a gasp of admiration as a sleek galley rounded a point below them and came into their range of vision. Its oars kicked up a spray, which the sun turned instantly into the colors of the rainbow, and the broad white sail on its tall mast rippled with the change of course, as the crew scrambled to change the angle presented by the canvas to the wind and make it taut again.
In school he had read about the adventures long ago of a doughty band of Greek mariners led by one of their heroes called Jason. These daring sailors, the story said, had penetrated the waters upon which he was gazing now, fighting off a savage people who sought to turn them back as they pushed ever onward in search of gold.
For in ancient times rugged miners had dug the precious ore from the hills overlooking the Euxine Sea, washing the rare metal from base earth in flowing mountain streams and collecting it upon sheepskins which, when spread to dry, gained for themselves the name of Golden Fleece.
“This is such a beautiful land.” Marios’ voice broke into Constantine’s thoughts. “I often wonder why I ever left it for the life of a soldier. So I could wind up half a man?”
Uniform of a Roman officer
“But think what you would have missed, Uncle Marios.” In a new tunic, with his sturdy legs bare, Constantine already gave promise of the handsome figure he would make in the uniform of a Roman officer before he was very much older. “Britain! Gaul! Syria Palestine! Egypt! You have seen the whole world, but this is farther than I have ever been from home in my whole life.”
“You’ll find most of it the same. Roman camps differ little, no matter where they are pitched. And the flies in Britain can sting just as sharply as those in Egypt.”
“Why did the Emperor choose Nicomedia as his capital, instead of Rome?”
“Rome is dead, as far as being a center of empire is concerned. The real frontier now is with Persia in the East.”
“But the Senate is still there.”
“And a good place for them, too,” Marios said. “In Rome the pompous fools who still think they have a say in ruling the Empire can debate as long as they wish with no way to put their decisions into effect. Diocletian rules with an iron hand, even over Maximian, and from here the legions can move quickly either by land or by sea to put down any revolt.”
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