Hello, and welcome to the history of Rome.

Episode 136.

Let this be our final battle.

Last week, we left off in March of 317 AD, with Constantine and Lychinius renewing their

imperial alliance.

For Constantine, the settlement was something of a disappointment.

After all, he had beaten Lychinius twice in battle, but two sunsets and some clever maneuvering

on the part of the Eastern Augustus had conspired to deny Constantine outright victory.

For Lychinius, though, the settlement was a huge relief, a classic case of snatching victory

from the jaws of defeat.

Well, stalemate from the jaws of defeat anyway, but you know, when you head into the endgame

with nothing but a king and two pawns, stalemate and victory looked pretty much the same.

Lychinius' position was far weaker after the settlement than before it, but he was still

Augustus, he still ruled the Eastern Empire, minus what he had been forced to see to Constantine,

and perhaps most important of all, he still had his head.

As I mentioned last time, following the settlement, Lychinius returned to Nicomedia, while

Constantine set up shop in Sermium.

Constantine wanted to establish his authority over the newly-seated Middle Empire, yes, but

he also wanted to make sure that he was right on top of Lychinius, in case the Eastern Augustus

ever slipped up, so he made his headquarters along the Danube River.

This meant, though, that the always-volatile Rhine frontier, where Constantine had spent

the majority of his reign thus far, was no longer under close imperial watch.

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