Constantius Gallus - Fall and Death

Fall and Death

Constantius was informed of the trials in Antioch during a campaign against the Alamanni. Having signed a peace with the Germanic tribe, Constantius decided to settle the matter with his cousin. First he summoned Ursicinus to the West, whom he suspected to have been inciting Gallus in order to create the occasion for a revolt and the usurpation of his own son.

Next, Constantius summoned Gallus and Constantina to Milan. Constantina left first, in order to gain some of her brother's trust, but died at Caeni Gallicani in Bithynia. Gallus, whose bonds to Constantius had been weakened, stayed in Antioch. Constantius tried to lure Gallus, sending the tribunus scutariorum Scudilo to tell Gallus that Constantius wanted to raise him to Augustus. Gallus desiring to finally obtain the rank of Augustus, took Constantius's bait and left Antioch to meet him. Gallus in an exhibition of his presumed soon to be Augustus powers, staged a chariot race in Constantinople's Hippodrome and crowned the victor, an honor reserved only for those that are Augustus. This insolence of Gallus enraged Constantius, further adding to his dislike for the upstart Caesar. In an attempt to further isolate Gallus from any form of military protection, Constantius had the garrisons removed from the towns in Gallus's path.

When Gallus arrived to Poetovio in Noricum, Barbatio, an officer who had been supporting Gallus' dismissal within Constantius' court, surrounded the palace of the caesar and arrested him, stripping Gallus of the imperial robes, but assuring him that no harm would come to him. Gallus was led to Pola, Istria (now Pula, Croatia). Here he was interrogated by some of the highest officials of Constantius' court, including the eunuch praepositus cubiculi Eusebius and the agens in rebus Apodemius. Gallus tried to put the blame of all of his actions on Constantina, but Constantius sentenced him to death; the emperor later changed his mind, and ordered the caesar to be spared, but Eusebius ordered that the news was not to reach the executioners.