Gallus ruled over the East from Antioch, and his purpose was to keep under control the Sassanid menace. Gallus, however, alienated the support of his subjects with his arbitrary and merciless rule. Constantina supported her husband. It is in Antioch that Constantina appeared to become politically active in the way typical of imperial Roman women. According to Ammianus Marcellinus, she was sinister and cruel, who largely operated hidden from the public view but was still powerfully controlling. He suggests that she called for the murder of several people, "Gallus...had just enough strength to reply that most of them had been massacred at the insistence of his wife Constantina". While this can not be proven, it does give her character the perception of being cruel and violent.