The proclamation spread through Gaul like winter fog, slipping under doors and settling in every forum, every market square, every echoing basilica. Worded with the bland mercy of officialdom, it read: Maximian Herculius, stricken with remorse for his rebellion against Constantinus Augustus, has taken his own life. Traders repeated it in low voices, magistrates carved it into waxed tablets and pressed the imperial seal, soldiers nodded to it at roll call without question-at least as long as daylight ruled the streets.