Chapter 59 - A House Destroyed

With Helena's moral influence gone, sailing towards the distant Holy Land, the air in the Roman palace grew thick with a poison that only Constantine seemed unable to see. He was consumed with the vast project of empire—drafting laws, reviewing architectural plans for his New Rome, managing the immense bureaucracy of a unified world. He saw his son, Crispus, as his most capable general and heir, and his wife, Fausta, as the ambitious but clever mother of his future dynasty. He processed their roles as he would any other strategic asset, failing to account for the very human emotions he had long since purged from himself: jealousy and fear.