Each army had been commanded originally by a consul responsible to the Senate, but now a general responsible to one of the two Emperors, or one of the two Caesars, headed each such unit. Under the top commander were six tribunes, usually young men of noble birth, but the active direction of the army’s manifold activities unit by unit still rested upon the famous centurions, who were literally the backbone of the Roman army’s officer corps.
Several times a week, the trainees were given instructions in horseback riding and fighting from a mounted position under the close supervision of Crocus who, like most of his countrymen was a skilled horseman. Constantine had always loved riding and enjoyed these periods most of all, particularly as his friendship with the Gallic prince ripened.
In training, the riders were grouped in turmae of thirtytwo men in eight ranks, since it was a basic tenet of the Roman theory of warfare that a group of men fighting together as a unit was many times more effective than the total number of its members fighting individually. Observing Constantine’s aptitude for cavalry leadership, Crocus and Dacius soon gave him command of his own training turma, and before long his group was outdistancing the others, when they engaged in speedy gallops across country or maneuvered in formation.
The months were so filled with activity that they sped swiftly by. Regular letters came from Helena and occasionally Constantine was able to leave the barracks for dinner with his Uncle Marios and his family at their lovely villa on the outskirts of the city, overlooking the clear blue waters of the gulf. Once, toward the end of the first year, a letter came from his father telling him that Dacius had sent a good report of his training. But of the things Constantine wished most to hear, the activities of the Franks in Gaul and the status of the expedition being prepared to put down the rebellious Britanni, his father said almost nothing.
Constantine had dared to hope
For a while Constantine had dared to hope that when his training period was finished he might be assigned to join Constantius in the West for the campaign in Britain. But by now he was well enough versed in political matters at the Emperor’s court to know that such a thing would not be likely to occur.
Like himself Constantine’s barracks companions were tired at the end of the day’s training, and thus they did not cause him much trouble. Maximin Daia remained surly, which seemed to be his nature, while Maxentius had little interest in anything except wine and the girls he sought in the taverns of the town, when he could slip away from the barracks undetected. Constantine rarely saw the Emperor and then only from a distance during military reviews. General Severus, under whose command the training maniples per
formed their daily functions, congratulated him once on the progress he was making and spoke warmly of Constantius.
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