With missiles raining upon it night and day even Alexandria could not hold out forever against the might of Rome. After some eight months of continuous siege, during which disease felled a considerable part of the population as well as no small number of the attackers the governor of the city at last capitulated and begged for mercy. Mindful of the prediction made by the priest, who had forecast the future by examining the entrails of the sacrifice made to Apollo in Caesarea, Diocletian showed no mercy to the prostrate city. The legions marching ahead of him as he entered Alexandria triumphantly cut down thousands of inhabitants indiscriminately, until the streets did indeed run red with blood, as had been prophesied.
Hardened to suffering though he had become during the months of the siege and inclined to feel little sympathy for a people who had brought disaster upon themselves by their stubbornness, Constantine was nevertheless sobered by the needless carnage. He could do nothing, however, for Diocletian himself had ordered the Egyptian bloodbath. As the ranking officer in the elite Imperial Guard, he was just behind the Emperor when they rode into the city, from whose streets already rose a sickening sweet smell of blood so potent that the horses were nervous and had to be held under strict rein.
Constantine saw Diocletian’s horse
Ahead of him Constantine saw Diocletian’s horse shy away from the body of a woman lying in the street with blood still pouring from her slashed throat and he spurred his own mount ahead, in case his help was needed. Before he could reach Diocletian, however, the jittery horse slipped, going down to its knees in the middle of the pool of blood.
The Emperor would have been thrown to the stone pavement and no doubt severely injured, if Constantine had not managed to seize his arm just as the horse went down. Inspired by a sudden thought as he steadied Diocletian while the animal scrambled to its feet, Constantine shouted: “The prophecy of Apollo has been fulfilled! Look there at the knees of the Emperor’s mount! They are red with blood.”
An instant of stunned silence followed Constantine’s announcement of the seemingly miraculous fulfillment of the prediction by the High Priest of Apollo at Caesarea. Diocletian hesitated, the instinct to destroy a people who had dared to resist him for eight months struggling against the innate superstitiousness of his nature. Then he leaned forward to look at the forelegs of the horse and saw that they were indeed covered with blood.
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