Yazdegerd stared at the report in his hands, which trembled with rage. He could hardly believe what he was reading. Previously, he had an agreement with Tasius that would see Placidia safely withdrawn from Ravenna and returned to her family. As far as the Eastern Roman Empire was concerned, the upcoming marriage between the girl and her fiance, Titus Claudius Marcellus, was one of coercion and was thus illegitimate.
Aside from safekeeping Placidia, Hispania was supposed to join the East. It was planned to be the staging point for the Eastern Roman Army for their attack on Marcellus. None of these things had gone as planned, Tasius was dead, and his soldiers had declared Marcellus Emperor. Marcellus was still in the act of returning to Ravenna, but Yazdegerd's spies had already sailed from Hispania to Constantinople to give him notice of what had transpired in the foothills of the Pyrenees.
