 Section 4, Book 1, Part 4 of the Histories by Pablius Cornelius Tacitus. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Julefa Malchem. The Histories by Pablius Cornelius Tacitus. Translated by Alfred John Church and William Jektion Roadtrip. Book 1, January to March, 8069, Part 4. The Lingonies, following an old custom, had sent the presence to the legions right-hands clasped together a number of friendship. Theronvoys, who had assumed a studied appearance of misery and distress, passed through the headquarters and the men's tents, and complaining now of their own wrongs, now of the rewards bestowed on the neighbouring states, and when they found the soldiers ears open to their words, of the perils and insults to which the army itself was exposed, inflamed the passions of the troops. The legions were on the verge of mutiny, when the Haudenius flakas ordered the envoys to depart, and to make their departure more secret, directed them to leave the camp by night. Hands arose a frightful rumour, many asserting that the envoys had been killed, that unless the soldiers provided their own safety, the next thing would be that most energetic of the number, and those who had complained of their present condition, would be slaughtered at a cover of night, and the rest of the army would know nothing of their fate. The legions then bound themselves by a secret agreement. Into this, the auxiliary troops were intermittent. At first, objects of suspicion from the idea that their infantry and cavalry were being concentrated in preparation for an attack on the legions, these troops soon became especially zealous in the scheme. The bad find it easier to agree for purposes of war than to live in harmony during peace. Yet it was to Galberth that the legions of lower Germany took the oath of fidelity annually administered on the 1st of January. It was done, however, after long delay, and then only by a few voices from the former's ranks, while the rest reserved an absolute silence, everyone waiting for some bold demonstration from his neighbour, in obedience to that innate tendency of men which makes them quick to follow where they are slow to lead. And even in the various legions there was a difference of feeling. The soldiers of the 1st and the 5th were so mutinous that some of them threw stones at the images of Galberth. The 15th and 16th legions ventured on nothing beyond a brawl and threatening expressions. They were on the watch for something that might lead to an outbreak. In the upper army, however, the 4th and 13th legions which were stationed in the same winter quarters proceeded on this same 1st of January to break in pieces the images of Galberth. The 4th legion being firm-wosed, the 18th showing some reluctance but soon joining with the rest. Not, however, to seem to throw off all the reverence for the Empire, they sought to dignify their oath with the now obsolete names of the Senate and people of Rome. Not a single legate or tribune exerted himself for Galberth. Some, as is usual in a tumult, were even conspiciously active immediately, mutiny, though no one delivered anything like a formal harangue or spoke from a tribunal. Indeed, there was as yet no one to be obliged by such his services. Hodeonius Flaccus, the consular legate, was present and witnessed this outrage, but he dared neither check the furious mutineers nor keep the wavering to the duty nor encouraged to well affect it. Indolent and timid, he was reserved from guilds only by sloth. Four centurions of the 18th legion, known as Suceptus, Donatius Valens, Romelius Mosevus, Calpurnius Repentilus, striving to protect the images of Galberth were swept away by rush of the soldiers and put in irons. After this, no one retained any sense of duty, any recollection of his late legions, but, as usually happens in mutinies, the side of the majority became the side of all. In the course of the night of the 1st of January, the standard bearer of the 4th legion, coming to the colonial agri-ponensis, announced of italyus, who was then a dinner, the news that the 4th and 18th legions had thrown down the images of Galber, and had sworn allegiance to the senate and people of Rome. Such a form of oath appeared meaningless. It was determined to seize the doubtful fortune of the hour, and to offer an emperor to their choice. Vitalius sent envoys to the legions of their legates, or were to say that the army of Upper Germany had revolted from Galber, that it was consequently necessary for them, either, to make war on the revoltors, or if they preferred peace and harmony, to create an emperor, and to suggest that it would be less perilous to accept than to look for a chief. The nearest winter quarters were those of the 1st legion, and Fabius Valens was the most energetic of the legates. This officer, in the course of the following day, entered the colonial agri-ponensis with the cavalry of the legion and of the auxiliaries, and together with them saluted Vitalius as emperor. All the legions belonging to the same province followed his example with the prodigious zeal, and the army of Upper Germany abandoned the species' names, the senate and people of Rome, and on the 3rd of January declared for fateliers. One could be sure that during those previous two days it had not really been the army of the state. The inhabitants of colonial agri-ponensis, the trevorai and the lingonies, showed as much zeal as the army, making offers of personal service, of horses, of arms, and of money, according as each felt himself able to assist the cause by his own exertions, by his wealth, or by his talents. Nor was this done only by the leading men in the colonies or the camps who had abundant means at hand and might indulge great expectations in the event of victory, but all companies down to the very ranks offered instead of money their rations, their belts, and the bosses which richly decorated with silver adorned their arms, so strong were the promptings from without, their own enthusiasm, and even the suggestions of Everest. Vitalius, after bestowing high commendation on the zeal of the soldiers, proceeded to distribute among Romanites the offices of the imperial court usually held by freedmen. He paid the furlough fees to the centurions out of the imperial treasury. While in most instances he acquiesced in the fury of the soldiers who claimed it for numerous executions, in some few he eluded it under the debris-end of imprisoning the accused. Pompey's propincus, procurate of Balgica, was immediately put to death. Julius Burdo, prefect of the German fleet, he contrived to withdraw from the scene of danger. The resentment of the army had been inflamed against his officer by the belief that it was he who had invented the charges and planned the treachery which had destroyed Capito. The memory of Capito was held in high favour, and with that enraged soldiery it was possible to slaughter in open day, but to pardon only by stealth. He was kept in prison and only set at liberty after the victory of the Italians when the resentment of the soldiery had subsided. Meanwhile, by way of a victim, the centurion Crispinas was given up to them. This man had actually imbued his hands in the blood of Capito. Consequently he was to those who cried for vengeance and more notorious criminal and to him who punished a cheaper sacrifice. Julius Sevilleus, a man of commanding influence among the Patavai, was next rescued from like circumstances of peril, lest if that high-spirited nation should be alienated by his execution. There were indeed, in the territory of the Lingonis, eight pataving cohorts, which formed the auxiliary force of the fourteenth legion, but which had, among the many dissensions of the time, withdrawn from it. A body of troops which, to whatever side they might incline, would, whether as allies or enemies, throw a vast weight into the scale. Fatalius ordered the centurion's nonious Donatius, Romilius and Calpurnius, of whom I have before spoken, to be executed. They had been convicted of the crime of fidelity, among rebels the worst of crimes. Now Adirans soon declared themselves in Valyris Asiaticus, like eight of the Provence of Belgica, when Fatalius soon after made his son-in-law, and Junius Blasius, governor of Gallia Lugdanensis, who brought with him the Italian legion and the Torine halls, which are stationed at Lugdanum. The armies of Racia made no delay in at once joining Fatalius, and even in Britain there was no hesitation. Of that Provence, Trebellius Maximus was governor. A man who soared at Everest made him an object of contempt and hatred to the army. His unpopularity was heightened by the efforts of Roskius Calius, the legate of the twentieth legion, who had long been on bad terms with him, and who now seized the opportunity of a civil war to break out into great of violence. Trebellius charged him with mutinous designs, and with disturbing the regularity of military discipline. Calius retorted on Trebellius the accusation of having planned it and impoverished the legions. Meanwhile, all obedience in the army was destroyed by these disgraceful quarrels between its commanders, and the feud rose to such a height that Trebellius was insulted even by the auxiliaries and, finding himself altogether isolated, as the infantry and cavalry sided with Calius, he fled for safety to Fatalius. Yet the Provence still enjoyed tranquillity, though its consular governor had been driven from it. It was now ruled by the legate of the legions, who were equal as the lawful authority, though the audacity of Calius made him the more powerful. After the army of Britain had joined him, Fatalius, who had now a prodigious force and vast resources, determined that there should be two generals and two lines of march for the contemplated war. Trebellius's valence was ordered to maneuver, if possible, or if they refused his overtures, to ravage the Provences of Gaul and to invade Italy by way of the Corcian Alps, Chichina to take the nearer road, and to march down from the Pennine Range. To valence we entrusted the pick-troops of the army of lower Germany with the eagle of the fifth legion and the auxiliary infantry and cavalry, to the number of forty thousand armed men. Chichina commanded thirty thousand from upper Germany, the strength of his force being one legion to twenty first. Both had also some German auxiliaries, and from this source Fatalius, who was to follow with this whole military strength, completed his own forces. Wonderful was the contrast between the army and the emperor. The army was all eagerness. They cried out war, while Gaul yet wavered, and Spain hesitated. The winter, they said, the delays of a cowardly inaction must not stop us. We must invade Italy. We must seize the capital, in civil strife, where action is more needed than deliberation. Nothing is safer than haste. Fatalius, on the contrary, was sunk in sloth, and anticipated the enjoyment of supreme power in indolent luxury and prodigal festivities. By midday he was half intoxicated, and heavy with food. Yet the ardour and vigor of the soldiers themselves discharged all the duties of a general as well as if the emperor had been present to stimulate the energetic by hope and the indolent by fear. Ready to march and eager for action, they loudly demanded the signal for starting. The title of Germanicus was at once bestowed on Fatalius, that of Caesar he refused to accept, even after his victory. It was observed as a happy omen for Fabius Valens and the forces which he was conducting to his campaign, that on the very day on which they set out, an eagle moved with a gentle flight before the army, as it advanced, as if to guide it on its way. And for a long distance, so loudly that the soldiers shouted their joy, so calm and unterrified was the bird, that it was taken as no doubtful omen of great and successful achievements. The territory of the trevorai, they entered, with all the security naturally felt among allies, but at Diverdurum, a town of the Mediometrici, though they had been received with the most courteous hospitality, a sudden panic massed them. In a moment they took up arms to massacre an innocent people, not for the sake of plunder or fight by loss of spoil, but in a wild frenzy arising from causes so vague, that it was very difficult to apply remedy. Soothed at length, by the entreaties of their general, they refrained from utterly destroying the town, yet as many as four thousand human beings were slaughtered. Such an alarm was spread through goal, that as the army advanced, all states, headed by the magistrate and with prayers on the lips, came forth to meet it, while the women and children lay prostrate along the roads, and all else that might appease an enemy's fury was offered, the war there was none, to secure the boon of peace. Valens received the tidings of the murder of Galbaim, the accession of Otto, while he was in the country of Delukai. The feelings of the soldiers were not seriously infected either with joy or alarm. They were intent on war. Gal, however, ceased to hesitate. Otto and Vitalius it hated equally, Vitalius it also feared. The next territory was that of the Lingonies who were loyal to Vitalius. The troops were kindly received, and they vied with each other in good behaviour. This happy state of things, however, was of short duration owing to the violence of the auxiliary infantry, which had detached itself as before related, from the fourteenth legion, had been incorporated by Valens with his army. First came angry words, then a brawl between the Batavai and the Lingonies, which, as a partiality of the soldier espoused, one or another of the parties was almost kindled into a battle, and would have been so, had not Valens by punishing a few, reminded Batavai of the authority which they had now forgotten. Against the Aedui a pretext for war was sought in vain, that people, when ordered to furnish arms and money, voluntarily added a supply of provisions. What the Aedui did for fear, the people of Luckton did with delight, yet the Italian legions and the Toran horse were withdrawn. It was resolved that the eighteenth cohort should be left there, as it was their usual winter quarters. Manly as Valens, legated of the Italian legion, though he had served the party well, was held in no honour by Vitalius. Fabius Valens had defamed him by secret charges of which he knew nothing, publicly praising him all the while, that he might less suspect the treachery. The odd feud between Luckton and Vienna had been kindled afresh by the late war. They had inflicted many losses on each other so continuously and so suffocely, that they could not have been fighting only for Nero or Galba. Galba had made it this pleasure the occasion for diverting into the imperial treachery the revenues of Luckton while he had treated Vienna with marked respect. Thence came rivalry and dislike, and the two states, separated only by a river, were linked together by perpetual feud. Accordingly the people of Luckton began to work on the passions of individual soldiers and to go them into destroying Vienna by reminding them how that people had besieged their colony, had abetted the attempt of index and had recently raised legions for Galba. After parading these free texts for quarrel they pointed out how vast would be the plunder. From secret encouragement they passed the open entreaty. Go, they said, to avenge us and utterly destroy this home of Gallic rebellion. There all are foreigners and enemies. We are a Roman colony, a part of the Roman army, sharers in your successes and reverses. Fortune may declare against us, do not abandon us to a negrary foe. By these and to many similar arguments they so wrought upon the troops that even the legate and the leaders of the party did not think it possible to check their fury. But a pupil of Vienna, aware of their danger, assumed the veils and chaplets of supplyeants and, as the army approached, clasped the weapons, knees and feet of the soldiers and so turned them from their purpose. Valens also made each a soldier a present of three hundred cestities. After that the antiquity and rank of the colony prevailed and the intercession of Valens, who charged them to respect the life and welfare of the inhabitants, received a favourable hearing. They were, however, publicly mocked at of their arms and furnished the soldiers with all kinds of supplies from the private means. Report, however, has uniformly asserted that Valens himself was bored with a vast sum. Poor for many years and sadly growing reg, he could but ill conceal the change in his fortunes, indulging without moderation the appetites which a protracted poverty had inflamed and after a youth of indigence becoming prodigal in old age. The army then proceeded by slow marches through the territory of the El Abrogis and Verkontii. The very length of each day's march and the changes of encampment being made a matter of traffic by the general who concluded his graceful bargains to the injury of the hoarders of Lend and the magistrates of the different states and used such manaces that at Lukas, a municipal town of the Verkontii, he was on the point of setting fire to the place when a present of money soothed its rage. When money was not forthcoming, he was bought off by sacrifices to his lust. Thus he made his way to the Alps. Caikina reveled more freely in plunder and bloodshed. His rested spirit had been provoked by the Helvetii, a Gallic race famous once where it's a war-like population, afterwards for the associations of its name. Of the murder of Galba they knew nothing and they rejected the authority of italius. The war originated in the rapacity and impatience of the 21st Legion who had seized some money sent to pay the garrison of a fortress which the Helvetii had long held with their own troops and had their own expense. The Helvetii, in their indignation, intercepted some letters written in the name of the Army of Germany which were on their way to the legions of Pannonia and attained the centurion and some of his soldiers in custody. Caikina, eager for war, hastened to punish every delinquency as it occurred before the offender could repent. Suddenly moving his camp, he ravaged a place which, during a long period of peace, had grown up into something like a town and which was much resorted to as an agreeable watering place. Dispatches were sent to the region auxiliaries, instructing them to attack the Helvetii in the rear while the Legion was engaging them in front. Bald before the danger came and timid in the moment of peril, the Helvetii, though at the commencement of the movement they had chosen Claudius Severus for their leader, knew not how to use their arms to keep their ranks all to act in concert. A pitched battle with veteran troops would be destruction. A siege would be perilous with fortifications old and ruinous. On the one side was Caikina and the head of a powerful army, on the other where the auxiliary infantry and cavalry of Aresia and youth of that province endued to arms and exercised in habits of warfare, all around were slaughter and devastation. Wondering to and fro between the two armies, the Helvetii threw aside their arms and with a large proportion of wounded and stragglers fled to a refuge to Manfukicius. They were immediately dislodged by the attack of some Thracian infantry. Closely pursued by the Germans and Russians they were cut down in the forest and even in the hiding places. Thousands they put to the sword, thousands more were sold into slavery. Every place having been completely destroyed, the army was marching in regular order on Aventicum, the capital town, when a deputation was sent to surrender the city. This surrender was accepted. Julius Alpinus, one of the principal man, was executed by Caikina, as having been the promoter of the war. All the rest he left to the mercy of Severidius for Talias. It is hard to say whether the envoys from Helvetia found the emperor or his army less merciful. Exterminate of the race was a cry of the soldiers as they brandished their weapons or shook their fists in the faces of the envoys. Even Talias himself did not refrain from threatening words and gestures, till at length Claudius Cusses, one of the Helvetian envoys, a man of well-known eloquence but who then concealed the art of the orator under an assumption of alarm, and was therefore more effective, soothed rage of the soldiers, who, like all multitudes, were liable to sudden impulses, and were now as inclined to pity as they had been extravagant and fury. Bursting into tears and praying with increasing earnestness for a milder sentence, they procured pardon and protection for the state. Caikina, while halting for a few days in the Helvetian territory, till he could learn the decision of Talias, and at the same time make preparation for the passage of the Alps, received from Italy the good news that Silius' horse, which was courted in the neighbourhood of Paedus, has sworn allegiance to Talias. They had served under him when he was proconsul in Africa, from which Talias, nearer had soon afterwards brought them, intending to send the man before himself into Egypt, but had recalled them in consequence of the rebellion of Vindex. They were still in Italy, and now, at the instigation of their decurients, who knew nothing of our toe but were bound of Talias and to magnified strengths of the advancing legions in the fame of the German army, they joined the Vitalianists, and by way of a present, the Deneuil Prince, they secured for him the strongest towns of the country north of the Paedus, Mediolanum, Norveria, Iperadia, and Veselae. This Caikina had learned from themselves, aware that the widest part of Italy could not be held by such a force as a single squadron of cavalry, he sent on in advance the auxiliary infantry from Gaul, Lusitania and Racia, with the veteran droops from Germany and Patras' horse, while he made a brief hold to consider whether he should pass over the Ration Range into Noricum to attack Pregonius, the procurator who had collected some auxiliaries, and broken down the bridges over the rivers, and was thought to be faithful to Otto. Fearing, however, that he might lose the infantry and cavalry which he had sent on in advance, and at the same time reflecting that more honour was to be gained by holding possession of Italy, that, wherever the decisive conflict might take place, Noricum would be included among the other prizes of victory, he marched the reserves and the heavy infantry through the Panine Passes, while the Alps were still covered with the snows of winter. Meanwhile Otto, to the surprise of all, was not sinking down into luxury and sloth. He deferred his pleasures, concealed his profligacy, and mauled at his whole life to suit the dignity of empire. Men dreaded all the more virtues so false, and vice is so certain to return. Marius Kelsus consul-elect whom he had rescued from the fury of the soldiers by pretending to imprison him, he now ordered to be summoned to his capital. He sought to acquire a reputation for clemency by sparing a distinguished man opposed to his own party. Kelsus pleaded guilty to the charge of faithful Edirus Galba, and even made a merit of such an example of fidelity. Otto did not treat him as a man to be pardoned, and, willing to blend with greater reconciliation, the memory of past distility at once admitted him to his intimate friendship, and soon afterwards appointed him to be one of his generals. By some fatality, as it seemed, Kelsus maintained also to Otto a fidelity as irreproachable as it was unfortunate. The escape of Kelsus gratified the leading men in the state was generally praised by the people, and did not displease even the soldiers, who could not but admire the virtue which provoked their anger. Then followed as great a burst of joy, though from a less worthy cause, when the destruction of Tegalonus was achieved. Saphonius Tegalonus, a man of obscure birth, steeped in infamy from his boyhood and shamelessly profligate in his old age, finding vice to be as quick as road to such offices as a command of the watch and of the praetorian guard, and to other distinctions due to merit, went on to practice cruelty, rapacity, and all the crimes of mature years. He perverted Nero to every kind of atrocity, he even ventured on some acts without the Emperor's knowledge, and ended by deserting and betraying him. Hence, there was no criminal whose doom was from opposite motives more importunately demanded, as well by those who hated Nero as by those who regretted him. During the reign of Galba, Tegalonus had been screened by the influence of Vinyas, who alleged that he had saved his daughter, and doubtless he had preserved her life, not indeed out of mercy, when he had murdered so many, but is secure for himself a refuge for the future. For all the greatest villains, distrusting the present and dreading change, look for private friendship to shelter them from public detestation, caring not to be free from guilt, but only to ensure their turn in impunity. This enraged the people more than ever, the recent unpopularity of Vinyas being targeted to their old hatred against Tegalonus. They rushed from every part of the city into the palace and forum, and bursting into the circus of theatre, where the mob enjoyed special licence, broke out into seditious clamours. At length, Tegalonus, having received at the springs of Sinuasa a message that his last hour was come, amid the embraces and carriages of his mistresses and other things, cut his throat with a razor, and aggravated the disgrace of an infamous life by a tardy and ignominious death. The Histories by Publius Cornelius Tacitus translated by Alfred John Church and William Jackson Broderib Book 1, January to March, AD 69 Part 5 1.73 About the same time a demand was made for the execution of Galvia Crispanilla. Various artifices on the part of the emperor, who incurred much obliquery by his duplicity, rescued her from the danger. She had instructed Nero in profligacy, had passed over into Africa, that she might urge Mesa into rebellion, and had openly attempted to bring a famine upon Rome. Yet she afterwards gained universal popularity on the strength of her alliance with the man of consular rank, and lived unharmed through the reigns of Galba, Otho and Vitellius. Soon she became powerful as a rich and childless woman, circumstances which have as great weight in good as in evil times. Meanwhile, frequent letters disfigured by unmanly flatteries were addressed by Otho to Vitellius, with offers of wealth and favour and any retreat he might select for a life of prodigal indulgence. Vitellius made similar overtures. Their tone was at first Pacific and both exhibited a foolish and undignified hypocrisy. Then they seemed to quarrel, charging each other with debaucheries and the grossest crimes, and both spoke truth. Otho, having recalled the envoys whom Galba had sent, dispatched others, nominally from the Senate, to both the armies of Germany, to the Italian Legion, and to the troops quartered at Lugdenham. The envoys remained with Vitellius too readily to let it be supposed that they were detained. Some Vitellians, whom Otho had attached to the embassy, ostensibly as a mark of distinction, were sent back before they could mix with the legions. Letters were also addressed by Fabius Valens in the name of the German army to the Praetorian and city cohorts, extolling the strength of his party, and offering terms of peace. Valens even reproached them with having transferred the imperial power to Otho, though it had so long before been entrusted to Vitellius. Thus they were assailed by promises as well as by threats, were told that they were not strong enough for war, but would lose nothing by peace. Yet all this did not shake the loyalty of the Praetorians. Nevertheless secret emissaries were dispatched by Otho to Germany and by Vitellius to Rome. Both failed in their object. Those of Vitellius escaped without injury, unnoticed in the vast multitude, knowing none and themselves none. Those of Otho were betrayed by their strange faces in a place where all knew each other. Vitellius wrote to Titianus, Otho's brother, threatening him and his son with death, unless the lives of his mother and his children were spared. Both families remained uninjured. This in Otho's reign was perhaps due to fear. Vitellius was victorious and gained all the credit of mercy. 1.76 The encouraging tidings came to Otho from Illyricum. He heard that the legions of Dalmatia, Pannonia and Mauricia had sworn allegiance to him. Similar intelligence was received from Spain and Cluvius Rufus was commanded in an edict. Immediately afterwards it became known that Spain had gone over to Vitellius. Even Aquitania, bound though it was by the oath of allegiance to Otho which Julius Cordus had administered, did not long remain firm. Nowhere was there any loyalty or affection. Men changed from one side to the other under the pressure of fear or necessity. It was this influence of fear that drew over to Vitellius the province of Galia Narbonensis, which turned readily to the side that was at once the nearer and the stronger. The distant provinces and all the armies beyond the sea still adhered to Otho, not from any attachment to his party, but because there was vast weight in the name of the capital and the prestige of the senate and also because the claims which they had first heard had pre-possessed their minds. The army of Judea under Respezion and the legions of Syria under Mucchianus swore allegiance to Otho. Egypt and the eastern provinces were also governed in his name. Africa displayed the same obedience, Carthage taking the lead. In that city Crescans, one of Nero's freedmen, for in evil times even this class makes itself a power in the state without waiting for the sanction of the proconsul, Vipstanus Apronianus, had given an entertainment to the populace by way of rejoicings for the new reign and the people with extravagant zeal hastened to make the usual demonstrations of joy. The example of Carthage was followed by other cities of Africa. As the armies and provinces were thus divided, Vitellius, in order to secure the sovereign power, was compelled to fight. He continued to discharge his imperial duties as though it were a time of profound peace. Sometimes he consulted the dignity of the commonwealth, but often in hasty acts, tainted by the expediency of the moment, he disregarded its honour. He was himself to be consul with his brother Titianus till the first of March. The two following months he assigned to Virginia as a complement to the army of Germany. With Virginia's was to be associated Pompeius for Piscous, particularly on the grounds of their being old friends, though many regarded the appointment as meant to do honour to the people of Vienna. The other consulships still remained as Nero or Galba had arranged them. Calius Sabinas and his brother Flavius were to be consuls till the first of July. Aureus Antoninas and Marius Kelsus from that time to the first of September. Even Vitellius after his victory did not interfere with these appointments. On aged citizens who had already held high office, Othel bestowed as a crowning dignity, pontificates and augurships, while he consolved the young nobles who had lately returned from exile by reviving the saccadotal offices held by their fathers and ancestors. Cardius Rufus, Pedius Blaesus, Sabinius Pompinius, who in the reigns of Claudius and Nero had been convicted under indictments for extortion, were restored to their rank as senators. Those who wished to pardon them resolved by a change of names to make what had really been rapacity seem to have been treason, a charge then so odious that it made even good laws a dead letter. 1.78 By similar bounty Othel sought to win the affections of the cities and provinces. He bestowed on the colonies of Hispalis and Emerita some additional families. On the entire people of the Lingonis the privileges of Roman citizenship. To the province of Batica he joined the states of Mauritania and granted to Cappadocia and Africa new rights, more for display than for permanent utility. In the midst of these measures, which may find an excuse in the urgency of the crisis and the anxieties which pressed upon him, he still did not forget his alt and moors, and by a decree of the senate restored the statues of Popea. It is even believed that he thought of celebrating the memory of Nero in the hope of winning the populace, and persons were found to exhibit statues of that prince. There were days on which the people and the soldiers greeted him with shouts of Nero Othel as if they were heaping on him new distinction and honour. Othel himself wavered in suspense, afraid to forbid or ashamed to acknowledge the title. 1.79 Men's minds were so intent on the Civil War that foreign affairs were disregarded. This emboldened the Roxalani, a Sarmatian tribe destroyed two cohorts in the previous winter to invade Mauricia with great hopes of success. They had 9000 cavalry flushed with victory and intent on plunder rather than on fighting. They were dispersed and off their guard when the third legion together with some auxiliaries attacked them. The Romans had everything ready for battle. The Sarmatians were scattered, and in their eagerness for plunder had encumbered themselves with heavy baggage, while the superior speed of their horses was lost on the slippery roads. Thus they were cut down as if their hands were tied. It is wonderful how entirely the courage of the people is, so to speak, external to themselves. No troops could show so little spirit when fighting on foot, when they charge in squadrons hardly any lion can stand against them. But on this occasion the day was damp and the ice thawed, what with the continual slipping of the horses and the weight of their coats of mail they could make no use of their pikes or their swords, which being an excessive length they wield with both hands. These coats are worn as defensive armor by the princes and most distinguished persons of the tribe. They are formed of plates of iron or very tough hides and though they are absolutely impenetrable to blows, yet they make it difficult for such as have been overthrown by the charge of the enemy to regain their feet. Besides, the Sarmatians were perpetually sinking in the deep and soft snow. The Roman soldier, moving easily in his caress, continued to harass them with javelins and lances and whenever the occasion required closed with them with his short sword and stabbed the defenceless enemy, for it is not their custom to defend themselves with a shield. A few who survived the battle concealed themselves in the marshes. There they perished from the inclemency of the season and the severity of their wounds. When this success was known, Marcus Aponius, governor of Moesia, was rewarded with a triumphal statue, while Fulbius Aurelius, Julianius Titius and Eumisius Lupus, the legates of the legions, received the ensigns of consular rank. Otho was delighted and claimed the glory for himself, as if it were he that commanded success in war and that had aggrandised the state by his generals and his armies. 1.80. Meanwhile, from a trampling cause, whence nothing was apprehended, there arose a tumult which had nearly proved fatal to the capital. Otho had ordered the seventh cohort to be brought up to Rome from Ostia, and the charge of aiming it was entrusted to various crispiness, one of the tribunes of the Praetorian Guard. This officer, thinking that he could carry out the order more at his leisure, when the count was quiet, opened the armory and ordered the wagons of the cohort to be laden at nightfall. The time provoked suspicion, the motive challenged accusation. The elaborate attempt at quiet ended in a disturbance, and the sight of arms among a drunken crowd excited the desire to use them. The soldiers murmured, and charged the tribunes and centurions with treachery, alleging that the households of the senators were being armed to destroy Otho. Many acted in ignorance and were stupefied by wine, the worst among them was seeking opportunity for plunder. The mass was as usual ready for any new movement, and the military obedience of the better disposed was neutralised by the darkness. The tribune, who sought to check the movement, and the strictest disciplinarians among the centurions, were cut down. The soldiers seized their arms, bared their swords, and mounted on their horses, made the city and the palace. 181 Otho was giving a crowded entertainment to the most distinguished men and women of Rome. In their alarm they doubted whether this was a casual outbreak of the soldiers, or an act of treachery in the Emperor, and whether to remain and be arrested was more a perilous alternative than to disperse and fly. At one time making a show of courage, at another betrayed by their terror, they still watched the countenance of Otho, and as it happened, so ready were all to suspect, Otho felt as much alarm as he inspired. Terrified no less by the Senate's critical position than by his own, he had forthwith dispatched the prefects of the Praetorian God to allay the fury of the soldiery, and he now ordered all to leave the banquet without delay. Then on all sides officers of the state cast aside the insignia of Otho, and shunned the retinues of their friends and domestics. Aged men and women wandered in the darkness of night about the various streets of the city. Few went to their homes, most sought the houses of friends, or some obscure hiding-place in the dwelling of their humblest dependents. The rush of the soldiers was not even checked by the doors of the palace. They burst in upon the banquet with loud demands that Otho should show himself. They wounded the Tribune, Julius Marty Alice, and the prefect Vitellius Saturninas, who sought to stem the torrents. On every they brandished their swords, and ministered centurions and tribunes at one moment, the whole cellet at another. Their minds were maddened by a blind panic, and unable to single out any one object for their fury, they sought for indiscriminate vengeance. At last Otho, regardless of his imperial dignity, stood up on a couch, and by dint of prayers and tears contrived to restrain them. Reluctant and guilty they returned to the camp. The next day the houses were closed as they might be in a captured city. Few of the citizens could be seen in the streets. The populace were dejected. The soldiers walked with downcast looks, and seemed gloomy rather than penitent. Nekinius Proculus and Plotius Firmus, the prefects, addressed the companies in the gentler or harsher terms that suited their respective characters. The end of these harangues was that five thousand cisterces were paid to each soldier. Then did Otho venture to enter the camp. The tribunes and centurions surrounded him. They had thrown aside the insignia of their rank, and they demanded release from the toils and perils of service. The soldiers felt their approach. Returning to their duty, they even demanded the execution of the ringleaders in the riot. Otho was aware how disturbed was the country, and how conflicting the feelings of the soldiery, the most respectable of whom cried out for some remedy for the existing license, while the great mass delighted in riot, and in an empire resting on popularity, and could be most easily urged to civil war by indulgence in tumult and wrapping. At the same time he reflected that power acquired by crime could not be retained by a sudden assumption of the moderation and of the dignity of former times. Yet he was alarmed by the critical position of the capital and by the perils of the senate. Finally he addressed the troops in these terms. Comrades, I am not calm that I may move your hearts to love me, or that I may rouse your courage. Love and courage you have in superfluous abundance. I come to pray you to put some restraint on your valour, some check on your affection for me. The origin of the late tumult is to be traced not to rapacity or disaffection feelings which have driven many armies into civil strife, much less to any shrinking from, or fear of danger. It was your excessive affection for me that drows you to act with more zeal than discretion, for even honourable matters of action and less directed by judgment are followed by disastrous results. We are now starting for a campaign. Does the nature of things, does the rapid flight of opportunities admit of all intelligence being publicly announced, of every plan being discussed in the presence of all? It is as needful that the soldiers should be ignorant of some things as that they should know others. The general's authority, the stern laws of discipline, require that in many matters even their centurions and the tribunes shall only receive orders. If, whenever orders are given, individuals may ask questions, obedience ceases, and all command is at an end. Will you in the field too snatch up your arms in the dead of night? Shall one or two worthless and drunken fellows, for I cannot believe that more were carried away by the frenzy of the late outbreak, imbrew their hands in the blood of centurions and tribunes, and burst into the tent of their emperor? You indeed did this to serve me, but in the tumult, the darkness and the general confusion, an opportunity may well occur that may be used against me. If Vitelius and his satellites were allowed to choose, what would be the temper and the thoughts with which they would curse us? What would they wish for us but mutiny and strife, that the private should not obey the centurion, nor the centurion the tribune, that thus we should rush, horse and foot together, on our own destruction? Comrades, it is by obeying, not by questioning the orders of commanders that military power is kept together, and that army is the most courageous in the moment of peril, which is the most orderly before the peril comes. Keep your arms and your courage. Leave it to me to plan and to guide your valour. A few were in fault, two will be punished. Let all the rest blot out the remembrance of that night of infamy. Never let any army hear those cries against the senate. To clamour for the destruction of what is the head of the empire, and contains all that is distinguished in the provinces, good God, it is a thing which not even those Germans, whom Vitelius at this very moment is rousing against us, would dare to do. Shall any sons of Italy, the true youth of Rome, cry out for the massacre of an order by whose splendid distinctions we throw into the shade the mean and obscure faction of Vitelius? Vitelius is the master of a few tribes, and has some semblance of an army. We have the senate. The country is with us, with them the country's enemies. What? Do you imagine that this fairest of cities is made up of dwellings and edifices and piles of stones? These dumb and inanimate things may be indifferently destroyed and rebuilt. The eternal duration of empire, the peace of nations, my safety and yours, rest on the security of the senate. The order which was instituted under due auspices by the father and founder of the city, and which has lasted without interruption and without decay from the kings down to the emperors, we will bequeath to our descendants, as we have inherited it from our ancestors. For you give the state its senators, and the senate gives its princes. 1.85 This speech, which was meant to touch and to calm the feelings of the soldiers, and the moderate amount of severity exercised, for Otho had ordered to and no more to be punished, met with a graceful acceptance, and for the moment reduced to order men who could not be coerced. Yet tranquility was not restored to the capital. There was still the dinner of arms and all the sights of war, and the soldiers, though they made no concerted disturbance, had dispersed themselves in disguise about private houses, and exercised a malignant surveillance over all whom exalted rank or distinction of any kind, exposed to injurious reports. Many, too, believed that some of the soldiers of Battelius had come to the capital to learn the feelings of the different parties. Hence everything was rife with suspicion, and even the privacy of the family was hardly exempt from fear. It was, however, in public that most alarm was felt, with every piece of intelligence that rumour brought, men changed their looks and spirits, anxious not to appear discouraged by unfavourable omens, or too little delighted by success. When the senate was summoned to the chamber, it was hard for them to maintain in all things a safe moderation. Silence might seem contumacious, and frankness might provoke suspicion, and Otho, who had lately been a subject and had used the same language, was familiar with flattery. Accordingly they discussed various motions on which they had put many constructions. Battelius they called a public enemy and a traitor to his country. The more prudent contenting themselves with hackneyed terms of abuse, though some throughout reproach is founded in truth, yet only did so in the midst of clamour, and when many voices were heard at once, drowning their own speech in a tumult of words. Prodigies which were now noised about from various sources increased men's terror. It was said that in the porch of the capital the reigns of the chariot, on which stood the goddess of victory, had dropped from her hand, that from the chapel of Juno there had rushed forth a form greater than the form of man, that the statue of the Divine Julius, which stands on the island in the Tiber, had turned from the west to the east on a calm and tranquil day, that an ox had spoken aloud in Truria, that strange births of animals had taken place, besides many other things, such as in barbarous ages are observed even during seasons of peace, but are now heard of only in times of terror. But an alarm greater than all, because it connected immediate loss with fears for the future, arose from a sudden inundation of the Tiber. The river became vastly swollen, broke down the wooden bridge, was checked by the heap of residents across the current, and overflowed not only the low and level districts of the capital, but also much that had been thought safe from such casualties. Many were swept away in the streets, many more were cut off in their shops and chambers. The want of employment and the scarcity of provisions caused a famine among the populace. The poorer class of houses had their foundations sapped by the stagnant waters, and fell when the river returned to its channel. The mines were no longer occupied by their fears. The fact that, while Otho was preparing for his campaign, the campus Martius and the Via Flaminia, his route to the war, were obstructed by causes either fortuitous or natural, was regarded as a prodigy and an omen of impending disasters. Otho, after publicly purifying the city and weighing various plans for the campaign, determined to march upon Gallia Narbonensis, as the passes of the Pennine and Cotian Alps and all the other approaches to Gaul were held by the armies of Vitelius. His fleet was strong and loyal to his cause, for he had enrolled in the ranks of the legion the survivors of the slaughter at the Milvian Bridge, whom the stern policy of Galba had retained in custody, while to the rest he had held out hopes of a more honourable service for the future. To the fleet he had added some city cohorts and many of the Praetorians, the stay and his army, who might at once advise and watch the generals. The command of the expedition was entrusted to Antonius Novellus and Seradius Clemens, centurions of the first rank, and Emilius Paquensis, to whom Otho had restored the rank of Tribune, taken from him by Galba. Othos, a freedman, retained the charge of the fleet and went to watch the fidelity of men more honourable than himself. Suetonius Paulinus, Marius Kelsus and Anius Gaelus, were appointed to command the infantry and the cavalry. The emperor, however, placed most confidence in Likinius Proculus, prefect of the Praetorian Guard. An active officer at home, without experience in war, he founded perpetual accusations on the high influence of Paulinus, on the energy of Kelsus, on the mature judgment of Gaelus, in fact, on each man's special excellence, a thing most easy to do, and thus the unscrupulous and the cunning were preferred before the modest and the good. About this time Cornelius Dolabella was banished to the Colonia Aquinas, but he was not kept in strict or secret custody. It was not for any crime that he suffered. He was marked out for suspicion by his ancient name and by his relationship to Galba. Many of the officers of state and a large proportion of the men of consular rank Otho ordered to accompany him to the field, not indeed to share or serve in the campaign but to form a retinue. Among them was Lucius Vitelius, whom Otho treated as he treated the rest, and not as though he were the brother either of an emperor or of an enemy. This roused the anxieties of the capital. No rank was free from apprehension or peril. The leading men of the senate either suffered from the infirmities of age or were enervated by a prolonged peace. The nobility were indolent and had forgotten how to fight. The equestrian order knew nothing of service, and the more they endeavored to hide and repress their alarm the more evident was their terror. On the other hand there were some who with census ostentation purchased splendid arms and magnificent horses, and some who procured by way of equipments for the war the luxurious furniture of the banquet and other incentives of propogacy. The wise looked to the interests of peace and of the commonwealth, while the giddy and those who were thoughtless of the future were inflated with idle hopes. Many whose credit had been shaken in the years of peace regained their spirits amid the confusions of the time and found their best safety in revolution. The mob and the people, generally, whose vast numbers cut them off from all interest in the state, began by degrees to feel the evils of war, now that all the currency had been diverted to the purposes of the army, and the prices of provisions were raised. These evils had not equally distressed the commonwealth during the insurrection of Vindex. The capital was safe, and the war was in the provinces, and fought as it was between the legions and Gaul it seemed but a foreign campaign. Indeed, from the time that the divine Augustus consolidated the power of the Caesars, the wars of the Roman people had been in remote places and had caused anxiety or brought honor to but one man. Under Tiberius and Caes, men dreaded for the commonwealth only the miseries of peace. The rising of Scribonianus against Claudius was crushed as soon as heard of. Nero was driven from power by evil tidings and rumors rather than by the sword. Now the legions and the fleets were brought into action, and with them a force used but on few other occasions, the Fratorian and city soldiery. In their rear were the provinces of the east and of the west with all their forces. Had they fought under other generals there was all the material for a protracted war. Many suggested to Otho, as he was setting out, a religious obstacle in the fact that the sacred shields had not been restored to their place. He spun all delay as having been Nero's fatal mistake, and the fact that Caikina had now caused the Alps urged him to action. On the fourteenth of March, after commending the states to the care of the senate, he presented to those who had been recalled from exile what was left of the Neuronian confiscations, or had not yet been paid into the imperial state. A most equitable and apparently most splendid piece of liberality, but practically worthless, as the property had been hastily realised long before. Soon afterwards he summoned an assembly and enlarged on the dignity of the capital and the unanimity of the senate and people in his favour. Of the party of Vitellius he spoke with moderation, charging the legions with ignorance rather than with crime, and making no mention of Vitellius himself. His own, or was due to the writer of the speech, who, fearing for himself, abstained from invectives against Vitellius. For author was believed to avail himself of the abilities of Galerius to Calus in civil matters, just as he imposed those of Celsus and Paulinus in war. There were some who recognised the very style of speaking, which was well known from his constant pleading at the bar, and which sought to fill the popular ear with a copious and sonorous diction. The acclamations of habitual flattery prompted in the people were at once extravagant and false. As if they were applauding a dictator like Caesar, or an emperor like Augustus, they vied with each other in their zeal and good wishes. They acted not from fear or affection, but from the mere love of servitude, as it might be in some private household, each had his own motives, and the public honour now went for nothing. Author set out, leaving the peace of the city and the cares of the empire in the charge of the father, Solveus Titianus. End of book 1, part 5. Section 6 Book 2, part 1 of the histories of Publius Cornelius Tacitus. This is a Librivox recording. All Librivox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit Librivox.org. Recording by Morgan Scorpion. The Histories of Publius Cornelius Tacitus. Translated by Alfred John Church and William Jackson Broderib. Book 2, March to August A.D. 69, Part 1. 2.1 In a distant part of the world, Fortune was now preparing the origin and rise of a new dynasty, whose varied destinies brought happiness or misery on the state, prosperity or destruction on the princes of its life. Titus Vespasian had been sent from Judea by his father while Galba still lived and alleged as a reason for his journey the homage due to the Emperor and his age, which now qualified him to compete for office. But the vulgar, ever eager to invent, had spread the report that he was sent for to be adopted. The advanced years and childless condition of the Emperor furnished matter for such gossip and the country never can refrain from naming many persons until one be chosen. The report gained the more credit from the genius of Titus himself, equal as it was to the most exalted Fortune from the mingled beauty and majesty of his countenance, from the prosperous fortunes of Vespasian, from the prophetic responses of oracles, and even from accidental occurrences which in the general disposition to belief were accepted as omens. At Corinth, the capital of Achaia, he received positive information on the death of Galba, and found men who spoke confidently of the revolt of Vitelius and of the fact of war. In the anxiety of his mind he sent a few of his friends and carefully surveyed his position from both points of view. He considered that if he should proceed to Rome he should get no thanks for a civility intended for another while his person would be a hostage in the hands either of Vitelius or of Otho that he should turn back the conqueror would certainly be offended. But with the issue of the struggle still doubtful and the father joining the party the son would be excused. On the other hand, if Vespasian should assume the direction of the state men who had to think of war would have to forget such causes of offence. 2.2 These and like thoughts made him waver between hope and fear and hope triumphed. Some supposed that he retraced his steps for love or in berenice. Nor was his young heart averse to her charms, but this affection occasioned no hindrance to action. He passed, it is true, a youth enlivened by pleasure and practised more self-restraint in his own than in his father's reign. So after coasting Achaea and Asia leaving the lands on his left he made for the islands of Rhodes and Cyprus to hold a course for Syria. Here he conceived a desire to visit and inspect the temple of the Papian Venus place of celebrity both among natives and foreigners. It will not be a tedious digression to record briefly the origin of the worship the ceremonial of the temple and the form under which the goddess is adored a form found in no other place. 2.3 The founder of the temple according to old tradition was King Aerius though some represent this as the name of the goddess herself. Later accounts tell us that the temple was concentrated by Kinnerus and that the goddess herself after her birth from the sea was wafted to this spot but that the wisdom and craft of the diviners was a foreign importation introduced by Tamirus of Cilicia and that it was agreed that the descendants of both families should preside over the worship. Afterwards that the royal family might not be without some superiority over the foreign stock the strangers relinquished the craft which they had themselves introduced. The priest of the line of Kinnerus is alone consulted. The victims are such as each worshipper has vowed but males are selected the surest prognostics are seen in the entrails of kids. It is forbidden to pour blood on the altar. The place of sacrifice is served only with prayers and pure flame and though it stands in the open air it is never wet with rain. The image of the goddess does not bear the human shape. It is a rounded mass rising like a cone from a broad base to a small circumference. The meaning of this is doubtful. 2.4 Titus after surveying the treasures the royal presence and the other objects which the antiquarian tendencies of the Greek arbitrarily connect with some uncertain past first consulted the oracle about his voyage. Receiving an answer that the way was open and proficient he then after sacrificing a number of victims asked some questions in ambiguous phrase concerning himself. Sostratus, that was the name of the priest, seeing that the entrails presented an uniformly favourable appearance and that the goddess signified her favour to some great enterprise returned at the moment a brief and ordinary answer but afterwards soliciting a private interview disclosed the future. His spirits raised Titus rejoined his father and was received as a mighty pledge of success by the wavering minds of the provincials and the troops. Vespasian had all but completed the Jewish war and only the siege of Jerusalem now remained, an operation, the difficulty and the arduousness of which was due rather to the character of its mountain citadel and the perverse obstinacy of the national superstition than to any sufficient means of enduring extremities left to the besieged. As we have mentioned above Vespasian himself had three legions inured to war. Musianus had fought under his command in his peaceful province. Emulation, however, and the glory won by the neighbouring army had banished all tendency to sloth, and unbroken rest and exemption from the hardships of war had given them a vigour equivalent to the hardyhood which the others had gained by their perils and their toils. Each had auxiliary forces of infantry and cavalry, each had fleets and tributary kings that though their renown was of a different kind had a celebrated name. 2.5 Vespasian was an energetic soldier. He could march at the head of his army, choose the place for his camp and bring by night and day his skill, or, if the occasion required, his personal courage to oppose the foe. His food was such as chance offered. His dress and appearance hardly distinguished him from the common soldier. In short, but for his avarice he was equal to the generals of old. Musianus on the contrary was eminent for his magnificence, for his wealth, and for greatness that transcended in all respects the condition of a subject. Readier of speech than the other he thoroughly understood the arrangement and direction of civil business. It would have been a rare combination of princely qualities if, with their respective faults removed, their virtues only could have been united in one man. The governor of Syria, Vespasian of Judea. In the administration of these neighbouring provinces, jealousy had produced discord between them, but on nearersfall they had dropped their animosities and associated their councils. At first they communicated through friends, till Titus, who was the great bond of union between them by representing their common interests had terminated their mischievous feud. He was indeed a man formed both by nature and by education to attract even such a character as that of Musianus. The tribunes, the centurions and the common soldiers were brought over to the cause by appeals to their energy or their love of licence, to their virtues or to their vices according to their different dispositions. 2.6 Long before the arrival of Titus both armies had taken the oath of allegiance to Otho. The news had come as usual with great speed, while there was much to delay the gigantic undertaking of a civil war for which the east-ar-long period of repose was then for the first time pairing. In former times the mightiest civil conflicts had begun in Gaul or Italy with the resources of the west. Pompey, Brutus, Cassius and Antony, all of whom had been followed across the sea by civil war, had met with a disastrous end and the emperors had been often heard of then seen in Syria and Judea. There had been no mutiny among the legions, nothing indeed but some demonstrations against the Parthians attended with various success. In the last civil war though other provinces had been disturbed peace had been here unshaken. Then had followed a loyal adherence to Galba, but when it became notorious that Otho and Vitelius opposed an impious strife were ready to make a spoil of the empire the thought that others would engross the rewards of power while they would have nothing left for themselves but a compulsory submission made the soldiers murmur and take a survey of their own strength. There were close at hand seven legions there were Syria and Judea with a vast number of auxiliaries then without any interval of separation there was Egypt and its two legions and on the other side Capodosia, Pontus and all the garrisons along the frontier of Armenia there was Asia Minor there were the other provinces not without a military population with money there were all the islands of the Mediterranean and there was the sea itself which during the interval of preparation for war would be both a convenience and a protection. 2.7 The Ardo of the troops was not unknown to their generals but it was judged advisable to wait for the issue of the struggle which others were carrying on the conquers and the conquered it was said never unite with a genuine good faith. It matters not whether fortune make author or vitelius to be the victor even great generals grow insolent in prosperity these men are quarrelsome indolent and ploplegate and their own faults will make war fatal to the one and success to the other they therefore postponed the war until a more fitting opportunity and though Vespasian and Mucionis had but lately resolved on concerted action the others had done so long before the worthiest among them were moved by patriotism many were wrought upon by the attractions of Plunder some by their private embarrassments and so good and bad from different motives but with equal zeal were all eager for war. 2.8 About this time Achaia and Asia Minor were terrified by a false report that Nero was at hand various rumours were current about his death and so there were many who pretended and believed that he was still alive the adventures and enterprises of the other pretenders I shall relate in the regular course of my work the pretender in this case was a slave from Pontus or according to some accounts a freedman from Italy a skillful harp player and singer accomplishments which added to a resemblance in the face gave a very deceptive plausibility to his pretensions after attaching to himself some deserters needy vagrants whom he bribed with great offers he put to see driven by stress of weather to the island of Synthesis he induced certain soldiers who were on their way from the east to join him and ordered others who refused to be executed he also robbed the traders and armed all but the most able-bodied of the slaves the centurion Cicena who was the bearer of the clasped right hands the usual emblem of friendship from the armies of Syria to the Praetorians sailed by him with various artifices till he left the island secretly and fearing actual violence made his escape with all haste thence the alarm spread far and wide and many roused themselves at the well-known name eager for change and detesting the present state of things the report was daily gaining credit when an accident put an end to it 2.9 Galba had entrusted the government of Galatia and Pamphylia to Calponeus Asprenus 2 triremes from the fleet of Mycena were given him to pursue the adventurer with these he reached the island of Sinthus persons were found to summon the captains in the name of Nero the pretender himself assuming a studied appearance of sorrow and appealing to their fidelity as old soldiers of his own resought them to land him in Egypt or Syria the captains perhaps wavering perhaps intending to deceive declared that they must address their soldiers and that they would return when the minds of all had been prepared everything however was faithfully reported to Asprenus and at his bidding the ship was boarded and taken and the man, whoever he was, killed the body which in the eyes the hair and the savage countenance were remarkable features was conveyed to Asia and thence to Rome 2.10 in a state that was distracted by strife and that from frequent changes in its rule is trembled on the verge between liberty and license even little matters were attended with great excitement Vibious Crispus whose wealth, power and ability made him rank among men of distinction rather than among men of worth demanded that Aeneas Faustus of the equestrian order who in the days of Nero had practised the trade of the informer should be brought to trial before the senate the senate indeed had recently during the reign of Galba but cognizance should be taken of the cases of the informers this decree was variously carried out and while retained as law was powerless or effectual according as the person who happened to be accused was influential or helpless besides the terror of the law Crispus had exerted his own power to the utmost to destroy the man who had informed against his brother he had prevailed upon a great part of the senate to demand that he should be consigned to destruction, undefended and unheard but on the other hand there were some with whom nothing helped the accused person so much as the excessive power of the accuser they gave it as their opinion that time ought to be allowed that the charges ought to be specified that, odious and guilty as the man might be he yet ought to be heard as precedent required at first they carried their point and the trial was postponed for a few days but before long Faustus was condemned but by no means with that unanimity was a part of the people which his detestable character had deserved men remembered that Crispus had followed the same profession with prophet nor was it the penalty but the prosecutor that they disliked to 11 meanwhile the campaign had opened favourably for Otho at whose bidding the armies of Dalmatia and Pannonia had begun to move these comprised four legions from each of which 2,000 troops were sent in advance the 7th had been raised by Galba the 11th, 13th and 14th were veteran soldiers the 14th having particularly distinguished itself by quelling the revolt in Britain Nero had added to their reputation by selecting them as his most efficient troops this had made them long faithful to Nero and kindled their zeal for Otho but their self-confidence induced a tardiness of movement proportionate to their strength and solidity the auxiliary infantry and cavalry moved in advance with the main body of the legions the capital itself contributed no contemptible force namely five Victorian cohorts some troops of cavalry and the first legion and together with these 2,000 gladiators a disreputable kind of auxiliaries but employed throughout the civil wars even by strict disciplinarians Annias Gallus was put at the head of this force and was sent on with the best trickiest Burina to occupy the banks of the Paedus the campaign hadn't fallen to the ground now that Caikina who they had hoped might have been kept within the limits of Gaul had crossed the Alps Otho himself was accompanied by some picked men of the bodyguard with whom were the rest of the Praetorian cohorts the veteran troops from the Praetorian camp and a vast number of the levies raised from the fleet no indolence or riot disgraced his march he wore a caress of iron and was to be seen in front of the standards on foot, rough and negligent in dress and utterly unlike what Common Report had pictured him 2,12 Fortunes seemed to smile on his efforts through his fleets which commanded the sea he held the greater part of Italy even as far as where the chain of the maritime Alps begins the task of attempting the passage of this chain and advancing into the Provincia Narbonensis he had entrusted to three generals Seradius Clemens Antonius Novellus and Emilius Paquensis Paquensis, however, was put in irons by his insubordinate troops Antonius possessed no kind of authority and Clemens commanded only for popularity and was as reckless in transgressing the good order of military discipline as he was eager to fight one would not have thought that it was Italy and the habitations of their native country that they were passing through they burnt, spoiled and plundered as if they were among the lands of the foreigner and the cities of a hostile people as if they were among the lands of the foreigners and the cities of a hostile people and with all the more frightful effect as nowhere had there been made any provision against the danger the fields were full of rural wealth the houses stood with open doors and the owners, as with their wives and children they came forth to meet the army found themselves surrounded in the midst of the security of peace with all the horrors of war Marius Maturus was then governing as procurator to the province of the maritime Alps raising the population in which is no lack of able-bodied men he resolved to drive back the Othonianists from the borders of his province but the mountaineers were cut down and broken by the first charge as might be expected of men who had been hastily collected who were not familiar with camps or with regular command who saw no glory in victory no infamy in flight 213 Exasperated by this conflict the troops of Otho vented their rage on the town of Albinte Miliam in the field indeed they had secured no plunder their rustic adversaries were poor and their arms worthless nor could they be taken prisoners for they were swift afoot and knew the country well but the rapacity of the troops glutted itself in the ruin of an innocent population the horror of these acts was aggravated by a noble display of fortitude in a lagurian woman she had concealed her son and when the soldiers who believed that some money had been hidden with him questioned her with torture as to where she was hiding him she pointed to her bosom and replied it is here that he is concealed nor could any subsequent threats or even death itself make her falter in this courageous and noble answer 2.14 Messengers now came in haste and allowed to inform Fabius Phelan's how Otho's fleet was threatening the province of Gallia Narbonensis which had sworn allegiance to Vitelius envoys from the colonies were already on the spot praying for aid he dispatched two cohorts of Tungrian infantry four squadrons of horse and all the cavalry of the Traveri under the command of Julius Clasicus part of these troops were retained for the defence of the colony of Forum Julii for it was feared that if the whole army were sent by the route through the interior the enemy's fleet might make a rapid movement on the unprotected coast 12 squadrons of cavalry and some picked infantry advanced against the enemy they were reinforced by a cohort of Ligurians an auxiliary local force of long standing and 500 Pannonians not yet regularly enrolled the conflict commenced without delay the enemy's line of battle being so arranged that part of the levies from the fleet who had a number of rustics among their ranks were posted on the slope of the hills which border on the coast the Fratorians fully occupying the level ground were moving the hills on the shore while on the sea was the fleet moored to the land and ready for action drawn up in line so as to present a formidable front the Patellianists whose infantry was inferior but who were strong in cavalry stationed the mountaineers on the neighbouring heights and their infantry in close ranks behind the cavalry the squadrons of the Traveri charged the enemy unconsciously and found themselves encountered in front by the veteran troops also annoyed by showers of stones from the rustic band who were skillful throwers and who mixed up as they were among the regular soldiers whether cowardly or brave were all equally abled in the moment of victory the general consternation of the Patellianists were increased by a new alarm as the fleet attacked the rear of the combatants by this movement they were hemmed in on all sides and the whole force would have perished had not the shades of night checked the advance of the victorious army to the retreat of the vanquished 2.15 the Patellianists however though beaten did not remain inactive they brought up reinforcements and attacked the enemy who felt themselves secure and whose vigilance was relaxed by success the sentinels were cut down the camp stormed and the panic reached the ships till as the alarm gradually subsided they again assumed the offensive under the protection of some neighbouring heights a terrible slaughter ensued and the prefects of the Tongrian cohorts after having long maintained their line unbroken fell beneath a shower of missiles the Othonianists however did not achieve a bloodless victory as the enemy's cavalry wheeled round and cut off some who had impudently prolonged the pursuit and then as if a sort of armistice had been concluded to provide against any sudden panic that the cavalry of the one party or the fleet of the other might cause the interests retreated to Antipolis a town of Gallia Narbonensis the Othonianists to Albigornum in Upper Liguria 2.16 Corsica, Sardinia and the other islands of the neighbouring seas were retained in the interests of Otho by the fame of these naval successes Corsica however all but suffered fatal injury from the rash proceedings of Decimus Pacarius the procurator proceedings which in so gigantic a war led to the general result and which only brought destruction upon their author in his hatred of Otho he resolved to support Vitellius with the whole strength of Corsica and insignificant assistance even had the design succeeded he collected the chief men of the island and explained his plans Claudius Pyricus captain of the Libernian ships stationed in the place and Quintius Circtus a Roman knight who ventured to offer opposition all who were present were terrified at their death and with the ignorant populace which ever blindly shares in the fears of others took the oath of allegiance to Vitellius but when Pacarius began to enlist troops and to worry with military duties and undisciplined population disgusted with the unusual toil they began to reflect upon their own weakness the country which we inhabit they said to themselves is an island Germany and its mighty legions are far from us the people that even countries protected by infantry and cavalry have been plundered and ravaged by the fleet their feelings underwent a sudden change they did not however resort to open violence but chose an opportunity for a treacherous attack when the persons who usually surrounded Pacarius had left him and he was naked and helpless in the bath they slew him his associates were slaughtered with him the perpetrators of the deed carried the heads of the slain to Otho as being the heads of public enemies but lost among the crowd of greater criminals in the vast confusion of events they were neither rewarded by Otho nor punished by Vitellius 2.17 Cilius's horse had now, as I have already related, opened the way into Italy and transferred the war across the borders no one entertained any attachment to Otho yet it was not because they preferred Vitellius long years of peace had subdued them to any kind of servitude to submit to the First Comer and careless about the better cause the wealthiest district of Italy the broad plains and cities which lie between the Paedus and the Alps was now held by the troops of Vitellius for by this time the infantry sent in advance by Chai Kinna had also arrived a cohort of Pannonians had been taken prisoner at Cremona a hundred cavalry and a thousand of the levies from the fleet intercepted between Placentia and Ticinum elated by these successes the troops of Vitellius would no longer be restrained by the boundaries of the river's bank the very sight of the Paedus excited the men from Batavia and the trans-rename provinces crossing the stream by a sudden movement they advanced on Placentia and seizing some of the reconnoitres so terrified the rest that deceived by their alarm they announced that the whole army of Chai Kinna was at hand 2.18 Spurrina, who now had Placentia was sure that Chai Kinna had not yet arrived and that even while he approaching he ought to keep his men within their fortifications and not confront a veteran army with three Fratorian cohorts a thousand veterans and a handful of cavalry but the undisciplined and inexperienced soldieries seized their standards and colours and rushed to the attack brandishing their weapons in the face of their general when he sought to restrain them and spurning from them the tribunes and centurions and even crying out that author was betrayed and that Chai Kinna had come by invitation Spurrina associated himself with the rash movement which others had originated at first acting under compulsion but afterwards pretending to consent in the hope that his councils might have more influence should the mutinous spirit abate 2.19 When the Paedus was in sight and night began to fall they judged it expedient to entrench a camp the labour, new as it was to the soldiery of the capital broke their spirits all the oldest among them began to invade against their own credulity and to point out the difficulty and danger of their position if on those open plains Chai Kinna and his army were to surround their scanty forces by this time more temperate language was heard throughout the camp and the tribunes and centurions mixing with the troops suggested commendations of the prudence of their general in selecting for the rallying point and basis of his operations a colony rich in military strength and resources finally Spurrina himself not so much reproaching them with their error as exposing it by his arguments conducted them all back to Placentia except some scouts whom he left in a less turbulent temper and more amenable to command the walls were strengthened battlements were added and the towers were raised in height it was not only of the implements of war that provision and preparation were made but of the spirit of subordination and the love of obedience this was all that was wanting to the party for they had no reason to be dissatisfied with their courage end of book 2 part 1 recording by Morgan Scorpion section 7 book 2 part 2 of the histories of Publius Cornelius Tacitus this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Morgan Scorpion the histories by Publius Cornelius Tacitus translated by Alfred John Church and William Jackson Broderib book 2 March to August AD 69 part 2 220 Chichina who seemed to have left his cruelty and profligacy on the other side of the Alps advanced through Italy with his army under excellent discipline the towns and colonies, however, found indications of a haughty spirit in the general's dress when they saw the cloak of various colours and the trues, a garment of foreign fashion clothed in which he was wont to speak to their toga-clad citizens and they resented, as if with a sense of personal wrong the conduct of his wife Salanina though it injured no one that she presented a conspicuous figure as she rode through their towns on horseback in a purple habit they were acting on the instincts of human nature which prompt men to scrutinise with keen eyes the recent elevation of their fellows and to demand a temperate use of prosperity from none more rigorously than from those whom they have seen on a level with themselves Chichina, after crossing the Paedus sought to tamper with the loyalty of the Orthonianists at a conference in which he held out hopes of reward and he was himself assailed with the same arts After the species but meaningless names of peace and concord had been thus bandaged to and fro Chichina turned all his thoughts and plans on the capture of Placentia making a formidable show of preparation as he knew that according to the success of his opening operations would be the subsequent prestige of his arms 221 The first day, however, was spent in a furious onset rather than in the skillful approaches of a veteran army Exposed and reckless the troops came close under the walls stupefied by excess in food and wine In this struggle the amphitheatre, a most beautiful building situated outside the walls, was burnt to the ground possibly set on fire by the assailants while they showered brands, fireballs and ignited missiles on the besieged possibly by the besieged themselves while they discharged incessant bollies in return The populace of the town, always inclined to be suspicious believed that combustibles had been purposely introduced into the building by certain persons from the neighbouring colonies who viewed it with envious and jealous eyes because there was not in Italy another building so capacious Whatever the cause of the accident it was thought of but little moment as long as more terrible disasters were apprehended but as soon as they again felt secure they lamented it as though they could not have endured a heavier calamity In the end Caikina was repulsed with great slaughter among his troops and the night was spent in the preparation of siege works The battalionists conducted mantlets, hurdles and sheds for undermining the walls and screening the assailants The Athonianists busied themselves in preparing stakes and huge masses of stone and of lead and brass with which to break and overwhelm the hostile ranks The shame of failure, the hope of renown wrought on both armies both were appealed to by different arguments On the one side they extolled the strength of the legions and of the army of Germany and the other the distinctions of the soldiery of the capital and the Praetorian cohorts The one reviled their foes as slothful and indolent soldiers demoralised by the circus and the theatres the others retorted with the names of foreigner and barbarian At the same time they lauded over tupperated Otho and Vitelius but found indeed a more fruitful source of mutual provocation in invective than in praise 2.22 Almost before dawn of day the walls were crowded with combatants and the planes glittered with masses of armed men The close array of the legions and the scummishing parties of auxiliaries assailed with showers of arrows and stones the loftier parts of the walls attacking them at close quarters where they were undefended or old and decayed The Othonianists who could take a more deliberate and certain aim poured down their javelins on the German cohorts as they recklessly advanced to the city with fierce war cries brandishing their shields above their shoulders after the manner of their country and leaving their bodies unprotected The soldiers of the legions working under cover of mantlets and hurdles undermined the walls, threw up earthworks and endeavored to burst open the gates The Praetorians opposed them by rolling down with a tremendous crash ponderous masses of rock, placed for the purpose Beneath these many of the assailants were buried and many, as the slaughter increased with the confusion and the attack from the walls became fiercer retreated, wounded, fainting and mangled with serious damage to the prestige of the party Keikuna, ashamed of the assault on which he had so rashly ventured and unwilling, ridiculed and baffled as he was to remain in the same position again crossed the Paedus and resolved on marching to Cremona As he was going, Torellius Corialis with a great number of the levies from the fleet and Julius Briganticus with a few troopers gave themselves up to him Julius commanded a squadron of horse, he was a Batavian Torellius was a centurion of the first rank, not unfriendly to Keikuna as he had commanded a company in Germany 2.23 Spurina, on discovering the enemy's route, informed Agnus Gallus by letter of the successful defence of Placentia of what had happened and of what Keikuna intended to do Gallus was then bringing up the first legion to the relief of Placentia he hardly dared to trust so few cohorts fearing that they could not sustain a prolonged siege or the formidable attack of the German army on hearing that Keikuna had been repulsed and was making his way to Cremona though the legion could hardly be restrained and in its eagerness for action even went to the length of open mutiny he halted at Bedriacum this is a village situated between Verona and Cremona and has now acquired an ill-ohmen celebrity by two great days of disaster to Rome about the same time that Martius Mesa fought a successful battle not far from Cremona Martius, who was a man of energy, conveyed his gladiators in boats across the Paedus and suddenly threw them upon the opposite bank the Battalionist's auxiliaries on the spot were routed those who made a stand were cut to pieces the rest directing their flight to Cremona but the impetuosity of the victors was checked for it was feared that the enemy might be strengthened by reinforcements and change the fortune of the day this policy excited the suspicions of the Othonianists who put a sinister construction on all the acts of their generals vying with each other in an insolence of language proportioned to their cowardice of heart they assailed with various accusations, Agnus Gallus, Suetonius Paulinus and Marius Kelsus the murderers of Galba were the most ardent promoters of mutiny and discord frenzied with fear and guilt, they sought to plunge everything into confusion resorting now to openly seditious language, now to secret letters to Otho and he, ever ready to believe the meanest of men and suspicious of the good a resolute in prosperity but rising higher under reverses was in perpetual alarm the end of it was that he sent for his brother Titianus and entrusted him with the direction of the campaign 2.24 meanwhile brilliant successors were gained under the command of Kelsus and Paulinus Caikina was greatly annoyed by the fruitlessness of all his undertakings and by the waning reputation of his army he had been repulsed from Placentia his auxiliaries had been recently cut up and even when the skirmishers had met in a series of actions frequent indeed but not worth relating he had been worsted and now that Valens was coming up fearful that all the distinctions of the campaign would centre in that general he made a hasty attempt to retrieve his credit but with more impetuosity than prudence 12 miles from Cremona at a place called the casters he posted some of the bravest of his auxiliaries concealed in the woods that there overhang the road the cavalry were ordered to move forward and after provoking a battle voluntarily to retreat and draw on the enemy in hasty pursuit till the ambush guard could make a simultaneous attack the scheme was betrayed to the Othonianus generals and Paulinus assumed the command of the infantry Kelsus of the cavalry the veterans of the 13th legion four cohorts of auxiliaries and 500 cavalry were drawn up on the left side of the road the raised causeway was occupied by three praetorian cohorts ranged in deep columns on the right front stood the first legion with two cohorts of auxiliaries and 500 cavalry besides these a thousand cavalry belonging to the praetorian guard and to the auxiliaries were brought up to compete a victory or to retrieve a repulse 2.25 before the hostile lines engaged the battalionists began to retreat but Kelsus, aware of the stratagem, kept his men back the battalionists rashly left their position and seeing Kelsus gradually give way followed too far in pursuit and themselves fell into an ambush guard the auxiliaries assailed them on either flank the legions were opposed to them in front and the cavalry by a sudden movement had surrounded their rear Suetonius Paulinus did not at once give the infantry the signal to engage he was a man naturally tardy in action and one who preferred a cautious and scientific plan of operations to any success which was the result of accident he ordered the trenches to be filled up the plane to be cleared and the line to be extended holding that it would be time enough to begin his victory when he had provided against being vanquished this delay gave the battalionists time to retreat into some vineyards which were obstructed by the interlacing layers of the vines and close to which was a small wood from this place they again ventured to emerge slaughtering the foremost of the Praetorian cavalry King Epiphanes was wounded while he was zealously cheering on the troops for Otto 2.26 then the Athonianist infantry charged the enemy's line was completely crushed the reinforcements who were coming up to their aid were also put to flight Kaikina indeed had not brought up his cohorts in a body but one by one as this was done during the battle it increased the general confusion because the troops who were thus divided not being strong at any one point were born away by the panic of the fugitives besides this a mutiny broke out in the camp because the whole army was not led into action Julius Grattus, prefect of the camp put in irons on a suspicion of a treacherous undertaking with his brother who was serving with Otto's army at the very time that the Athonianist had done the same thing and on the same grounds to that brother Julius Fronto, a tribune in fact such was the panic everywhere among the fugitives and among the troops coming up in the lines and in front of the entrenchments that it was very commonly said on both sides that Kaikina and his whole army might have been destroyed had not so atonious Paul Inus given the signal of recall Paul Inus alleged that he feared the effects of so much additional toil and so long a march apprehending that the Vitellianists might issue fresh from their camp and attack his weary troops who, once thrown into confusion would have no reserves to fall back upon a few approved the general's policy but it was unfavourably canvassed by the army at large 2.27 the effect of this disaster on the Vitellianists was not so much to drive them to fear as to draw them to obedience nor was this the case only among the troops of Kaikina who indeed laid all the blame upon his soldiers more ready as he said for mutiny than for battle the forces also of Fabius Valens who had now reached a kingdom laid aside their contempt for the enemy and anxious to retrieve their credit began to yield a more respectful and uniform obedience to their general a serious mutiny however had raged among them of which as it was not convenient to interrupt the orderly narrative of Kaikina's operations I shall take up the history at an earlier period I have already described how the Batavian cohorts who separated from the 14th Legion during the Neuronian War hearing on their way to Britain of the rising of Vitellius joined Fabius Valens in the country of the Ligones they behaved themselves insolently boasting as they visited the quarters of the several legions that they had mastered the men of the 14th they had taken Italy from Nero that the whole destiny of the war lay in their hands such language was insulting to the soldiers and offensive to the general the discipline of the army was relaxed by the brawls and quarrels which ensued at last Valens began to suspect that insolence would end in actual treachery 2.28 when therefore intelligence reached him that the cavalry of the Traveri and the Tongrian infantry had been defeated by Otho's fleet and that Gallia Narbonensis was blockaded anxious at once to protect a friendly population and like a skillful soldier to separate cohorts so turbulent and while they remained united so inconveniently strong he directed a detachment of the Batarians to proceed to the relief of the province this having been heard and become generally known the allies were discontented and the legions murmured we are being deprived they said of the help of our bravest men those veteran troops victorious in so many campaigns now that the enemy is in sight are withdrawn so to speak from the very field of battle if indeed a province be of more importance than the capital and the safety of the empire let us all follow them thither but if the reality, the support, the mainstay of success sent in Italy you must not tear as it were from a body its very strongest limbs 2.29 in the midst of these fierce exclamations Valens, sending his lictors into the crowd attempted to quell the mutiny on this they attacked the general himself hurled stones at him and when he fled pursued him crying out that he was concealing the spoil of Gaul the gold of the men of Vienna the hire of their own toils they ransacked his baggage and provved with javelins and lances the walls of the general's tent and the very ground beneath Valens, disguised in the garb of a slave found concealment with a solbelton officer of the cavalry after this, Alphinius Verus, prefect of the camp seeing that the mutiny was gradually subsiding promoted the reaction by the following device he forbade the centurions to visit the sentinels and discontinued the trumpet calls by which the troops are summoned to their usual military duties thereupon all stood paralyzed and gazed at each other in amazement panicked stricken by the very fact that there was no one to direct them by their silence, by their submission finally by their tears and entreaties they craved forgiveness but when Valens, thus unexpectedly preserved came forward in sad plight shedding tears they were moved to joy, to pity even to affection their revulsion to delight was just that of a mob always extreme in either emotion they greeted him with praises and congratulations and surrounding him with the eagles and standards carried him to the tribunal with the politic prudence he refrained from demanding capital punishment in any case yet, fearing that he might lay himself more open to suspicion by concealment of his feelings he censored a few persons well aware that in civil wars the soldiers have more license than the generals 2.30 while they were fortifying a camp at Tekinem the news of Kaikina's defeat reached them and the mutiny nearly broke out afresh from an impression that underhand dealing and delay on the part of Valens had kept them away from the battle they refused all rest they would not wait for their general they advanced in front of the standards and hurried on the standard bearers after a rapid march they joined Kaikina the character of Valens did not stand well with Kaikina's army they complained that though so much weaker in numbers they had been exposed to the whole force of the enemy thus at once excusing themselves and extolling in the implied flattery the strength of the new arrivals who might, they feared, despise them as beaten and spiritless soldiers though Valens had the stronger army nearly doubled the number of legions and auxiliaries yet the partialities of the soldiers inclined to Kaikina not only from the geniality of heart which he was thought more ready to display but even from his vigorous age his commanding person and a certain superficial attractiveness which he possessed the result was jealousy between the two generals Kaikina ridiculed his colleague as a man of foul and infamous character Valens retorted with charges of emptiness and vanity but concealing their enmity they devoted themselves to their common interest and in frequent letters without any thought of pardon the whole matter of charges upon Otho while the Orthonianists' generals though they had the most abundant materials from Vektiv against Vitelius refrained from employing them 2.31 in fact, before the death of these two men and it was by his death that Otho gained high renown as Vitelius incurred by his the foulest infamy Vitelius with his indolent luxury was less treasured than Otho with his ardent passions the murder of Galba had made the one terrible and odious while no one reckoned against the other the guilt of having begun the war Vitelius with his sensuality and gluttony was his own enemy Otho, with his profligacy, his cruelty and his recklessness was held to be more dangerous to the commonwealth when Kaikina and Valens had united their forces the Vitelianists had no longer any reason to delay giving battle with their whole strength Otho deliberated as to whether protracting the war or risking an engagement were the better course then Suetonius Paulinus, thinking that it befitted his reputation which was such that no one at that period was looked upon as a more skillful soldier to give an opinion on the whole conduct of the war contended that impatience would benefit the enemy while delay would serve their own cause 2.32 the entire army of Vitelius, he said, has already arrived nor have they much strength in their rear since Gaul is ready to rise and to abandon the banks of the Rhine when such hostile tribes are ready to burst in would not answer his purpose a hostile people and an intervening sea keep from him the army of Britain Spain is not over full of troops Galio Narbonensis has been cowed by the attack of our ships and by a defeat Italy beyond the Padas is shut in by the Alps cannot be relieved from the sea and has been exhausted by the passage of his army there is nowhere any corn and without supplies an army cannot be kept together then the Germans, the most formidable part of the enemy's forces should the war be protracted into the summer will sink within feebled frames under the change of country and climate many a war formidable in its first impetuosity has passed into nothing through the weariness of delay we on the other hand have on all sides abundant resources and loyal adherents we have Panonia, Moesia, Dalmatia, the east with its armies yet intact we have Italy and Rome, the capital of the empire, the senate and the people names that never lose their splendor though they may sometimes be eclipsed we have the wealth of the state and of private individuals we have a vast supply of money which in a civil war is a mightier weapon than the sword our soldiers are anured to the climate of Italy or to yet greater heat we have the river Padas on our front and cities strongly garrisoned and fortified none of which will surrender to the enemy as the defence of Placentia has proved let author therefore protract the war in a few days the fourteenth legion itself highly renowned will arrive with the troops from Moesia he may then again consider the question and should a battle be resolved on we shall fight with increased strength two point thirty three Maurius Kelsus acquiesced in the opinion of Paulinas and Anius Gallus who a few days before had been seriously injured by the fall of his horse was reported to agree by those who had been sent to ascertain his opinion author was inclined to risk a decisive battle his brother Titianus and Proculus the prefect of the Praetorian God ignorant and therefore impatient declared that fortune the gods and the genius of author were with their councils and would be with their enterprises that no one might dare to oppose their views they had taken refuge in flattery it having been resolved to give battle it became a question whether it would be better for the emperor to be present in person or to withdraw Paulinas and Kelsus no longer opposed for they would not seem to put the emperor in the way of peril and these same men who suggested the base of policy prevailed on him to retire to Brixellum and thus secure from the hazards of the field to reserve himself for the administration of empire the day first gave the death blow to the party of author not only did a strong detachment of the Praetorian cohorts of the bodyguard and of the cavalry depart with him but the spirit of those who remained was broken for the men suspected their generals and author who alone had the confidence of the soldiers while he himself trusted in none but them had left the generals authority on a doubtful footing 2.34 none of this escaped the Vitalianists for as is usual in civil wars there were many deserters and the spies while busy in inquiring into the plans of the enemy failed to conceal their own meanwhile Kekina and Valens remained quiet and watched intently for the moment when the enemy in his blindness should rush upon destruction and found the usual substitute for wisdom in waiting for the folly of others they began to form a bridge making a faint of crossing the paedus in the face of an opposing force of gladiators they wished also to keep their own soldiers from passing their unoccupied time in idleness boats were arranged at equal distances from each other connected at both ends by strong beams and with their heads turned against the current while anchors were thrown out above to keep the bridge firm the cables however instead of being taught hung loose in the water in order that as the stream rose the vessels might rise without their arrangement being disturbed on the end of the bridge was placed a turret it was built out on the last boat and from it engines and machines might be worked to repel the enemy the soldiers of Otho also raised the turret on the opposite bank and hurled from it stones and flaming missiles 2.36 2.35 in the middle of the river was an island while the gladiators were making their way to it in boats the Germans swam and outstripped them a considerable number as it chanced had affected the passage Mesa having manned some light galleys attacked them with the most active of his gladiators but the gladiator has not in battle the firmness of the regular soldier and now as they stood on rocking vessels they could not direct their blows like men who had ashore footing on land as the men in their alarm made confused movements rowers and combatants were mingled together in disorder upon this the Germans themselves leapt into the shallows laid a hold of the boats climbed over the gunwales or sank them with their hands all this passed in the sight of both armies and the more it delighted the Italianists the more vehemently did the Othonianists curse the cause and the author of the disaster 2.36 the conflict was terminated by the flight of the vanquished who carried off what boats were left then they cried out for the execution of Mesa he had been wounded by a javelin thrown from a distance and the soldiers had made a rush upon him with drawn swords when he was saved by the interference of the tribunes and centurions soon after Vestricius Spurina having received orders to that effect from Otho joined with his cohorts leaving but a moderate force in garrison at Placentia after this Othos and Flavius Sabinas consul Elett to take the command of the troops which had been under Mesa the soldiers were delighted by this change of generals while the generals were led by these continual outbreaks to regard with disgust so hateful a service End of book 2 part 2