28 How the Church Has Changed the World him to be named praetorian prefect of the West, he took it, and abandoned his wife, marrying the daughter of the co-emperor Maxentius. Constantius became emperor himself, but he would not wear that title long, dying in York after victories against the men with the painted bellies— the Picts. His wife herself had lived for a long time in that faraway island, Britain, in the company of her son. He too was a fighter, and an ambitious man. Oh, the emperors, they come and go, she thought. She had seen enough of them for one lifetime. Hadrian too, he came and went. “Nothing but rubble so far, Domina,” said the centurion. “Rubble and skulls.” “Let the skulls be. We are searching for life, not death. Keep digging.” So they did. In this sign you shall conquer Who rules the world? She saw in her mind’s eye the great Diocletian, whom she had known. In his late years, people said that you had to lie on your face when you approached him, calling him “Dominus et Deus,” as if he were some god out of the god-besotted east. She smiled and shook her head. The man himself did not believe a bit of it. All stage, all show. He enjoyed governing, which he was remarkably good
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