Caesar’s Lord

By the 320s, Rex and Flavia are married and living in Alexandria, hoping to remain outside the court struggles that have shaped their lives. Constantine’s final war with Licinius recalls Rex to military service, while Flavia’s grief over childlessness leaves her vulnerable to promises associated with Egypt’s older religious traditions.

Their separate crises draw them back into the transformation of the empire: the Council of Nicaea, violence within Constantine’s family, Helena’s journey to Jerusalem and the displacement of long-established cults by an increasingly favoured church. The conclusion sets the couple’s need for forgiveness against Constantine’s effort to unite political rule and Christian authority, presenting the new imperial order as both triumphant and morally unsettled.