Translated by Alfred John Church and William Jackson Brodribb
Book II
March August, A.D. 69
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 line. Titus Vespasian had been sent from
Judaea 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
of the death of Galba, and found men who spoke confidently of the
revolt of Vitellius 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 Vitellius or of Otho; that should he 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.
These and like thoughts made him waver between hope and fear; but
hope triumphed. Some supposed that he retraced his steps for love
of Queen 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 Achaia and Asia, leaving the land on his left, he made
for the islands of Rhodes and Cyprus, and then by a bolder course
for Syria. Here he conceived a desire to visit and inspect the
temple of the Paphian 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.
The founder of the temple, according to old tradition, was king
Aerias, though some represent this as the name of the goddess
herself. Later accounts tell us that the temple was consecrated
by Cinyras, 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 Tamiras 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 Cinyras 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.
Titus, after surveying the treasures, the royal presents, 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 the sea propitious, 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 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. Mucianus had four 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 hardihood 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, and
each, though their renown was of a different kind, had a
celebrated name.
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. Mucianus, on the contrary, was eminent for his magnificence,
for his wealth, and for a 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. Mucianus was
governor of Syria, Vespasian of Judaea. In the administration of
these neighbouring provinces jealousy had produced discord
between them, but on Nero's fall they had dropped their
animosities and associated their counsels. 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 Mucianus. The tribunes, the centurions, and the common
soldiers, were brought over to the cause by appeals to their
energy or their love of license, to their virtues or to their
vices, according to their different dispositions.
Long before the arrival of Titus, both armies had taken the oath
of allegiance to Otho. The news had come, as is usual, with great
speed, while there was much to delay the gigantic undertaking of
a civil war, for which the East after a long period of repose was
then for the first time preparing. In former times the mightiest
civil conflicts had been 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 oftener heard of
than seen in Syria and Judaea. 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 Vitellius, opposed in 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
Judaea, with a vast number of auxiliaries. Then, without any
interval of separation, there was Egypt and its two legions, and
on the other side Cappadocia, Pontus, and all the garrisons along
the frontier of Armenia. There was Asia Minor; there were the
other provinces, not without a military population, and well
furnished 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.
The ardour 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 conquerors and the conquered,
it was said, never unite with a genuine good faith. It matters
not whether fortune make Otho or Vitellius to be the victor. Even
great generals grow insolent in prosperity; these men are
quarrelsome, indolent, and profligate, 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 Mucianus 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.
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 skilful 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 sea. Driven by stress of
weather to the island of Cythnus, 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 the most able bodied of the slaves. The centurion
Sisenna, who was the bearer of the clasped right hands, the usual
emblems of friendship, from the armies of Syria to the
Praetorians, was assailed 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.
Galba had entrusted the government of Galatia and Pamphylia to
Calpurnius Asprenas. Two triremes from the fleet of Misenum were
given him to pursue the adventurer: with these he reached the
island of Cythnus. 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, besought 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 Asprenas, and at his bidding
the ship was boarded and taken, and the man, whoever he was,
killed. The body, in which the eyes, the hair, and the savage
countenance, were remarkable features, was conveyed to Asia, and
thence to Rome.
In a state that was distracted by strife, and that from frequent
changes in its rulers trembled on the verge between liberty and
licence, even little matters were attended with great excitement.
Vibius Crispus, whose wealth, power, and ability, made him rank
among men of distinction, rather than among men of worth,
demanded that Annius 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 Senators indeed had
recently, during the reign of Galba, passed a resolution, that
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 on the part of the people
which his detestable character had deserved. Men remembered that
Crispus had followed the same profession with profit; nor was it
the penalty but the prosecutor that they disliked.
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 two thousand
troops were sent on 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 effective 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
of the main body of the legions. The capital itself contributed
no contemptible force, namely five Praetorian cohorts, some
troops of cavalry, and the first legion, and together with these,
2000 gladiators, a disreputable kind of auxiliaries, but employed
throughout the civil wars even by strict disciplinarians. Annius
Gallus was put at the head of this force, and was sent on with
Vestricius Spurinna to occupy the banks of the Padus, the
original plan of the campaign having fallen to the ground, now
that Caecina, 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 body guard, 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
cuirass 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.
Fortune 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 of advancing into the
Provincia Narbonensis, he had entrusted to three generals,
Suedius Clemens, Antonius Novellus, and Aemilius Pacensis.
Pacensis, 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, the fields, 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, and all with 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 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.
Exasperated by this conflict, the troops of Otho vented their
rage on the town of Albintemilium. 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 of foot, 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 Ligurian 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.
Messengers now came in haste and alarm to inform Fabius Valens,
how Otho's fleet was threatening the province of Gallia
Narbonensis, which had sworn allegiance to Vitellius. Envoys from
the colonies were already on the spot praying for aid. He
despatched two cohorts of Tungrian infantry, four squadrons of
horse, and all the cavalry of the Treviri under the command of
Julius Classicus. 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. Twelve 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 five
hundred 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 Praetorians fully
occupying the level ground between the hills and 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
Vitellianists 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 Treveri charged the enemy incautiously, and
found themselves encountered in front by the veteran troops,
while on the flanks they were also annoyed by showers of stones
from the rustic band, who were skilful throwers, and who, mixed
up as they were among the regular soldiers, whether cowardly or
brave, were all equally bold in the moment of victory. The
general consternation of the Vitellianists was 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, and covered the retreat of the
vanquished.
The Vitellianists, 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 which they had occupied. A terrible
slaughter ensued, and the prefects of the Tungrian 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 imprudently 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 Vitellianists retreated to Antipolis,
a town of Gallia Narbonensis, the Othonianists to Albigaunum, in
Upper Liguria.
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 Decumus Pacarius, the procurator,
proceedings which in so gigantic a war could contribute nothing
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, an insignificant
assistance even had the design succeeded. He collected the chief
men of the island, and explained his plans. Claudius Pyrrhicus,
captain of the Liburnian ships stationed in the place, and
Quintius Certus, a Roman knight, who ventured to offer
opposition, he ordered to execution. 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 weary with military duties an 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, and we know 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.
Silius' 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, had made them ready 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 Padus and the Alps, was now held by the troops of Vitellius;
for by this time the infantry sent on in advance by Caecina had
also arrived. A cohort of Pannonians had been taken prisoners 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
Padus excited the men from Batavia and the Transrhenane
provinces. Crossing the stream by a sudden movement, they
advanced on Placentia, and seizing some reconnoiterers so
terrified the rest, that, deceived by their alarm, they announced
that the whole army of Caecina was at hand.
Spurinna, who now held Placentia, was sure that Caecina had not
yet arrived, and that, even were he approaching, he ought to keep
his men within their fortifications, and not confront a veteran
army with three Praetorian cohorts, a thousand veterans, and a
handful of cavalry. But the undisciplined and inexperienced
soldiery 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 Otho was
betrayed and that Caecina had come by invitation. Spurinna
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 counsels might have
more influence should the mutinous spirit abate.
When the Padus 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 inveigh against their own credulity, and to
point out the difficulty and danger of their position, if on
those open plains Caecina 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, Spurinna 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.
Caecina, 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 trews, 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 Salonina, 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
scrutinize 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. Caecina, after crossing the Padus, sought to tamper
with the loyalty of the Othonianists at a conference in which he
held out hopes of reward, and he was himself assailed with the
same arts. After the specious but meaningless names of peace and
concord had been thus bandied to and fro, Caecina 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.
The first day, however, was spent in a furious onset rather than
in the skilful 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 volleys 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 Caecina was repulsed with great slaughter among his
troops, and the night was spent in the preparation of
siege works. The Vitellianists constructed mantlets, hurdles, and
sheds, for undermining the walls and screening the assailants;
the Othonianists 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; on the other, the
distinctions of the soldiery of the capital and the Praetorian
cohorts; the one reviled their foes as slothful and indolent
soldiers, demoralized by the circus and the theatres; the others
retorted with the names of foreigner and barbarian. At the same
time they lauded or vituperated Otho and Vitellius, but found
indeed a more fruitful source of mutual provocation in invective
than in praise.
Almost before dawn of day the walls were crowded with combatants,
and the plains glittered with masses of armed men. The close
array of the legions, and the skirmishing 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 attack 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 earth works,
and endeavoured 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. Caecina, 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 Padus, and resolved on marching to Cremona. As he was going,
Turullius Cerialis 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. Turullius was a centurion of the first rank, not
unfriendly to Caecina, as he had commanded a company in Germany.
Spurinna, on discovering the enemy's route, informed Annius
Gallus by letter of the successful defence of Placentia, of what
had happened, and of what Caecina intended to do. Gallus was then
bringing up the first legion to the relief of Placentia; he
hardly dared trust so few cohorts, fearing that they could not
sustain a prolonged siege or the formidable attack of the German
army. On hearing that Caecina 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 omened
celebrity by two great days of disaster to Rome. About the same
time Martius Macer fought a successful battle not far from
Cremona. Martius, who was a man of energy, conveyed his
gladiators in boats across the Padus, and suddenly threw them
upon the opposite bank. The Vitellianist 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
Annius Gallus, Suetonius Paullinus, and Marius Celsus. 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, irresolute
in prosperity, but rising higher under reverses, was in perpetual
alarm. The end of it was that he sent for his brother Titianus,
and intrusted him with the direction of the campaign.
Meanwhile, brilliant successes were gained under the command of
Celsus and Paullinus. Caecina 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. Twelve miles
from Cremona (at a place called the Castors) 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 ambuscade could make a
simultaneous attack. The scheme was betrayed to the Othonianist
generals, and Paullinus assumed the command of the infantry,
Celsus 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
complete a victory or to retrieve a repulse.
Before the hostile lines engaged, the Vitellianists began to
retreat, but Celsus, aware of the stratagem, kept his men back.
The Vitellianists rashly left their position, and seeing Celsus
gradually give way, followed too far in pursuit, and themselves
fell into an ambuscade. 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 Paullinus 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 plain 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 Vitellianists 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 Otho.
Then the Othonianist infantry charged. The enemy's line was
completely crushed, and the reinforcements who were coming up to
their aid were also put to flight. Caecina 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 borne 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 Gratus, prefect of the camp, was put in
irons, on a suspicion of a treacherous understanding with his
brother who was serving with Otho's army, at the very time that
the Othonianists 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 Caecina and his whole army
might have been destroyed, had not Suetonius Paullinus given the
signal of recall. Paullinus 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 wearied 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.
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 Caecina, 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 Ticinum, 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 Caecina'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 Neronian war, hearing on their way to Britain
of the rising of Vitellius, joined Fabius Valens in the country
of the Lingones. They behaved themselves insolently, boasting, as
they visited the quarters of the several legions, that they had
mastered the men of the 14th, that 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.
When, therefore, intelligence reached him that the cavalry of the
Treveri and the Tungrian 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 skilful soldier, to
separate cohorts so turbulent and, while they remained united, so
inconveniently strong, he directed a detachment of the Batavians
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, centre in Italy, you must not tear, as
it were, from a body its very strongest limbs."
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 probed 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 subaltern officer of cavalry. After this,
Alfenius Varus, 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 paralysed,
and gazed at each other in amazement, panic 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
a 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 censured a few
persons, well aware that in civil wars the soldiers have more
license than the generals.
While they were fortifying a camp at Ticinum, the news of
Caecina'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 Caecina. The character of Valens
did not stand well with Caecina'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
double the number of legions and auxiliaries, yet the
partialities of the soldiers inclined to Caecina, 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 a jealousy between the two generals. Caecina 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, heaped
all manner of charges upon Otho, while the Othonianist generals,
though they had the most abundant materials for invective against
Vitellius, refrained from employing them.
In fact, before the death of these two men (and it was by his
death that Otho gained high renown, as Vitellius incurred by his
the foulest infamy), Vitellius with his indolent luxury was less
dreaded 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. Vitellius
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 Caecina and Valens had
united their forces, the Vitellianists 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 Paullinus,
thinking that it befitted his reputation, which was such that no
one at that period was looked upon as a more skilful 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.
"The entire army of Vitellius," 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; Gallia Narbonensis has
been cowed by the attack of our ships and by a defeat; Italy
beyond the Padus is shut in by the Alps, cannot be relieved from
the sea, and has been exhausted by the passage of his army. For
that army there is no where 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 with enfeebled 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 Pannonia, 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 splendour, 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 inured to
the climate of Italy or to yet greater heat. We have the river
Padus 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 Otho therefore protract the war. In a
few days the 14th 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."
Marius Celsus acquiesced in the opinion of Paullinus; and Annius
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. Otho was inclined to risk a
decisive battle. His brother Titianus, and Proculus, the prefect
of the Praetorian Guard, ignorant and therefore impatient,
declared that fortune, the Gods, and the genius of Otho, were
with their counsels, 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. Paullinus and Celsus no longer
opposed, for they would not seem to put the Emperor in the way of
peril, and these same men who suggested the baser 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. That day first gave the death blow to the party of
Otho. 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 Otho, 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.
Nothing of this escaped the Vitellianists, 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 Caecina 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 feint of crossing the Padus, 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 ranged
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 taut, 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 a turret on the opposite bank, and
hurled from it stones and flaming missiles.
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
effected the passage, when Macer, having manned some light
gallies, 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 a sure 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 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 Vitellianists, the more vehemently did the
Othonianists curse the cause and author of the disaster.
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 Macer. 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 Spurinna, having received
orders to that effect from Otho, joined with his cohorts, leaving
but a moderate force in garrison at Placentia. After this Otho
sent Flavius Sabinus, consul elect, to take the command of the
troops which had been under Macer; 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.
I find it stated by some authors that either the dread of or the
disgust felt for both Emperors, whose wickedness and infamy were
coming out every day into more open notoriety, made the two
armies hesitate whether they should not cease their strife, and
either themselves consult together, or allow the Senate to choose
an Emperor; and that, for this reason, Otho's generals
recommended a certain measure of delay, Paullinus especially
entertaining hopes for himself, on the ground that he was the
senior among the men of consular rank, that he was well known as
a soldier, and had attained great distinction and fame by his
campaigns in Britain. Though I would allow that there were some
few who in their secret wishes prayed for peace in the stead of
disorder, for a worthy and blameless Emperor in the room of men
utterly worthless and wicked, yet I cannot suppose that
Paullinus, wise as he was, could have hoped in an age thoroughly
depraved to find such moderation in the common herd, as that men,
who in their passion for war had trampled peace under foot,
should now in their affection for peace renounce the charms of
war; nor can I think that armies differing in language and in
character, could have united in such an agreement; or that
lieutenants and generals, who were for the most part burdened by
the consciousness of profligacy, of poverty, and of crime, could
have endured any Emperor who was not himself stained by vice, as
well as bound by obligation to themselves.
That old passion for power which has been ever innate in man
increased and broke out as the Empire grew in greatness. In a
state of moderate dimensions equality was easily preserved; but
when the world had been subdued, when all rival kings and cities
had been destroyed, and men had leisure to covet wealth which
they might enjoy in security, the early conflicts between the
patricians and the people were kindled into flame. At one time
the tribunes were factious, at another the consuls had
unconstitutional power; it was in the capital and the forum that
we first essayed civil wars. Then rose C. Marius, sprung from the
very dregs of the populace, and L. Sulla, the most ruthless of
the patricians, who perverted into absolute dominion the liberty
which had yielded to their arms. After them came Cn. Pompeius,
with a character more disguised but no way better. Henceforth
men's sole object was supreme power. Legions formed of Roman
citizens did not lay down their arms at Pharsalia and Philippi,
much less were the armies of Otho and Vitellius likely of their
own accord to abandon their strife. They were driven into civil
war by the same wrath from heaven, the same madness among men,
the same incentives to crime. That these wars were terminated by
what we may call single blows, was owing to want of energy in the
chiefs. But these reflections on the character of ancient and
modern times have carried me too far from my subject. I now
return to the course of events.
Otho having started for Brixellum, the honours of supreme command
devolved on his brother Titianus, while the real power and
control were in the hands of the prefect Proculus. Celsus and
Paullinus, as no one made any use of their skill, did but screen
with their idle title of general the blunders of others. The
tribunes and centurions were perplexed to see that better men
were despised, and that the most worthless carried the day. The
common soldiers were full of eagerness, but liked to criticise
rather than to obey the orders of their officers. It was resolved
to move the camp forward to the fourth milestone from Bedriacum,
but it was done so unskilfully, that though it was spring, and
there were so many rivers in the neighbourhood, the troops were
distressed for want of water. Then the subject of giving battle
was discussed, Otho in his despatches ever urging them to make
haste, and the soldiers demanding that the Emperor should be
present at the conflict; many begged that the troops quartered
beyond the Padus should be brought up. It is not so easy to
determine what was best to be done, as it is to be sure that what
was done was the very worst.
They started for a campaign rather than for a battle, making for
the confluence of the Padus and Addua, a distance of sixteen
miles from their position. Celsus and Paullinus remonstrated
against exposing troops wearied with a march and encumbered with
baggage to any enemy, who, being himself ready for action and
having marched barely four miles, would not fail to attack them,
either when they were in the confusion of an advance, or when
they were dispersed and busy with the work of entrenchment.
Titianus and Proculus, overcome in argument, fell back on the
Imperial authority. It was true that a Numidian had arrived at
full gallop with an angry message from Otho, in which the
Emperor, sick of delay and impatient of suspense, sharply rebuked
the inactivity of the generals, and commanded that matters should
be brought to an issue.
The same day, while Caecina was engaged on the construction of a
bridge, two tribunes of the Praetorian Guard came to him and
begged an interview. He was on the point of hearing their
proposals and sending back his own, when the scouts arrived at
headlong speed with the news that the enemy were close at hand.
The address of the tribunes was thus abruptly terminated. Thus it
remained uncertain whether deception, or treason, or some
honourable arrangement, had been in their thoughts. Caecina
dismissed the tribunes and rode back to the camp. There he found
that Fabius Valens had given the signal for battle, and that the
troops were under arms. While the legions were casting lots for
the order of march, the cavalry charged, and, strange to say,
were kept only by the courage of the Italian legion from being
driven back on the entrenchments by an inferior force of
Othonianists. These men, at the sword's point, compelled the
beaten squadron to wheel round and resume the conflict. The line
of the Vitellianists was formed without hurry, for, though the
enemy was close at hand, the sight of their arms was intercepted
by the thick brushwood. In Otho's army the generals were full of
fear, and the soldiers hated their officers; the baggage wagons
and the camp followers were mingled with the troops; and as there
were steep ditches on both sides the road, it would have been
found too narrow even for an undisturbed advance. Some were
gathering round their standards; others were seeking them;
everywhere was heard the confused shouting of men who were
joining the ranks, or calling to their comrades, and each, as he
was prompted by courage or by cowardice, rushed on to the front,
or slunk back to the rear.
From the consternation of panic their feelings passed under the
influence of a groundless joy into languid indifference, some
persons spreading the lie that Vitellius' army had revolted.
Whether this rumour was circulated by the spies of Vitellius, or
originated in treachery or in accident among the partisans of
Otho, has never been clearly ascertained. Forgetting their
warlike ardour, the Othonianists at once greeted the foe; as they
were answered by an angry murmur, they caused apprehensions of
treachery in many of their own side, who did not know what the
greeting meant. Then the enemy's line charged with its ranks
unbroken, in strength and in numbers superior; the Othonianists,
scattered and weary as they were, met the attack with spirit. The
ground was so entangled with trees and vineyards that the battle
assumed many forms. They met in close and in distant conflict, in
line and in column. On the raised road they stood foot to foot,
they pushed with their bodies and their shields, and ceasing to
throw their javelins, they struck through helmets and
breastplates with swords and battle axes. Recognising each other
and distinctly seen by the rest of the combatants, they were
fighting to decide the whole issue of the war.
In an open plain between the Padus and the road, two legions
happened to meet. On the side of Vitellius was the 21st, called
the Rapax, a corps of old and distinguished renown. On that of
Otho was the 1st, called Adjutrix, which had never before been
brought into the field, but was high spirited, and eager to gain
its first triumph. The men of the 1st, overthrowing the foremost
ranks of the 21st, carried off the eagle. The 21st, infuriated by
this loss, not only repulsed the 1st, and slew the legate,
Orfidius Benignus, but captured many colours and standards from
the enemy. In another quarter the 13th legion was put to flight
by a charge of the 5th. The 14th was surrounded by a superior
force. Otho's generals had long since fled and Caecina and Valens
strengthened their army with the reserves. New reinforcements
were supplied by Varus Alfenius with his Batavians. They had
routed the band of gladiators, which had been ferried across the
river, and which had been cut to pieces by the opposing cohorts
while they were actually in the water. Thus flushed with victory,
they charged the flank of the enemy.
The centre of their line had been penetrated, and the
Othonianists fled on all sides in the direction of Bedriacum. The
distance was very great, and the roads were blocked up with heaps
of corpses; thus the slaughter was the greater, for captives
taken in civil war can be turned to no profit. Suetonius
Paullinus and Licinius Proculus, taking different roads, avoided
the camp. Vedius Aquila, legate of the 13th legion, in the
blindness of fear, fell in the way of the furious soldiery. Late
in the day he entered the entrenchments, and found himself the
centre of a mob of clamorous and mutinous fugitives. They did not
refrain from abuse or actual violence; they reviled him as a
deserter and traitor, not having any specific charge against him,
but all, after the fashion of the mob, imputing to him their own
crimes. Titianus and Celsus were favoured by the darkness. By
that time the sentries had been posted, and the soldiers reduced
to order. Annius Gallus had prevailed upon them by his prayers,
his advice, and his personal influence, not to aggravate the
disaster of their defeat by mutual slaughter. Whether the war was
at an end, or whether they might choose to resume the conflict,
the vanquished would find in union the sole mitigation of their
lot. The spirit of the rest of the army was broken, but the
Praetorians angrily complained that they had been vanquished, not
by valour, but by treachery. "The Vitellianists indeed," they
said, "gained no bloodless victory; their cavalry was defeated, a
legion lost its eagle. We have still the troops beyond the Padus,
and Otho himself. The legions of Moesia are coming; a great part
of the army remained at Bedriacum; these certainly were never
vanquished; and if it must be so, it is on the battlefield that
we shall fall with most honour." Amid all the exasperation or
terror of these thoughts, the extremity of despair yet roused
them to fury rather than to fear.
The army of Vitellius bivouacked at the fifth milestone from
Bedriacum. The generals did not venture an assault on the enemy's
camp that same day; besides, a capitulation was expected. Though
they were without baggage, and had marched out only to fight, it
was sufficient protection to them that they had arms, and were
victorious. On the following day, as the feeling of Otho's army
was evident, and those who had been most furious were inclined to
repent, envoys were sent, nor did the generals of Vitellius
hesitate to grant conditions of peace. The envoys indeed were
detained for some little time, and this circumstance caused some
doubt, as it was not known whether they had obtained their
object; before long, however, they returned, and the camp was
thrown open. Both victors and vanquished melted into tears, and
cursed the fatality of civil strife with a melancholy joy. There
in the same tents did they dress the wounds of brothers or of
kinsmen. Their hopes, their rewards, were all uncertain; death
and sorrow were sure. And no one had so escaped misfortune as to
have no bereavement to lament. Search was made for the body of
the legate Orfidius, and it was burnt with the customary honours.
A few were buried by their friends; the multitude that remained
were left above ground.
Otho was awaiting news of the battle free from alarm and resolved
in purpose. First came gloomy tidings, and then fugitives from
the field, making known that all was lost. The zeal of the
soldiers did not wait for the Emperor to speak. They bade him be
of good cheer, telling him that he had still fresh forces, and
that they would themselves endure and dare to the last. This was
no flattery; they were fired by a furious impulse to seek the
battle field, and raise again the fallen fortunes of their party.
Those who stood at a distance stretched out their arms, those who
were near clasped the Emperor's knees, and Plotius Firmus was the
most zealous of them all. This man, who was prefect of the
Praetorian Guard, repeatedly besought Otho not to desert an army
so loyal and soldiers so deserving; "there was more courage in
bearing trouble," he said, "than in escaping from it; the brave
and the energetic cling to hope, even in spite of fortune; the
cowardly and the indolent are hurried into despair by their
fears." While he was thus speaking, as Otho assumed a relenting
or a stern expression, the soldiers cheered or groaned. Nor was
it only the Praetorians, who were peculiarly Otho's troops, that
thus acted; those who had been sent on from Moesia declared that
the approaching army was as firmly resolved, and that the legions
had entered Aquileia. No one therefore can doubt that the war
might have been renewed with its terrible disasters, and its
uncertainties both for victors and vanquished.
Otho himself was opposed to all thoughts of war. He said, "I hold
that to expose such a spirit, such a courage as yours, to any
further risk is to put too high a value on my life. The more hope
you hold out to me, should I choose to live, the more glorious
will be my death. Fortune and I now know each other; you need not
reckon for how long, for it is peculiarly difficult to be
moderate with that prosperity which you think you will not long
enjoy. The civil war began with Vitellius; he was the first cause
of our contending in arms for the throne; the example of not
contending more than once shall belong to me. By this let
posterity judge of Otho. Vitellius is welcome to his brother, his
wife, his children. I need neither revenge nor consolation.
Others may have held the throne for a longer time, but no one can
have left it with such fortitude. Shall I suffer so large a
portion of the youth of Rome and so many noble armies to be again
laid low and to be lost to the State? Let this thought go with
me, that you were willing to die for me. But live, and let us no
longer delay, lest I interfere with your safety, you with my
firmness. To say too much about one's end is a mark of cowardice.
Take as the strongest proof of my determination the fact that I
complain of no one. To accuse either gods or men is only for him
who wishes to live."
After having thus spoken, he courteously entreated all in terms
befitting their age and rank to go at once, and not exasperate
the anger of the conqueror by staying. With the young he used his
authority, with the old his prayers, and still his look was calm,
his speech collected, as he checked the unseasonable tears of his
friends. He gave orders that those who were departing should be
furnished with boats and carriages; he destroyed all memorials
and letters remarkable for their expressions of zeal for himself
or their abuse of Vitellius. He distributed some gratuities, but
sparingly, and not like a man who was soon to die. Then he even
administered consolation to Salvius Cocceianus, his brother's
son, a very young man, who was anxious and sorrowful, praising
his affection while he rebuked his fear. "Do you think," he said,
"that Vitellius will shew so ruthless a temper that he will not
make even this return for the preservation of his whole family?
By hastening my end I earn the clemency of the conqueror. It is
not in the extremity of despair, but while my army yet cries for
battle, that I have sacrificed to the State my last chance. I
have obtained enough reputation for myself, enough nobility for
my family. Successor to the Julii, the Claudii, the Servii, have
been the first to bring the Imperial dignity into a new family.
Enter then on life with a brave heart, and never entirely forget,
or remember too vividly, that Otho was your uncle."
After this he dismissed every one, and took some repose. He was
now pondering in his heart the last cares of life, when his
attention was distracted by a sudden tumult and he was told of
the confusion and outrageous conduct of the soldiers. They were
threatening with death all who attempted to depart, and were
extreme in their violence against Verginius, whose house they had
blockaded and were besieging. After rebuking the ringleaders of
the tumult, he returned and employed himself in granting
interviews to those who were departing, till all had left in
safety. Towards evening he quenched his thirst with a draught of
cold water. Two daggers were brought to him; he tried the edge of
each, and then put one under his head. After satisfying himself
that his friends had set out, he passed a tranquil night, and it
is even said that he slept. At dawn he fell with his breast upon
the steel. Hearing a groan from the dying man, his freedmen and
slaves, and Plotius Firmus, prefect of the Praetorian Guard, came
in. They found but one wound. His funeral was hastily performed.
He had made this the subject of earnest entreaties, anxious that
his head might not be cut off and subjected to indignities. The
Praetorian cohorts carried his body with praises and tears,
covering his wound and his hands with kisses. Some of the
soldiers killed themselves near the funeral pile, not moved by
remorse or by fear, but by the desire to emulate his glory, and
by love of their Prince. Afterwards this kind of death became a
common practice among all ranks at Bedriacum, at Placentia, and
in the other camps. Over Otho was built a tomb unpretending and
therefore likely to stand.
Thus Otho ended his life in the 37th year of his age. He came
from the municipal town of Ferentinum. His father was of
consular, his grandfather of praetorian rank. His family on the
mother's side was of less distinction, but yet respectable. What
his boyhood and his youth had been, we have already shewn. By two
daring acts, one most atrocious, the other singularly noble, he
earned in the eyes of posterity about an equal share of infamy
and of glory. I should think it unbecoming the dignity of the
task which I have undertaken, to collect fabulous marvels, and to
amuse with fiction the tastes of my readers; at the same time I
would not venture to impugn the credit of common report and
tradition. The natives of these parts relate that on the day when
the battle was being fought at Bedriacum, a bird of unfamiliar
appearance settled in a much frequented grove near Regium
Lepidum, and was not frightened or driven away by the concourse
of people, or by the multitude of birds that flocked round it,
until Otho killed himself; then it vanished. When they came to
compute the time, it was found that the commencement and the end
of this strange occurrence tallied with the last scenes of Otho's
life.
At the funeral the mutinous spirit of the soldiers was kindled
afresh by their sorrow and regret, and there was no one to check
them. They turned to Verginius, and in threatening language, at
one time besought him to accept the Imperial dignity, at another,
to act as envoy to Caecina and Valens. Verginius secretly
departed by a back way from his house, and thus managed to elude
them when they burst in. Rubrius Gallus was charged with the
petition of the cohorts which had been quartered at Brixellum. An
amnesty was immediately granted to them, while at the same time
the forces which had been commanded by Flavius Sabinus signified
through him their submission to the conqueror.
Hostilities had ceased everywhere, but a considerable number of
the Senate, who had accompanied Otho from Rome, and had been
afterwards left at Mutina, encountered the utmost peril. News of
the defeat was brought to this place. The soldiers, however,
rejected it as a false report; and judging the Senate to be
hostile to Otho, watched their language, and put an unfavourable
construction on their looks and manner. Proceeding at last to
abuse and insults, they sought a pretext for beginning a
massacre, while a different anxiety also weighed upon the
Senators, who, knowing that the party of Vitellius was in the
ascendant, feared that they might seem to have been tardy in
welcoming the conqueror. Thus they met in great alarm and
distracted by a twofold apprehension; no one was ready with any
advice of his own, but looked for safety in sharing any mistake
with many others. The anxieties of the terrified assembly were
aggravated when the Senate of Mutina made them an offer of arms
and money, and, with an ill timed compliment, styled them
"Conscript Fathers."
There then ensued a notable quarrel, Licinius Caecina inveighing
against Marcellus Eprius, for using ambiguous language. The rest
indeed did not express their opinions, but the name of Marcellus,
exposed as it was to odium from the hateful recollection of his
career as an informer, had roused in Caecina, who was an unknown
man, and had lately been made a Senator, the hope of
distinguishing himself by making great enemies. The moderation of
wiser men put an end to the dispute. They all returned to
Bononia, intending there to deliberate again, and also expecting
further news in the meantime. At Bononia they posted men on the
different roads to make enquiries of every newcomer; one of
Otho's freedmen, on being questioned as to the cause of his
departure, replied that he was entrusted with his master's last
commands; Otho was still alive, he said, when he left him, but
his only thoughts were for posterity, and he had torn himself
from all the fascinations of life. They were struck with
admiration, and were ashamed to put any more questions, and then
the hearts of all turned to Vitellius.
Lucius Vitellius, the brother of the Emperor, was present at
their deliberations, and was preparing to receive their
flatteries, when of a sudden Coenus, a freedman of Nero, threw
them all into consternation by an outrageous falsehood. He
asserted that, by the arrival of the 14th legion, joined to the
forces from Brixellum, the victorious army had been routed and
the fortunes of the party changed. The object of this fabrication
was that the passports of Otho, which were beginning to be
disregarded, might through more favourable news recover their
validity. Coenus was conveyed with rapidity to the capital, but a
few days after suffered the penalty of his crime by the order of
Vitellius. The peril of the Senators was increased by the
soldiers of Otho's army believing that the intelligence thus
brought was authentic. Their alarm was heightened by the fact
that their departure from Mutina and their desertion of the party
had the appearance of a public resolution. They did not meet
again for general deliberation, but every man consulted his own
safety, till letters arrived from Fabius Valens which removed
their fear. Besides, the very glory of Otho's death made the news
travel more quickly.
At Rome, however, there was no alarm; the games of Ceres were
attended as usual. When trustworthy messengers brought into the
theatre the news that Otho was dead, and that all the troops in
the capital had taken the oath to Vitellius under the direction
of Flavius Sabinus, prefect of the city, the spectators greeted
the name of Vitellius with applause. The people carried round the
temples images of Galba, ornamented with laurel leaves and
flowers, and piled chaplets in the form of a sepulchral mound
near the lake of Curtius, on the very spot which had been stained
with the blood of the dying man. In the Senate all the customary
honours, which had been devised during the long reigns of other
Emperors, were forthwith decreed. Public acknowledgments and
thanks were also given to the armies of Germany, and envoys were
sent charged with congratulations. There was read a letter from
Fabius Valens to the consuls, which was written in a not
unbecoming style, but they liked better the modesty of Caecina in
not writing at all.
Italy, however, was prostrated under sufferings heavier and more
terrible than the evils of war. The soldiers of Vitellius,
dispersed through the municipal towns and colonies, were robbing
and plundering and polluting every place with violence and lust.
Everything, lawful or unlawful, they were ready to seize or to
sell, sparing nothing, sacred or profane. Some persons under the
soldiers' garb murdered their private enemies. The soldiers
themselves, who knew the country well, marked out rich estates
and wealthy owners for plunder, or for death in case of
resistance; their commanders were in their power and dared not
check them. Caecina indeed was not so rapacious as he was fond of
popularity; Valens was so notorious for his dishonest gains and
peculations that he was disposed to conceal the crimes of others.
The resources of Italy had long been impaired, and the presence
of so vast a force of infantry and cavalry, with the outrages,
the losses, and the wrongs they inflicted, was more than it could
well endure.
Meanwhile Vitellius, as yet unaware of his victory, was bringing
up the remaining strength of the army of Germany just as if the
campaign had yet to be fought. A few of the old soldiers were
left in the winter quarters, and the conscription throughout Gaul
was hastily proceeded with, in order that the muster rolls of the
legions which remained behind might be filled up. The defence of
the bank of the Rhine was entrusted to Hordeonius Flaccus.
Vitellius himself added to his own army 8000 men of the British
conscription. He had proceeded a few days' march, when he
received intelligence of the victory at Bedriacum, and of the
termination of the war through Otho's death. He called an
assembly, and heaped praises on the valour of the soldiers. When
the army demanded that he should confer equestrian rank on
Asiaticus his freedman, he checked the disgraceful flattery.
Then, with his characteristic fickleness, in the privacy of a
banquet he granted the very distinction which he had publicly
refused; and honoured with the ring of Knighthood this same
Asiaticus, a slave of infamous character, ever seeking power by
unprincipled intrigues.
About the same time news came to Vitellius that the procurator
Albinus had fallen, and that both the provinces of Mauritania had
declared for him. Lucceius Albinus, whom Nero had appointed to
the government of Mauritania Caesariensis, to which Galba had
subsequently added the charge of the province of Tingitana, had
the disposal of no contemptible force. He had with him 19 cohorts
of infantry, 5 squadrons of cavalry, and a vast number of Moors,
a force trained to war by robbery and plunder. When Galba had
fallen, he was strongly disposed in favour of Otho. He even
looked beyond Africa and threatened Spain, which is separated
from it only by a narrow strait. This alarmed Cluvius Rufus, who
ordered the 10th legion to approach the coast, as if he intended
to send them across. Some of the centurions were sent on before
to gain for Vitellius the good will of the Moors. This was no
difficult task, as the fame of the German army was great in the
provinces. Besides this, a report was circulated that Albinus,
scorning the title of procurator, was assuming the insignia of
royalty and the name of Juba.
The tide of feeling turned, and Asinius Pollio, one of the
stanchest friends of Albinus, prefect of one of the squadrons of
cavalry, with Festus and Scipio, prefects of two infantry
cohorts, were killed. Albinus himself, who was sailing from the
province Tingitana to Mauritania Caesariensis, was murdered as he
reached the shore. His wife threw herself in the way of the
murderers and was killed with him. Vitellius made no inquiries
into what was going on. He dismissed matters of even the greatest
importance with brief hearing, and was quite unequal to any
serious business. He directed the army to proceed by land, but
sailed himself down the river Arar. His progress had nothing of
imperial state about it, but was marked by the poverty of his
former condition, till Junius Blaesus, governor of Gallia
Lugdunensis, a man of noble birth, whose munificence was equal to
his wealth, furnished him with suitable attendance, and escorted
him with a splendid retinue; a service which was of itself
displeasing, though Vitellius masked his dislike under servile
compliments. At Lugdunum the generals of the two parties, the
conquerors and the conquered, were waiting for him. Valens and
Caecina he put by his own chair of state, after celebrating their
praises before a general assembly. He then ordered the whole army
to come and greet his infant son; he brought him out, wrapped in
a military cloak, and holding him in his arms, gave him the title
of Germanicus and surrounded him with all the insignia of the
imperial rank. It was an extravagant distinction for a day of
prosperity, but it served as a consolation in adversity.
Then the bravest centurions among the Othonianists were put to
death. This, more than anything else, alienated from Vitellius
the armies of Illyricum. At the same time the other legions,
influenced by the contagion of example, and by their dislike of
the German troops, were meditating war. Vitellius detained
Suetonius Paullinus and Licinus Proculus in all the wretchedness
of an odious imprisonment; when they were heard, they resorted to
a defence, necessary rather than honourable. They actually
claimed the merit of having been traitors, attributing to their
own dishonest counsels the long march before the battle, the
fatigue of Otho's troops, the entanglement of the line with the
baggage wagons, and many circumstances which were really
accidental. Vitellius gave them credit for perfidy, and acquitted
them of the crime of loyalty. Salvius Titianus, the brother of
Otho, was never in any peril, for his brotherly affection and his
apathetic character screened him from danger. Marius Celsus had
his consulship confirmed to him. It was commonly believed,
however, and was afterwards made a matter of accusation in the
Senate against Caecilius Simplex, that he had sought to purchase
this honour, and with it the destruction of Celsus. Vitellius
refused, and afterwards bestowed on Simplex a consulship that had
not to be bought with crime or with money. Trachalus was
protected against his accusers by Galeria the wife of Vitellius.
Amid the adventures of these illustrious men, one is ashamed to
relate how a certain Mariccus, a Boian of the lowest origin,
pretending to divine inspiration, ventured to thrust himself into
fortune's game, and to challenge the arms of Rome. Calling
himself the champion of Gaul, and a God (for he had assumed this
title), he had now collected 8000 men, and was taking possession
of the neighbouring villages of the Aedui, when that most
formidable state attacked him with a picked force of its native
youth, to which Vitellius attached some cohorts, and dispersed
the crowd of fanatics. Mariccus was captured in the engagement,
and was soon after exposed to wild beasts, but not having been
torn by them was believed by the senseless multitude to be
invulnerable, till he was put to death in the presence of
Vitellius.
No further severities were exercised on the persons of the
opposite faction, or with property in any case; the wills of
those who had fallen fighting for Otho were held to be valid, and
with those who died intestate, the law was carried out.
Assuredly, could Vitellius have bridled his luxurious tastes, no
one need have dreaded his rapacity. He had a scandalous and
insatiable passion for feasts; the provocatives of gluttony were
conveyed to him from the capital and from Italy, till the roads
from both seas resounded with traffic; the leading men of the
various states were ruined by having to furnish his
entertainments, and the states themselves reduced to beggary; the
soldiers fast degenerated from their old activity and valour,
through habitual indulgence and contempt of their leader. He sent
on before him to the capital an edict, by which he postponed his
acceptance of the title of Augustus and refused that of Caesar,
though he relinquished nothing of his actual power. The
astrologers were banished from Italy. The Roman Knights were
forbidden, under severe penalties, to degrade themselves by
appearing in public entertainments, or in the arena. Former
Emperors had encouraged the practice by bribes, or more
frequently enforced it by compulsion; and many of the towns and
colonies had vied with each other in attracting by large pay the
most profligate of the youth.
Vitellius, however, when his brother joined him, and when those
who are skilled in the arts of despotism began to creep into his
confidence, grew more arrogant and cruel. He ordered the
execution of Dolabella, whose banishment by Otho to the Colonia
Aquinas I have before mentioned. Dolabella, on hearing of the
death of Otho, had entered the capital. Plancius Varus, who had
filled the office of praetor, and had been one of Dolabella's
intimate friends, founded on this a charge, which he laid before
Flavius Sabinus, prefect of the city, implying that Dolabella had
escaped from custody, and had offered to put himself at the head
of the vanquished party; and he also alleged that the cohort
stationed at Ostia had been tampered with. Of these grave
accusations he brought no proof whatever, and then repenting,
sought, when the crime had been consummated, a pardon which could
be of no avail. Flavius Sabinus hesitating to act in a matter of
such importance, Triaria, the wife of Lucius Vitellius, with
unfeminine ferocity, warned him not to seek a reputation for
clemency by imperilling the Emperor. Sabinus was naturally of a
mild disposition, but under the pressure of fear was easily
swayed; here, the danger of another made him tremble for himself,
and, lest he might seem to have helped the accused, he
precipitated his fall.
Upon this, Vitellius, who, besides fearing Dolabella, hated him,
because he had married Petronia, his former wife, summoned him by
letter, and at the same time gave orders that, without passing
along the much frequented thoroughfare of the Flaminian road, he
should turn aside to Interamna, and there be put to death. This
seemed too tedious to the executioner, who in a road side tavern
struck down his prisoner, and cut his throat. The act brought
great odium upon the new reign, and was noted as the first
indication of its character. Triaria's recklessness was rendered
more intolerable by an immediate contrast with the exemplary
virtue of Galeria, the Emperor's wife, who took no part in these
horrors, and with Sextilia, the mother of the two Vitellii, a
woman equally blameless, and of the old type of character. She
indeed is said to have exclaimed on receiving the first letter
from her son, "I am the mother, not of Germanicus, but of
Vitellius." And in after days no seductions of fortune, no
flattery from the State, could move her to exultation; it was
only the misfortunes of her family that she felt.
M. Cluvius Rufus, who had left his government in Spain, came up
with Vitellius after his departure from Lugdunum. He wore a look
of joy and congratulation, but he was anxious at heart, for he
knew that he was the object of accusations. Hilarius, the
Emperor's freedman, had indeed brought this charge against him,
that on hearing of the contest for the throne between Vitellius
and Otho, he had made an attempt to secure power for himself, and
to obtain possession of Spain, and that with this view he had not
headed his passports with the name of any Emperor. Some extracts
from the speeches of Rufus he represented as insulting to
Vitellius, and intended to win popularity for himself. So strong,
however, was the influence of Cluvius, that Vitellius actually
ordered the freedman to be punished. Cluvius was attached to the
Emperor's retinue; Spain however was not taken from him; he still
governed the province though not resident, as L. Arruntius had
done before him, whom Tiberius Caesar detained at home, because
he feared him; it was not from any apprehension that Vitellius
kept Cluvius with him. The same compliment was not paid to
Trebellius Maximus. He had fled from Britain because of the
exasperation of the soldiery. Vettius Bolanus, who was then
accompanying the Emperor, was sent to succeed him.
Vitellius was troubled by the spirit of the vanquished legions,
which was anything but broken. Scattered through all parts of
Italy, and mingled with the conquerors, they spoke the language
of enemies. The soldiers of the 14th legion were peculiarly
furious. They said that they had not been vanquished; that at the
battle of Bedriacum only the veterans had been beaten, and that
the strength of the legion had been absent. It was resolved that
these troops should be sent back to Britain, from which province
Nero had summoned them, and that the Batavian cohorts should in
the meantime be quartered with them, because there was an old
feud between them and the 14th. In the presence of such
animosities between these armed masses, harmony did not last
long. At Augusta of the Taurini it happened that a Batavian
soldier fiercely charged some artisan with having cheated him,
and that a soldier of the legion took the part of his host. Each
man's comrades gathered round him; from words they came to blows,
and a fierce battle would have broken out, had not two Praetorian
cohorts taken the side of the 14th, and given confidence to them,
while they intimidated the Batavians. Vitellius then ordered that
these latter troops should be attached to his own force, in
consideration of their loyalty, and that the legion should pass
over the Graian Alps, and then take that line of road, by which
they would avoid passing Vienna, for the inhabitants of that
place were also suspected. On the night of the departure of the
legion, a part of the Colonia Taurina was destroyed by the fires
which were left in every direction. This loss, like many of the
evils of war, was forgotten in the greater disasters which
happened to other cities. When the 14th had made the descent on
the other side of the Alps, the most mutinous among them were for
carrying the standards to Vienna. They were checked, however, by
the united efforts of the better disposed, and the legion was
transported into Britain.
Vitellius found his next cause of apprehension in the Praetorian
cohorts. They were first divided, and then ordered, though with
the gratifying compliment of an honourable discharge, to give up
their arms to their tribunes. But as the arms Vespasian gathered
strength, they returned to their old service, and constituted the
mainstay of the Flavianist party. The first legion from the fleet
was sent into Spain, that in the peaceful repose of that province
their excitement might subside; the 7th and 11th were sent back
to their winter quarters; the, 13th were ordered to erect
amphitheatres, for both Caecina at Cremona, and Valens at
Bononia, were preparing to exhibit shows of gladiators. Vitellius
indeed was never so intent on the cares of Empire as to forget
his pleasures.
Though he had thus quietly divided the conquered party, there
arose a disturbance among the conquerors. It began in sport, but
the number of those who fell aggravated the horrors of the war.
Vitellius had sat down to a banquet at Ticinum, and had invited
Verginius to be his guest. The legates and tribunes always follow
the character of the Emperor, and either imitate his strictness,
or indulge in early conviviality. And the soldiers in like manner
are either diligent or lax in their duty. About Vitellius all was
disorder and drunkenness, more like a nocturnal feast and revel
than a properly disciplined camp. Thus it happened that two
soldiers, one of whom belonged to the 5th legion, while the other
was one of the Gallic auxiliaries, challenged each other in sport
to a wrestling match. The legionary was thrown, and the Gaul
taunted him. The soldiers who had assembled to witness the
contest took different sides, till the legionaries made a sudden
and murderous attack on the auxiliary troops, and destroyed two
cohorts. The first disturbance was checked only by a second. A
cloud of dust and the glitter of arms were seen at a distance. A
sudden cry was raised that the 14th legion had retraced its
steps, and was advancing to the attack. It was in fact the
rearguard of the army, and their recognition removed the cause of
alarm. Meanwhile a slave of Verginius happened to come in their
way. He was charged with having designed the assassination of
Vitellius. The soldiers rushed to the scene of the banquet, and
loudly demanded the death of Verginius. Even Vitellius,
tremblingly alive as he was to all suspicions, had no doubt of
his innocence. Yet he could hardly check the troops when they
clamoured for the death of a man of consular rank, formerly their
own general. Indeed there was no one who was more frequently the
object of all kinds of outbreaks than Verginius; the man still
was admired, still retained his high reputation, but they hated
him with the hatred of those who are despised.
The next day Vitellius, after giving audience to the envoys from
the Senate whom he had ordered to wait for him there, proceeded
to the camp, and actually bestowed high praise on the loyalty of
the soldiers. The auxiliary troops loudly complained that such
complete impunity, such privileged arrogance, was accorded to the
legions. The Batavian cohorts were sent back to Germany, lest
they should venture on further violence. Destiny was thus
simultaneously preparing the occasions of civil and of foreign
war. The Gallic auxiliaries were sent back to their respective
states, a vast body of men, which in the very earliest stage of
the revolt had been employed to make an idle show of strength.
Besides this, in order to eke out the Imperial resources, which
had been impaired by a series of bounties, directions were given
that the battalions of the legions and the auxiliary forces
should be reduced, all recruiting being forbidden. Discharges
were offered without distinction. This measure was disastrous to
the State, and distasteful to the soldier, who found that the
same duty was distributed among a smaller number, and that his
toils and risks came round in a more frequent succession. Their
vigour too was undermined by luxury, a luxury that transgressed
our ancient discipline and the customs of our ancestors, in whose
days the power of Rome found a surer foundation in valour than in
wealth.
Vitellius then directed his course to Cremona, and after
witnessing the spectacle exhibited by Caecina, he conceived a
desire to visit the plains of Bedriacum and to survey the scene
of the recent victory. It was a hideous and terrible sight. Not
forty days had passed since the battle, and there lay mangled
corpses, severed limbs, the putrefying forms of men and horses;
the soil was saturated with gore, and, what with levelled trees
and crops, horrible was the desolation. Not less revolting was
that portion of the road which the people of Cremona had strewed
with laurel leaves and roses, and on which they had raised
altars, and sacrificed victims as if to greet some barbarous
despot, festivities in which they delighted for the moment, but
which were afterwards to work their ruin. Valens and Caecina were
present, and pointed out the various localities of the field of
battle; shewing how from one point the columns of the legions had
rushed to the attack; how from another the cavalry had charged;
how from a third the auxiliary troops had turned the flank of the
enemy. The tribunes and prefects extolled their individual
achievements, and mixed together fictions, facts, and
exaggerations. The common soldiers also turned aside from the
line of march with joyful shouts, and recognized the various
scenes of conflict, and gazed with wonder on the piles of weapons
and the heaps of slain. Some indeed there were whom all this
moved to thoughts of the mutability of fortune, to pity, and to
tears. Vitellius did not turn away his eyes, did not shudder to
behold the unburied corpses of so many thousands of his
countrymen; nay, in his exultation, in his ignorance of the doom
which was so close upon himself, he actually instituted a
religious ceremony in honour of the tutelary gods of the place.
A show of gladiators was then given by Fabius Valens at Bononia,
with all the arrangements introduced from the capital. The nearer
the Emperor approached to Rome, the greater was the license of
his march, accompanied as it was by players and herds of eunuchs,
in fact by all that had characterised the court of Nero. Indeed,
Vitellius used to make a display of his admiration for Nero, and
had constantly followed him when he sang, not from the compulsion
to which the noblest had to yield, but because he was the slave
and chattel of profligacy and gluttony. To leave some months of
office open for Valens and Caecina, the consulates of others were
abridged, that of Martius Macer was ignored on the ground of his
having been one of Otho's generals. Valerius Maximus, who had
been nominated consul by Galba, had his dignity deferred for no
offence, but because he was a man of gentle temper, and could
submit tamely to an affront. Pedanius Costa was passed over. The
Emperor disliked him because he had risen against Nero, and
roused Verginius to revolt. Other reasons, however, were alleged.
Finally, after the servile fashion of the time, thanks were voted
to Vitellius.
A deception, which was started with considerable vigour, lasted
for a few, and but a few days. There had suddenly sprung up a
man, who gave out that he was Scribonianus Camerinus; that,
dreading the times of Nero, he had concealed himself in Histria,
where the old family of the Crassi still had dependants, estates,
and a popular name. He admitted into the secret of his imposture
all the most worthless of his followers; and the credulous
populace and some of the soldiers, either from not knowing the
truth, or impatient for revolution, began eagerly to rally round
him. When he was brought before Vitellius, and asked who he was,
as his account of himself could not be trusted,, and his master
recognised him as a runaway slave, by name Geta, he was executed
as slaves usually are.
It would almost pass belief, were I to tell to what a degree the
insolence and sloth of Vitellius grew upon him when messengers
from Syria and Judaea brought the news that the provinces of the
East had sworn allegiance to him. Though as yet all information
was but vague and uncertain, Vespasian was the subject of much
talk and rumour, and at the mention of his name Vitellius often
roused himself. But now, both the Emperor and the army, as if
they had no rival to fear, indulging in cruelty, lust, and
rapine, plunged into all the licence of foreign manners.
Vespasian, on the other hand, was taking a general survey of the
chances of a campaign and of his resources both immediate and
remote. The soldiers were so entirely devoted to him, that as he
dictated the oath of allegiance and prayed for all prosperity to
Vitellius, they listened to him in silence. Mucianus had no
dislike to Vespasian, and was strongly inclined towards Titus.
Already had Alexander, the governor of Egypt, declared his
adhesion. The third legion, as it had passed over from Syria to
Moesia, Vespasian counted upon as devoted to himself, and it was
hoped that the other legions of Illyricum would follow its
example. In fact the whole army had been kindled into indignation
by the insolence of the soldiers who came among them from
Vitellius. Savage in appearance, and speaking a rude dialect,
they ridiculed everybody else as their inferiors. But in such
gigantic preparations for war there is usually delay. Vespasian
was at one moment high in hope, and at another disposed to
reflect on the chances of failure. What a day would that be when
he should expose himself with his sixty years upon him, and the
two young men, his sons, to the perils of war! In private
enterprises men may advance or recede, and presume more or less
upon fortune as they may choose, whereas they who aim at empire
have no alternative between the highest success and utter
downfall.
The strength of the army of Germany, with which as a military man
he was well acquainted, was continually before his eyes. He
reflected that his own legions were wholly without experience of
a civil war, that those of Vitellius had been victorious, and
that among the conquered there was more dissatisfaction than real
strength. Civil strife had shaken the fidelity of the Roman
soldiery, and danger was to be apprehended from individuals. What
would be the use of infantry and cavalry, should one or two men
seek the prize with which the enemy would be ready to reward a
prompt act of treason? It was thus that Scribonianus had fallen
in the days of Claudius, and his murderer, Volaginius, had been
raised from the ranks to the highest military command. It was
easier to move the hearts of the multitude than to avoid the
single assassin.
Though staggered by these apprehensions, he was confirmed in his
purpose by others among the legates and among his own friends,
and particularly by Mucianus, who, after many conversations with
him in private, now publicly addressed him in the following
terms: "All who enter upon schemes involving great interests,
should consider whether what they are attempting be for the
advantage of the State, for their own credit, easy of
accomplishment, or at any rate free from serious difficulty. They
must also weigh the circumstances of their adviser, must see
whether he will follow up his advice by imperilling himself, and
must know who, should fortune prosper the undertaking, is to have
the highest honours. I invite you, Vespasian, to a dignity which
will be as beneficial to the State, as it will be honourable to
yourself. Under heaven this dignity lies within your reach. And
do not dread what may present the semblance of flattery. To be
chosen successor to Vitellius would be more of an insult than a
compliment. It is not against the vigorous intellect of the
Divine Augustus, it is not against the profound subtlety of the
aged Tiberius, it is not even against the house of Caius,
Claudius, or Nero, established by a long possession of the
Empire, that we are rising in revolt. You have already yielded to
the prestige even of Galba's family. To persist in inaction, and
to leave the State to degradation and ruin, would look like
indolence and cowardice, even supposing that servitude were as
safe for you as it would be infamous. The time has gone by and
passed away when you might have endured the suspicion of having
coveted Imperial power. That power is now your only refuge. Have
you forgotten how Corbulo was murdered? His origin, I grant, was
more illustrious than ours; yet in nobility of birth Nero
surpassed Vitellius. The man who is afraid sees distinction
enough in any one whom he fears. That an Emperor can be created
by the army, Vitellius is himself a proof, who, though he had
seen no service and had no military reputation, was raised to the
throne by the unpopularity of Galba. Otho, who was overcome, not
indeed by skilful generalship, or by a powerful enemy, but by his
own premature despair, this man has made into a great and
deservedly regretted Emperor, and all the while he is disbanding
his legions, disarming his auxiliaries, and sowing every day
fresh seeds of civil war. All the energy and high spirit which
once belonged to his army is wasted in the revelry of taverns and
in aping the debaucheries of their chief. You have from Judaea,
Syria, and Egypt, nine fresh legions, unexhausted by battle,
uncorrupted by dissension; you have a soldiery hardened by habits
of warfare and victorious over foreign foes; you have strong
fleets, auxiliaries both horse and foot, kings most faithful to
your cause, and an experience in which you excel all other men.
"For myself I will claim nothing more than not to be reckoned
inferior to Valens and Caecina. But do not spurn Mucianus as an
associate, because you do not find in him a rival. I count myself
better than Vitellius; I count you better than myself. Your house
is ennobled by the glories of a triumph; it has two youthful
scions, one of whom is already equal to the cares of Empire, and
in the earliest years of his military career won renown with
these very armies of Germany. It would be ridiculous in me not to
waive my claims to Empire in favour of the man whose son I should
adopt, were I myself Emperor. Between us, however, there will not
be an equal distribution of the fruits of success or failure. If
we are victorious. I shall have whatever honour you think fit to
bestow on me; the danger and the peril we shall share alike; nay,
I would rather have you, as is the better policy, direct your
armies, and leave to me the conduct of the war and the hazards of
battle. At this very moment a stricter discipline prevails among
the conquered than among the conquerors. The conquered are fired
to valour by anger, by hatred, by the desire of vengeance, while
the conquerors are losing their energy in pride and insolence.
War will of itself discover and lay open the hidden and rankling
wounds of the victorious party. And, indeed, your vigilance,
economy, and wisdom, do not inspire me with greater confidence of
success than do the indolence, ignorance, and cruelty of
Vitellius. Once at war, we have a better cause than we can have
in peace, for those who deliberate on revolt have revolted
already."
After this speech from Mucianus, the other officers crowded round
Vespasian with fresh confidence, encouraging him, and reminding
him of the responses of prophets and the movements of the
heavenly bodies. Nor was Vespasian proof against this
superstition, for afterwards, when master of the world, he openly
retained one Seleucus, an astrologer, to direct his counsels, and
to foretell the future. Old omens now recurred to his thoughts. A
cypress tree of remarkable height on his estate had suddenly
fallen, and rising again the following day on the very same spot,
had flourished with majestic beauty and even broader shade. This,
as the Haruspices agreed, was an omen of brilliant success, and
the highest distinction seemed prophesied to Vespasian in early
youth. At first, however, the honours of a triumph, his
consulate, and the glory of his victories in Judaea, appeared to
have justified the truth of the omen. When he had won these
distinctions, he began to believe that it portended the Imperial
power. Between Judaea and Syria is Mount Carmel; this is the name
both of the mountain and the Deity. They have no image of the god
nor any temple; the tradition of antiquity recognises only an
altar and its sacred association. While Vespasian was there
offering sacrifice and pondering his secret hopes, Basilides the
priest, after repeated inspections of the entrails, said to him,
"Whatever be your purposes, Vespasian, whether you think of
building a house, of enlarging your estate, or augmenting the
number of your slaves, there is given you a vast habitation,
boundless territory, a multitude of men." These obscure
intimations popular rumour had at once caught up, and now began
to interpret. Nothing was more talked about by the common people.
In Vespasian's presence the topic was more frequently discussed,
because to the aspirant himself men have more to say.
With purposes no longer doubtful they parted, Mucianus for
Antioch, Vespasian for Caesarea. These cities are the capitals of
Syria and Judaea respectively. The initiative in transferring the
Empire to Vespasian was taken at Alexandria under the prompt
direction of Tiberius Alexander, who on the 1st of July made the
legions swear allegiance to him. That day was ever after
celebrated as the first of his reign, though the army of Judaea
on July 3rd took the oath to Vespasian in person with such eager
alacrity that they would not wait for the return of his son
Titus, who was then on his way back from Syria, acting as the
medium between Mucianus and his father for the communication of
their plans. All this was done by the impulsive action of the
soldiers without the preliminary of a formal harangue or any
concentration of the legions.
While they were seeking a suitable time and place, and for that
which in such an affair is the great difficulty, the first man to
speak, while hope, fear, the chances of success or of disaster,
were present to their minds, one day, on Vespasian quitting his
chamber, a few soldiers who stood near, in the usual form in
which they would salute their legate, suddenly saluted him as
Emperor. Then all the rest hurried up, called him Caesar and
Augustus, and heaped on him all the titles of Imperial rank.
Their minds had passed from apprehension to confidence of
success. In Vespasian there appeared no sign of elation or
arrogance, or of any change arising from his changed fortunes. As
soon as he had dispelled the mist with which so astonishing a
vicissitude had clouded his vision, he addressed the troops in a
soldier like style, and listened to the joyful intelligence that
came pouring in from all quarters. This was the very opportunity
for which Mucianus had been waiting. He now at once administered
to the eager soldiers the oath of allegiance to Vespasian. Then
he entered the theatre at Antioch, where it is customary for the
citizens to hold their public deliberations, and as they crowded
together with profuse expressions of flattery, he addressed them.
He could speak Greek with considerable grace, and in all that he
did and said he had the art of displaying himself to advantage.
Nothing excited the provincials and the army so much as the
assertion of Mucianus that Vitellius had determined to remove the
legions of Germany to Syria, to an easy and lucrative service,
while the armies of Syria were to have given them in exchange the
encampments of Germany with their inclement climate and their
harassing toils. On the one hand, the provincials from long use
felt a pleasure in the companionship of the soldiers, with whom
many of them were connected by friendship or relationship; on the
other, the soldiers from the long duration of their service loved
the well known and familiar camp as a home.
Before the 15th of July the whole of Syria had adopted the same
alliance. There joined him, each with his entire kingdom,
Sohemus, who had no contemptible army, and Antiochus, who
possessed vast ancestral wealth, and was the richest of all the
subject kings. Before long Agrippa, who had been summoned from
the capital by secret despatches from his friends, while as yet
Vitellius knew nothing, was crossing the sea with all speed.
Queen Berenice too, who was then in the prime of youth and
beauty, and who had charmed even the old Vespasian by the
splendour of her presents, promoted his cause with equal zeal.
All the provinces washed by the sea, as far as Asia and Achaia,
and the whole expanse of country inland towards Pontus and
Armenia, took the oath of allegiance. The legates, however, of
these provinces were without troops, Cappadocia as yet having had
no legions assigned to it. A council was held at Berytus to
deliberate on the general conduct of the war. Thither came
Mucianus with the legates and tribunes and all the most
distinguished centurions and soldiers, and thither also the
picked troops of the army of Judaea. Such a vast assemblage of
cavalry and infantry, and the pomp of the kings that strove to
rival each other in magnificence, presented an appearance of
Imperial splendour.
The first business of the campaign was to levy troops and recall
the veterans to service. The strong cities were set apart for the
manufacture of arms; at Antioch gold and silver money was coined,
everything being vigorously carried on in its appointed place by
properly qualified agents. Vespasian himself went everywhere,
urged to exertion, encouraged the industrious by praise, and with
the indolent used the stimulus of example rather than of
compulsion, and chose to be blind to the faults rather than to
the merits of his friends. Many among them he distinguished with
prefectures and governments, and several with the honours of
senatorial rank; all these were men of eminence who soon reached
the highest positions. In some cases good fortune served instead
of merit. Of a donative to the troops Mucianus in his first
speech had held out only moderate hopes, and even Vespasian
offered no more in the civil war than others had done in times of
peace, thus making a noble stand against all bribery of the
soldiery, and possessing in consequence a better army. Envoys
were sent to Parthia and Armenia, and precautions were taken
that, when the legions were engaged in the civil war, the country
in their rear might not be exposed to attack. It was arranged
that Titus should pursue the war in Judaea, while Vespasian
should secure the passes into Egypt. To cope with Vitellius, a
portion of the army, the generalship of Mucianus, the prestige of
Vespasian's name, and the destiny before which all difficulties
vanish, seemed sufficient. To all the armies and legates letters
were despatched, and instructions were given to them that they
were to attach the Praetorians, who hated Vitellius, by the
inducement of renewed military service.
Mucianus, who acted more as a colleague than as a servant of the
Emperor, moved on with some light armed troops, not indeed at a
tardy pace so as to give the appearance of delay, yet not with
extraordinary speed. Thus he allowed rumour to gather fresh
strength by distance, well aware that his force was but small,
and that exaggerated notions are formed about what is not seen.
Behind him, however, came in a vast body the 6th legion and
13,000 veterans. He had given directions that the fleet from the
Pontus should be brought up to Byzantium, not having yet made up
his mind, whether, avoiding Moesia, he should move on Dyrrachium
with his infantry and cavalry, and at the same time blockade the
sea on the side of Italy with his ships of war, thus leaving Asia
and Achaia safe in his rear, which, being bare of troops, would
be left at the mercy of Vitellius, unless they were occupied with
proper garrisons. And thus too Vitellius himself, finding
Brundisium, Tarentum, and the shores of Calabria and Lucania
menaced by hostile fleets, would be in utter perplexity as to
which part of Italy he should protect.
Thus the provinces echoed with the bustle of preparing fleets,
armies, and the implements of war. Nothing, however, was so
vexatious as the raising of money. Mucianus, with the perpetual
assertion that money was the sinews of war, looked in all
questions, not to right or truth, but only to the extent of a
man's fortune. Informations abounded, and all the richest men
were fastened on for plunder. These intolerable oppressions,
which yet found some excuse in the necessities of war, were
continued even in peace. Vespasian himself indeed at the
beginning of his reign was not so bent on enforcing these
iniquitous measures, till, spoilt by prosperity and evil
counsellors, he learnt this policy and ventured to use it.
Mucianus contributed to the war even from his own purse, liberal
with his private means because he helped himself without scruple
from the wealth of the State. The rest followed his example in
contributing their money; very few enjoyed the same licence in
reimbursing themselves.
Meanwhile the operations of Vespasian were hastened by the zeal
of the army of Illyricum, which had come over to his side. The
third legion set the example to the other legions of Moesia.
These were the eighth and seventh (Claudius'), who were possessed
with a strong liking for Otho, though they had not been present
at the battle of Bedriacum. They had advanced to Aquileia, and by
roughly repulsing the messengers who brought the tidings of
Otho's defeat, by tearing the colours which displayed the name of
Vitellius, by finally seizing on the military chest and dividing
it among themselves, had assumed a hostile attitude. Then they
began to fear; fear suggested a new thought, that acts might be
made a merit of with Vespasian, which would have to be excused to
Vitellius. Accordingly, the three legions of Moesia sought by
letter to win over the army of Pannonia, and prepared to use
force if they refused. During this commotion, Aponius Saturnius,
governor of Moesia, ventured on a most atrocious act. He
despatched a centurion to murder Tettius Julianus, the legate of
the 7th legion, to gratify a private pique, which he concealed
beneath the appearance of party zeal. Julianus, having discovered
his danger, and procured some guides, who were acquainted with
the country, fled through the pathless wastes of Moesia beyond
Mount Haemus, nor did he afterwards take any part in the civil
war. He set out to join Vespasian, but contrived to protract his
journey by various pretexts, lingering or hastening on his way,
according to the intelligence he received.
In Pannonia, however, the 13th legion and the 7th (Galba's),
which still retained their vexation and rage at the defeat of
Bedriacum, joined Vespasian without hesitation, mainly under the
influence of Primus Antonius. This man, though an offender
against the law, and convicted of fraud in the reign of Nero,
had, among the other calamities of war, recovered his rank as a
Senator. Having been appointed by Galba to command the 7th
legion, he was commonly believed to have often written to Otho,
offering the party his services as a general. Being slighted,
however, by that Prince, he found no employment during the war.
When the fortunes of Vitellius began to totter, he attached
himself to Vespasian, and brought a vast accession of strength to
his party. He was brave in battle, ready of speech, dexterous in
bringing odium upon other men, powerful amidst civil strife and
rebellion, rapacious, prodigal, the worst of citizens in peace,
but in war no contemptible ally. United by these means, the
armies of Moesia and Pannonia drew with them the soldiery of
Dalmatia, though the consular legates took no part in the
movement. Titus Ampius Flavianus was the governor of Pannonia,
Poppaeus Silvanus of Dalmatia. They were both rich and advanced
in years. The Imperial procurator, however, was Cornelius Fuscus,
a man in the prime of life and of illustrious birth. Though in
early youth the desire of repose had led him to resign his
senatorial rank, he afterwards put himself at the head of his
colony in fighting for Galba, and by this service he obtained his
procuratorship. Subsequently embracing the cause of Vespasian, he
lent the movement the stimulus of a fiery zeal. Finding his
pleasure not so much in the rewards of peril as in peril itself,
to assured and long acquired possession he preferred novelty,
uncertainty, and risk. Accordingly, both he and Antonius strove
to agitate and disturb wherever there was any weak point.
Despatches were sent to the 14th legion in Britain and to the 1st
in Spain, for both these legions had been on the side of Otho
against Vitellius. Letters too were scattered through every part
of Gaul, and in a moment a mighty war burst into flame, for the
armies of Illyricum were already in open revolt, and the rest
were waiting only the signal of success.
While Vespasian and the generals of his party were thus occupied
in the provinces, Vitellius was daily becoming more contemptible
and indolent, halting to enjoy the pleasures of every town and
villa in his way, as with his cumbrous host he advanced towards
the capital. He was followed by 60,000 armed soldiers demoralized
by licence. Still larger was the number of camp followers; and of
all slaves, the slaves of soldiers are the most unruly. So
numerous a retinue of officers and personal friends would have
been difficult to keep under restraint, even if controlled by the
strictest discipline. The crowd was made more unwieldy by
Senators and Knights who came to meet him from the capital, some
moved by fear, many by a spirit of adulation, others, and by
degrees all, that they might not be left behind while the rest
were going. From the dregs of the people there thronged buffoons,
players, and charioteers, known to Vitellius from their infamous
compliance with his vices; for in such disgraceful friendships he
felt a strange pleasure. And now not only were the colonies and
towns exhausted by having to furnish supplies, but the very
cultivator of the soil and his lands, on which the harvests were
now ripe, were plundered like an enemy's territory.
There were many sanguinary encounters between the soldiers; for
ever since the mutiny which broke out at Ticinum there had
lingered a spirit of dissension between the legions and the
auxiliary troops, though they could unite whenever they had to
fight with the rustic population. The most terrible massacre took
place at the 7th milestone from Rome. Vitellius was distributing
to each soldier provisions ready dressed on the same abundant
scale as the gladiators' rations, and the populace had poured
forth, and spread themselves throughout the entire camp. Some
with the frolicsome humour of slaves robbed the careless soldiers
by slily cutting their belts, and then asked them whether they
were armed. Unused to insult, the spirit of the soldiers resented
the jest. Sword in hand they fell upon the unarmed people. Among
the slain was the father of a soldier, who was with his son. He
was afterwards recognised, and his murder becoming generally
known, they spared the innocent crowd. Yet there was a panic at
Rome, as the soldiers pressed on in all directions. It was to the
forum that they chiefly directed their steps, anxious to behold
the spot where Galba had fallen. Nor were the men themselves a
less frightful spectacle, bristling as they were with the skins
of wild beasts, and armed with huge lances, while in their
strangeness to the place they were embarrassed by the crowds of
people, or tumbling down in the slippery streets or from the
shock of some casual encounter, they fell to quarrelling, and
then had recourse to blows and the use of their swords. Besides,
the tribunes and prefects were hurrying to and fro with
formidable bodies of armed men.
Vitellius himself, mounted on a splendid charger, with military
cloak and sword, advanced from the Mulvian bridge, driving the
Senate and people before him; but deterred by the advice of his
friends from marching into Rome as if it were a captured city, he
assumed a civil garb, and proceeded with his army in orderly
array. The eagles of four legions were borne in front, and an
equal number of colours from other legions on either side, then
came the standards of twelve auxiliary squadrons, and the cavalry
behind the ranks of the infantry. Next came thirty four auxiliary
cohorts, distinguished according to the names or various
equipments of the nations. Before each eagle were the prefects of
the camp, the tribunes, and the centurions of highest rank, in
white robes, and the other officers by the side of their
respective companies, glittering with arms and decorations. The
ornaments and chains of the soldiers presented a brilliant
appearance. It was a glorious sight, and the army was worthy of a
better Emperor than Vitellius. Thus he entered the capital, and
he there embraced his mother and honoured her with the title of
Augusta.
The next day, as if he were addressing the Senate and people of
another State, he pronounced a high panegyric on himself,
extolling his own energy and moderation, though his enormities
were known to the very persons who were present and to the whole
of Italy, his progress through which had been disgraced by sloth
and profligacy. Yet the mob, who had no patriotic anxieties, and
who, without distinguishing between truth and falsehood, had
learnt the lesson of habitual flattery, applauded him with shouts
and acclamations, and, reluctant as he was to assume the name of
Augustus, extorted from him a compliance as idle as his previous
refusal.
The country, ready to find a meaning in every circumstance,
regarded it as an omen of gloomy import that Vitellius, on
obtaining the office of supreme Pontiff, should have issued a
proclamation concerning the public religious ceremonial on the
18th of July, a day which from old times the disasters of Cremera
and Allia had marked as unlucky. Thus utterly regardless of all
law human and divine, with freedmen and friends as reckless as
himself, he lived as if he were among a set of drunkards. Still
at the consular elections he was present in company with the
candidates like an ordinary citizen, and by shewing himself as a
spectator in the theatre, as a partisan in the circus, he courted
every breath of applause from the lowest rabble. Agreeable and
popular as this conduct would have been, had it been prompted by
noble qualities, it was looked upon as undignified and
contemptible from the remembrance of his past life. He habitually
appeared in the Senate even when unimportant matters were under
discussion; and it once happened that Priscus Helvidius, the
praetor elect, had spoken against his wishes. Though at the
moment provoked, he only called on the tribunes of the people to
support his insulted authority, and then, when his friends, who
feared his resentment was deeper than it appeared, sought to
appease him, he replied that it was nothing strange that two
senators in a Commonwealth should disagree: he had himself been
in the habit of opposing Thrasea. Most of them laughed at the
effrontery of such a comparison, though some were pleased at the
very circumstance of his having selected, not one of the most
influential men of the time, but Thrasea, as his model of true
glory.
He had advanced to the command of the Praetorian Guard Publius
Sabinus, a prefect of the cohort, and Julius Priscus, then only a
centurion. It was through the influence of Caecina and Valens
that they respectively rose to power. Though always at variance,
these two men left no authority to Vitellius. The functions of
Empire were discharged by Caecina and Valens. They had long
before been led to suspect each other by animosities scarcely
concealed amid the cares of the campaign and the camp, and
aggravated by unprincipled friends and a state of society
calculated to produce such feuds. In their struggles for
popularity, in their long retinues, and in the vast crowds at
their levees, they vied with each other and challenged
comparison, while the favour of Vitellius inclined first to one,
and then to the other. There can never be complete confidence in
a power which is excessive. Vitellius himself, who was ever
varying between sudden irritation and unseasonable fondness, they
at once despised and feared. Still this had not made them less
keen to seize on palaces and gardens and all the wealth of the
Empire, while a sad and needy throng of nobles, whom with their
children Galba had restored to their country, received no relief
from the compassion of the Emperor. By an edict which gratified
the leading men of the State, while it approved itself even to
the populace, Vitellius gave back to the returned exiles their
rights over their freedmen, although servile ingenuity sought in
every way to neutralise the boon, concealing money in quarters
which either obscurity or rank rendered secure. Some freedmen had
made their way into the palace of the Emperor, and thus became
more powerful even than their patrons.
Meanwhile the soldiers, as their numbers overflowed the crowded
camp, dispersed throughout the porticoes, the temples, and the
whole capital, did not know their own headquarters, kept no
watch, and ceased to brace themselves by toil. Amidst the
allurements of the city and all shameful excesses, they wasted
their strength in idleness, and their energies in riot. At last,
reckless even of health, a large portion of them quartered
themselves in the notoriously pestilential neighbourhood of the
Vatican; hence ensued a great mortality in the ranks. The Tiber
was close at hand, and their extreme eagerness for the water and
their impatience of the heat weakened the constitutions of the
Germans and Gauls, always liable to disease. To make matters
worse, the organisation of the service was deranged by
unprincipled intrigue and favour. Sixteen Praetorian and four
city cohorts were being raised, each to consist of a thousand
men. In this levy Valens ventured to do more than his rival on
the pretence of his having rescued Caecina himself from peril.
Doubtless his arrival had restored the fortunes of the party, and
his victory had reversed the unfavourable rumours occasioned by
his tardy advance. The entire army too of Lower Germany was
attached to him; this circumstance, it is thought, first made the
allegiance of Caecina waver.
Much however as Vitellius indulged his generals, his soldiers
enjoyed yet greater licence. Every one chose his own service.
However unfit, he might, if he preferred it, be enrolled among
the soldiers of the capital. Soldiers again of good character
were allowed, if they so wished, to remain with the legions, or
in the cavalry; and this was the choice of many who were worn out
with disease, or who shrank from the unhealthiness of the
climate. But the main strength of the legions and cavalry was
drafted from them, while the old glory of the Praetorian camp was
destroyed by these 20,000 men indiscriminately taken rather than
chosen out of the whole army. While Vitellius was haranguing the
troops, the men called out for the execution of Asiaticus, and of
Flavius and Rufinus, the Gallic chieftains, because they had
fought for Vindex. He never checked these cries; for to say
nothing of the cowardice natural to that feeble soul, he was
aware that the distribution of a donative was imminent, and,
having no money, he lavished everything else on the soldiers. A
contribution in the form of a tax was exacted from the freedmen
of former Emperors in proportion to the number of their slaves.
Vitellius himself, thinking only how to squander, was building a
stable for his charioteers, was filling the circus with shows of
gladiators and wild beasts, and fooling away his money as if he
had the most abundant supplies.
Moreover Caecina and Valens celebrated the birthday of Vitellius
by exhibiting in every quarter of the city shows of gladiators on
a vast and hitherto unparalleled scale. He pleased the most
infamous characters, but utterly disgusted all the respectable
citizens, by building altars in the Campus Martius, and
performing funeral rites to Nero. Victims were slaughtered and
burnt in the name of the State; the pile was kindled by the
Augustales, an order of the priesthood dedicated by the Emperor
Tiberius to the Julian family, just as Romulus had dedicated one
to king Tatius. Within four months from the victory of Bedriacum,
Asiaticus, the Emperor's freedman, was rivalling the Polycleti,
the Patrobii, and all the old hateful names. No one sought
promotion in that court by integrity or diligence; the sole road
to power was to glut the insatiable appetites of Vitellius by
prodigal entertainments, extravagance, and riot. The Emperor
himself, thinking it enough to enjoy the present, and without a
thought for the future, is believed to have squandered nine
hundred million sesterces in a very few months. Rome, as
miserable as she was great, afflicted in one year by an Otho and
a Vitellius, what with the Vinii, the Fabii, the Iceli, and the
Asiatici, passed through all vicissitudes of infamy, till there
came Mucianus and Marcellus, and different men rather than a
different morality.
The first revolt of which Vitellius received tidings was that of
the 3rd legion, despatches having been sent by Aponius Saturninus
before he too attached himself to the party of Vespasian.
Aponius, however, agitated by the unexpected occurrence, had not
written all the particulars, and flattering friends softened down
its import. "It was," they said, "a mutiny of only a single
legion; the loyalty of the other armies was unshaken." Vitellius
in addressing the soldiers spoke to the same effect. He inveighed
against the lately disbanded Praetorians, and asserted that false
rumours were circulated by them, and that there was no fear of a
civil war. The name of Vespasian he suppressed, and soldiers were
dispersed through the city to check the popular gossip. This more
than anything else kept these rumours alive.
Nevertheless Vitellius summoned auxiliary troops from Germany,
Britain, and Spain, tardily, however, and with an attempt to
conceal his necessities. The legates and the provinces were
equally slow. Hordeonius Flaccus, who was beginning to suspect
the Batavians, feared that he should have a war on his own hands,
and Vettius Bolanus had in Britain a province never very quiet;
and both these officers were wavering in their allegiance. Spain
too, which then was without a governor of consular rank, showed
no alacrity. The legates of the three legions, equal in
authority, and ready, while Vitellius was prosperous, to vie in
obedience, stood aloof with one consent from his falling
fortunes. In Africa, the legion, and the auxiliary infantry
levied by Clodius Macer and soon after disbanded by Galba, again
entered the service at the order of Vitellius, while all the rest
of the youth promptly gave in their names. Vitellius had ruled
that province as proconsul with integrity and popularity;
Vespasian's government had been infamous and odious. The allies
formed conjectures accordingly as to the manner in which each
would reign, but the result contradicted them.
At first Valerius Festus, the legate, loyally seconded the zeal
of the provincials. Soon he began to waver, supporting Vitellius
in his public dispatches and edicts, Vespasian in his secret
correspondence, and intending to hold by the one or the other
according as they might succeed. Some soldiers and centurions,
coming through Rhaetia and Gaul, were seized with letters and
edicts from Vespasian, and on being sent to Vitellius were put to
death. More, however, eluded discovery, escaping either through
the faithful protection of friends or by their own tact. Thus the
preparations of Vitellius became known, while the plans of
Vespasian were for the most part kept secret. At first the
supineness of Vitellius was in fault; afterwards the occupation
of the Pannonian Alps with troops stopped all intelligence. And
on the sea the prevalent Etesian winds favoured an eastward
voyage, but hindered all return.
At length Vitellius, appalled by the irruption of the enemy and
by the menacing intelligence from every quarter, ordered Caecina
and Valens to take the field. Caecina was sent on in advance;
Valens, who was just recovering from a severe illness, was
delayed by weakness. Far different was the appearance of the
German army as it marched out of the capital. All strength had
departed from their bodies, all energy from their spirits.
Slowly, and with thin ranks, the column moved along, their
weapons feebly grasped, their horses spiritless. The soldiers,
impatient of the heat, the dust, and the weather, in proportion
as they were less capable of enduring toil, were more ready for
mutiny. All this was aggravated by the old vanity of Caecina, and
by the indolence that had of late crept over him; presuming on
the excessive favour of fortune, he had abandoned himself to
luxury. Perhaps he meditated perfidy, and it was part of his
policy to enervate the courage of the army. Many believe that his
fidelity had been shaken by the suggestions of Flavius Sabinus,
who employed Rubrius Gallus as the bearer of communications
intimating that the conditions of desertion would be held binding
by Vespasian. At the same time he was reminded of his hatred and
jealousy of Fabius Valens. Being inferior to his rival in
influence with Vitellius, he should seek to secure favour and
power with the new Emperor.
Caecina, having embraced Vitellius and received tokens of high
distinction, left him, and sent a detachment of cavalry to occupy
Cremona. It was followed by the veteran troops of the 4th, 10th,
and 16th legions, by the 5th and 22nd legions, and the rear was
brought up by the 21st (the Rapax) and the first Italian legion
with the veteran troops of three British legions, and a chosen
body of auxiliaries. After the departure of Caecina, Valens sent
a despatch to the army which had been under his own command with
directions that it should wait for him on the road; such, he
said, was his arrangement with Caecina. Caecina, however, being
with the army in person, and consequently having greater
influence, pretended that this plan had been changed, so that the
gathering forces of the enemy might be met with their whole
strength. Orders were therefore given to the legions to advance
with all speed upon Cremona, while a portion of the force was to
proceed to Hostilia. Caecina himself turned aside to Ravenna, on
the pretext that he wished to address the fleet. Soon, however,
he sought the retirement of Patavium, there to concert his
treachery. Lucilius Bassus, who had been promoted by Vitellius
from the command of a squadron of cavalry to be admiral of the
fleets at Ravenna and Misenum, failing immediately to obtain the
command of the Praetorian Guard sought to gratify his
unreasonable resentment by an atrocious act of perfidy. It cannot
be certainly known whether he carried Caecina with him, or
whether (as is often the case with bad men, that they are like
each other) both were actuated by the same evil motives.
The historians of the period, who during the ascendancy of the
Flavian family composed the chronicles of this war, have in the
distorted representations of flattery assigned as the motives of
these men a regard for peace and a love of their country. For my
own part I believe that, to say nothing of a natural fickleness
and an honour which they must have held cheap after the betrayal
of Galba, feelings of rivalry, and jealousy lest others should
outstrip them in the favour of Vitellius, made them accomplish
his ruin. Caecina, having overtaken the legions, strove by every
species of artifice to undermine the fidelity of the centurions
and soldiers, who were devoted to Vitellius. Bassus, in making
the same attempt, experienced less difficulty, for the fleet,
remembering how recently it had served in the cause of Otho, was
ready to change its allegiance.
