Chapter 37 - The Verona Gambit

The city of Verona presented a far harder problem than Turin. It was an ancient fortress, nestled in a sharp bend of the river Athesis, its high walls and towers commanding the surrounding plains. Ruricius Pompeianus, the Praetorian Prefect, had garrisoned it with the best of his remaining forces and camped a second, larger army outside its walls, creating a formidable double-layered defense. A conventional siege would be a bloody, months-long affair, a war of attrition that Constantine, deep in hostile territory, could not afford to win.