The Usurpers in the West

During this period many usurpers rose up against Honorius in the western government. Some of them fell upon one another, while others were caught in a wonderful way, and so made plain that God’s love toward Honorius was no ordinary thing. The soldiers in Britain were the first to mutiny, and they set up Marcus as usurper. Later, however, they killed Marcus and proclaimed Gratian. Four months later they killed Gratian and chose Constantine in his place, imagining that because of his name he would be able to bring the empire firmly under his authority. For no other reason than this, several other men of the same name were chosen to seize power. Constantine crossed from Britain to Bononia, a city on the coast of Gaul. He won over all the troops in Gaul and Aquitania to his side, and brought under his rule the people of the regions as far as the mountains that divide Italy from Gaul, which the Romans call the Cottian Alps. He then sent his eldest son Constans, whom he had already named Caesar and later proclaimed emperor, into Spain. When Constans had made himself master of this province and appointed his own governors over it, he ordered that Didymus and Verinian, relatives of Honorius, be loaded with chains and brought before him. Didymus and Verinian had at first quarreled with each other, but they were reconciled when they found themselves threatened by the same danger. They joined their forces, which were made up mostly of armed peasants and slaves. Together they attacked Lusitania and killed many of the soldiers the usurper had sent to capture them. [a]