The First Charge: Turning Constans Against Constantius

But there is also the slanderous charge brought against me before Your Grace about my dealings with the most pious Augustus, your brother Constans, of blessed and everlasting memory. My enemies say this of me, and they have dared to put it in writing. The earlier events are enough to prove this charge untrue as well. If it had been brought by some other set of people, the matter would indeed have deserved inquiry, though it would have needed strong evidence and open proof with both parties present. But when the very people who invented the earlier charge are also the authors of this one, is it not reasonable to judge from how the one turned out that the other is false? That is why they again conferred together in private, thinking they could deceive Your Piety before I knew of it. But in this they failed. You would not listen to them as they wished, but patiently gave me an opportunity to make my defense. And in not being moved at once to demand vengeance, you acted just as a righteous ruler should, whose duty is to wait for the defense of the injured party. If you will be kind enough to hear that defense, I am confident that in this matter too you will condemn those reckless men, who have no fear of the God who has commanded us not to speak falsely before the king. [a]