ourney by continual relays of horses, till he arrived at Petobio,[21] a
town in Noricum. Here all disguise was thrown off, and the Count
Barbatio suddenly made his appearance, with Apodemius, the secretary for
the provinces, and an escort of soldiers whom the emperor had picked out
as men bound to him by especial favours, feeling sure that they could
not be turned from their obedience either by bribes or pity.

20. And now the affair was conducted to its conclusion without further
disguise or deceit, and the whole portion of the palace which is outside
the walls was surrounded by armed men. Barbatio, entering the palace
before daybreak, stripped the Caesar of his royal robes, and clothed him
with a tunic and an ordinary soldier's garment, assuring him with many
protestations, as if by the especial command of the emperor, that he
should be exposed to no further suffering; and then said to him, "Stand
up at once." And having suddenly placed him in a private carriage, he
conducted him into Istria, near to the town of Pola, where it is
reported that Crispus, the son of Constantine, was formerly put to
death.

21. And while he was there kept in strict confinement, being already
terrified with apprehensions of his approaching destruction, Eusebius,
at that time the high chamberlain, arrived in haste, and with him
Pentadius the secretary, and Mallobaudes the tribune of the guard, who
had the emperor's orders to compel him to explain, case by case, on what
accounts he had ordered each of the individuals whom he had executed at
Antioch to be put to death.

22. He being struck with a paleness like that of Adrastus[22] at these
questions, was only able to reply that he had put most of them to death
at the instigation of his wife Constantina; being forsooth ignorant that
when the mother of Alexander the Great urged him to put to death some
one who was innocent, and in the hope of prevailing with him, repeated
to him over and over again that she had borne him nine months in her
womb, and was his mother, that emperor made her this prudent answer, "My
excellent mother, ask for some other reward; for the life of a man
cannot be put in the balance with any kind of service."

23. When this was known, the emperor, giving way to unchangeable
indignation and anger, saw that his only hope of establishing security
firmly lay in putting the Caesar to death. And having sent Serenianus,
whom we have already spoken of as having been accused of