Translated by Alfred John Church and William Jackson Brodribb
Book IV
January November, A.D. 70
When Vitellius was dead, the war had indeed come to an end, but
peace had yet to begin. Sword in hand, throughout the capital,
the conquerors hunted down the conquered with merciless hatred.
The streets were choked with carnage, the squares and temples
reeked with blood, for men were massacred everywhere as chance
threw them in the way. Soon, as their license increased, they
began to search for and drag forth hidden foes. Whenever they saw
a man tall and young they cut him down, making no distinction
between soldiers and civilians. But the ferocity, which in the
first impulse of hatred could be gratified only by blood, soon
passed into the greed of gain. They let nothing be kept secret,
nothing be closed; Vitellianists, they pretended, might be thus
concealed. Here was the first step to breaking open private
houses; here, if resistance were made, a pretext for slaughter.
The most needy of the populace and the most worthless of the
slaves did not fail to come forward and betray their wealthy
masters; others were denounced by friends. Everywhere were
lamentations, and wailings, and all the miseries of a captured
city, till the license of the Vitellianist and Othonianist
soldiery, once so odious, was remembered with regret. The leaders
of the party, so energetic in kindling civil strife, were
incapable of checking the abuse of victory. In stirring up tumult
and strife the worst men can do the most, but peace and quiet
cannot be established without virtue.
Domitian had entered into possession of the title and residence
of Caesar, but not yet applying himself to business, was playing
the part of a son of the throne with debauchery and intrigue. The
office of prefect of the Praetorian Guard was held by Arrius
Varus, but the supreme power was in the hands of Primus Antonius,
who carried off money and slaves from the establishment of the
Emperor, as if they were the spoils of Cremona. The other
generals, whose moderation or insignificance had shut them out
from distinction in the war, had accordingly no share in its
prizes. The country, terror stricken and ready to acquiesce in
servitude, urgently demanded that Lucius Vitellius with his
cohorts should be intercepted on his way from Tarracina, and that
the last sparks of war should be trodden out. The cavalry were
sent on to Aricia, the main body of the legions halted on this
side of Bovillae. Without hesitation Vitellius surrendered
himself and his cohorts to the discretion of the conqueror, and
the soldiers threw down their ill starred arms in rage quite as
much as in alarm. The long train of prisoners, closely guarded by
armed men, passed through the capital. Not one of them wore the
look of a suppliant; sullen and savage, they were unmoved by the
shouts and jests of the insulting rabble. A few, who ventured to
break away, were overpowered by the force that hemmed them in;
the rest were thrown into prison. Not one of them uttered an
unworthy word; even in disaster the honour of the soldier was
preserved. After this Lucius Vitellius was executed. Equally
vicious with his brother, he had yet shewn greater vigilance
during that brother's reign, and may be said, not so much to have
shared his elevation, as to have been dragged down by his fall.
About the same time Lucilius Bassus was sent with some light
cavalry to establish order in Campania, where the towns were
still disturbed, but by mutual animosities rather than by any
spirit of opposition to the new Emperor. The sight of the
soldiery restored quiet, and the smaller colonies escaped
unpunished. At Capua, however, the third legion was stationed to
pass the winter, and the noble families suffered severely.
Tarracina, on the other hand, received no relief; so much more
inclined are we to requite an injury than an obligation.
Gratitude is a burden, while there seems to be a profit in
revenge. They were consoled by seeing the slave of Verginius
Capito, whom I have mentioned as the betrayer of Tarracina,
gibbeted in the very rings of knighthood, the gift of Vitellius,
which they had seen him wear. At Rome the Senate, delighted and
full of confident hope, decreed to Vespasian all the honours
customarily bestowed on the Emperors. And indeed the civil war,
which, beginning in Gaul and Spain, and afterwards drawing into
the struggle first Germany and then Illyricum, had traversed
Aegypt, Judaea, and Syria, every province, and every army, this
war, now that the whole earth was, as it were, purged from guilt,
seemed to have reached its close. Their alacrity was increased by
a letter from Vespasian, written during the continuance of the
war. Such indeed was its character at first sight; the writer,
however, expressed himself as an Emperor, speaking modestly about
himself, in admirable language about the State. There was no want
of deference on the part of the Senate. On the Emperor and his
son Titus the consulship was bestowed by decree; on Domitian the
office of praetor with consular authority.
Mucianus had also forwarded to the Senate certain letters which
furnished matter for talk. It was said, "Why, if he is a private
citizen, does he speak like a public man? In a few days' time he
might have said the very same words in his place as a Senator.
And even the invective against Vitellius comes too late, and is
ungenerous; while certainly it is arrogance to the State and an
insult to the Emperor to boast that he had the Imperial power in
his hands, and made a present of it to Vespasian." Their dislike,
however, was concealed; their adulation was open enough. In most
flattering language they voted a triumph to Mucianus, a triumph
for a civil war, though the expedition against the Sarmatae was
the pretext. On Antonius Primus were bestowed the insignia of
consular rank, on Arrius Varus and Cornelius Fuscus praetorian
honours. Then they remembered the Gods. It was determined that
the Capitol should be restored. All these motions Valerius
Asiaticus, consul elect, proposed. Most of the Senators signified
their assent by their looks, or by raising the hand; but a few,
who either held a distinguished rank, or had a practised talent
for flattery, declared their acquiescence in studied speeches.
When it came to the turn of Helvidius Priscus, praetor elect, to
vote, he delivered an opinion, full of respect indeed to a worthy
Emperor, and yet wholly free from insincerity; and he was
strongly supported by the sympathies of the Senate. To Priscus
indeed this day was in an especial manner the beginning of a
great quarrel and a great renown.
As I have again happened to mention a man of whom I shall often
have to speak, the subject seems to demand that I should give a
brief account of his life and pursuits, and of his fortunes.
Helvidius Priscus was a native of the town of Carecina in Italy,
and was the son of one Cluvius, who had been a centurion of the
first rank. In early youth he devoted his distinguished talents
to the loftiest pursuits, not wishing, as do many, to cloak under
an imposing name a life of indolence, but to be able to enter
upon public life with a spirit fortified against the chances of
fortune. He followed those teachers of philosophy who hold
nothing to be good but what is honourable, nothing evil but what
is base, and who refuse to count either among things good or
evil, power, rank, or indeed any thing not belonging to the mind.
While still holding the quaestorship, he was selected by Paetus
Thrasea to be his son in law, and from the example of his
father in law imbibed with peculiar eagerness a love of liberty.
As a citizen and as a Senator, as a husband, as a son in law, as
a friend, and in all the relations of life, he was ever the same,
despising wealth, steadily tenacious of right, and undaunted by
danger.
There were some who thought him too eager for fame, and indeed
the desire of glory is the last infirmity cast off even by the
wise. The fall of his father in law drove him into exile, but he
returned when Galba mounted the throne, and proceeded to impeach
Marcellus Eprius, who had been the informer against Thrasea. This
retribution, as great as it was just, had divided the Senate into
two parties; for, if Marcellus fell, a whole army of fellow
culprits was struck down. At first there was a fierce struggle,
as is proved by the great speeches delivered by both men. But
afterwards, as the feelings of Galba were doubtful, and many
Senators interceded, Priscus dropped the charge, amidst comments
varying with the tempers of men, some praising his moderation,
and others deploring a lack of courage. On the day, however, that
the Senate was voting about the Imperial dignities of Vespasian,
it had been resolved that envoys should be sent to the new
Emperor. Hence arose a sharp altercation between Helvidius and
Eprius. Priscus proposed that they should be chosen by name by
the magistrates on oath, Marcellus demanded the ballot; and this
had been the opinion expressed by the Consul elect.
It was the dread of personal humiliation that made Marcellus so
earnest, for he feared that, if others were chosen, he should
himself appear slighted. From an angry conversation they passed
by degrees to long and bitter speeches. Helvidius asked, "Why
should Marcellus be so afraid of the judgment of the magistrates?
He has wealth and eloquence, which might make him superior to
many, were he not oppressed by the consciousness of guilt. The
chances of the ballot do not discriminate men's characters; the
voting and the judgment of the Senate were devised to reach the
lives and reputations of individuals. It concerns the interests
of the Commonwealth, it concerns the honour due to Vespasian,
that he should be met by those whom the Senate counts to be
peculiarly blameless, and who may fill the Emperor's ear with
honourable counsels. Vespasian was the friend of Thrasea,
Soranus, and Sextius; and the accusers of these men, though it
may not be expedient to punish them, ought not to be paraded
before him. By this selection on the part of the Senate the
Emperor will, so to speak, be advised whom he should mark with
approval, and from whom he should shrink. There can be no more
effectual instrument of good government than good friends. Let
Marcellus be satisfied with having urged Nero to destroy so many
innocent victims; let him enjoy the wages of his crimes and his
impunity, but let him leave Vespasian to worthier advisers."
Marcellus declared, "It is not my opinion that is assailed; the
Consul elect has made a motion in accordance with old precedents,
which directed the use of the ballot in the appointment of
envoys, in order that there might be no room for intrigue or
private animosities. Nothing has happened why customs of long
standing should fall into disuse, or why the honour due to the
Emperor should be turned into an insult to any man. All Senators
are competent to pay their homage. What we have rather to avoid
is this, that a mind unsettled by the novelty of power, and which
will keenly watch the very looks and language of all, should be
irritated by the obstinacy of certain persons. I do not forget
the times in which I have been born, or the form of government
which our fathers and grandfathers established. I may regard with
admiration an earlier period, but I acquiesce in the present,
and, while I pray for good Emperors, I can endure whomsoever we
may have. It was not through my speech any more than it was
through the judgment of the Senate that Thrasea fell. The savage
temper of Nero amused itself under these forms, and I found the
friendship of such a Prince as harassing as others found their
exile. Finally, Helvidius may rival the Catos and the Bruti of
old in constancy and courage; I am but one of the Senate which
bows to the same yoke. Besides, I would advise Priscus not to
climb higher than the throne, or to impose his counsels on
Vespasian, an old man, who has won the honours of a triumph, and
has two sons grown to manhood. For as the worst Emperors love an
unlimited despotism, so the noblest like some check on liberty."
These speeches, which were delivered with much vehemence on both
sides, were heard with much diversity of feeling. That party
prevailed which preferred that the envoys should be taken by lot,
as even the neutral section in the Senate exerted themselves to
retain the old practice, while the more conspicuous members
inclined to the same view, dreading jealousy, should the choice
fall on themselves.
Another struggle ensued. The praetors of the Treasury (the
Treasury was at this time managed by praetors) complained of the
poverty of the State, and demanded a retrenchment of expenditure.
The Consul elect, considering how great was the evil and how
difficult the remedy, was for reserving the matter for the
Emperor. Helvidius gave it as his opinion that measures should be
taken at the discretion of the Senate. When the Consuls came to
take the votes, Vulcatius Tertullinus, tribune of the people, put
his veto on any resolution being adopted in so important a matter
in the absence of the Emperor. Helvidius had moved that the
Capitol should be restored at the public expense, and that
Vespasian should give his aid. All the more moderate of the
Senators let this opinion pass in silence, and in time forgot it;
but there were some who remembered it.
Musonius Rufus then made a violent attack on Publius Celer,
accusing him of having brought about the destruction of Barea
Soranus by perjury. By this impeachment all the hatreds of the
days of the informers seemed to be revived; but the accused
person was so worthless and so guilty that he could not be
protected. For indeed the memory of Soranus was held in
reverence; Celer had been a professor of philosophy, and had then
given evidence against Barea, thus betraying and profaning the
friendship of which he claimed to be a teacher. The next day was
fixed for the trial. But it was not of Musonius or Publius, it
was of Priscus, of Marcellus, and his brother informers, that men
were thinking, now that their hearts were once roused to
vengeance.
While things were in this state, while there was division in the
Senate, resentment among the conquered, no real authority in the
conquerors, and in the country at large no laws and no Emperor,
Mucianus entered the capital, and at once drew all power into his
own hands. The influence of Primus Antonius and Varus Arrius was
destroyed; for the irritation of Mucianus against them, though
not revealed in his looks, was but ill concealed, and the
country, keen to discover such dislikes, had changed its tone and
transferred its homage. He alone was canvassed and courted, and
he, surrounding himself with armed men, and bargaining for
palaces and gardens, ceased not, what with his magnificence, his
proud bearing, and his guards, to grasp at the power, while he
waived the titles of Empire. The murder of Calpurnius Galerianus
caused the utmost consternation. He was a son of Caius Piso, and
had done nothing, but a noble name and his own youthful beauty
made him the theme of common talk; and while the country was
still unquiet and delighted in novel topics, there were persons
who associated him with idle rumours of Imperial honours. By
order of Mucianus he was surrounded with a guard of soldiers.
Lest his execution in the capital should excite too much notice,
they conducted him to the fortieth milestone from Rome on the
Appian Road, and there put him to death by opening his veins.
Julius Priscus, who had been prefect of the Praetorian Guard
under Vitellius, killed himself rather out of shame than by
compulsion. Alfenius Varus survived the disgrace of his
cowardice. Asiaticus, who was only a freedman, expiated by the
death of a slave his evil exercise of power.
At this time the country was hearing with anything but sorrow
rumours that daily gained strength of disasters in Germany. Men
began to speak of slaughtered armies, of captured encampments, of
Gaul in revolt, as if such things were not calamities. Beginning
at an earlier period I will discuss the causes in which this war
had its origin, and the extent of the movements which it kindled
among independent and allied nations.
The Batavians, while they dwelt on the other side of the Rhine,
formed a part of the tribe of the Chatti. Driven out by a
domestic revolution, they took possession of an uninhabited
district on the extremity of the coast of Gaul, and also of a
neighbouring island, surrounded by the ocean in front, and by the
river Rhine in the rear and on either side. Not weakened by the
power of Rome or by alliance with a people stronger than
themselves, they furnished to the Empire nothing but men and
arms. They had had a long training in the German wars, and they
had gained further renown in Britain, to which country their
cohorts had been transferred, commanded, according to ancient
custom, by the noblest men in the nation. They had also at home a
select body of cavalry, who practised with special devotion the
art of swimming, so that they could stem the stream of the Rhine
with their arms and horses, without breaking the order of their
squadrons.
Julius Paullus and Claudius Civilis, scions of the royal family,
ranked very high above the rest of their nation. Paullus was
executed by Fonteius Capito on a false charge of rebellion.
Civilis was put in chains and sent to Nero, and, though acquitted
by Galba, again stood in peril of his life in the time of
Vitellius, when the army clamoured for his execution. Here were
causes of deep offence; hence arose hopes built on our disasters.
Civilis, however, was naturally politic to a degree rarely found
among barbarians. He was wont to represent himself as Sertorius
or Hannibal, on the strength of a similar disfigurement of his
countenance. To avoid the opposition which he would encounter as
a public enemy, were he openly to revolt from Rome, he affected a
friendship for Vespasian and a zealous attachment to his party;
and indeed a letter had been despatched to him by Primus
Antonius, in which he was directed to divert the reinforcements
which Vitellius had called up, and to keep the legions where they
were by the feint of an outbreak in Germany. The same policy was
suggested by Hordeonius in person; he had a bias towards
Vespasian, and feared for the Empire, the utter ruin of which
would be very near, were a fresh war with so many thousands of
armed men to burst upon Italy.
Civilis, who was resolved on rebellion, and intended, while
concealing his ulterior designs, to reveal his other plans as
occasion presented itself, set about the work of revolution in
this way. By command of Vitellius all the Batavian youth was then
being summoned to the conscription, a thing naturally vexatious,
and which the officials made yet more burdensome by their
rapacity and profligacy, while they selected aged and infirm
persons, whom they might discharge for a consideration, and mere
striplings, but of distinguished beauty (and many attained even
in boyhood to a noble stature), whom they dragged off for
infamous purposes. This caused indignation, and the ringleaders
of the concerted rebellion prevailed upon the people to refuse
the conscription. Civilis collected at one of the sacred groves,
ostensibly for a banquet, the chiefs of the nation and the
boldest spirits of the lower class. When he saw them warmed with
the festivities of the night, he began by speaking of the renown
and glory of their race, and then counted the wrongs and the
oppressions which they endured, and all the other evils of
slavery. "There is," he said, "no alliance, as once there was; we
are treated as slaves. When does even a legate come among us,
though he come only with a burdensome retinue and in all the
haughtiness of power? We are handed over to prefects and
centurions, and when they are glutted with our spoils and our
blood, then they are changed, and new receptacles for plunder,
new terms for spoliation, are discovered. Now the conscription is
at hand, tearing, we may say, for ever children from parents, and
brothers from brothers. Never has the power of Rome been more
depressed. In the winter quarters of the legions there is nothing
but property to plunder and a few old men. Only dare to look up,
and cease to tremble at the empty names of legions. For we have a
vast force of horse and foot; we have the Germans our kinsmen; we
have Gaul bent on the same objects. Even to the Roman people this
war will not be displeasing; if defeated, we shall still reckon
it a service to Vespasian, and for success no account need be
rendered."
Having been listened to with great approval, he bound the whole
assembly with barbarous rites and the national forms of oath.
Envoys were sent to the Canninefates to urge a common policy.
This is a tribe which inhabits part of the island, and closely
resembles the Batavians in their origin, their language, and
their courageous character, but is inferior in numbers. After
this he sent messengers to tamper with the British auxiliaries
and with the Batavian cohorts, who, as I have before related, had
been sent into Germany, and were then stationed at Mogontiacum.
Among the Canninefates there was a certain Brinno, a man of a
certain stolid bravery and of distinguished birth. His father,
after venturing on many acts of hostility, had scorned with
impunity the ridiculous expedition of Caligula. His very name,
the name of a family of rebels, made him popular. Raised aloft on
a shield after the national fashion, and balanced on the
shoulders of the bearers, he was chosen general. Immediately
summoning to arms the Frisii, a tribe of the farther bank of the
Rhine, he assailed by sea the winter quarters of two cohorts,
which was the nearest point to attack. The soldiers had not
anticipated the assault of the enemy; even had they done so, they
had not strength to repulse it. Thus the camp was taken and
plundered. Then the enemy fell upon the sutlers and Roman
traders, who were wandering about in every direction, as they
would in a time of peace. At the same time they were on the point
of destroying the forts, but the prefects of the cohorts, seeing
that they could not hold them, set them on fire. The standards,
the colours, and what soldiers there were, concentrated
themselves in the upper part of the island under the command of
Aquilius, a centurion of the first rank, an army in name rather
than in strength. Vitellius in fact, after withdrawing the
effective troops from the cohorts, had loaded with arms a crowd
of idlers from the neighbouring villages of the Nervii and the
Germans.
Civilis, thinking that he must proceed by craft, actually blamed
the prefects for having deserted the forts, saying that he would
himself, with the cohort under his command, quell the disturbance
among the Canninefates, and that they had better return to their
respective winter quarters. It was evident, however, that there
was some treacherous design beneath this advice, that the cohorts
would be dispersed only to be more easily crushed, and that the
guiding hand in the war was not Brinno but Civilis; for
indications of the truth, which the Germans, a people who delight
in war, could not long conceal, were gradually coming to light.
When stratagem proved ineffectual, he resorted to force,
arranging in distinct columns the Canninefates, the Batavians,
and the Frisii. The Roman army was drawn up to meet them not far
from the river Rhine, and the ships, which, after burning the
forts, they had stranded at that point, were arranged so as to
front the enemy. Before the struggle had lasted long, a cohort of
Tungrians carried over their standards to Civilis. The other
troops, paralysed by the unexpected desertion, were cut down
alike by friends and foes. In the fleet there was the same
treachery. Some of the rowers were Batavians, and they hindered
the operations of the sailors and combatants by an apparent want
of skill; then they began to back water, and to run the sterns on
to the hostile shore. At last they killed the pilots and
centurions, unless these were willing to join them. The end was
that the whole fleet of four and twenty vessels either deserted
or was taken.
For the moment this was a brilliant success, and it had its use
for the future. They possessed themselves of some arms and some
vessels, both of which they wanted, while they became very famous
throughout Germany as the champions of liberty. The tribes of
Germany immediately sent envoys with offers of troops. The
co operation of Gaul Civilis endeavoured to secure by politic
liberality, sending back to their respective states the captured
prefects of cohorts, and giving permission to their men to go or
stay as they preferred. He offered to those who stayed service on
honourable terms, to those who departed the spoils of the Roman
army. At the same time he reminded them in confidential
conversations of the wrongs which they had endured for so many
years, while they falsely gave to a wretched slavery the name of
peace. "The Batavians," he said, "though free of tribute, have
yet taken up arms against our common masters. In the first
conflict the soldiers of Rome have been routed and vanquished.
What will be the result if Gaul throws off the yoke? What
strength is there yet left in Italy? It is by the blood of the
provinces that the provinces are conquered. Think not of how it
fared with the armies of Vindex. It was by Batavian cavalry that
the Aedui and the Arverni were trampled down, and among the
auxiliaries of Verginius there were found Belgian troops. To
those who will estimate the matter aright it is evident that Gaul
fell by her own strength. But now all are on the same side, and
we have whatever remnant of military vigour still flourished in
the camps of Rome. With us too are the veteran cohorts to which
the legions of Otho lately succumbed. Let Syria, Asia Minor, and
the East, habituated as it is to despotism, submit to slavery;
there are many yet alive in Gaul who were born before the days of
tribute. It was only lately indeed that Quintilius Varus was
slain, and slavery driven out of Germany. And the Emperor who was
challenged by that war was not a Vitellius, but a Caesar
Augustus. Freedom is a gift bestowed by nature even on the dumb
animals. Courage is the peculiar excellence of man, and the Gods
help the braver side. Let us then, who are free to act and
vigorous, fall on a distracted and exhausted enemy. While some
are supporting Vespasian, and others Vitellius, opportunities are
opening up for acting against both."
Civilis, bent on winning Gaul and Germany if his purposes should
prosper, was on the point of securing supremacy over the most
powerful and most wealthy of the states. His first attempts
Hordeonius Flaccus had encouraged by affecting ignorance. But
when messengers came hurrying in with intelligence that a camp
had been stormed, that cohorts had been cut to pieces, and that
the Roman power had been expelled from the island of the
Batavians, the general ordered the legate, Munius Lupercus, who
was in command of the winter quarters of two legions, to advance
against the enemy. Lupercus in great haste threw across the Rhine
such legionaries as were on the spot, some Ubian troops who were
close at hand, and some cavalry of the Treveri, who were
stationed at no great distance; these were accompanied by some
Batavian horse, who, though they had been long disaffected, yet
still simulated loyalty in order that by betraying the Romans in
the moment of actual conflict they might receive a higher price
for their desertion. Civilis, surrounding himself with the
standards of the captured cohorts, to keep their recent honours
before the eyes of his own men, and to terrify the enemy by the
remembrance of defeat, now directed his own mother and sisters,
and the wives and children of all his men, to stand in the rear,
where they might encourage to victory, or shame defeat. The
war song of the men, and the shrill cries of the women, rose from
the whole line, and an answering but far less vigorous cheer,
came from the legions and auxiliaries. The Batavians had exposed
the left wing by their desertion, and they immediately turned
against our men. Still the legionaries, though their position was
alarming, kept their arms and their ranks. The auxiliaries of the
Ubii and the Treveri broke at once in shameful flight, and
dispersed over the whole country. On that side the Germans threw
the weight of their attack. Meanwhile the legions had an
opportunity of retreating into what was called the Old Camp.
Claudius Labeo, prefect of the Batavian horse, who had been the
rival of Civilis in some local contest, was sent away into the
country of the Frisii; to kill him might be to give offence to
his countrymen, while to keep him with the army might be to sow
the seeds of discord.
About the same time the messenger despatched by Civilis came up
with the cohorts of the Batavians and the Canninefates, while by
the orders of Vitellius they were advancing towards Rome. At
once, inflated with pride and haughtiness, they demanded, by way
of remuneration for their march, a donative, double pay, and an
increase in the number of cavalry, things indeed which Vitellius
had promised, but which they now asked, not with the thought of
obtaining them, but as a pretext for mutiny. Flaccus, by his many
concessions, had produced no other effect but to make them insist
with more energy on what they knew he must refuse. Treating him
with contempt, they made their way towards Lower Germany, to join
Civilis. Hordeonius, assembling the tribunes and centurions,
asked their opinion as to whether he should use coercion with
those who refused obedience. Soon, yielding to his natural
timidity and to the alarm of his officers, who were troubled by
the suspicious temper of the auxiliaries and by the fact that the
ranks of the legions had been recruited by a hurried
conscription, he resolved to confine his troops to the camp.
Then, repenting of his resolve, and finding that the very men who
had advised it now disapproved it, he seemed bent on pursuing the
enemy, and wrote to Herennius Gallus, legate of the first legion,
who was then holding Bonna, that he was to prevent the Batavians
from crossing the Rhine, and that he would himself hang on their
rear with his army. They might have been crushed, if Hordeonius,
moving from one side, and Gallus from the other, had enclosed
them between their armies. But Flaccus abandoned his purpose,
and, in other despatches to Gallus, recommended him not to
threaten the departing foe. Thence arose a suspicion that the war
was being kindled with the consent of the legates, and that
everything which had happened, or was apprehended, was due, not
to the cowardice of the troops, or to the strength of the enemy,
but to the treachery of the generals.
When the Batavians were near the camp at Bonna, they sent on
before them delegates, commissioned to deliver to Herennius
Gallus a message from the cohorts. It was to this effect: "We
have no quarrel with the Romans, for whom we have so often
fought. Wearied with a protracted and fruitless service, we long
for our native land and for rest. If no one oppose us, our march
will be harmless, but if an armed force encounter us, we will
make a way with the sword." The soldiers prevailed upon the
hesitating legate to risk the chances of a battle. Three thousand
legionaries, some raw Belgian cohorts, and with them a mob of
rustics and camp followers, cowardly, but bold of speech before
the moment of danger, rushed out of all the gates, thinking to
surround the Batavians, who were inferior in number. But the
enemy, being veteran troops, formed in columns, presenting on
every side a dense array, with front, flanks, and rear secure.
Thus they were able to break the thin line of our soldiers. The
Belgians giving way, the legion was driven back, retreating in
confusion on the entrenchments and the gates. It was there that
the greatest slaughter took place. The trenches were heaped up
with corpses. Nor was it only from the deadly blows of the enemy
that they suffered; many perished in the crush and by their own
weapons. The victorious army, who avoided the Colonia
Agrippinensis, did not venture on any other hostile act during
the remainder of their march, and excused the conflict at Bonna,
alleging that they had asked for peace, and that when it was
refused they had but looked to their own safety.
Civilis, who now on the arrival of these veteran cohorts was at
the head of a complete army, but who was undecided in his plans,
and still reflected on the power of Rome, made all who were with
him swear allegiance to Vespasian, and sent envoys to the two
legions which after their defeat in the previous engagement had
retreated into the Old Camp, advising them to accept the same
allegiance. Their reply was: "We do not follow the advice of
traitors or enemies. Vitellius is our Emperor; to him we will
retain our fealty and devote our swords till our last breath.
Then let not a Batavian refugee affect to decide the destinies of
Rome; let him rather await the merited penalty of his guilt."
When this reply was delivered to Civilis, he was furious with
anger, and hurried the whole Batavian nation into open war. The
Bructeri and the Tencteri joined him, and messengers summoned all
Germany to share in his plunder and his glory.
To meet the threatened dangers of the gathering war, the legates
of the legions, Munius Lupercus and Numisius Rufus, strengthened
their entrenchments and walls. The buildings, which during a long
period of peace had grown up like a town near the camp, were
destroyed, lest they might be useful to the enemy. Little care,
however, was taken about the conveyance of supplies into the
camp. These the generals allowed to be plundered; and so, what
might long have sufficed for their necessities, was wantonly
wasted in a few days. Civilis, who occupied the centre of the
army with the elite of the Batavian troops, wishing to add a new
terror to his demonstration, covered both banks of the Rhine with
columns of his German allies, while his cavalry galloped about
the plains. At the same time the fleet was moved up the stream.
Here were the standards of the veteran cohorts; there the images
of wild beasts, brought out of the woods and sacred groves, under
the various forms which each tribe is used to follow into battle,
and these mingled emblems of civil and of foreign warfare utterly
confounded the besieged. The extent of the entrenchment raised
the hopes of the besiegers. Constructed for two legions, it was
now held by not more than five thousand Roman soldiers. But there
was with them a great number of camp followers, who had assembled
there on the disturbance of peace, and who could be employed in
the contest.
Part of the camp occupied the gentle slope of a hill; to part was
a level approach. By this encampment Augustus had thought the
German tribes might be watched and checked; never had he
contemplated such a pitch of disaster, as that these tribes
should themselves advance to attack our legions. Hence no labour
was bestowed on the ground or on the defences. Our valour and our
arms seemed defence enough. The Batavians and the Transrhenane
tribes took up their position, each tribe by itself, to
distinguish and so the better to display the valour of each;
first annoying us by a distant volley; then, as they found that
very many of their missiles fixed themselves harmlessly in the
turrets and battlements of the walls, and they themselves
suffered from the stones showered down on them, they fell on the
entrenchment with a shout and furious rush, many placing their
scaling ladders against the ramparts, and others mounting on a
testudo formed by their comrades. Some were in the act of
climbing over when they were thrust down by the swords of the
enemy, and fell overwhelmed by a storm of javelins and stakes.
Always very daring at first and excessively elated by success,
they now in their eagerness for plunder bore up against reverse.
They also ventured to use what to them was a novelty, engines of
war; they had themselves no skill in handling them, but the
prisoners and deserters taught them to pile up timber in the
shape of a bridge, under which they put wheels, and so propelled
it, some standing on the top, and fighting as they would from an
earth work, others concealing themselves within and undermining
the walls. But the stones thrown by the catapults prostrated the
ill constructed fabric, and when they set themselves to prepare
hurdles and mantlets, burning spears were thrown on them by the
engines, fire being thus actually used against the assailants. At
last, despairing of success by force, they changed their plans,
and resolved to wait, for they were well aware that only a few
days' provisions were in the camp, and that there was a great
crowd on non combatants; and they counted at the same time on the
treachery that might follow on scarcity, on the wavering fidelity
of the slaves, and on the chances of war.
Meanwhile Flaccus, who had heard of the siege of the camp, and
had sent into all parts of Gaul to collect auxiliaries, put under
command of Dillius Vocula, legate of the 18th legion, some troops
picked from the legions with orders to hasten by forced marches
along the banks of the Rhine. Flaccus himself, who was weak in
health and disliked by his troops, travelled with the fleet. The
troops indeed complained in unmistakable language that their
general had despatched the Batavian cohorts from Mogontiacum, had
feigned ignorance of the plans of Civilis, and was inviting the
German tribes to join the league. "This," they said, "has
strengthened Vespasian no less than the exertions of Primus
Antonius and Mucianus. Declared enmity and hostility may be
openly repulsed, but treachery and fraud work in darkness, and so
cannot be avoided. Civilis stands in arms against us, and
arranges the order of his battle; Hordeonius from his chamber or
his litter gives such orders as may best serve the enemy. The
swords of thousands of brave men are directed by one old man's
sick caprice. How much better by slaying the traitor, to set free
our valour and our fortune from these evil auspices!" The
passions already kindled by the language which they thus held
among themselves were yet more inflamed by a despatch from
Vespasian, which Flaccus, finding that it could not be concealed,
read before an assembly of the troops, sending the persons who
had brought it in chains to Vitellius.
With feelings somewhat appeased, they arrived at Bonna, the
winter camp of the first legion. The troops there were even more
enraged against Hordeonius, and laid on him the blame of the late
disaster. They said that it was by his orders that they had
offered battle to the Batavians, supposing that the legions from
Mogontiacum were following them; that it was through his
treachery that they had been slaughtered, no reinforcements
coming up; that all these events were unknown to the other
legions, and were not told to their Emperor, though the sudden
outburst of treason might have been crushed by the prompt action
of so many provinces. Hordeonius read to the army copies of all
the letters which he had sent about Gaul, begging for
reinforcements, and established as a precedent a most disgraceful
practice, namely, the handing over the despatches to the
standard bearers of the legions, through whose means they were
read by the soldiers sooner than by the generals. He then ordered
one of the mutineers to be put in irons, more for the sake of
asserting his authority than because any one man was in fault.
The army was then moved from Bonna to the Colonia Agrippinensis,
while auxiliaries from Gaul continued to flow in; for at first
that nation zealously supported the cause of Rome. Soon indeed as
the Germans increased in power, many of the states took up arms
against us, moved by the hope of freedom and, could they once
shake off the yoke, even by the lust of empire. The irritation of
the legions still increased, nor had the imprisonment of a single
soldier struck them with terror. This fellow indeed actually
charged the general with complicity; he had, he said, acted as a
messenger between Civilis and Flaccus, and because he might tell
the truth he was now being crushed under a false charge. With
wonderful firmness Vocula ascended the tribunal, and ordered the
man, who had been seized by the lictors, and was loudly
remonstrating, to be led off to execution. All the best men
acquiesced in the order, while the ill affected were struck with
terror. Then, as all with common consent demanded that Vocula
should be their general, Hordeonius handed over to him the
supreme command.
But there were many things to exasperate the already divided
feelings of the soldiery. Pay and provisions were scanty, Gaul
was rebelling against conscription and taxes, while the Rhine,
owing to a drought unexampled in that climate, would hardly admit
of navigation, and thus supplies were straitened at the same time
that outposts had to be established along the entire bank to keep
the Germans from fording the stream; the self same cause thus
bringing about a smaller supply of grain and a greater number of
consumers. Among ignorant persons the very failure of the stream
was regarded as a prodigy, as if the very rivers, the old
defences of the Empire, were deserting us. What, in peace, would
have seemed chance or nature, was now spoken of as destiny and
the anger of heaven. As the army entered Novesium the sixteenth
legion joined it; Herennius Gallus, its legate, was associated
with Vocula in the responsibilities of command. As they did not
venture to advance upon the enemy, they constructed a camp at a
place called Gelduba. Here the generals sought to give steadiness
to the troops by such exercises as forming in order of battle,
constructing fortifications, making entrenchments, and whatever
else might train them for war. In the hope that they might be
fired to courage by the delights of plunder, Vocula led the army
against the nearest villages of the Gugerni, who had accepted the
alliance of Civilis. Some of the troops remained permanently with
Herennius Gallus.
One day it happened that at no great distance from the camp the
Germans were endeavouring to drag off to their own bank a vessel
laden with corn, which had run aground in the shallows. Gallus
could not endure this, and sent a cohort to help. The numbers of
the Germans also increased; as fresh troops continued to join
both sides, a regular battle ensued. The Germans, besides
inflicting great loss on our men, carried off the vessel. The
vanquished troops, following what had become a regular practice,
laid the blame not on their own cowardice, but on supposed
treachery in the legate. Dragged out of his tent, his garments
torn, and his person severely beaten, he was commanded to declare
for what bribe and with what accomplices he had betrayed the
army. Their old hatred of Hordeonius reappeared. He, they
declared, was the instigator of the crime, Gallus his tool. At
last, utterly terrified by their threats of instant death, the
legate himself charged Hordeonius with treachery. He was then put
in irons, and only released on the arrival of Vocula, who the
next day inflicted capital punishment on the ringleaders of the
mutiny; such wide extremes of license and of subordination were
to be found in that army. The common soldiers were undoubtedly
loyal to Vitellius, but all the most distinguished men were in
favour of Vespasian. The result was an alternation of outbreaks
and executions, and a strange mixture of obedience and frenzy,
which made it impossible to restrain the men whom it was yet
possible to punish.
Meanwhile all Germany was raising the power of Civilis by vast
additions of strength, and the alliance was secured by hostages
of the noblest rank. He directed that the territories of the Ubii
and the Treveri should be ravaged by the several tribes on which
they bordered, and that another detachment should cross the river
Mosa, to threaten the Menapii and the Morini and the frontiers of
Gaul. In both quarters plunder was collected; with peculiar
hostility in the case of the Ubii, because, this nation, being of
German origin, had forsworn its native country, and assumed the
Roman name of the Agrippinenses. Their cohorts were cut up at the
village of Marcodurum, where they lay in careless security,
presuming on their distance from the river bank. The Ubii did not
remain quiet, but made predatory excursions into Germany,
escaping at first with impunity, though they were afterwards cut
off. Throughout the whole of this war, they were more loyal than
fortunate. Civilis, grown more formidable now that the Ubii had
been crushed, and elated by the success of his operations,
pressed on the siege of the legions, keeping a strict watch to
prevent any secret intelligence of advancing succours from
reaching them. He entrusted to the Batavians the care of the
machines and the vast siege works, and when the Transrhenane
tribes clamoured for battle, he bade them go and cut through the
ramparts, and, if repulsed, renew the struggle; their numbers
were superfluously large, and their loss was not felt. Even
darkness did not terminate the struggle.
Piling up logs of wood round the walls and lighting them, they
sat feasting, and rushed to the conflict, as each grew heated
with wine, with a useless daring. Their missiles were discharged
without effect in the darkness, but to the Romans the ranks of
the barbarians were plainly discernible, and they singled out
with deliberate aim anyone whose boldness or whose decorations
made him conspicuous. Civilis saw this, and, extinguishing the
fires, threw the confusion of darkness over the attack. Then
ensued a scene of discordant clamour, of accident, and
uncertainty, where no one could see how to aim or to avoid a
blow. Wherever a shout was heard, they wheeled round and strained
hand and foot. Valour was of no avail, accident disturbed every
plan, and the bravest frequently were struck down by the missiles
of the coward. The Germans fought with inconsiderate fury; our
men, more alive to the danger, threw, but not at random, stakes
shod with iron and heavy stones. Where the noise of the
assailants was heard, or where the ladders placed against the
walls brought the enemy within reach of their hands, they pushed
them back with their shields, and followed them with their
javelins. Many, who had struggled on to the walls, they stabbed
with their short swords. After a night thus spent, day revealed a
new method of attack.
The Batavians had raised a tower two stories high, which they
brought up to the Praetorian gate of the camp, where the ground
was most level. But our men, pushing forward strong poles, and
battering it with beams, broke it down, causing great destruction
among the combatants on the top. The enemy were attacked in their
confusion by a sudden and successful sally. All this time many
engines were constructed by the legionaries, who were superior to
the enemy in experience and skill. Peculiar consternation was
caused by a machine, which, being poised in the air over the
heads of the enemy, suddenly descended, and carried up one or
more of them past the faces of their friends, and then, by a
shifting of the weights, projected them within the limits of the
camp. Civilis, giving up all hope of a successful assault, again
sat down to blockade the camp at his leisure, and undermined the
fidelity of the legions by the promises of his emissaries.
All these events in Germany took place before the battle of
Cremona, the result of which was announced in a despatch from
Antonius, accompanied by Caecina's proclamation. Alpinius
Montanus, prefect of a cohort in the vanquished army, was on the
spot, and acknowledged the fate of his party. Various were the
emotions thus excited; the Gallic auxiliaries, who felt neither
affection nor hatred towards either party, and who served without
attachment, at once, at the instance of their prefects, deserted
Vitellius. The veteran soldiers hesitated. Nevertheless, when
Hordeonius administered the oath, under a strong pressure from
their tribunes, they pronounced the words, which their looks and
their temper belied, and while they adopted every other
expression, they hesitated at the name of Vespasian, passing it
over with a slight murmur, and not unfrequently in absolute
silence.
After this, certain letters from Antonius to Civilis were read in
full assembly, and provoked the suspicions of the soldiery, as
they seemed to be addressed to a partisan of the cause and to be
unfriendly to the army of Germany. Soon the news reached the camp
at Gelduba, and the same language and the same acts were
repeated. Montanus was sent with a message to Civilis, bidding
him desist from hostilities, and not seek to conceal the designs
of an enemy by fighting under false colours, and telling him
that, if he had been attempting to assist Vespasian, his purpose
had been fully accomplished. Civilis at first replied in artful
language, but soon perceiving that Montanus was a man of
singularly high spirit and was himself disposed for change, he
began with lamenting the perils through which he had struggled
for five and twenty years in the camps of Rome. "It is," he said,
"a noble reward that I have received for my toils; my brother
murdered, myself imprisoned, and the savage clamour of this army,
a clamour which demanded my execution, and for which by the law
of nations I demand vengeance. You, Treveri, and other enslaved
creatures, what reward do you expect for the blood which you have
shed so often? What but a hateful service, perpetual tribute, the
rod, the axe, and the passions of a ruling race? See how I, the
prefect of a single cohort, with the Batavians and the
Canninefates, a mere fraction of Gaul, have destroyed their vast
but useless camps, or are pressing them with the close blockade
of famine and the sword. In a word, either freedom will follow on
our efforts, or, if we are vanquished, we shall but be what we
were before." Having thus fired the man's ambition, Civilis
dismissed him, but bade him carry back a milder answer. He
returned, pretending to have failed in his mission, but not
revealing the other facts; these indeed soon came to light.
Civilis, retaining a part of his forces, sent the veteran cohorts
and the bravest of his German troops against Vocula and his army,
under the command of Julius Maximus and Claudius Victor, his
sister's son. On their march they plundered the winter camp of a
body of horse stationed at Ascibergium, and they fell on Vocula's
camp so unexpectedly that he could neither harangue his army, nor
even get it into line. All that he could do in the confusion was
to order the veteran troops to strengthen the centre. The
auxiliaries were dispersed in every part of the field. The
cavalry charged, but, received by the orderly array of the enemy,
fled to their own lines. What ensued was a massacre rather than a
battle. The Nervian infantry, from panic or from treachery,
exposed the flank of our army. Thus the attack fell upon the
legions, who had lost their standards and were being cut down
within the entrenchments, when the fortune of the day was
suddenly changed by a reinforcement of fresh troops. Some Vascon
infantry, levied by Galba, which had by this time been sent for,
heard the noise of the combatants as they approached the camp,
attacked the rear of the preoccupied enemy, and spread a panic
more than proportionate to their numbers, some believing that all
the troops from Novesium, others that all from Mogontiacum, had
come up. This delusion restored the courage of the Romans, and in
relying on the strength of others they recovered their own. All
the bravest of the Batavians, of the infantry at least, fell, but
the cavalry escaped with the standards and with the prisoners
whom they had secured in the early part of the engagement. Of the
slain on that day the greater number belonged to our army, but to
its less effective part. The Germans lost the flower of their
force.
The two generals were equally blameworthy; they deserved defeat,
they did not make the most of success. Had Civilis given battle
in greater force, he could not have been outflanked by so small a
number of cohorts, and he might have destroyed the camp after
once forcing an entrance. As for Vocula, he did not reconnoitre
the advancing enemy, and consequently he was vanquished as soon
as be left the camp; and then, mistrusting his victory, he
fruitlessly wasted several days before marching against the
enemy, though, had he at once resolved to drive them back, and to
follow up his success, he might, by one and the same movement,
have raised the siege of the legions. Meanwhile Civilis had tried
to work on the feelings of the besieged by representing that with
the Romans all was lost, and that victory had declared for his
own troops. The standards and colours were carried round the
ramparts, and the prisoners also were displayed. One of them,
with noble daring, declared the real truth in a loud voice, and,
as he was cut down on the spot by the Germans, all the more
confidence was felt in his information. At the same time it was
becoming evident, from the devastation of the country and from
the flames of burning houses, that the victorious army was
approaching. Vocula issued orders that the standards should be
planted within sight of the camp, and should be surrounded with a
ditch and rampart, where his men might deposit their knapsacks,
and so fight without encumbrance. On this, the General was
assailed by a clamorous demand for instant battle. They had now
grown used to threaten. Without even taking time to form into
line, disordered and weary as they were, they commenced the
action. Civilis was on the field, trusting quite as much to the
faults of his adversaries as to the valour of his own troops.
With the Romans the fortune of the day varied, and the most
violently mutinous shewed themselves cowards. But some,
remembering their recent victory, stood their ground and struck
fiercely at the foe, now encouraging each other and their
neighbours, and now, while they re formed their lines, imploring
the besieged not to lose the opportunity. These latter, who saw
everything from the walls, sallied out from every gate. It so
happened that Civilis was thrown to the ground by the fall of his
horse. A report that he had been either wounded or slain gained
belief throughout both armies, and spread incredible panic among
his own troops, and gave as great encouragement to their
opponents. But Vocula, leaving the flying foe, began to
strengthen the rampart and the towers of the camp, as if another
siege were imminent. He had misused success so often that he was
rightly suspected of a preference for war.
Nothing distressed our troops so much as the scarcity of
supplies. The baggage of the legions was therefore sent to
Novesium with a crowd of non combatants to fetch corn from that
place overland, for the enemy commanded the river. The march of
the first body was accomplished in security, as Civilis had not
yet recovered. But when he heard that officers of the
commissariat had been again sent to Novesium, and that the
infantry detached as an escort were advancing just as if it were
a time of profound peace, with but few soldiers round the
standards, the arms stowed away in the wagons, and all wandering
about at their pleasure, he attacked them in regular form, having
first sent on troops to occupy the bridges and the defiles in the
road. The battle extended over a long line of march, lasting with
varying success till night parted the combatants. The infantry
pushed on to Gelduba, while the camp remained in the same state
as before, garrisoned by such troops as had been left in it.
There could be no doubt what peril a convoy, heavily laden and
panic stricken, would have to encounter in attempting to return.
Vocula added to his force a thousand picked men from the fifth
and fifteenth legions besieged in the Old Camp, a body of troops
undisciplined and ill affected to their officers. But more than
the number specified came forward, and openly protested, as they
marched, that they would not endure any longer the hardships of
famine and the treachery of the legates. On the other hand, those
who had stayed behind complained that they were, being left to
their fate by this withdrawal of a part of the legions. A twofold
mutiny was the result, some calling upon Vocula to come back,
while the others refused to return to the camp.
Meanwhile Civilis blockaded the Old Camp. Vocula retired first to
Gelduba, after, wards to Novesium; Civilis took possession of
Gelduba, and not long after was victorious in a cavalry
engagement near Novesium. But reverses and successes seemed
equally to kindle in the troops the one desire of murdering their
officers. The legions, increased in number by the arrival of the
men from the fifth and fifteenth, demanded a donative, for they
had discovered that some money had been sent by Vitellius. After
a short delay Hordeonius gave the donative in the name of
Vespasian. This, more than anything else, fostered the mutinous
spirit. The men, abandoning themselves to debauchery and revelry
and all the license of nightly gatherings, revived their old
grudge against Hordeonius. Without a single legate or tribune
venturing to check them, for the darkness seems to have taken
from them all sense of shame, they dragged him out of his bed and
killed him. The same fate was intended for Vocula, but he assumed
the dress of a slave, and escaped unrecognized in the darkness.
When their fury had subsided and their alarm returned, they sent
centurions with despatches to the various states of Gaul,
imploring help in money and troops.
These men, headstrong, cowardly, and spiritless, as a mob without
a leader always is, on the approach of Civilis hastily took up
arms, and, as hastily abandoning them, betook themselves to
flight. Disaster produced disunion, the troops from the Upper
army dissociating their cause from that of their comrades.
Nevertheless the statues of Vitellius were again set up in the
camp and in the neighbouring Belgian towns, and this at a time
when Vitellius himself had fallen. Then the men of the 1st, the
4th, and the 18th legions, repenting of their conduct, followed
Vocula, and again taking in his presence the oath of allegiance
to Vespasian, were marched by him to the relief of Mogontiacum.
The besieging army, an heterogeneous mass of Chatti, Usipii, and
Mattiaci, had raised the siege, glutted with spoils, but not
without suffering loss. Our troops attacked them on the way,
dispersed and unprepared. Moreover the Treveri had constructed a
breastwork and rampart across their territory, and they and the
Germans continued to contend with great losses on both sides up
to the time when they tarnished by rebellion their distinguished
services to the Roman people.
Meanwhile Vespasian (now consul for the second time) and Titus
entered upon their office, both being absent from Rome. People
were gloomy and anxious under the pressure of manifold fears,
for, over and above immediate perils, they had taken groundless
alarm under the impression that Africa was in rebellion through
the revolutionary movements of Lucius Piso. He was governor of
that province, and was far from being a man of turbulent
disposition. The fact was that the wheat ships were detained by
the severity of the weather, and the lower orders, who were
accustomed to buy their provisions from day to day, and to whom
cheap corn was the sole subject of public interest, feared and
believed that the ports had been closed and the supplies stopped,
the Vitellianists, who had not yet given up their party feelings,
helping to spread the report, which was not displeasing even to
the conquerors. Their ambition, which even foreign campaigns
could not fill to the full, was not satisfied by any triumphs
that civil war could furnish.
On the 1st of January, at a meeting of the Senate, convoked for
the purpose by Julius Frontinus, praetor of the city, votes of
thanks were passed to the legates, to the armies, and to the
allied kings. The office of praetor was taken away from Tettius
Julianus, as having deserted his legion when it passed over to
the party of Vespasian, with a view to its being transferred to
Plotius Griphus. Equestrian rank was conferred on Hormus. Then,
on the resignation of Frontinus, Caesar Domitian assumed the
office of praetor of the city. His name was put at the head of
despatches and edicts, but the real authority was in the hands of
Mucianus, with this exception, that Domitian ventured on several
acts of power, at the instigation of his friends, or at his own
caprice. But Mucianus found his principal cause of apprehension
in Primus Antonius and Varus Arrius, who, in the freshness of
their fame, while distinguished by great achievements and by the
attachment of the soldiery, were also supported by the people,
because in no case had they extended their severities beyond the
battle field. It was also reported that Antonius had urged
Scribonianus Crassus, whom an illustrious descent added to the
honours of his brother made a conspicuous person, to assume the
supreme power; and it was understood that a number of accomplices
would not have failed to support him, had not the proposal been
rejected by Scribonianus, who was a man not easily to be tempted
even by a certainty, and was proportionately apprehensive of
risk. Mucianus, seeing that Antonius could not be openly crushed,
heaped many praises upon him in the Senate, and loaded him with
promises in secret, holding out as a prize the government of
Eastern Spain, then vacant in consequence of the departure of
Cluvius Rufus. At the same time he lavished on his friends
tribuneships and prefectures; and then, when he had filled the
vain heart of the man with hope and ambition, he destroyed his
power by sending into winter quarters the 7th legion, whose
affection for Antonius was particularly vehement. The 3rd legion,
old troops of Varus Arrius, were sent back to Syria. Part of the
army was on its way to Germany. Thus all elements of disturbance
being removed, the usual appearance of the capital, the laws, and
the jurisdiction of the magistrates, were once more restored.
Domitian, on the day of his taking his seat in the Senate, made a
brief and measured speech in reference to the absence of his
father and brother, and to his own youth. He was graceful in his
bearing, and, his real character being yet unknown, the frequent
blush on his countenance passed for modesty. On his proposing the
restoration of the Imperial honours of Galba, Curtius Montanus
moved that respect should also be paid to the memory of Piso. The
Senate passed both motions, but that which referred to Piso was
not carried out. Certain commissioners were then appointed by
lot, who were to see to the restitution of property plundered
during the war, to examine and restore to their place the brazen
tables of the laws, which had fallen down through age, to free
the Calendar from the additions with which the adulatory spirit
of the time had disfigured it, and to put a check on the public
expenditure. The office of praetor was restored to Tettius
Julianus, as soon as it was known that he had fled for refuge to
Vespasian. Griphus still retained his rank. It was then
determined that the cause of Musonius Rufus against Publius Celer
should be again brought on. Publius was condemned, and thus
expiation was made to the shade of Soranus. The day thus marked
by an example of public justice was not barren of distinction to
individuals. Musonius was thought to have fulfilled the righteous
duty of an accuser, but men spoke very differently of Demetrius,
a disciple of the Cynical school of philosophy, who pleaded the
cause of a notorious criminal by appeals to corrupt influences
rather than by fair argument. Publius himself, in his peril, had
neither spirit nor power of speech left. The signal for vengeance
on the informers having been thus given, Junius Mauricus asked
Caesar to give the Senate access to the Imperial registers, from
which they might learn what impeachments the several informers
had proposed. Caesar answered, that in a matter of such
importance the Emperor must be consulted.
The Senate, led by its principal members, then framed a form of
oath, which was eagerly taken by all the magistrates and by the
other Senators in the order in which they voted. They called the
Gods to witness, that nothing had been done by their
instrumentality to prejudice the safety of any person, and that
they had gained no distinction or advantage by the ruin of Roman
citizens. Great was the alarm, and various the devices for
altering the words of the oath, among those who felt the
consciousness of guilt. The Senate appreciated the scruple, but
denounced the perjury. This public censure, as it might be
called, fell with especial severity on three men, Sariolenus
Vocula, Nonnius Attianus, and Cestius Severus, all of them
infamous for having practised the trade of the informer in the
days of Nero. Sariolenus indeed laboured under an imputation of
recent date. It was said that he had attempted the same practices
during the reign of Vitellius. The Senators did not desist from
threatening gestures, till he quitted the chamber; then passing
to Paccius Africanus, they assailed him in the same way. It was
he, they said, who had singled out as victims for Nero the
brothers Scribonius, renowned for their mutual affection and for
their wealth. Africanus dared not confess his guilt, and could
not deny it; but he himself turned on Vibius Crispus, who was
pressing him with questions, and complicating a charge which he
could not rebut, shifted the blame from himself by associating
another with his guilt.
Great was the reputation for brotherly affection, as well as for
eloquence, which Vipstanus Messalla earned for himself on that
day, by venturing, though not yet of Senatorial age, to plead for
his brother Aquilius Regulus. The fall of the families of the
Crassi and Orfitus had brought Regulus into the utmost odium. Of
his own free will, as it seemed, and while still a mere youth, he
had undertaken the prosecution, not to ward off any peril from
himself, but in the hope of gaining power. The wife of Crassus,
Sulpicia Praetextata, and her four children were ready, should
the Senate take cognizance of the cause, to demand vengeance.
Accordingly, Messalla, without attempting to defend the case or
the person accused, had simply thrown himself in the way of the
perils that threatened his brother, and had thus wrought upon the
feelings of several Senators. On this Curtius Montanus met him
with a fierce speech, in which he went to the length of
asserting, that after the death of Galba, money had been given by
Regulus to the murderer of Piso, and that he had even fastened
his teeth in the murdered man's head. "Certainly," he said, "Nero
did not compel this act; you did not secure by this piece of
barbarity either your rank or your life. We may bear with the
defence put forward by men who thought it better to destroy
others than to come into peril themselves. As for you, the exile
of your father, and the division of his property among his
creditors, had left you perfectly safe, besides that your youth
incapacitated you for office; there was nothing in you which Nero
could either covet or dread. It was from sheer lust of slaughter
and greed of gain that you, unknown as you were, you, who had
never pleaded in any man's defence, steeped your soul in noble
blood, when, though you had snatched from the very grave of your
Country the spoils of a man of consular rank, had been fed to the
full with seven million sesterces, and shone with all sacerdotal
honours, you yet overwhelmed in one common ruin innocent boys,
old men of illustrious name, and noble ladies, when you actually
blamed the tardy movements of Nero in wearying himself and his
informers with the overthrow of single families, and declared
that the whole Senate might be destroyed by one word. Keep,
Conscript Fathers, preserve a man of such ready counsels, that
every age may be furnished with its teacher, and that our young
men may imitate Regulus, just as our old men imitate Marcellus
and Crispus. Even unsuccessful villany finds some to emulate it:
what will happen, if it flourish and be strong? And the man, whom
we dare not offend when he holds only quaestor's rank, are we to
see him rise to the dignities of praetor and consul? Do you
suppose that Nero will be the last of the tyrants? Those who
survived Tiberius, those who survived Caligula, thought the same;
and yet after each there arose another ruler yet more detestable
and more cruel. We are not afraid of Vespasian; the age and
moderation of the new Emperor reassure us. But the influence of
an example outlives the individual character. We have lost our
vigour, Conscript Fathers; we are no longer that Senate, which,
when Nero had fallen, demanded that the informers and ministers
of the tyrant should be punished according to ancient custom. The
first day after the downfall of a wicked Emperor is the best of
opportunities."
Montanus was heard with such approval on the part of the Senate,
that Helvidius conceived a hope that Marcellus also might be
overthrown. He therefore began with a panegyric on Cluvius Rufus,
who, though not less rich nor less renowned for eloquence, had
never imperilled a single life in the days of Nero. By this
comparison, as well as by direct accusations, he pressed Eprius
hard, and stirred the indignation of the Senators. When Marcellus
perceived this, he made as if he would leave the House,
exclaiming, "We go, Priscus, and leave you your Senate; act the
king, though Caesar himself be present." Crispus followed. Both
were enraged, but their looks were different; Marcellus cast
furious glances about him, while Crispus smiled. They were drawn
back, however, into the Senate by the hasty interference of
friends. The contest grew fiercer, while the well disposed
majority on the one side, and a powerful minority on the other,
fought out their obstinate quarrel, and thus the day was spent in
altercation.
At the next meeting of the Senate Caesar began by recommending
that the wrongs, the resentments, and the terrible necessities of
former times, should be forgotten, and Mucianus spoke at great
length in favour of the informers. At the same time he admonished
in gentle terms and in a tone of entreaty those who were reviving
indictments, which they had before commenced and afterwards
dropped. The Senators, when they found themselves opposed,
relinquished the liberty which they had begun to exercise. That
it might not be thought that the opinion of the Senate was
disregarded, or that impunity was accorded to all acts done in
the days of Nero, Mucianus sent back to their islands two men of
Senatorial rank, Octavius Sagitta and Antistius Sosianus, who had
quitted their places of banishment. Octavius had seduced one
Pontia Postumia, and, on her refusing to marry him, in the frenzy
of passion had murdered her. Sosianus by his depravity had
brought many to ruin. Both had been condemned and banished by a
solemn decision of the Senate, and, though others were permitted
to return, were kept under the same penalty. But this did not
mitigate the hatred felt against Mucianus. Sosianus and Sagitta
were utterly insignificant, even if they did return; but men
dreaded the abilities of the informers, their wealth, and the
power which they exercised in many sinister ways.
A trial, conducted in the Senate according to ancient precedents,
brought into harmony for a time the feelings of its members.
Manlius Patruitus, a Senator, laid a complaint, that he had been
beaten by a mob in the colony of Sena, and that by order of the
magistrates; that the wrong had not stopped here, but that
lamentations and wailings, in fact a representation of funeral
obsequies, had been enacted in his presence, accompanied with
contemptuous and insulting expressions levelled against the whole
Senate. The persons accused were summoned to appear, and after
the case had been investigated, punishment was inflicted on those
who were found guilty. A resolution of the Senate was also
passed, recommending more orderly behaviour to the people of
Sena. About the same time Antonius Flamma was condemned under the
law against extortion, at the suit of the people of Cyrene, and
was banished for cruel practices.
Amidst all this a mutiny in the army all but broke out. The
troops who, having been disbanded by Vitellius, had flocked to
support Vespasian, asked leave to serve again in the Praetorian
Guard, and the soldiers who had been selected from the legions
with the same prospect now clamoured for their promised pay. Even
the Vitellianists could not be got rid of without much bloodshed.
But the money required for retaining in the service so vast a
body of men was immensely large. Mucianus entered the camp to
examine more accurately the individual claims. The victorious
army, wearing their proper decorations and arms, he drew up with
moderate intervals of space between the divisions; then the
Vitellianists, whose capitulation at Bovillae I have already
related, and the other troops of the party, who had been
collected from the capital and its neighbourhood, were brought
forth almost naked. Mucianus ordered these men to be drawn up
apart, making the British, the German, and any other troops that
there were belonging to other armies, take up separate positions.
The very first view of their situation paralyzed them. They saw
opposed to them what seemed a hostile array, threatening them
with javelin and sword. They saw themselves hemmed in, without
arms, filthy and squalid. And when they began to be separated,
some to be marched to one spot, and some to another, a thrill of
terror ran through them all. Among the troops from Germany the
panic was particularly great; for they believed that this
separation marked them out for slaughter. They embraced their
fellow soldiers, clung to their necks, begged for parting kisses,
and entreated that they might not be deserted, or doomed in a
common cause to suffer a different lot. They invoked now
Mucianus, now the absent Emperor, and, as a last resource, heaven
and the Gods, till Mucianus came forward, and calling them
"soldiers bound by the same oath and servants of the same
Emperor," stopped the groundless panic. And indeed the victorious
army seconded the tears of the vanquished with their approving
shouts. This terminated the proceedings for that day. But when
Domitian harangued them a few days afterwards, they received him
with increased confidence. The land that was offered them they
contemptuously rejected, and begged for regular service and pay.
Theirs were prayers indeed, but such as it was impossible to
reject. They were therefore received into the Praetorian camp.
Then such as had reached the prescribed age, or had served the
proper number of campaigns, received an honourable discharge;
others were dismissed for misconduct; but this was done by
degrees and in detail, always the safest mode of reducing the
united strength of a multitude.
It is a fact that, whether suggested by real poverty or by a wish
to give the appearance of it, a proposition passed the Senate to
the effect that a loan of sixty million sesterces from private
persons should be accepted. Pompeius Silvanus was appointed to
manage the affair. Before long, either the necessity ceased or
the pretence was dropped. After this, on the motion of Domitian,
the consulships conferred by Vitellius were cancelled, and the
honours of a censor's funeral were paid to Sabinus; great lessons
both of the mutability of fortune, ever bringing together the
highest honours and the lowest humiliations.
About the same time the proconsul Lucius Piso was murdered. I
shall make the account of this murder as exact as possible by
first reviewing a few earlier circumstances, which have a bearing
on the origin and motives of such deeds. The legion and the
auxiliaries stationed in Africa to guard the frontiers of the
Empire were under the proconsul's authority during the reigns of
the divine Augustus and Tiberius. But in course of time Caligula,
prompted by his restless temper and by his fear of Marcus
Silanus, who then held Africa, took away the legion from the
proconsul, and handed it over to a legate whom he sent for that
purpose. The patronage was equally divided between the two
officers. A source of disagreement was thus studiously sought in
the continual clashing of their authority, and it was further
developed by an unprincipled rivalry. The power of the legates
grew through their lengthened tenure of office, and, perhaps,
because an inferior feels greater interest in such a competition.
All the more distinguished of the proconsuls cared more for
security than for power.
At this time the legion in Africa was commanded by Valerius
Festus, a young man of extravagant habits and immoderate
ambition, who was now made uneasy by his relationship to
Vitellius. Whether this man in their frequent interviews tempted
Piso to revolt, or whether he resisted such overtures, is not
known for certain, for no one was present at their confidential
meetings, and, after Piso's death, many were disposed to
ingratiate themselves with the murderer. There is no doubt that
the province and the troops entertained feelings of hostility to
Vespasian, and some of the Vitellianists, who had escaped from
the capital, incessantly represented to Piso that Gaul was
hesitating and Germany ready to revolt, that his own position was
perilous, and that for one who in peace must be suspected, war
was the safer course. While this was going on, Claudius Sagitta,
prefect of Petra's Horse, making a very quick passage, reached
Africa before Papirius, the centurion despatched by Mucianus. He
declared that an order to put Piso to death had been given to the
centurion, and that Galerianus, his cousin and son in law, had
perished; that his only hope of safety was in bold action; that
in such action two paths were open; he might defend himself on
the spot, or he might sail for Gaul and offer his services as
general to the Vitellianist armies. Piso was wholly unmoved by
this statement. The centurion despatched by Mucianus, on landing
in the port of Carthage, raised his voice, and invoked in
succession all blessings on the head of Piso, as if he were
Emperor, and bade the bystanders, who were astonished by this
sudden and strange proceeding, take up the same cry. The
credulous mob rushed into the market place, and demanded that
Piso should shew himself. They threw everything into an uproar
with their clamorous shouts of joy, careless of the truth, and
only eager to flatter. Piso, acting on the information of
Sagitta, or, perhaps, from natural modesty, would not make his
appearance in public, or trust himself to the zeal of the
populace. On questioning the centurion, and finding that he had
sought a pretext for accusing and murdering him, he ordered the
man to be executed, moved, not so much by any hope of saving his
life, as by indignation against the assassin; for this fellow had
been one of the murderers of Macer, and was now come to slay the
proconsul with hands already stained with the blood of the
legate. He then severely blamed the people of Carthage in an
edict which betrayed his anxiety, and ceased to discharge even
the usual duties of his office, shutting himself up in his
palace, to guard against any casual occurrence that might lead to
a new outbreak.
But when the agitation of the people, the execution of the
centurion, and other news, true or false, exaggerated as usual by
report, came to the ears of Festus, he sent some cavalry to put
Piso to death. They rode over at full speed, and broke into the
dwelling of the proconsul in the dim light of early dawn, with
their swords drawn in their hands. Many of them were unacquainted
with the person of Piso, for the legate had selected some Moorish
and Carthaginian auxiliaries to perpetrate the deed. Near the
proconsul's chamber they chanced to meet a slave, and asked him
who he was, and where Piso was to be found? The slave with a
noble untruth replied, "I am he," and was immediately cut down.
Soon after Piso was killed, for there was on the spot one who
recognized him, Baebius Massa, one of the procurators of Africa,
a name even then fatal to the good, and destined often to
reappear among the causes of the sufferings which he had ere long
to endure. From Adrumetum, where he had stayed to watch the
result, Festus went to the legion, and gave orders that Cetronius
Pisanus, prefect of the camp, should be put in irons. He did this
out of private pique, but he called the man an accomplice of
Piso. Some few centurions and soldiers he punished, others he
rewarded, neither the one nor the other deservedly, but he wished
men to believe that he had extinguished a war. He then put an end
to a quarrel between the Censes and the Leptitani, which,
originating in robberies of corn and cattle by two rustic
populations, had grown from this insignificant beginning till it
was carried on in pitched battles. The people of Ceea, who were
inferior in numbers, had summoned to their aid the Garamantes, a
wild race incessantly occupied in robbing their neighbours. This
had brought the Leptitani to extremities; their territories had
been ravaged far and wide, and they were trembling within their
walls, when the Garamantes were put to flight by the arrival of
the auxiliary infantry and cavalry, and the whole of the booty
was recaptured, with the exception of some which the plunderers,
in their wanderings through inaccessible hamlets, had sold to
more distant tribes.
Vespasian had heard of the victory of Cremona, and had received
favourable tidings from all quarters, and he was now informed of
the fall of Vitellius by many persons of every rank, who, with a
good fortune equal to their courage, risked the perils of the
wintry sea. Envoys had come from king Vologesus to offer him
40,000 Parthian cavalry. It was a matter of pride and joy to him
to be courted with such splendid offers of help from the allies,
and not to want them. He thanked Vologesus, and recommended him
to send ambassadors to the Senate, and to learn for himself that
peace had been restored. While his thoughts were fixed on Italy
and on the state of the Capital, he heard an unfavourable account
of Domitian, which represented him as overstepping the limits of
his age and the privileges of a son. He therefore entrusted Titus
with the main strength of the army to complete what had yet to be
done in the Jewish war.
It was said that Titus before his departure had a long interview
with his father, in which he implored him not to let himself be
easily excited by the reports of slanderers, but to shew an
impartial and forgiving temper towards his son. "Legions and
fleets," he reminded him, "are not such sure bulwarks of Imperial
power as a numerous family. As for friends, time, altered
fortunes, perhaps their passions or their errors, may weaken, may
change, may even destroy, their affection. A man's own race can
never be dissociated from him, least of all with Princes, whose
prosperity is shared by others, while their reverses touch but
their nearest kin. Even between brothers there can be no lasting
affection, except the father sets the example." Vespasian,
delighted with the brotherly affection of Titus rather than
reconciled to Domitian, bade his son be of good cheer, and
aggrandise the State by war and deeds of arms. He would himself
provide for the interests of peace, and for the welfare of his
family. He then had some of the swiftest vessels laden with corn,
and committed them to the perils of the still stormy sea. Rome
indeed was in the very critical position of not having more than
ten days' consumption in the granaries, when the supplies from
Vespasian arrived.
The work of rebuilding the Capitol was assigned by him to Lucius
Vestinius, a man of the Equestrian order, who, however, for high
character and reputation ranked among the nobles. The soothsayers
whom he assembled directed that the remains of the old shrine
should be removed to the marshes, and the new temple raised on
the original site. The Gods, they said, forbade the old form to
be changed. On the 21st of June, beneath a cloudless sky, the
entire space devoted to the sacred enclosure was encompassed with
chaplets and garlands. Soldiers, who bore auspicious names,
entered the precincts with sacred boughs. Then the vestal
virgins, with a troop of boys and girls, whose fathers and
mothers were still living, sprinkled the whole space with water
drawn from the fountains and rivers. After this, Helvidius
Priscus, the praetor, first purified the spot with the usual
sacrifice of a sow, a sheep, and a bull, and duly placed the
entrails on turf; then, in terms dictated by Publius Aelianus,
the high priest, besought Jupiter, Juno, Minerva, and the
tutelary deities of the place, to prosper the undertaking, and to
lend their divine help to raise the abodes which the piety of men
had founded for them. He then touched the wreaths, which were
wound round the foundation stone and entwined with the ropes,
while at the same moment all the other magistrates of the State,
the Priests, the Senators, the Knights, and a number of the
citizens, with zeal and joy uniting their efforts, dragged the
huge stone along. Contributions of gold and silver and virgin
ores, never smelted in the furnace, but still in their natural
state, were showered on the foundations. The soothsayers had
previously directed that no stone or gold which had been intended
for any other purpose should profane the work. Additional height
was given to the structure; this was the only variation which
religion would permit, and the one feature which had been thought
wanting in the splendour of the old temple.
Meanwhile the tidings of the death of Vitellius, spreading
through Gaul and Germany, had caused a second war. Civilis had
thrown aside all disguise, and was now openly assailing the Roman
power, while the legions of Vitellius preferred even a foreign
yoke to the rule of Vespasian. Gaul had gathered fresh courage
from the belief that the fortunes of our armies had been
everywhere disastrous; for a report was rife that our winter
camps in Moesia and Pannonia were hemmed in by the Sarmatians and
Dacians. Rumours equally false were circulated respecting
Britain. Above all, the conflagration of the Capitol had made
them believe that the end of the Roman Empire was at hand. The
Gauls, they remembered, had captured the city in former days,
but, as the abode of Jupiter was uninjured, the Empire had
survived; whereas now the Druids declared, with the prophetic
utterances of an idle superstition, that this fatal conflagration
was a sign of the anger of heaven, and portended universal empire
for the Transalpine nations. A rumour had also gone forth that
the chiefs of Gaul, whom Otho had sent against Vitellius, had,
before their departure, bound themselves by a compact not to fall
the cause of freedom, should the power of Rome be broken by a
continuous succession of civil wars and internal calamities.
Before the murder of Flaccus Hordeonius nothing had come out by
which any conspiracy could be discovered. After his death,
messengers passed to and fro between Civilis and Classicus,
commander of the cavalry of the Treveri. Classicus was first
among his countrymen in rank and wealth; he was of a royal house,
of a race distinguished both in peace and war, and he himself
claimed to be by family tradition the foe rather than the ally of
the Romans. Julius Tutor and Julius Sabinus joined him in his
schemes. One was a Trever, the other a Lingon. Tutor had been
made by Vitellius guardian of the banks of the Rhine. Sabinus,
over and above his natural vanity, was inflamed with the pride of
an imaginary descent, for he asserted that his great grandmother
had, by her personal charms, attracted the admiration of the
divine Julius, when he was campaigning in Gaul. These two men
held secret conferences to sound the views of the rest of their
countrymen, and when they had secured as accomplices such as they
thought suitable for their purpose, they met together in a
private house in the Colonia Agrippinensis; for the State in its
public policy was strongly opposed to all such attempts. Some,
however, of the Ubii and Tungri were present but the Treveri and
Lingones had the greatest weight in the matter. Nor could they
endure the delay of deliberation; they rivalled each other in
vehement assertions that the Romans were in a frenzy of discord,
that their legions had been cut to pieces, that Italy was laid
waste, that Rome itself was at that very moment undergoing
capture, while all her armies were occupied by wars of their own.
If they were but to secure the passes of the Alps with bodies of
troops, Gaul, with her own freedom firmly established, might look
about her, and fix the limits of her dominion.
These views were no sooner stated than approved. As to the
survivors of the Vitellianist army, they doubted what to do; many
voted for putting to death men so turbulent and faithless,
stained too with the blood of their generals. Still the policy of
mercy prevailed. To cut off all hope of quarter might provoke an
obstinate resistance. It would be better to draw them into
friendly union. If only the legates of the legions were put to
death, the remaining multitude, moved by the consciousness of
guilt and the hope of escape, would readily join their cause.
Such was the outline of their original plan. Emissaries were
likewise despatched throughout Gaul to stir up war, while they
themselves feigned submission, that they might be the better able
to crush the unsuspecting Vocula. Persons, however, were found to
convey information to him, but he had not sufficient strength to
suppress the movement, as the legions were incomplete in numbers
and disloyal. So, what with soldiers of doubtful fidelity and
secret enemies, he thought it best, under the circumstances, to
make his way by meeting deceit with deceit, and by using the same
arts with which he was himself assailed. He therefore went down
to the Colonia Agrippinenses. Thither Claudius Labeo, who, as I
have related, had been taken prisoner and sent out of the
province into the country of the Frisii, made his escape by
bribing his gaolers. This man undertook, if a force were given
him, to enter the Batavian territory and bring back to the Roman
alliance the more influential part of that State; but, though he
obtained a small force of infantry and cavalry, he did not
venture to attempt anything among the Batavi, but only induced
some of the Nervii and Betasii to take up arms, and made
continual attacks on the Canninefates and the Marsaci more in the
way of robbery than of war.
Lured on by the treacherous representations of the Gauls, Vocula
marched against the enemy. He was near the Old Camp, when
Classicus and Tutor, who had gone on in advance under the
pretence of reconnoitring, concluded an agreement with the German
chiefs. They then for the first time separated themselves from
the legions, and formed a camp of their own, with a separate line
of entrenchment, while Vocula protested that the power of Rome
was not so utterly shaken by civil war as to have become
contemptible even to Treveri and Lingones. "There are still," he
said, "faithful provinces, victorious armies, the fortune of the
Empire, and avenging Gods. Thus it was that Sacrovir and the
Aedui in former days, Vindex and the Gauls in more recent times,
were crushed in a single battle. The breakers of treaties may
look for the vengeance of the same Deities, and the same doom.
Julius and Augustus understood far better the character of the
people. Galba's policy and the diminution of their tribute have
inspired them with hostile feelings. They are now enemies,
because their yoke is easy; when they have been plundered and
stripped, they will be friends." After uttering this defiance,
finding that Classicus and Tutor persisted in their treachery, he
changed his line of march, and retired to Novesium. The Gauls
encamped at a distance of two miles, and plied with bribes the
centurions and soldiers who visited them there, striving to make
a Roman army commit the unheard of baseness of swearing
allegiance to foreigners, and pledge itself to the perpetration
of this atrocious crime by murdering or imprisoning its officers.
Vocula, though many persons advised him to escape, thought it
best to be bold, and, summoning an assembly, spoke as follows:
"Never, when I have addressed you, have I felt more anxious for
your welfare, never more indifferent about my own. Of the
destruction that threatens me I can hear with cheerfulness; and
amid so many evils I look forward to death as the end of my
sufferings. For you I feel shame and compassion. Against you
indeed no hostile ranks are gathering. That would be but the
lawful course of war, and the right which an enemy may claim. But
Classicus hopes to wage with your strength his war against Rome,
and proudly offers to your allegiance an empire of Gaul. Though
our fortune and courage have for the moment failed us, have we so
utterly forgotten the old memories of those many times when the
legions of Rome resolved to perish but not to be driven from
their post? Often have our allies endured to see their cities
destroyed, and with their wives and children to die in the
flames, with only this reward in their death, the glory of
untarnished loyalty. At this very moment our legions at the Old
Camp are suffering the horrors of famine and of siege, and cannot
be shaken by threats or by promises. We, besides our arms, our
numbers, and the singular strength of our fortifications, have
corn and supplies sufficient for a campaign however protracted.
We had lately money enough even to furnish a donative; and,
whether you choose to refer the bounty to Vitellius or Vespasian,
it was at any rate from a Roman Emperor that you received it. If
you, who have been victorious in so many campaigns, who have so
often routed the enemy at Gelduba and at the Old Camp, yet shrink
from battle, this indeed is an unworthy fear. Still you have an
entrenched camp; you have fortifications and the means of
prolonging the war, till succouring armies pour in from the
neighbouring provinces. It may be that I do not satisfy you; you
may fall back on other legates or tribunes, on some centurion,
even on some common soldier. Let not this monstrous news go forth
to the whole world, that with you in their train Civilis and
Classicus are about to invade Italy. Should the Germans and the
Gauls lead you to the walls of the capital, will you lift up arms
against your Country? My soul shudders at the imagination of so
horrible a crime. Will you mount guard for Tutor, the Trever?
Shall a Batavian give the signal for battle? Will you serve as
recruits in the German battalions? What will be the issue of your
wickedness when the Roman legions are marshalled against you?
Will you be a second time deserters, a second time traitors, and
brave the anger of heaven while you waver between your old and
your new allegiance? I implore and entreat thee, O Jupiter,
supremely good and great, to whom through eight hundred and
twenty years we have paid the honours of so many triumphs, and
thou, Quirinus, father of Rome, that, if it be not your pleasure
that this camp should be preserved pure and inviolate under my
command, you will at least not suffer it to be polluted and
defiled by a Tutor and a Classicus. Grant that the soldiers of
Rome may either be innocent of crime, or at least experience a
repentance speedy and without remorse."
They received his speech with feelings that varied between hope,
fear, and shame. Vocula then left them, and was preparing to put
an end to his life, when his freedmen and slaves prevented him
from anticipating by his own act a most miserable death.
Classicus despatched one Aemilius Longinus, a deserter from the
first legion, and speedily accomplished the murder. With respect
to the two legates, Herennius and Numisius, it was thought enough
to put them in chains. Classicus then assumed the insignia of
Roman Imperial power, and entered the camp. Hardened though he
was to every sort of crime, he could only find words enough to go
through the form of oath. All who were present swore allegiance
to the empire of Gaul. He distinguished the murderer of Vocula by
high promotion, and the others by rewards proportioned to their
services in crime.
Tutor and Classicus then divided the management of the war
between them. Tutor, investing the Colonia Agrippinensis with a
strong force, compelled the inhabitants and all the troops on the
Upper Rhine to take the same oath. He did this after having first
put to death the tribunes at Mogontiacum, and driven away the
prefect of the camp, because they refused obedience. Classicus
picked out all the most unprincipled men from the troops who had
capitulated, and bade them go to the besieged, and offer them
quarter, if they would accept the actual state of affairs;
otherwise there was no hope for them; they would have to endure
famine, the sword, and the direst extremities. The messengers
whom he sent supported their representations by their own
example.
The ties of loyalty on the one hand, and the necessities of
famine on the other, kept the besieged wavering between the
alternatives of glory and infamy. While they thus hesitated, all
usual and even unusual kinds of food failed them, for they had
consumed their horses and beasts of burden and all the other
animals, which, though unclean and disgusting, necessity
compelled them to use. At last they tore up shrubs and roots and
the grass that grew between the stones, and thus shewed an
example of patience under privations, till at last they
shamefully tarnished the lustre of their fame by sending envoys
to Civilis to beg for their lives. Their prayers were not heard,
till they swore allegiance to the empire of Gaul. Civilis then
stipulated for the plunder of the camp, and appointed guards who
were to secure the treasure, the camp followers, and the baggage,
and accompany them as they departed, stripped of everything.
About five miles from the spot the Germans rose upon them, and
attacked them as they marched without thought of danger. The
bravest were cut down where they stood; the greater part, as they
were scattered in flight. The rest made their escape to the camp,
while Civilis certainly complained of the proceeding, and
upbraided the Germans with breaking faith by this atrocious act.
Whether this was mere hypocrisy, or whether he was unable to
restrain their fury, is not positively stated. They plundered and
then fired the camp, and all who survived the battle the flames
destroyed.
Then Civilis fulfilled a vow often made by barbarians; his hair,
which he had let grow long and coloured with a red dye from the
day of taking up arms against Rome, he now cut short, when the
destruction of the legions had been accomplished. It was also
said that he set up some of the prisoners as marks for his little
son to shoot at with a child's arrows and javelins. He neither
took the oath of allegiance to Gaul himself, nor obliged any
Batavian to do so, for he relied on the resources of Germany, and
felt that, should it be necessary to fight for empire with the
Gauls, he should have on his side a great name and superior
strength. Munius Lupercus, legate of one of the legions, was sent
along with other gifts to Veleda, a maiden of the tribe of the
Bructeri, who possessed extensive dominion; for by ancient usage
the Germans attributed to many of their women prophetic powers
and, as the superstition grew in strength, even actual divinity.
The authority of Veleda was then at its height, because she had
foretold the success of the Germans and the destruction of the
legions. Lupercus, however, was murdered on the road. A few of
the centurions and tribunes, who were natives of Gaul, were
reserved as hostages for the maintenance of the alliance. The
winter encampments of the auxiliary infantry and cavalry and of
the legions, with the sole exception of those at Mogontiacum and
Vindonissa, were pulled down and burnt.
The 16th legion, with the auxiliary troops that capitulated at
the same time, received orders to march from Novesium to the
Colony of the Treveri, a day having been fixed by which they were
to quit the camp. The whole of this interval they spent in many
anxious thoughts. The cowards trembled to think of those who had
been massacred at the Old Camp; the better men blushed with shame
at the infamy of their position. "What a march is this before
us!" they cried, "Who will lead us on our way? Our all is at the
disposal of those whom we have made our masters for life or
death." Others, without the least sense of their disgrace, stowed
away about their persons their money and what else they prized
most highly, while some got their arms in readiness, and girded
on their weapons as if for battle. While they were thus occupied,
the time for their departure arrived, and proved even more dismal
than their anticipation. For in their intrenchments their woeful
appearance had not been so noticeable; the open plain and the
light of day revealed their disgrace. The images of the Emperors
were torn down; the standards were borne along without their
usual honours, while the banners of the Gauls glittered on every
side. The train moved on in silence like a long funeral
procession. Their leader was Claudius Sanctus; one of his eyes
had been destroyed; he was repulsive in countenance and even more
feeble in intellect. The guilt of the troops seemed to be
doubled, when the other legion, deserting the camp at Bonna,
joined their ranks. When the report of the capture of the legions
became generally known, all who but a short time before trembled
at the name of Rome rushed forth from the fields and houses, and
spread themselves everywhere to enjoy with extravagant delight
the strange spectacle. The Picentine Horse could not endure the
triumph of the insulting rabble, and, disregarding the promises
and threats of Sanctus, rode off to Mogontiacum. Chancing to fall
in with Longinus, the murderer of Vocula, they overwhelmed him
with a shower of darts, and thus made a beginning towards a
future expiation of their guilt. The legions did not change the
direction of their march, and encamped under the walls of the
colony of the Treveri.
Elated with their success, Civilis and Classicus doubted whether
they should not give up the Colonia Agrippinensis to be plundered
by their troops. Their natural ferocity and lust for spoil
prompted them to destroy the city; but the necessities of war,
and the advantage of a character for clemency to men founding a
new empire, forbade them to do so. Civilis was also influenced by
recollections of kindness received; for his son, who at the
beginning of the war had been arrested in the Colony, had been
kept in honourable custody. But the tribes beyond the Rhine
disliked the place for its wealth and increasing power, and held
that the only possible way of putting an end to war would be,
either to make it an open city for all Germans, or to destroy it
and so disperse the Ubii.
Upon this the Tencteri, a tribe separated by the Rhine from the
Colony, sent envoys with orders to make known their instructions
to the Senate of the Agrippinenses. These orders the boldest
spirit among the ambassadors thus expounded: "For your return
into the unity of the German nation and name we give thanks to
the Gods whom we worship in common and to Mars, the chief of our
divinities, and we congratulate you that at length you will live
as free men among the free. Up to this day have the Romans closed
river and land and, in a way, the very air, that they may bar our
converse and prevent our meetings, or, what is a still worse
insult to men born to arms, may force us to assemble unarmed and
all but stripped, watched by sentinels, and taxed for the
privilege. But that our friendship and union may be established
for ever, we require of you to strip your city of its walls,
which are the bulwarks of slavery. Even savage animals, if you
keep them in confinement, forget their natural courage. We
require of you to massacre all Romans within your territory;
liberty and a dominant race cannot well exist together. Let the
property of the slain come into a common stock, so that no one
may be able to secrete anything, or to detach his own interest
from ours. Let it be lawful for us and for you to inhabit both
banks of the Rhine, as it was of old for our ancestors. As nature
has given light and air to all men, so has she thrown open every
land to the brave. Resume the manners and customs of your
country, renouncing the pleasures, through which, rather than
through their arms, the Romans secure their power against subject
nations. A pure and untainted race, forgetting your past bondage,
you will be the equals of all, or will even rule over others."
The inhabitants of the Colony took time for deliberation, and, as
dread of the future would not allow them to accept the offered
terms, while their actual condition forbade an open and
contemptuous rejection, they replied to the following effect:
"The very first chance of freedom that presented itself we seized
with more eagerness than caution, that we might unite ourselves
with you and the other Germans, our kinsmen by blood. With
respect to our fortifications, as at this very moment the Roman
armies are assembling, it is safer for us to strengthen than to
destroy them. All strangers from Italy or the provinces, that may
have been in our territory, have either perished in the war, or
have fled to their own homes. As for those who in former days
settled here, and have been united to us by marriage, and as for
their offspring, this is their native land. We cannot think you
so unjust as to wish that we should slay our parents, our
brothers, and our children. All duties and restrictions on trade
we repeal. Let there be a free passage across the river, but let
it be during the day time and for persons unarmed, till the new
and recent privileges assume by usage the stability of time. As
arbiters between us we will have Civilis and Veleda; under their
sanction the treaty shall be ratified." The Tencteri were thus
appeased, and ambassadors were sent with presents to Civilis and
Veleda, who settled everything to the satisfaction of the
inhabitants of the Colony. They were not, however, allowed to
approach or address Veleda herself. In order to inspire them with
more respect they were prevented from seeing her. She dwelt in a
lofty tower, and one of her relatives, chosen for the purpose,
conveyed, like the messenger of a divinity, the questions and
answers.
Thus strengthened by his alliance with the Colonia Agrippinensis,
Civilis resolved to attach to himself the neighbouring States, or
to make war on them if they offered any opposition. He occupied
the territory of the Sunici, and formed the youth of the country
into regular cohorts. To hinder his further advance, Claudius
Labeo encountered him with a hastily assembled force of Betasii,
Tungri, and Nervii, relying on the strength of his position, as
he had occupied a bridge over the river Mosa. They fought in a
narrow defile without any decided result, till the Germans swam
across and attacked Labeo's rear. At the same moment, Civilis,
acting either on some bold impulse or by a preconcerted plan,
rushed into the Tungrian column, exclaiming in a loud voice, "We
have not taken up arms in order that the Batavi and Treveri may
rule over the nations. Far from us be such arrogance! Accept our
alliance. I am ready to join your ranks, whether you would prefer
me to be your general or your comrade." The multitude was moved
by the appeal, and were beginning to sheathe their swords, when
Campanus and Juvenalis, two of the Tungrian chieftains,
surrendered the whole tribe to Civilis. Labeo made his escape
before he could be intercepted. The Betasii and Nervii, also
capitulating, were incorporated by Civilis into his army. He now
commanded vast resources, as the States were either completely
cowed, or else were naturally inclined in his favour.
Meanwhile Julius Sabinus, after having thrown down the pillars
that recorded the treaty with Rome, bade his followers salute him
as Emperor, and hastened at the head of a large and undisciplined
crowd of his countrymen to attack the Sequani, a neighbouring
people, still faithful to Rome. The Sequani did not decline the
contest. Fortune favoured the better cause, and the Lingones were
defeated. Sabinus fled from the battle with a cowardice equal to
the rashness with which he had precipitated it, and, in order to
spread a report of his death, he set fire to a country house
where he had taken refuge. It was believed that he there perished
by a death of his own seeking. The various shifts by which he
contrived to conceal himself and to prolong his life for nine
years, the firm fidelity of his friends, and the noble example of
his wife Epponina, I shall relate in their proper place. By this
victory of the Sequani the tide of war was stayed. The States
began by degrees to recover their senses, and to reflect on the
claims of justice and of treaties. The Remi were foremost in this
movement, announcing throughout Gaul that deputies were to be
sent to consult in common assembly whether they should make
freedom or peace their object.
At Rome report exaggerated all these disasters, and disturbed
Mucianus with the fear that the generals, though distinguished
men (for he had already appointed Gallus Annius and Petilius
Cerialis to the command), would be unequal to the weight of so
vast a war. Yet the capital could not be left without a ruler,
and men feared the ungoverned passions of Domitian, while Primus
Antonius and Varus Arrius were also, as I have said, objects of
suspicion. Varus, who had been made commander of the Praetorian
Guard, had still at his disposal much military strength. Mucianus
ejected him from his office, and, not to leave him without
consolation, made him superintendent of the sale of corn. To
pacify the feelings of Domitian, which were not unfavourable to
Varus, he appointed Arretinus Clemens, who was closely connected
with the house of Vespasian, and who was also a great favourite
with Domitian, to the command of the Praetorian Guard, alleging
that his father, in the reign of Caligula, had admirably
discharged the duties of that office. The old name he said, would
please the soldiers, and Clemens himself, though on the roll of
Senators, would be equal to both duties. He selected the most
eminent men in the State to accompany him, while others were
appointed through interest. At the same time Domitian and
Mucianus prepared to set out, but in a very different mood;
Domitian in all the hope and impatience of youth, Mucianus ever
contriving delays to check his ardent companion, who, he feared,
were he to intrude himself upon the army, might be led by the
recklessness of youth or by bad advisers to compromise at once
the prospects of war and of peace. Two of the victorious legions,
the 6th and 8th, the 21st, which belonged to the Vitellianist
army, the 2nd, which consisted of new levies, were marched into
Gaul, some over the Penine and Cottian, some over the Graian
Alps. The 14th legion was summoned from Britain, and the 6th and
10th from Spain. Thus rumours of an advancing army, as well as
their own temper, inclined the States of Gaul which assembled in
the country of the Remi to more peaceful counsels. Envoys from
the Treveri were awaiting them there, and among them Tullius
Valentinus, the most vehement promoter of the war, who in a set
speech poured forth all the charges usually made against great
empires, and levelled against the Roman people many insulting and
exasperating expressions. The man was a turbulent fomenter of
sedition, and pleased many by his frantic eloquence.
On the other hand Julius Auspex, one of the leading chieftains
among the Remi, dwelt on the power of Rome and the advantages of
peace. Pointing out that war might be commenced indeed by
cowards, but must be carried on at the peril of the braver
spirits, and that the Roman legions were close at hand, he
restrained the most prudent by considerations of respect and
loyalty, and held back the younger by representations of danger
and appeals to fear. The result was, that, while they extolled
the spirit of Valentinus, they followed the counsels of Auspex.
It is certain that the Treveri and Lingones were injured in the
eyes of the Gallic nations by their having sided with Verginius
in the movement of Vindex. Many were deterred by the mutual
jealousy of the provinces. "Where," they asked, "could a head be
found for the war? Where could they look for civil authority, and
the sanction of religion? If all went well with them, what city
could they select as the seat of empire?" The victory was yet to
be gained; dissension had already begun. One State angrily
boasted of its alliances, another of its wealth and military
strength, or of the antiquity of its origin. Disgusted with the
prospect of the future, they acquiesced in their present
condition. Letters were written to the Treveri in the name of the
States of Gaul, requiring them to abstain from hostilities, and
reminding them that pardon might yet be obtained, and that
friends were ready to intercede for them, should they repent.
Valentinus still opposed, and succeeded in closing the ears of
his countrymen to this advice, though he was not so diligent in
preparing for war as he was assiduous in haranguing.
Accordingly neither the Treveri, the Lingones, nor the other
revolted States, took measures at all proportioned to the
magnitude of the peril they had incurred. Even their generals did
not act in concert. Civilis was traversing the pathless wilds of
the Belgae in attempting to capture Claudius Labeo, or to drive
him out of the country. Classicus for the most part wasted his
time in indolent repose, as if he had only to enjoy an empire
already won. Even Tutor made no haste to occupy with troops the
upper bank of the Rhine and the passes of the Alps. Meanwhile the
21st legion, by way of Vindonissa, and Sextilius Felix with the
auxiliary infantry, by way of Rhaetia, penetrated into the
province. They were joined by the Singularian Horse, which had
been raised some time before by Vitellius, and had afterwards
gone over to the side of Vespasian. Their commanding officer was
Julius Briganticus. He was sister's son to Civilis, and he was
hated by his uncle and hated him in return with all the extreme
bitterness of a family feud. Tutor, having augmented the army of
the Treveri with fresh levies from the Vangiones, the Caeracates,
and the Triboci, strengthened it with a force of veteran infantry
and cavalry, men from the legions whom he had either corrupted by
promises or overborne by intimidation. Their first act was to cut
to pieces a cohort, which had been sent on in advance by
Sextilius Felix; soon afterwards, however, on the approach of the
Roman generals at the head of their army, they returned to their
duty by an act of honourable desertion, and the Triboci,
Vangiones, and Caeracates, followed their example. Avoiding
Mogontiacum, Tutor retired with the Treveri to Bingium, trusting
to the strength of the position, as he had broken down the bridge
over the river Nava. A sudden attack, however, was made by the
infantry under the command of Sextilius; a ford was discovered,
and he found himself betrayed and routed. The Treveri were
panicstricken by this disaster, and the common people threw down
their arms, and dispersed themselves through the country. Some of
the chiefs, anxious to seem the first to cease from hostilities,
fled to those States which had not renounced the Roman alliance.
The legions, which had been removed, as I have before related,
from Novesium and Bonna to the territory of the Treveri,
voluntarily swore allegiance to Vespasian. These proceedings took
place in the absence of Valentinus. When he returned, full of
fury and bent on again throwing everything into confusion and
ruin, the legions withdrew to the Mediomatrici, a people in
alliance with Rome. Valentinus and Tutor again involved the
Treveri in war, and murdered the two legates, Herennius and
Numisius, that by diminishing the hope of pardon they might
strengthen the bond of crime.
Such was the state of the war, when Petilius Cerialis reached
Mogontiacum. Great expectations were raised by his arrival. Eager
for battle, and more ready to despise than to be on his guard
against the enemy, he fired the spirit of the troops by his bold
language; for he would, he said, fight without a moment's delay,
as soon as it was possible to meet the foe. The levies which had
been raised in Gaul he ordered back to their respective States,
with instructions to proclaim that the legions sufficed to defend
the Empire, and that the allies might return to the duties of
peace, secure in the thought that a war which Roman arms had
undertaken was finished. This proceeding strengthened the loyalty
of the Gauls. Now that their youth were restored to them they
could more easily bear the burden of the tribute; and, finding
themselves despised, they were more ready to obey. Civilis and
Classicus, having heard of the defeat of Tutor and of the rout of
the Treveri, and indeed of the complete success of the enemy,
hastened in their alarm to concentrate their own scattered
forces, and meanwhile sent repeated messages to Valentinus,
warning him not to risk a decisive battle. This made Cerialis
move with more rapidity. He sent to the Mediomatrici persons
commissioned to conduct the legions which were there by the
shortest route against the enemy; and, collecting such troops as
there were at Mogontiacum and such as he had brought with
himself, he arrived in three days' march at Rigodulum.
Valentinus, at the head of a large body of Treveri, had occupied
this position, which was protected by hills, and by the river
Mosella. He had also strengthened it with ditches and breastworks
of stones. These defences, however, did not deter the Roman
general from ordering his infantry to the assault, and making his
cavalry advance up the hill; he scorned the enemy, whose forces,
hastily levied, could not, he knew, derive any advantage from
their position, but what would be more than counterbalanced by
the courage of his own men. There was some little delay in the
ascent, while the troops were passing through the range of the
enemy's missiles. As soon as they came to close fighting, the
barbarians were dislodged and hurled like a falling house from
their position. A detachment of the cavalry rode round where the
hills were less steep, and captured the principal Belgic chiefs,
and among them Valentinus, their general.
On the following day Cerialis entered the Colony of the Treveri.
The soldiers were eager to destroy the city. "This," they said,
"is the birthplace of Classicus and Tutor; it was by the treason
of these men that our legions were besieged and massacred. What
had Cremona done like this, Cremona which was torn from the very
bosom of Italy, because it had occasioned to the conquerors the
delay of a single night? Here on the borders of Germany stands
unharmed a city which exults in the spoils of our armies and the
blood of our generals. Let the plunder be brought into the
Imperial treasury; we shall be satisfied with the fire that will
destroy a rebellious colony and compensate for the overthrow of
so many camps." Cerialis, fearing the disgrace of being thought
to have imbued his soldiers with a spirit of licence and cruelty,
checked their fury. They submitted, for, now that civil war was
at an end, they were tractable enough in dealing with an enemy.
Their thoughts were then diverted by the pitiable aspect of the
legions which had been summoned from the Mediomatrici. They stood
oppressed by the consciousness of guilt, their eyes fixed on the
earth. No friendly salutations passed between the armies as they
met, they made no answer to those who would console or encourage
them, but hid themselves in their tents, and shrank from the very
light of day. Nor was it so much their peril or their alarm that
confounded them, as their shame and humiliation. Even the
conquerors were struck dumb, and dared not utter a word of
entreaty, but pleaded for pardon by their silent tears, till
Cerialis at last soothed their minds by declaring that destiny
had brought about all that had happened through the discords of
soldiers and generals or through the treachery of the foe. They
must consider that day as the first of their military service and
of their allegiance. Their past crimes would be remembered
neither by the Emperor nor by himself. They were thus admitted
into the same camp with the rest, and an order was read in every
company, that no soldier was in any contention or altercation to
reproach a comrade with mutiny or defeat.
Cerialis then convoked an assembly of the Treveri and Lingones,
and thus addressed them: "I have never cultivated eloquence; it
is by my sword that I have asserted the excellence of the Roman
people. Since, however, words have very great weight with you,
since you estimate good and evil, not according to their real
value, but according to the representations of seditious men, I
have resolved to say a few words, which, as the war is at an end,
it may be useful for you to have heard rather than for me to have
spoken. Roman generals and Emperors entered your territory, as
they did the rest of Gaul, with no ambitious purposes, but at the
solicitation of your ancestors, who were wearied to the last
extremity by intestine strife, while the Germans, whom they had
summoned to their help, had imposed their yoke alike on friend
and foe. How many battles we have fought against the Cimbri and
Teutones, at the cost of what hardships to our armies, and with
what result we have waged our German wars, is perfectly well
known. It was not to defend Italy that we occupied the borders of
the Rhine, but to insure that no second Ariovistus should seize
the empire of Gaul. Do you fancy yourselves to be dearer in the
eyes of Civilis and the Batavi and the Transrhenane tribes, than
your fathers and grandfathers were to their ancestors? There have
ever been the same causes at work to make the Germans cross over
into Gaul, lust, avarice, and the longing for a new home,
prompting them to leave their own marshes and deserts, and to
possess themselves of this most fertile soil and of you its
inhabitants. Liberty, indeed, and the like specious names are
their pretexts; but never did any man seek to enslave his fellows
and secure dominion for himself, without using the very same
words.
"Gaul always had its petty kingdoms and intestine wars, till you
submitted to our authority. We, though so often provoked, have
used the right of conquest to burden you only with the cost of
maintaining peace. For the tranquillity of nations cannot be
preserved without armies; armies cannot exist without pay; pay
cannot be furnished without tribute; all else is common between
us. You often command our legions. You rule these and other
provinces. There is no privilege, no exclusion. From worthy
Emperors you derive equal advantage, though you dwell so far
away, while cruel rulers are most formidable to their neighbours.
Endure the passions and rapacity of your masters, just as you
bear barren seasons and excessive rains and other natural evils.
There will be vices as long as there are men. But they are not
perpetual, and they are compensated by the occurrence of better
things. Perhaps, however, you expect a milder rule under Tutor
and Classicus, and fancy that armies to repel the Germans and the
Britons will be furnished by less tribute than you now pay.
Should the Romans be driven out (which God forbid) what can
result but wars between all these nations? By the prosperity and
order of eight hundred years has this fabric of empire been
consolidated, nor can it be overthrown without destroying those
who overthrow it. Yours will be the worst peril, for you have
gold and wealth, and these are the chief incentives to war. Give
therefore your love and respect to the cause of peace, and to
that capital in which we, conquerors and conquered, claim an
equal right. Let the lessons of fortune in both its forms teach
you not to prefer rebellion and ruin to submission and safety."
With words to this effect he quieted and encouraged his audience,
who feared harsher treatment.
The territory of the Treveri was occupied by the victorious army,
when Civilis and Classicus sent letters to Cerialis, the purport
of which was as follows: "Vespasian, though the news is
suppressed, is dead. Rome and Italy are thoroughly wasted by
intestine war. Mucianus and Domitian are mere empty and powerless
names. If Cerialis wishes for the empire of Gaul, we can be
content with the boundaries of our own States. If he prefers to
fight, we do not refuse that alternative." Cerialis sent no
answer to Civilis and Classicus, but despatched the bearer and
the letter itself to Domitian. The enemy advanced from every
quarter in several bodies. Cerialis was generally censured for
allowing them to unite, when he might have destroyed them in
detail. The Roman army surrounded their camp with a fosse and
rampart, for up to that time they had been rash enough to occupy
it without any defence. Among the Germans there was a conflict of
opinions.
Civilis said: "We must await the arrival of the Transrhenane
tribes, the terror of whose name will break down the shattered
strength of Rome. As for the Gauls, what are they but the prey of
the conqueror? And yet the chief strength of the nation, the
Belgae, are with us, either openly, or in heart." Tutor
maintained that the power of Rome would only increase with delay,
as her armies were assembling from all quarters. "One legion," he
said, "has already been brought over from Britain; others have
been summoned from Spain, or are advancing from Italy. Nor are
these troops newly raised levies, but they are veteran soldiers,
experienced in war. But the Germans, whom we are expecting, do
not obey orders, and cannot be controlled, but always act
according to their own caprice. The money too and other presents
by which alone they can be bribed are more plentiful among the
Romans, and no one can be so bent on fighting as not to prefer
repose to peril, when the profit is the same. But if we at once
meet the foe, Cerialis has no legions but those that survive from
the wreck of the German army, and these are bound by treaties to
the States of Gaul. And the very fact of their having, contrary
to their expectations, lately routed the undisciplined force of
Valentinus will confirm in their rashness both them and their
general. They will venture again, and will find themselves in the
hands, not of an ignorant stripling, whose thoughts were of
speeches and harangues rather than of battle and the sword, but
in those of Civilis and Classicus, whom when they once behold
they will be reminded of panic, of flight, of famine, and of the
many times when as captives they had to beg for life. Nor are the
Treveri and Lingones bound by any ties of affection; once let
their fear cease, and they will resume their arms." Classicus put
an end to these differences of opinion by giving his approval to
the suggestions of Tutor, which were at once acted on.
The centre was the post assigned to the Ubii and Lingones. On the
right were the Batavian cohorts; on the left the Bructeri and the
Tencteri. One division marching over the hills, another passing
between the highroad and the river Mosella, made the attack with
such suddenness, that Cerialis, who had not slept in the camp,
was in his chamber and even in his bed, when he heard at the same
moment that the battle had begun, and that his men were being
worsted. He rebuked the alarm of the messengers, till the whole
extent of the disaster became visible, and he saw that the camp
of the legions had been forced, that the cavalry were routed,
that the bridge over the Mosella, which connected the farther
bank of the river with the Colony, was held by the Germans.
Undismayed by the confusion, Cerialis held back the fugitives
with his own hand, and readily exposing himself, with his person
entirely unprotected, to the missiles of the enemy, he succeeded
by a daring and successful effort, with the prompt aid of his
bravest soldiers, in recovering the bridge and holding it with a
picked force. Then returning to the camp, he saw the broken
companies of the legions, which had been captured at Bonna and
Novesium, with but few soldiers round the standards, and the
eagles all but surrounded by the foe. Fired with indignation, he
exclaimed, "It is not Flaccus or Vocula, whom you are thus
abandoning. There is no treachery here; I have nothing to excuse
but that I rashly believed that you, forgetting your alliance
with Gaul, had again recollected your allegiance to Rome. I shall
be added to the number of the Numisii and Herennii, so that all
your commanders will have fallen by the hands of their soldiers
or of the enemy. Go, tell Vespasian, or, since they are nearer,
Civilis and Classicus, that you have deserted your general on the
battlefield. Legions will come who will not leave me unavenged or
you unpunished."
All this was true, and the tribunes and prefects heaped on their
men the same reproaches. The troops formed themselves in cohorts
and companies, for they could not deploy into line; as the enemy
were scattered everywhere, while from the fact that the battle
was raging within the entrenchments, they were themselves
hampered with their tents and baggage. Tutor, Classicus, and
Civilis, each at his post, animated the combatants; the Gauls
they urged to fight for freedom, the Batavi for glory, the
Germans for plunder. Everything seemed in favour of the enemy,
till the 21st legion, having more room than the others, formed
itself into a compact body, withstood, and soon drove back the
assailants. Nor was it without an interposition of heaven, that
by a sudden change of temper the conquerors turned their backs
and fled. Their own account was, that they were alarmed by the
sight of the cohorts, which, after being broken at the first
onset, rallied on the top of the hills, and presented the
appearance of reinforcements. What checked them in their course
of victory was a mischievous struggle among themselves to secure
plunder while they forgot the enemy. Cerialis, having thus all
but ruined everything by his carelessness, restored the day by
his resolution; following up his success, he took and destroyed
the enemy's camp on the same day.
No long time was allowed to the soldiers for repose. The
Agrippinenses were begging for help, and were offering to give up
the wife and sister of Civilis and the daughter of Classicus, who
had been left with them as pledges for the maintenance of the
alliance. In the meanwhile they had massacred all the Germans who
were scattered throughout their dwellings. Hence their alarm and
reasonable importunity in begging for help, before the enemy,
recovering their strength, could raise their spirits for a new
effort or for thoughts of revenge. And indeed Civilis had marched
in their direction, nor was he by any means weak, as he had
still, in unbroken force, the most warlike of his cohorts, which
consisted of Chauci and Frisii, and which was posted at
Tolbiacum, on the frontiers of the Agrippinenses. He was,
however, diverted from his purpose by the deplorable news that
this cohort had been entirely destroyed by a stratagem of the
Agrippinenses, who, having stupefied the Germans by a profuse
entertainment and abundance of wine, fastened the doors, set fire
to the houses, and burned them. At the same time Cerialis
advanced by forced marches, and relieved the city. Civilis too
was beset by other fears. He was afraid that the 14th legion,
supported by the fleet from Britain, might do mischief to the
Batavi along their line of coast. The legion was, however,
marched overland under the command of Fabius Priscus into the
territory of the Nervii and Tungri, and these two states were
allowed to capitulate. The Canninefates, taking the offensive,
attacked our fleet, and the larger part of the ships was either
sunk or captured. The same tribe also routed a crowd of Nervii,
who by a spontaneous movement had taken up arms on the Roman
side. Classicus also gained a victory over some cavalry, who had
been sent on to Novesium by Cerialis. These reverses, which,
though trifling, came in rapid succession, destroyed by degrees
the prestige of the recent victory.
About the same time Mucianus ordered the son of Vitellius to be
put to death, alleging that dissension would never cease, if he
did not destroy all seeds of civil war. Nor would he suffer
Antonius Primus to be taken into the number of Domitian's
attendants, for he felt uneasy at his popularity with the troops,
and feared the proud spirit of the man, who could not endure an
equal, much less a superior. Antonius then went to Vespasian, who
received him, not indeed as he expected, but in a not unfriendly
spirit. Two opposite influences acted on the Emperor; on the one
hand were the merits of Antonius, under whose conduct the war had
beyond all doubt been terminated; on the other, were the letters
of Mucianus. And everyone else inveighed against him, as an
ill affected and conceited man, nor did they forget the scandals
of his early life. Antonius himself failed not to provoke offence
by his arrogance and his excessive propensity to dwell on his own
services. He reproached other men with being cowards; Caecina he
stigmatized as a captive and a prisoner of war. Thus by degrees
he came to be thought of less weight and worth, though his
friendship with the Emperor to all appearance remained the same.
In the months during which Vespasian was waiting at Alexandria
for the periodical return of the summer gales and settled weather
at sea, many wonders occurred which seemed to point him out as
the object of the favour of heaven and of the partiality of the
Gods. One of the common people of Alexandria, well known for his
blindness, threw himself at the Emperor's knees, and implored him
with groans to heal his infirmity. This he did by the advice of
the God Serapis, whom this nation, devoted as it is to many
superstitions, worships more than any other divinity. He begged
Vespasian that he would deign to moisten his cheeks and eye balls
with his spittle. Another with a diseased hand, at the counsel of
the same God, prayed that the limb might feet the print of a
Caesar's foot. At first Vespasian ridiculed and repulsed them.
They persisted; and he, though on the one hand he feared the
scandal of a fruitless attempt, yet, on the other, was induced by
the entreaties of the men and by the language of his flatterers
to hope for success. At last he ordered that the opinion of
physicians should be taken, as to whether such blindness and
infirmity were within the reach of human skill. They discussed
the matter from different points of view. "In the one case," they
said, "the faculty of sight was not wholly destroyed, and might
return, if the obstacies were removed; in the other case, the
limb, which had fallen into a diseased condition, might be
restored, if a healing influence were applied; such, perhaps,
might be the pleasure of the Gods, and the Emperor might be
chosen to be the minister of the divine will; at any rate, all
the glory of a successful remedy would be Caesar's, while the
ridicule of failure would fall on the sufferers." And so
Vespasian, supposing that all things were possible to his good
fortune, and that nothing was any longer past belief, with a
joyful countenance, amid the intense expectation of the multitude
of bystanders, accomplished what was required. The hand was
instantly restored to its use, and the light of day again shone
upon the blind. Persons actually present attest both facts, even
now when nothing is to be gained by falsehood.
Vespasian thus came to conceive a deeper desire to visit the
sanctuary of Serapis, that he might consult the God about the
interests of his throne. He gave orders that all persons should
be excluded from the temple. He had entered, and was absorbed in
worship, when he saw behind him one of the chief men of Egypt,
named Basilides, whom he knew at the time to be detained by
sickness at a considerable distance, as much as several days
journey from Alexandria. He enquired of the priests, whether
Basilides had on this day entered the temple. He enquired of
others whom he met, whether he had been seen in the city. At
length, sending some horsemen, he ascertained that at that very
instant the man had been eighty miles distant. He then concluded
that it was a divine apparition, and discovered an oracular force
in the name of Basilides.
The origin of this God Serapis has not hitherto been made
generally known by our writers. The Egyptian priests give this
account. While Ptolemy, the first Macedonian king who
consolidated the power of Egypt, was setting up in the
newly built city of Alexandria fortifications, temples, and rites
of worship, there appeared to him in his sleep a youth of
singular beauty and more than human stature, who counselled the
monarch to send his most trusty friends to Pontus, and fetch his
effigy from that country. This, he said, would bring prosperity
to the realm, and great and illustrious would be the city which
gave it a reception. At the same moment he saw the youth ascend
to heaven in a blaze of fire. Roused by so significant and
strange an appearance, Ptolemy disclosed the vision of the night
to the Egyptian priests, whose business it is to understand such
matters. As they knew but little of Pontus or of foreign
countries, he enquired of Timotheus, an Athenian, one of the
family of the Eumolpids, whom he had invited from Eleusis to
preside over the sacred rites, what this worship was, and who was
the deity. Timotheus, questioning persons who had found their way
to Pontus, learnt that there was there a city Sinope, and near it
a temple, which, according to an old tradition of the
neighbourhood, was sacred to the infernal Jupiter, for there also
stood close at hand a female figure, to which many gave the name
of Proserpine. Ptolemy, however, with the true disposition of a
despot, though prone to alarm, was, when the feeling of security
returned, more intent on pleasures than on religious matters; and
he began by degrees to neglect the affair, and to turn his
thoughts to other concerns, till at length the same apparition,
but now more terrible and peremptory, denounced ruin against the
king and his realm, unless his bidding were performed. Ptolemy
then gave directions that an embassy should be despatched with
presents to king Scydrothemis, who at that time ruled the people
of Sinope, and instructed them, when they were on the point of
sailing, to consult the Pythian Apollo. Their voyage was
prosperous, and the response of the oracle was clear. The God
bade them go and carry back with them the image of his father,
but leave that of his sister behind.
On their arrival at Sinope, they delivered to Scydrothemis the
presents from their king, with his request and message. He
wavered in purpose, dreading at one moment the anger of the God,
terrified at another by the threats and opposition of the people.
Often he was wrought upon by the gifts and promises of the
ambassadors. And so three years passed away, while Ptolemy did
not cease to urge his zealous solicitations. He continued to
increase the dignity of his embassies, the number of his ships,
and the weight of his gold. A terrible vision then appeared to
Scydrothemis, warning him to thwart no longer the purposes of the
God. As he yet hesitated, various disasters, pestilence, and the
unmistakable anger of heaven, which grew heavier from day to day,
continued to harass him. He summoned an assembly, and explained
to them the bidding of the God, the visions of Ptolemy and
himself, and the miseries that were gathering about them. The
people turned away angrily from their king, were jealous of
Egypt, and, fearing for themselves, thronged around the temple.
The story becomes at this point more marvellous, and relates that
the God of his own will conveyed himself on board the fleet,
which had been brought close to shore, and, wonderful to say,
vast as was the extent of sea that they traversed, they arrived
at Alexandria on the third day. A temple, proportioned to the
grandeur of the city, was erected in a place called Rhacotis,
where there had stood a chapel consecrated in old times to
Serapis and Isis. Such is the most popular account of the origin
and introduction of the God Serapis. I am aware indeed that there
are some who say that he was brought from Seleucia, a city of
Syria, in the reign of Ptolemy III., while others assert that it
was the act of the same king, but that the place from which he
was brought was Memphis, once a famous city and the strength of
ancient Egypt. The God himself, because he heals the sick, many
identified with Aesculapius; others with Osiris, the deity of the
highest antiquity among these nations; not a few with Jupiter, as
being supreme ruler of all things; but most people with Pluto,
arguing from the emblems which may be seen on his statues, or
from conjectures of their own.
Domitian and Mucianus received, before they reached the Alps,
favourable news of the operations among the Treveri. The best
proof of the victory was seen in the enemy's general Valentinus,
who with undaunted courage shewed in his look his habitual high
spirit. He was heard, but only that they might judge of his
character; and he was condemned. During his execution he replied
to one who taunted him with the subjection of his country, "That
I take as my consolation in death." Mucianus now brought forward
as a new thought a plan he had long concealed. "Since," he said,
"by the blessing of the Gods the strength of the enemy has been
broken, it would little become Domitian, now that the war is all
but finished, to interfere with the glory of others. If the
stability of the Empire or the safety of Gaul were in danger, it
would have been right for Caesar to take his place in the field;
but the Canninefates and Batavi should be handed over to inferior
generals. Let the Emperor display from the near neighbourhood of
Lugdunum the might and prestige of imperial power, not meddling
with trifling risks, though he would not be wanting on greater
occasions."
His artifices were understood, but it was a part of their respect
not to expose them. Thus they arrived at Lugdunum. It is believed
that from this place Domitian despatched secret emissaries to
Cerialis, and tempted his loyalty with the question whether, on
his shewing himself, he would hand over to him the command of the
army. Whether in this scheme Domitian was thinking of war with
his father, or of collecting money, and men to be used against
his brother, was uncertain; for Cerialis, by a judicious
temporising, eluded the request as prompted by an idle and
childish ambition. Domitian, seeing that his youth was despised
by the older officers, gave up even the less important functions
of government which he had before exercised. Under a semblance of
simple and modest tastes, he wrapped himself in a profound
reserve, and affected a devotion to literature and a love of
poetry, thus seeking to throw a veil over his character, and to
withdraw himself from the jealousy of his brother, of whose
milder temper, so unlike his own, he judged most falsely.
