Constantine heard Crispus

“Sure, Fath Dominus.”

Constantine leaned again in his chair. “You may have betrayed my belief, and should undergo due to it. However your punishment can be mitigated should you reveal the names of the opposite conspirators.”

‘1 can’t try this,” Crispus mentioned quietly.

“Within the title of God, why not?”

“I alone am the chief wrongdoer. With out me there would have been no conspiracy.”

It was the reality and, regardless of his anger and exasperation on the boy’s stubbornness, Constantine couldn’t assist feeling a sure delight in Crispus’ stalwart honesty and the energy of character that may let him select degradation and maybe demise for treason was concerned right here relatively than shift the blame for his personal yielding to an overweaning ambition upon the shoulders of others.

“Is that your remaining resolution?” Constantine requested.

“Sure, Dominus.”

Constantine turned to the quaestor. “What punishment do you advocate in such a case, Rubellius?”

“It’s a clear case of treason, Dominus. The punishment customary in such instances is demise.”

Constantine heard Crispus catch his breath in what may need been a sob, however the close to breakdown was solely momentary. Standing stiffly erect, he stared fixedly on the wall as if awaiting the headsman’s axe.

“What do you say, Dacius?” Constantine requested. “Do you agree that the prisoner is responsible?”

“Sure.”

“And the punishment?”

Galilee of Judea

“Virtually precisely three centuries in the past, a smart and good man in Galilee of Judea mentioned, ‘Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.’ I’ve no different recommendation.”

Constantine knew effectively what Dacius implied that greater than as soon as he had not hesitated to take away those that stood in his method, utilizing no matter means got here at hand. In reality Crispus had not acted otherwise on this affair than he had on events save that, when it got here to the ultimate act of destroying the one stumbling block barring him from energy and glory, he had refused to hurt his personal father. And that in itself justified leavening punishment with mercy.

“I might not withhold from my very own son the mercy advisable by the Son of God,” Constantine mentioned. “It’s my will that Caesar Crispus and Caesar Licinianus shall be banished from my presence. They’ll stay beneath guard at Pola, within the district of Istria and the province of Pannonia, till I shall decree an finish to their sentence of banishment. Quaestor Rubellius will order their switch to Pola instantly, and the magister memoriae will file the sentence.”