Res Gestae

Ammianus Marcellinus

Ammianus Marcellinus. Ammianus Marcellinus, with an English translation, Vols. I-III. Rolfe, John C., translator. Cambridge, MA; London: Harvard University Press; W. Heinemann, 1935-1940 (printing).

Some time after that Constantine sent Constantius[*](His son, the future emperor, Constantius II.) to Licinius, to persuade him to confer the rank of Caesar on Bassianus, who was married to a second sister of Constantine (named Anastasia), to the end that, after the manner of Maximianus, Bassianus might hold Italy and thus stand as a buffer between Constantine and Licinius.

But Licinius thwarted such an arrangement, and influenced by Bassianus’ brother Senicio, who was loyal to Licinius, Bassianus took up arms against Constantine. But he was arrested in the act of accomplishing his purpose, and by order of Constantine was condemned and executed. When the punishment of Senicio was demanded as the instigator of

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the plot and Licinius refused, the harmony between the two emperors came to an end; an additional reason for the break was, that Licinius had overthrown the busts and statues of Constantine at Emona.[*](Modern Laibach in Carinthia.) Then the two emperors declared open war.