Hello, and welcome to the history of Rome, episode 124, The Tetrakes at War.

We left off last week with our two newly appointed junior emperors, Constantius and Galerius,

ready to begin the wars they had been assigned by their senior colleagues.

In the north, Constantius was making final preparations for his invasion of Britain, while

in the east Galerius outlined his strategy for punitive expedition against the Sassanids,

who had recently broken their treaty with Rome by invading Armenia.

For the moment, it looked like Constantius had drawn the short straw, forced to fight fellow

Romans in an attempt to retake a nearly impregnable island that had thus far proved to be an

impossible nut to crack.

Galerius, on the other hand, got to fight Persians, and in addition to the riches and glory

that usually came with campaigns in the east, Galerius also stood to be the man who finally

avenged the long, un-evenged capture of Valerian.

Constantius' assignment was hard and unglamorous.

Galerius' was, well, not easy, but certainly not as hard, and it was most likely going to

prove ten times as glamorous.

But despite the relative difficulties of their respective wars, it would shortly be Constantius

who was bade in glory for reconquering the province of Britannia, and Galerius, who was

forced to walk a mile in front of Diocletian's litter, as penance for the defeat he had suffered.

To deal with the Western Front first, we must follow Constantius from Milan up to Trier,

where he established a capital for his coming campaigns.

As I mentioned last week, Constantius was probably involved at the highest level in the previous

attempt to retake Britann, and so was acutely aware of what had gone wrong.

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