1. In a very different part of the world fortune was already planning the origins and causes of a new dynasty, which was, with varying lot, happy for the state or terrible, and for the emperors themselves prosperous or deadly. Titus Vespasianus had been sent off from Judaea by his father while Galba was still alive, alleging that the reason for his journey was a desire to pay homage to the emperor and the fact that he was now of an age to stand for public offices.1 However, the people, eager to fabricate stories, had spread the rumour that he had been summoned to Rome for adoption. The fuel for such gossip was Galba’s advanced age and childlessness, and the extravagance of Rome in designating many candidates until one is selected. Titus’ reputation was rated all the higher because of his personal qualities, as his intelligence fitted him for the most exalted station, while he had good looks, too, and a certain dignity of manner.2 Moreover, Vespasian’s affairs were going well, the prophecies were favourable, and there were also the coincidences which a credulous society took as omens. At the city of Corinth in Achaia, when he was reliably informed of Galba’s death, and people were at hand who assured him that Vitellius was arming for war, troubled at heart he gathered round him a few friends and examined all the possibilities on either side. If he proceeded to Rome, he would earn no gratitude for a duty undertaken to honour another man, and would merely be a hostage for either Vitellius or Otho. If, on the other hand, he returned to Judaea, it would be a definite affront to the winner, but as it was the victorious side was still uncertain, and if his father went over to the successful party, the son would be excused. If, however, Vespasian claimed the principate, men pondering war would have to forget about causing offence.3
2. These and similar arguments kept him hovering uneasily between hope and fear. Finally, hope triumphed. Some people believed that his passion for Queen Berenice4 fired him to turn back. It is quite true that the young man was far from insensible to Berenice’s charms, but his practical efficiency never suffered from this. (Titus led a life of pleasure in his youth, and proved more self-disciplined during his own reign than during his father’s.) So he sailed along the shores of Achaia and Asia, skirting the coastal areas to the left and making for the islands of Rhodes and Cyprus, and then, crossing more boldly by the open sea, for Syria. Thereupon, he was seized by a desire to go and visit the Temple of Venus at Paphos,5 which is famous among natives and visitors alike. It may perhaps be of some interest to discuss briefly the origin of this cult, the temple ritual and the form of the goddess, for she is not represented in this way anywhere else.
3. An ancient tradition declares that the temple was founded by King Aerias,6 while some authorities say that this is the name of the goddess herself. A more recent version tells us that the temple was consecrated by Cinyras7 and that it was here that the goddess landed after her birth from the sea. However, it seems that the knowledge and skill of divination was introduced from abroad (Tamiras the Cilician was the one who imported it), and an arrangement was made that the descendants of both families should preside over the rites. Later, to avoid a situation where the royal line failed to outrank the foreigners by any mark of esteem, the immigrants relinquished control of the very lore they had introduced, and now the only priest consulted is a descendant of Cinyras. The worshipper selects whatever sort of victim he has vowed to sacrifice, but the choice is restricted to male animals. The livers of kids are held to offer the surest prediction. Spilling blood upon the altar is forbidden; only prayers and pure fire are offered upon it. Although the altars are out in the open, they are never dampened by rain. The goddess is not portrayed in the likeness of a human, but resembles a conical turning-post, rising without interruption from a rather broad base up to a top of slender circumference.8 The reason for this is obscure.
4. Titus inspected the rich treasures, the gifts from kings and the other objects to which the Greeks, passionate about antiquities, attribute an origin lost in the mists of the past. Then he consulted the priest in the first place about his voyage. On being assured of a clear passage and calm sea, he enquired in veiled language of his own future, offering a number of victims. Sostratus – for so the priest was named – observed that in every case the entrails showed favourable indications and that the goddess was clearly giving her blessing to a great enterprise. So for the time being he made a short and conventional reply, but after asking for a private interview, he disclosed the future to Titus. Heartened by these assurances, he sailed on to rejoin his father. Amidst the mood of uncertainty prevailing throughout the provinces and armies, his arrival inspired a surge of confidence.
Vespasian had already given the decisive turn to the Jewish war, although the siege of Jerusalem still remained.9 This was a difficult and uphill task, more because of the peculiar character of its mountain site and the bigotry of its inhabitants than because the besieged had enough strength left to endure a desperate struggle. I have already mentioned above that Vespasian himself had three legions, seasoned in war. Mucianus commanded four others10 which had seen no active service, but rivalry and the distinction of the neighbouring army in Judaea had eliminated any laziness. Danger and hard work had toughened Vespasian’s men just as much as the uninterrupted peace and passion for the war which they had not experienced had invigorated Mucianus’ men. Each of these two armies had its auxiliary cohorts and cavalry regiments, its fleets and client-kings and a great name based upon differing reputations.
5. Vespasian was a born soldier. He marched at the head of his troops, chose the place to camp and struggled against the enemy night and day by his generalship and, if occasion required, by personal combat, eating whatever food happened to be available and dressed much the same as a private soldier. All in all, apart from his avarice, he was a match for the generals of old. Mucianus was quite different. His lavish generosity, great wealth and the fact that all his activities exceeded the limits of a private citizen made him stand out. He was the better speaker and a talented and far-sighted administrator. This was an excellent blend of imperial qualities, if only the vices of the two men could be removed, leaving just their positive traits in the mix. However, as governors of Syria and Judaea respectively, Mucianus and Vespasian had been divided by the jealousy which usually develops between the administrations of neighbouring provinces. Finally, at Nero’s death they put aside their hatred and collaborated for the common good, initially by means of friends, but then Titus served as the special assurance of a harmonious relationship. He managed to remove petty frictions by an appeal to their common interests and he was inclined by nature and by training to entice the sophisticated Mucianus, too. Tribunes, centurions and common soldiers were won over by playing upon their industry and licence, their virtues and vices, depending on each man’s character.
6. Before Titus returned, both armies had taken the oath to Otho, since news travels quickly in such cases while the massive machinery of civil war is slow and cumbersome. In any case the long-peaceful and dormant East was now for the first time embarking upon such a war. For previously the most fierce civil conflicts had erupted in Italy or Gaul, relying upon the resources of the West. Pompey, Crassus, Brutus and Antony, who drew civil war in their wake across the sea, had met disastrous ends, and in Syria and Judaea the Caesars had been heard about more often than seen. The legions had avoided mutiny and only made threats against the Parthians,11 with varying success. In the most recent civil war, turmoil elsewhere contrasted with unbroken peace here, followed by allegiance to Galba. Later, when it became generally known that Otho and Vitellius were setting out to seize the Roman state in a sacrilegious war, the troops began to grumble that others would earn the prizes of empire and themselves nothing but the compulsion of slavery. So they reckoned up their own strength. For a start, there were their seven legions, as well as Syria and Judaea with their considerable auxiliary forces. On one side they were bordered by Egypt with its two legions, while on the other side lay Cappadocia and Pontus and all the camps located on the Armenian frontier. Asia and the remaining provinces were rich and populous; and as for all the islands, they were surrounded by sea, and during the interim period of mobilization the sea itself offered support and protection.
7. The generals could not fail to notice the ardour of the soldiers, but so long as the others were fighting they decided to play a waiting game, convinced that the winners and losers in a civil war never form a sincere and lasting union. It did not matter whether it was Vitellius or Otho who happened to survive. In success, even good generals become overbearing, but these men had to face dissension, laziness and self-indulgence: so, by their own vices, one would perish in war, one in victory.12 Therefore, they postponed the war until the time was right. Vespasian and Mucianus were relatively recent conscripts to the campaign, but the others had long since decided to fight, albeit from a variety of motives. Men of the highest character acted from love of their country. Many were stimulated by the attractive prospect of booty, others by financial embarrassment. Thus though their reasons differed, good men and bad all desired war with equal enthusiasm.
8. At about this same time Achaia and Asia were upset by a false alarm, thanks to a rumour that Nero was at hand.13 There had been conflicting stories about his death, and so quite a few people imagined – and believed – that he was alive. I shall describe the adventures and attempts of the other claimants in the course of my work.14 On this occasion it was a slave from Pontus, or, according to other accounts, a freedman from Italy, who was skilled at playing the cithara and singing, but he also had a marked facial resemblance, and because of this, the impersonation was all the more plausible. He was joined by some army deserters who had been roaming about in destitution until he bribed them to follow him by lavish promises. With these men he set out to sea, but after a violent storm he was forced to land on the island of Cythnus,15 where he recruited some troops returning from the East on leave, or had them murdered when they refused. He also robbed businessmen and armed the sturdiest of their slaves. A centurion named Sisenna, representing the army of Syria, happened to be bringing some symbolic ‘hands’ to the praetorians as a token of friendship. He tried to influence this man by a variety of artful means, but Sisenna, taking fright, secretly slipped away from the island and fled in fear of his life. As a result, panic spread. Many men were attracted by Nero’s famous name, eager for revolution and hating the current state of affairs.
Although the rumours were growing on a daily basis, they were abruptly dispelled by a coincidence. 9. Galba had appointed Calpurnius Asprenas16 governor of the provinces of Galatia and Pamphylia. He had been given two triremes from the fleet at Misenum as his escort, and with these he docked at the island of Cythnus. Here agents were at hand to summon the captains of the triremes in the name of Nero. Assuming a pathetic air, the fellow appealed to ‘the allegiance of his former soldiers’ and asked them to land him in Syria or Egypt. Half convinced, or to trick him, the captains declared that they would have to talk to their crews and would return when they had got them all into the right frame of mind. However, they faithfully made a full report to Asprenas, at whose instance the ship was overwhelmed and the man of mystery put to death. His head, remarkable for its eyes, hair and savage expression, was taken to Asia and from there to Rome.17
10. In a capital riven by dissension and hovering between liberty and licence as one emperor followed on the heels of another, even trivial matters were being dealt with in a highly emotional atmosphere. Vibius Crispus,18 whose wealth, influence and intelligence ranked him among the well-known rather than the good, attacked the knight Annius Faustus,19 who had been a professional informer in Nero’s day. He impeached him before the senate, since, in Galba’s principate, the senators had recently resolved that the cases of informers should be brought to trial. This senatorial decree had been bandied about in different ways, varying from ineffectual to formidable depending on whether the defendant was powerful or helpless, but it still retained some power to intimidate. Besides, Crispus had done his utmost to ruin his brother’s accuser, and had won over a considerable proportion of the senate to demand that Faustus should be executed without defence or hearing. Yet in the eyes of other senators, nothing helped the defendant so much as his accuser’s excessive power. They proposed that the proper time should be allocated, the charges should be published, and the man’s case should be heard in the traditional way, however unpopular and guilty the accused might be. At first this view prevailed, and the case was postponed for a few days, but Faustus was soon condemned, albeit without the public approval which he had richly deserved in view of his evil character. For people remembered that Crispus himself had made his fortune by the same kind of prosecutions. It was not the penalty which rankled, but the instrument of retribution.
11. Meanwhile, the war started auspiciously for Otho. At his command, the armies had set off from Dalmatia and Pannonia. They comprised four legions, from each of which 2,000 men were sent ahead. The main group was following at no great distance. These were the Seventh Legion, raised by Galba, and three veteran legions – the Eleventh, the Thirteenth, and above all the Fourteenth, whose men had won renown by quelling the rebellion in Britain.20 Nero had enhanced their reputation by choosing them as his most special troops, so their devotion to him was enduring and their support for Otho was enthusiastic. However, the greater their strength and power, the more their over-confidence slowed them down. The auxiliary cavalry and infantry preceded the legions on the march, and from Rome itself came a sizeable contingent consisting of five praetorian cohorts and some detachments of cavalry, together with the First Legion. In addition, there were 2,000 gladiators – a shameful force to call upon, although during civil wars even strict commanders made use of such support. These troops were placed under the command of Annius Gallus, who was sent ahead with Vestricius Spurinna to secure the banks of the Po, since the original plan had fallen through after Caecina had successfully crossed the Alps, although the emperor had at first hoped to contain him within the Gallic provinces. Otho himself was attended by chosen detachments of his bodyguard together with the remaining praetorian cohorts, by veterans from the praetorians and by a large naval brigade. His march was not slow or marred by luxurious comfort, but wearing a steel cuirass he marched on foot before the standards, unshaven, without finery and quite different from his reputation.
12. Fortune smiled upon these enterprises at first.21 Through command of the sea, Otho dominated the greater part of Italy right up to the frontier with the Maritime Alps. To try to gain possession of this province and to attack Narbonese Gaul, he had selected Suedius Clemens, Antonius Novellus and Aemilius Pacensis as generals. However, Pacensis was clapped in irons by his unruly men and Antonius Novellus had no authority. Suedius Clemens commanded only in a way designed to make him popular, being as shamelessly neglectful of military discipline as he was eager for battle. Nobody would have guessed that they were invading Italy or the towns and homes of their fatherland. They proceeded to burn, plunder and ravage them as if they were foreign shores and cities of the enemy. The savagery was all the more terrible because no precautions had been taken anywhere to meet the threat. The fields were packed with workers, the farmhouses open and defenceless. As the landowners ran out with their wives and children, they were lured to their doom by the complacency brought about by peace and by the evil of war.
The governor of the Maritime Alps at that time was Marius Maturus. He roused the people, who were well supplied with men of military age, and set about repelling the Othonians from the frontiers of his province, but at the first charge the mountain people were cut down or scattered. This was only to be expected of hastily gathered recruits with no idea about military camps or commanders, and who took no pride in victory and saw no dishonour in defeat.
13. Goaded by that battle, Otho’s men turned their anger upon the town of Albintimilium.22 For they had taken no booty in the fighting, as the farmers were poor and their paraphernalia worthless, while the fighting men who were swift-footed and knew the area intimately could not be captured. Nevertheless, their greed was satisfied at the cost of disasters inflicted on innocent civilians. What intensified bitterness was the exemplary courage of a Ligurian woman, who hid her son and, when the soldiers, thinking that money was concealed with him, asked her under torture where she was concealing him, pointed to her womb and indicated in response that he was hiding there. From then on, not by means of any terrors, even fear of death, did she change her consistently heroic reply.23
14. Quaking messengers brought word to Fabius Valens that Otho’s fleet was threatening the province of Narbonese Gaul, which was bound by an oath to Vitellius. Representatives from the colonies also arrived, begging for help. Fabius dispatched two Tungrian cohorts, four squadrons of cavalry and a whole regiment of Treviran horsemen, with Julius Classicus24 as commander. Part of this force was kept back in the colony of Forum Julii, because if the whole force had marched inland and the coast were left unprotected, the Othonian fleet could advance quickly. Twelve squadrons of cavalry and men selected from the auxiliary cohorts set off to confront the enemy, supported by a cohort of Ligurians which had long formed the local garrison, and 500 Pannonians not yet regularly enrolled in the legion. Battle was not long delayed. The Othonian battleline was arranged as follows: a group of the marines, mixed together with some civilians, occupied the rising ground of the hills near the sea, while the praetorians filled the flat land between the hills and the shore, and on the sea itself the fleet maintained contact, ready for action and extending a menacing array of prows turned shorewards. The Vitellians, inferior in infantry but well provided with horsemen, placed their Alpine troops on the neighbouring hills, with their infantry cohorts in close order behind the cavalry.
The Treviran squadrons charged the enemy recklessly, given that veteran soldiers were facing them, and at the same time, on the flank, the band of civilians assailed them with rocks. This sort of thing even they could manage, and being interspersed among troops they showed the same daring in the moment of victory, whether they were energetic or cowards. Additional terror gripped the shattered Vitellians when the fleet delivered an attack on their rear while they were still fighting. Thus encircled all around, the whole force would have been annihilated if the darkness of night had not hampered the victorious army and provided cover for the fugitives.
15. Although the Vitellians were beaten, they did not refrain from action. They brought up reinforcements and attacked the enemy while they were complacent and taking their ease after their successful encounter. The sentries were cut down, the camp was penetrated and there was panic amongst the ships, but gradually the alarm subsided, and after rallying on a nearby hill the Othonians defended themselves and then went on the attack. At this point there was appalling slaughter, and the commanders of the Tungrian cohorts, who made a prolonged effort to hold out, were finally overwhelmed by a rain of missiles. Even the Othonians did not score a bloodless victory. Some of them launched a blind pursuit, and the cavalry faced about and surrounded them. A kind of truce was then concluded, and to prevent any sudden alarming move by the fleet on the one side or the cavalry on the other, the Vitellians returned to Antipolis in Narbonese Gaul and the Othonians to Albingaunum, a town within Liguria.
16. Corsica, Sardinia and the other islands of the Tyrrhenian Sea were kept on Otho’s side by the prestige of the victorious fleet. However, Corsica was nearly destroyed by the recklessness of the governor Picarius Decumus, which in such a colossal war was not at all useful for the struggle as a whole, but proved deadly to himself. Since he hated Otho, he determined to help Vitellius by mobilizing the resources of Corsica, which would have had no impact on the outcome, even if the help had been forthcoming. He summoned the leading men of the island and explained his plan. Those who dared to contradict him – Claudius Pyrrhicus, captain of the galleys stationed off Corsica, and Quintius Certus, a Roman knight – he ordered to be executed. Their deaths frightened those who were there, and, sharing the others’ fear, a flock of people who did not know what was afoot promptly swore allegiance to Vitellius. However, when Picarius began to enlist troops and burden undisciplined men with military duties, they loathed this unaccustomed graft and pondered their powerlessness, telling themselves that it was an island they inhabited, while Germany and the might of the legions were far away. Even those who had cohorts and cavalry to protect them had been plundered and devastated by the fleet. Suddenly the mood changed, although without any openly violent outbreak. Instead, they chose the right time for a plot. When Picarius’ entourage had left him and he was naked and helpless in the baths, he was cut down, and his staff shared his fate. The murderers themselves took their heads, like those of enemies, to Otho, but they received neither reward from Otho nor punishment from Vitellius, for in the worldwide upheaval of the times they were utterly lost in the confusion amongst more significant crimes.
17. As I have mentioned above,25 the Silian cavalry regiment had already opened the way into Italy and brought the war across the Alps. Nobody favoured Otho, but this was not because they preferred Vitellius. In fact, a long period of peace had crushingly prepared the Italians for every kind of slavery: they were easy pickings for those who arrived first and they did not care which was the better side. As some cohorts sent ahead by Caecina had also arrived, the forces of Vitellius now controlled the most prosperous area of Italy, including all the farmland and cities between the Po and the Alps. A cohort of Pannonians was captured at Cremona. A hundred cavalrymen and 1,000 sailors were rounded up between Placentia and Ticinum. These successes meant that the Vitellian army no longer found its way barred by the river and its banks. Indeed, the mere presence of the Po was a challenge to the Batavians and the Germans from beyond the Rhine. They crossed it without warning, opposite Placentia, and by surprising a few scouts so demoralized the rest that they brought back a false and panic-stricken report that Caecina’s whole army was at hand.26
18. Spurinna, who was holding Placentia, was convinced that Caecina had not yet arrived, and if the enemy did approach, he had resolved to keep his men behind the fortifications and avoid exposing to a seasoned army his own force – three praetorian cohorts, 1,000 infantry drafted from the legions and a small cavalry contingent. However, the men were unruly and had seen no active service. Seizing the standards and flags, they burst out and aimed weapons at their general as he tried to restrain them, ignoring their centurions and tribunes. Indeed they kept howling that Otho was being betrayed and that Caecina had been invited into Italy. Spurinna went along with these other men’s rash behaviour, at first under compulsion, but later he feigned acquiescence so that his advice would carry more weight if the mutiny should peter out.
19. When the Po was sighted and night was closing in, they decided to entrench camp. The physical labour (a novelty for troops normally stationed in the capital) broke their spirit. Then every longest-serving soldier began to deplore their own credulity and pointed out the critical danger, if Caecina and his army surrounded their slender force of cohorts in the open terrain. By this time the language of restraint ran throughout the camp, and when the centurions and tribunes went among the ranks, there was praise for the foresight of the general because he had chosen a powerful and wealthy colony as a strong base for the campaign. Finally, Spurinna himself addressed them, not so much blaming them as explaining the situation, and, leaving a reconnaissance party behind, he led the rest back to Placentia in a less disorderly mood, ready to listen to orders. The city-walls were reinforced, defences added, towers heightened, while not just weapons were provided and prepared, but military obedience and an acceptance of discipline – the only thing that was missing from the Othonian side, since one could not complain about their lack of courage.
20. As for Caecina, he seemed to have abandoned savagery and unruly behaviour north of the Alps, and marched through the Italian countryside in an orderly fashion. The inhabitants of the country towns and colonies took his manner of dress as a sign of arrogance, for he made speeches to toga-clad audiences while he himself was decked out in a multicoloured cloak and trousers (typically barbarian garb).27 Moreover, they also grumbled about his wife Salonina and seemed wounded, although it was not intended to offend anyone, that she was conspicuously riding her purple-decked horse. It is only human nature to scrutinize other people’s new-found fortune with jealous eyes and to demand moderation in displaying success above all from the ones the critics have recently seen on a par with themselves.
Caecina, having crossed the Po, tried to lure the Othonians from their allegiance by negotiation and promises, and he himself was subjected to the same process. At first some pretentious language about ‘peace’ and ‘concord’ was bandied about to little purpose. Then he turned all his attention and plans to the siege of Placentia, inspiring great fear. He knew perfectly well that the outcome of the opening phase of the campaign would determine his reputation for the rest of the war.
21. However, the first day’s action was carried out impulsively rather than in a manner that showed the skilled techniques of a veteran army. The enemy, unprotected and careless, approached the walls after a heavy session of eating and drinking. It was during this fighting that a most splendid amphitheatre, located outside the walls, went up in flames. Perhaps it was set on fire by the besiegers while they were hurling torches, slingshots and incendiary missiles at the besieged, or else it was set alight by the blockaded men because they were hurling fire in return. The ordinary townspeople, primed to suspect the worst, believed that inflammable material had been furtively brought in by certain people from neighbouring cities who were jealous and envied them because there was no other building so capacious throughout Italy. However it happened, it was regarded as trivial so long as worse disasters were feared, but once safety was restored they lamented it as if they could have suffered no heavier blow. In any case, Caecina was repulsed with serious casualties, and the night was spent preparing siege-equipment. The Vitellians got ready screens, bundles of brush and moveable defenses in order to undermine the walls and protect the assault parties, while the Othonians provided themselves with stakes and immense masses of stone, lead and bronze designed to crush and annihilate the enemy. Both armies felt a sense of honour and a desire for glory, but there were differing sorts of exhortation on each side. One side stressed the strength of the legions and the army of Germany, the other the prestige of the urban garrison and the praetorian cohorts. The Vitellians mocked the enemy soldiers as flabby layabouts who had been ruined by the circus and the theatre, while the Othonians scorned their opponents as a bunch of foreigners and aliens. At the same time, while Otho and Vitellius were being celebrated or condemned, the men found richer stimulus in exchanging insults than in delivering praise.
22. The day had scarcely begun, but the walls were crammed with defenders and the plains glittered with arms and men. The legionaries in close formation and the auxiliary forces in extended order assailed the top of the walls with arrows or stones and closed in upon stretches which had been neglected or were crumbling with age. The Othonians hurled down their javelins from above with surer and more careful aim against the rashly advancing cohorts of Germans who, with wild battle-songs and bodies naked as is their custom, clashed their shields together with upraised arms. The legionary troops, protected by screens and wicker barriers, undermined the walls, built up a mound and assailed the gates. The praetorians facing them rolled down with almighty crashes the huge millstones which had been arranged at various points along the wall for this very purpose. Some of those below were crushed to pieces by the stones, while others were pierced by weapons and left senseless or maimed. Panic made the slaughter worse and those on the walls inflicted wounds with greater intensity. The Vitellians retreated and the party’s reputation was shattered. Caecina, who was ashamed of his reckless and ill-considered attack,28 and afraid of looking ridiculous and useless if he stayed put in the same camp, recrossed the Po and made for Cremona. As he was departing, he received the surrender of Turullius Cerialis with a number of naval personnel and of Julius Briganticus with a few cavalrymen. The latter officer was a cavalry prefect of Batavian birth, the former a senior centurion known to Caecina because he had commanded a company in Germany.
23. On learning of the enemy’s route, Spurinna informed Annius Gallus by letter about recent events, including the defence of Placentia and Caecina’s plans. Gallus was at that moment leading the First Legion to assist Placentia, as he lacked confidence that such a small number of cohorts could face a prolonged siege and the powerful army of Germany. When he heard that the defeated Caecina was making for Cremona, it was only with difficulty that he held back his legion, since the troops were on the brink of mutiny in their burning eagerness to fight. He halted them at Bedriacum, a village between Verona and Cremona, which thanks to two Roman catastrophes is now infamous and ill-omened.29
In the course of these same days, Martius Macer fought a successful battle near Cremona. This enterprising general ferried his gladiators across the Po and staged a lightning raid on the opposite bank. Some Vitellian auxiliaries there were thrown into disorder, and when the rest of them were fleeing to Cremona, those who had stood firm were cut to pieces. However, the offensive was kept in check in case the enemy brought up reinforcements and turned the tables upon the victors. So the Othonian troops, who assessed everything their generals did in a negative way, became suspicious. Every cowardly bigmouth vied with one another in assailing Annius Gallus, as well as Suetonius Paulinus and Marius Celsus, who had also been given command by Otho. The accusations were varied, but the most violent incitement to mutiny and sedition came from the murderers of Galba, who were crazed by guilt and fear. These men caused chaos, both by provocative remarks openly made and by writing secret letters to Otho. The emperor was always ready to listen to the lowest of the low, and it was good advice he feared. He now fell into a panic, being a man who was indecisive in success and more competent in the thick of disaster. So he summoned his brother Titianus and put him in charge of the war.
24. Meanwhile, a brilliant action was fought under the command of Paulinus and Celsus.30 Caecina had been tortured by the failure of all his moves and the fast-fading reputation of his army. Driven from Placentia, his auxiliaries recently cut to pieces, he had come off worse even in clashes between patrols, skirmishes which were more frequent than worthy of mention. Now that Fabius Valens was approaching, Caecina, anxious to prevent all the glory of war falling to his colleague, hurried to retrieve his reputation with more greed than judgement. At a point called the ‘Castores’,31 twelve miles from Cremona, he posted his most formidable auxiliaries hidden in some woods overlooking the road. The cavalry was ordered to go further forward, provoke a battle and, by deliberately turning tail, to entice the enemy into a hasty pursuit until the ambush struck. This plan was betrayed to the Othonian generals. Paulinus assumed responsibility for the infantry, while Celsus took charge of the cavalry. A detachment of the Thirteenth Legion, with four cohorts of auxiliaries and 500 cavalry, was posted on the left. Three praetorian cohorts held the high road on a narrow front. On the right, the First Legion moved forward with two auxiliary cohorts and 500 cavalry. In addition, 1,000 horsemen from the praetorians and the auxiliaries were introduced to provide the finishing touch to success or assistance if they were struggling. 25. Before the two sides made contact, as the Vitellians were turning about, Celsus, knowing this was a trick, held back his men. The Vitellians rashly surged up from their hiding place, and as Celsus slowly retreated, they followed him too far and themselves fell headlong into a trap. For they had the cohorts on their flanks, the legions opposite them, and by a sudden dividing movement the cavalry had surrounded them in the rear. Suetonius Paulinus did not immediately give the infantry the signal to engage. He was a natural dawdler and the sort of man who liked cautiously laid plans rather than accidental success. So he had the ditches filled, the flat ground opened up and the line extended, thinking that it would be soon enough to start winning when precautions had been taken against defeat. This delay gave the Vitellians time to take refuge amidst vines that had become entangled because of their crisscrossed side branches. There was a small wood close by, too. Venturing a counter-attack from here, they managed to kill the most eager of the praetorian troopers. Among the wounded was Prince Epiphanes,32 who was eagerly leading his men into battle on Otho’s side.
26. At that point the Othonian infantry charged and crushed the enemy battleline. Even the troops who were coming to help turned and fled. For Caecina had not summoned his cohorts simultaneously, but one by one. This factor increased the confusion on the battlefield, for these men, arriving in scattered groups and nowhere pooling their strength, were swept up by the rout of the fugitives. Besides this, there was mutiny in the camp, triggered because the whole army had not been led out to battle together. They arrested the prefect of the camp, Julius Gratus, on the grounds that he was engaging in treachery in the interest of his brother, who was serving with Otho. Yet at the same time, the brother, a tribune named Julius Fronto, had been arrested by the Othonians on the very same charge. However, there was such consternation everywhere among the fugitives and those coming up against them, in the battleline and before the camp, that the rumour spread on both sides that Caecina might have been destroyed with all his forces if Suetonius Paulinus had not sounded the retreat. Paulinus for his part asserted that he had been wary of so much additional labour and marching, fearing that the Vitellian troops, fresh from camp, might have attacked the wearied Othonians, and if they were repulsed there would have been no reserves to back them up. A few men approved of the commander’s reasoning, but it was generally not well received.
27. This defeat did not so much drive the Vitellians to despair as restore them to discipline. This happened not just in the army of Caecina, who blamed his men for being readier to mutiny than fight, but in addition the forces of Fabius Valens, who had by this time reached Ticinum, abandoned their contempt for the enemy and obeyed his orders with greater respect and consistency in their eagerness to retrieve their reputation.
As a matter of fact, a serious mutiny had blazed up, which I will retrace from its start earlier on in the narrative – it would have been wrong to interrupt the sequence of Caecina’s operations.33 I have already described how the Batavian cohorts, having separated themselves from the Fourteenth Legion during the fighting which took place in Nero’s principate, were on their way to Britain when they heard of Vitellius’ uprising and joined Fabius Valens in the territory of the Lingones. These Batavians now started to behave arrogantly, and whenever they approached the tents of a legion they boasted that they had put the Fourteenth in its place, robbed Nero of Italy and now held the whole outcome of the war in their hands. This was an insult to the legions and rankled bitterly with the general. Discipline deteriorated amidst disputes and brawls. In the end, Valens suspected that their insubordination was a prelude to treachery.
28. So when news came that the Treviran cavalry regiment and the Tungrians had been routed by Otho’s fleet and that Narbonese Gaul was being surrounded, Valens, concerned both to protect allied communities and by a clever stratagem to split up unruly cohorts that could be dangerously strong if united, ordered some Batavians to go to the rescue. When this leaked out and became common knowledge, the auxiliaries became gloomy and the legions grumbled. They complained that they were being deprived of the help of the bravest troops. Now that the enemy was within sight, the seasoned heroes who had won so many battles were to be practically withdrawn from the front-line! If a mere province were more important than the capital and the safety of the empire, then they should all follow the Batavians to Gaul. If, however, victory depended on Italy being safe, the strongest limbs, so to speak, should not be amputated from the body of the army.34
29. As they were fiercely hurling out these words, Valens sent in the lictors and set about trying to control the mutiny, but the men attacked him personally, bombarded him with stones and chased him as he ran for it, yelling out that he was hiding the Gallic loot and the gold of Vienne, which were the rewards for their labours. They tore the general’s baggage to shreds, ransacked his tent and poked about in the very ground with spears and lances. They were able to do this because Valens meanwhile was hiding in a cavalry officer’s quarters, disguised as a slave. Then, as the mutiny was gradually cooling down, Alfenus Varus, the prefect of the camp, accelerated the process by a sensible decision. He told the centurions not to make their usual inspection of the sentries, and omitted the trumpet-calls which summon the troops to their duties. They all seemed paralysed and numb as a result, looking round at each other in bewilderment and unnerved by the very fact that there was no one in charge. By their silence, their submissiveness, and finally their appeals and tears, they begged for pardon. When Valens came out of hiding in his degrading garb, weeping and unexpectedly unharmed, there was joy, sympathy and goodwill. Just as a crowd always veers between one emotional extreme and the other, they were transformed into a state of happiness. Heaping praise and congratulations on him, they exultantly gathered the eagles and standards about him and bore him to the platform in the square. Valens was practical in his moderation and did not demand that anyone should be executed, but in order to avoid arousing further mistrust by pretending to ignore the mutiny, he denounced a few men as trouble-makers. He knew perfectly well that in a civil war the troops can take more liberties than their commanders.
30. His men were entrenching camp at Ticinum when news came of Caecina’s defeat. The mutiny almost repeated itself,35 for they believed that they had been kept away from battle by Valens’ underhand methods and repeated time wasting. The troops did not want to rest, nor did they wait for the general to act, but they marched ahead of the standards, telling the bearers to get a move on. A rapid march brought them up with Caecina.
Valens had a bad reputation with Caecina’s troops. They complained that despite being inferior in number they had been exposed to the full force of the enemy, and at the same time they made a bid to excuse themselves, magnifying by flattery the strength of the reinforcements so as to avoid being looked down upon as men who were beaten and cowardly. Besides, although Valens had a more powerful force and almost twice the number of legions and auxiliary units, yet the troops liked Caecina better. He was thought to be readier to show kindliness, and he was also a tall and well-built man in the prime of life, and possessed a sort of superficial charm. This was why the generals were jealous of each other. Caecina mocked his colleague as dirty and depraved, while Valens responded by deriding the other as pompous and vain. Yet they concealed their hostility for now and pursued a common goal, writing a stream of insulting letters to Otho without any consideration for the possibility of future pardon. The leaders of the Othonian faction abstained from abusing Vitellius, despite the fact that the field for invective was exceedingly rich. 31. Admittedly, until their respective deaths, in which Otho won glory and Vitellius complete infamy, the idle pleasures of Vitellius seemed less frightening than Otho’s burning lusts. In addition, the murder of Galba had intensified the terror and hatred felt towards Otho, whereas no one held Vitellius responsible for beginning the fighting. Vitellius’ gluttonous appetite was a disgrace to himself, but the hedonistic, cruel and unscrupulous Otho seemed a deadlier threat to the state.36
After the armies of Caecina and Valens had come together, the Vitellians had no further reason to delay committing their combined forces. Otho held a council-of-war to decide whether to wage a long campaign or try his luck immediately.37 32. At this meeting Suetonius Paulinus thought he owed it to his military reputation – he was considered the cleverest general at that time – to review the whole strategic position. He made a speech explaining that haste would help the enemy, whereas a waiting game would increase their own chances. Vitellius’ army had now arrived in full, but was weakly supported in the rear since the Gallic provinces were bursting with unrest and it would be inadvisable to abandon the Rhine frontier when such hostile tribes would surely surge across. The troops of Britain were kept at bay by their enemies and the sea. The Spanish provinces were not exactly overflowing with soldiers. Narbonese Gaul, invaded by the fleet and defeated in battle, had received a severe shock. Italy north of the Po was enclosed by the Alps and could not be reinforced by sea, while the mere passage of an army through it had wrought havoc. There was no corn available to the enemy army anywhere, and without supplies an army could not be kept together. Even the Germans, the most aggressive troops on the other side, would not stand up to the change of latitude and climate and their strength would wilt if the war was extended into the summer. Many campaigns which were forceful at the first onset had dwindled to nothing through tedious delays. On their own side, all was different. There were rich and devoted resources everywhere. They had at their disposal Pannonia, Moesia, Dalmatia and the East, with armies fresh and unimpaired; Italy and the city which was the capital of the world; the Roman senate and people – whose reputation always shone out, even if at times they were overshadowed. They had public and private resources, and boundless riches, which are stronger in civil dissensions than the sword; soldiers whose constitutions were accustomed to Italy or to other hot climates. They had the River Po as a barrier, and cities securely defended by men and walls. That none of these would go over to the enemy was abundantly clear from the defence of Placentia. Otho should therefore draw out the war. In a few days, the Fourteenth Legion would arrive – itself very famous and now supplemented by forces from Moesia. Then the emperor could consider the situation afresh, and if he decided on battle they would fight with augmented strength.
33. Marius Celsus added his approval to Paulinus’ assessment of the situation. Annius Gallus, who had been injured a few days before after falling from his horse, was consulted by messengers sent to ask what he thought and they had brought back word that he, too, agreed. Otho was determined to fight the decisive battle. His brother Titianus and the praetorian prefect Proculus, impetuous through inexperience, claimed that fortune, the gods and Otho’s guardian spirit smiled upon their plans and would smile upon their performance: they had fallen back on flattery to prevent any attempt at opposition.
Once they had decided to fight, they considered whether it was better for the emperor to participate in the battle or keep aloof. Paulinus and Celsus, reluctant to appear to expose him to danger, raised no further objections, and the same group of mistaken advisers prevailed upon Otho to retire to Brixellum and to reserve himself for the most crucial decisions relating to the empire, safely removed from the hazards of battle. That day was the first blow to the chances of Otho’s party.38 Not only did a strong force of praetorians, bodyguards and cavalry go with the emperor as he departed, but the spirit of those who remained behind was shattered. This was because the soldiers, suspicious of their generals, were loyal to Otho alone, who likewise trusted only his men, and so he had left the authority of the officers on an uncertain footing.
34. The Vitellians knew all about this, thanks to the stream of desertions which always happen during civil war. Besides, the Othonian scouts were so eager to learn about the enemy’s plans that they failed to conceal their own. Quietly concentrating on when the enemy would rashly burst out, Caecina and Valens did something that is a substitute for shrewd action – they waited for other people to make stupid mistakes. Meanwhile, pretending that they were going to cross the River Po, they began to build a bridge so as to confront a band of gladiators on the other bank and so that their own troops should not while away time in idleness.39 A line of boats was arranged facing against the current, equally spaced and secured by heavy timbers at the prow and stern, with anchors cast off besides to strengthen the bridge, but with sufficient slack on the anchor cables to allow the boats to ride the mounting waters without losing formation. A tower was put on board to enclose the further end of the bridge, and was moved out successively to whichever was the last boat. From it they could drive off the enemy with catapults and artillery.
The Othonians, meanwhile, had erected a tower on the bank and were hurling stones and flaming missiles. 35. There was also an island in midstream. The gladiators were struggling towards it in boats, while the Germans were gliding forwards by swimming. By chance the latter had got across in some strength, and Macer then manned some galleys and attacked them, using the keenest of his gladiators. However, gladiators do not exhibit the same steady courage as soldiers, and they found it harder to shoot effectively from the bobbing decks of the boats than did their enemies, who had a firm footing on the bank. Thanks to the erratic lurching of the quivering boats, the rowers and fighters fell over each other in confusion. The Germans took the initiative, plunged into the shallow water, latched onto the sterns, climbed up the gangways or drowned their opponents in hand-to-hand tussles. The whole scene was played out under the eyes of the two armies. The greater the delight of the Vitellians, the more bitterly the Othonians cursed the cause and architect of their defeat. 36. The battle was broken off by flight, after the surviving ships had been hauled away. The army clamoured for Macer’s execution. After wounding him with a lance thrown from some distance, they closed in with swords drawn, but the tribunes and centurions intervened and rescued him. Not long afterwards Vestricius Spurinna arrived with his cohorts, in accordance with Otho’s orders, having left a small garrison to hold Placentia. Then Otho sent the consul-designate, Flavius Sabinus, to take over the force previously commanded by Macer.40 The troops were delighted at the change of generals, while the generals were reluctant to take on such an intimidating command owing to the continual mutinies.
37. I find it stated by certain writers41 that in their dread of war or contempt for both emperors – whose wickedness and degradation was becoming notorious through increasingly candid daily reports – the two armies wondered whether they should not cease fighting and either come to a consensus themselves or leave the choice of an emperor to the senate. According to these authorities, this was why the Othonian leaders suggested waiting for a while: Paulinus, it is alleged, was particularly keen on this because he was the senior officer of consular rank and a distinguished general who had earned a brilliant name for himself in the British campaigns. For myself, although I am prepared to admit that in their heart of hearts a few men may have prayed for peace instead of strife and for a good and honest ruler instead of two worthless and infamous scoundrels, nevertheless I do not think that in such a degenerate era the prudent Paulinus had any hope that the mass of ordinary soldiers would exercise such self-control as to lay aside war from an attachment to peace after disturbing the peace from love of war. Nor do I think that armies so different in language and habits were capable of coming together into a union of this kind, or that officers and generals who were nearly all guiltily aware of progressing from hedonism, to poverty, to crimes would have tolerated any emperor who was not disreputable and obliged to them for the services they had rendered.42
38. From time immemorial, humans have had an innate passion for power, but with the growth of the empire it has ripened and run wild.43 For, as long as resources were limited, equal standing was easily maintained, but after the world was subjugated and rival cities or kings were cut down to size, we were free to covet wealth in safety and the first struggles between the senate and people blazed up. Unruly tribunes alternated with excessively powerful consuls, and there were trial runs for civil wars in the city and in the Forum. Then Gaius Marius, who rose from the lowest ranks of the people, and Lucius Sulla, the most savage of the nobles, destroyed the republican constitution by force of arms and replaced it with despotism.44 After them came Gnaeus Pompey. He was more guarded, but no better, and from then on the one goal was autocracy. The legions of citizens did not shrink from civil war at Pharsalus or Philippi,45 so it is hardly likely that the armies of Otho and Vitellius would have laid aside war voluntarily. The same divine anger, the same human madness, the same criminal incentives drove them into conflict. The fact that each war was decided as it were by a single knock-out blow is only down to the feebleness of the emperors. However, my reflections on ancient and modern ways have made me stray too far, so now I return to the proper sequence of events.
39. After Otho departed for Brixellum, the prestige of the command lay with his brother Titianus, but the prefect Proculus had real power and control. Celsus and Paulinus, whose prudent advice was universally ignored, were generals in name only, but they served as a screen for the faults of others. The tribunes and centurions were unreliable, since the best of them were passed over and power lay with the worst. The ordinary soldiers were enthusiastic, but they still preferred to interpret the generals’ orders to suit their own purposes rather than obey them.
It was decided to advance and set up camp four miles from Bedriacum, but this was done so unskilfully that they suffered from a lack of water, even though it was springtime and there were numerous rivers all around. At this point, there was hesitation about how to handle the battle, as Otho’s dispatches were pressing for speed, while the troops were demanding that the emperor should be present at the combat, and many were requesting that the troops operating across the Po should be summoned. It is difficult to judge what would have been best to do, but certainly what was done was the worst possible choice. 40. They set out as if embarking on a long campaign, not a decisive battle. Their objective was the confluence of the Po and a tributary, sixteen miles away.46 Celsus and Paulinus were against exposing a footsore and heavily laden army to an enemy who would not pass up the chance of attacking them while they were out of order in their marching column or else scattered and constructing the rampart – and the Vitellians were lightly armed and would have barely four miles to advance. Titianus and Proculus were beaten in the deliberations, but they resorted to their rights as supreme commanders. It is true that a Numidian was at hand after a swift gallop, bearing aggressive instructions from Otho, who reprimanded the generals for dragging their feet and ordered that the matter should be brought to a head. He was sick of delay and could no longer bear the tension.
41. On the same day,47 the tribunes of two praetorian cohorts approached Caecina while he was busy with the construction of the bridge, and asked for an interview. He was preparing to listen to their proposals and give them answers, when his scouts rushed up with news that the enemy was at hand. The tribunes’ remarks were cut short, so it was difficult to say for sure whether they were initiating a trick or treachery or even some honourable scheme. Dismissing the tribunes, Caecina rode back to camp and found that Fabius Valens had issued the signal for battle and that the troops were under arms. While the legions were drawing lots to determine the order of march, the cavalry charged out of the camp.48 Remarkably, they would have been forced back against the rampart by a smaller number of Othonians, but this was prevented by the courage of the Italian Legion, whose men drew their swords and forced the retreating cavalry to return and resume the fight. The battleline of the Vitellian legions was arranged without any fuss, for although the enemy was near, it was impossible to see any sign of an armed force because of the thick plantations. However, among the Othonians, there were nervous generals, common soldiers hostile to their superiors, a confusion of vehicles and camp-followers, and a road with steep ditches on either side, which would have been narrow even for a column advancing calmly. Some Othonians were massed round their respective standards, others were looking for them. Everywhere there was the confused noise of men running about and calling. Depending on each man’s audacity or fearfulness, individuals would surge forward or drift back, making for front or rear.
42. While their minds were numb in the face of this sudden threat, their initiative was further sapped by unwarranted delight after the discovery of some men who mendaciously claimed that Vitellius had been abandoned by his army. It has not been fully established whether the Vitellian scouts spread this rumour or if it actually arose on Otho’s side, either by design or chance.49 The Othonians lost all heart for fighting and spontaneously greeted their opponents. They were met with antagonistic muttering, and, as many troops on their own side had no idea what had prompted their greeting, the Othonians feared treachery. At this point, the enemy advanced, with unbroken ranks and superior in strength and numbers. As for the Othonians, although they were scattered, outnumbered and weary, they still undertook to fight fiercely. Indeed, as the battle was fought over a wide area obstructed by trees and vines, it had many different aspects. They clashed at close quarters and from a distance, sometimes in clusters, sometimes in wedge formation. On the high road, there was a hand-to-hand struggle, as the men threw the weight of their bodies and shield-bosses against each other. They abandoned the usual volley of javelins and hacked through helmets and armour with swords and axes. Knowing each other, watched by their comrades, they were contesting the outcome of the whole campaign.
43. By chance, two legions made contact in open country between the Po and the road. These were the Vitellian Twenty-First, commonly known as ‘Hurricane’ and long renowned, and on the Othonian side the First (Adiutrix) Legion, which had never fought before, but was in high spirits and eager for fresh distinction. The men of the First overran the front ranks of the Twenty-First, and carried off their eagle. Fired up by that humiliation, the legion responded by charging at the ranks of the First, killing their commanding officer, Orfidius Benignus, and seizing a great number of standards and flags from the enemy. In another part of the battlefield, the Fifth pushed back the Thirteenth Legion, while the men of the Fourteenth were attacked and surrounded by superior numbers. Long after the Othonian commanders had fled, Caecina and Valens were still bolstering their men with reinforcements, and as a fresh reserve, there was also Alfenus Varus with his Batavians. These cohorts had confronted and routed the band of gladiators, who had been carried across in boats, and killed them in the river itself. Having won the day there, the Batavians delivered their onslaught on the Othonian flank.
44. After the centre of the battleline had collapsed, the Othonians fled in all directions in a bid to reach Bedriacum. The distance was enormous, the roads choked with heaps of corpses, which only increased the slaughter. After all, in civil war prisoners cannot be converted into profit.50 Suetonius Paulinus and Licinius Proculus took different routes and avoided the camp. Vedius Aquila, the commander of the Thirteenth Legion, suddenly panicked and brought himself right into the hands of the angry troops. It was still broad daylight when he entered the rampart and was immediately surrounded by a shouting mob of mutinous fugitives. They did not hold back from either insults or violence and reproached him as a deserter and traitor, not because they had any particular charge against him, but like a typical crowd the men accused others of their own guilty conduct. Night brought assistance to Titianus and Celsus. By this time, sentries had been posted and the soldiers got under control by Annius Gallus, who used advice, appeals and his own authority to persuade them not to aggravate the disaster of defeat by butchering each other. Whatever happened, he remarked – whether the end of the war had arrived or whether they chose to take up arms again – the only solace for conquered men was to act together.
Although the spirit of the other troops had been broken, the praetorians angrily protested that they had been beaten by treachery, not by the enemy’s courage. Even the Vitellians, they added, had not obtained their victory without bloodshed, as their cavalry had been routed and a legionary eagle captured. The Othonians still had Otho himself and the troops stationed with him across the Po. The legions from Moesia were coming and a large part of the army had stayed behind at Bedriacum. These men had certainly not yet been beaten and, if need be, would find a more honourable death on the battlefield. Amidst such thoughts, the praetorians became defiant or anxious, but in their utter desperation they were more often goaded to anger than fear.
45. However, the Vitellian army bivouacked five miles from Bedriacum, as the generals were wary of storming the camp on the same day and also hoped that the enemy would surrender voluntarily. The lightly armed Vitellians had marched out only to fight a battle, but arms and victory were their safeguard. On the next day, the intention of the Othonian army was clear, and the wilder elements had come to their senses. So a deputation was sent to the Vitellians. The generals had no hesitation in granting peace, but the envoys were held up for a time, which caused some disquiet since the Othonians did not know whether their request had been granted or not. Once the deputation returned, the camp was opened up. At this point victors and vanquished alike burst into tears, finding a melancholy delight in cursing the evil fate of civil war. In the same tents, they nursed their wounded brothers or other relatives. Their hopes for reward were in doubt, but funeral rites and bereavement seemed guaranteed. Everybody was involved in the tragedy and had someone’s death to mourn. A search was made for the body of the legionary commander Orfidius, and it was cremated with the customary honours. A few were buried by their relatives, but the vast majority of the dead were left lying on the ground.51
46. Otho, waiting for news about the battle, was utterly calm and resolved about his plan.52 First came a gloomy rumour, then fugitives from the battlefield revealed that his cause was utterly lost. Otho’s men were so eager that they did not wait for him to make any statement. They urged him to keep cheerful, pointing out that his new forces were still intact and that they themselves were ready to suffer or to dare the utmost. And this was not mere flattery. In some kind of furious enthusiasm, they were burning to join the fight and restore the fallen fortunes of their side. Those at a distance stretched out their hands to Otho and the nearest bystanders grasped his knees in supplication. First and foremost among them was Plotius Firmus. As praetorian prefect, he appealed to the emperor again and again not to abandon a most faithful army, not to abandon soldiers who served him so excellently. It showed greater spirit, he said, if troubles were tolerated rather than evaded. Brave and active men clung to hope even when fortune was against them, while only cowards and weaklings hurried headlong to despair through fear. During this speech, whenever Otho relaxed or hardened his expression, they cheered or groaned. It was not just the praetorians – Otho’s personal troops – who urged him on, but units sent ahead from Moesia who informed him that the advancing army was just as determined, and that some legions had entered Aquileia. No one therefore doubts that the war could have been resumed – one which was cruel, mournful and full of uncertainties for vanquished and victors alike.
47. Otho, turning his back on plans for war, said:53 ‘To expose this spirit, this courage of yours, to further danger would, I think, be too high a price to pay for my life. You hold out great hopes, in the event of my deciding to live on, but this will merely make death all the more splendid. We have put each other to the test, fortune and I. Nor must you count up the length of my principate. It is more difficult to exercise moderation in good fortune when you do not think you will possess it for long. Civil war began with Vitellius, and he is responsible for the fact that we struggled over the principate in an armed conflict.54 Yet it will be in my power to set an example by making sure that we do not fight more than once. Let this be the act by which posterity judges Otho.55 Vitellius shall enjoy the company of his brother, wife and children: I have no need either for vengeance or consolation. Although other men may have held the principate for longer, nobody can ever have relinquished it so bravely. Am I to allow all these young Romans, all these fine armies, to be trampled underfoot a second time, to be torn from their country’s hands? Let this thought accompany me, that you would have died on my behalf – but you must live on after me. I should no longer impede your chances of survival, nor you my resolution. To waste further words on death smacks of cowardice. Take this as your best proof that my decision is final, that I complain about no one. For blaming gods or men is the mark of someone who wishes to live.’
48. After this speech, he addressed his entourage kindly according to each man’s age and rank. He urged them to hurry away with all speed and to avoid provoking the victor’s anger by remaining, using his personal authority to stir the young men and appeals to move his elders. His look was calm, his words intrepid, and when his followers wept he restrained their untimely tears. He allocated ships and vehicles for their departure. Any petitions or letters that showed outspoken support of himself or insults to Vitellius he destroyed. He distributed money sparingly, quite unlike a man facing death. Then he dealt with a young lad called Salvius Cocceianus, his brother’s son, who was scared and sorrowful. Otho went out of his way to comfort him, praising his family devotion but reprimanding his fear. Did he really think that Vitellius would be so cold-hearted as to refuse to make even this tiny repayment for the immunity granted to his whole family? He, Otho, was earning the victor’s clemency by committing suicide quickly. For it was not in a moment of final desperation, but while the troops were demanding battle that he had spared his country from the ultimate catastrophe. He had won enough of a name for himself, enough distinction for his descendants. After all the Julians, Claudians and Servians, he had been the first to bring the principate into a new family.56 So the young lad must face life in a confident mood. He should never forget that Otho had been his uncle – nor remember it too well.57
49. After this, he dismissed everyone from his presence and rested for a while. While he was turning over in his mind some worries that were already his last, he was distracted by a sudden commotion and the news that the troops were mutinous and beyond control. They kept threatening to murder those who were leaving, but showed particularly aggressive force against Verginius, whom they were keeping under siege within his house. Otho reprimanded the ringleaders, and returning to his quarters made time for conversations with those who were leaving, until such time as they had all got away unhurt. As twilight was drawing in, he quenched his thirst with a drink of iced water. Then after two daggers were brought to him and he had tested both, he tucked one beneath his pillow. After it had been established that his friends had already set off, he passed a quiet night and (so sources report) he actually slept.58 At first light, he fell upon his dagger. Hearing the dying man’s groan, his freedmen and slaves came in, together with the praetorian prefect Plotius Firmus, and found a single wound, in the chest.
There was a swift funeral. He had sought that with insistent prayers, for he feared that his head might be cut off and subjected to mockery.59 The praetorian cohorts carried his body along amidst tributes and tears, showering kisses on his wound and hands. Some of the troops committed suicide beside the funeral pyre, not because they felt guilty or afraid but because they loved their emperor and wished to share his glory. Afterwards, at Bedriacum, Placentia and other camps in all quarters, this kind of death became common. They built for Otho a modest tomb which was more likely to survive. Such then was the end of his life in his thirty-seventh year.
50. He came from the town of Ferentium. His father had achieved the consulship, his grandfather had been praetor. On his mother’s side his birth was less distinguished, but not lowly. His childhood and youth were such as I have described. By two actions, one utterly appalling, one heroic, he has earned just as much renown as disgrace in the eyes of posterity.
Although I believe that ferreting out fabulous stories and amusing my readers’ minds with fictional tales is quite inappropriate in a serious work of this type, all the same I should not go so far as to discredit accounts which have been widely talked about and passed down. The locals report that on the day when the battle was fought at Bedriacum, a species of bird that had never been seen before60 perched in a much-frequented grove at Regium Lepidum. Thereafter, neither the crowds of people nor the flocks of birds that circled around succeeded in scaring it or driving it away, until the very moment when Otho killed himself. Then it vanished from sight, so the story goes, and for those calculating the times, the beginning and end of the marvel coincided with the final stages of Otho’s life.
51. At his funeral, the grieving and sorrowful troops renewed their mutinous behaviour, and this time there was no one to restrain it. Turning to Verginius, they demanded menacingly now that he should assume the principate, now that he should become their ambassador before Caecina and Valens. Verginius sneaked out by the back door of his house and foiled the soldiers just as they broke in at the front.
Rubrius Gallus61 carried a petition from the cohorts stationed at Brixellum, and a pardon was immediately granted, while Flavius Sabinus handed over to the victor the forces under his command. 52. The fighting had now ceased everywhere, but the majority of senators faced an extremely dangerous situation since they had set off from Rome with Otho and had then been left behind at Mutina. It was here that news of the defeat reached them, but the soldiers rejected the report as a misleading rumour, and because they believed that the senators were hostile to Otho, they kept watch on their conversations and put the worst interpretation on their expressions and demeanour. Finally, by means of insults and abuse, they sought an initial pretext for massacre, just when another peril too loomed over the senators. Now that the Vitellian side was all-powerful, observers might think that they had dragged their feet in welcoming the victory. Therefore, fearful and anxious on two counts, they came together, although nobody formulated a plan individually and each man felt safer sharing the blame among many. The town council of Mutina heaped further worries on the terrified senators by offering them weapons and money and by addressing them formally as ‘Conscript Fathers’62 in an ill-timed compliment.
53. There was one notorious brawl in which Licinius Caecina attacked Eprius Marcellus63 for making an ambiguous speech. Not that the rest were speaking candidly; but Marcellus was loathed because people remembered his activities as an informer, which left him open to feelings of envy, and his very name spurred on Caecina, who, as a newly fledged senator of unknown family, wanted to make his mark by attacking someone important. The two antagonists were parted by the good sense of the moderate senators.
Indeed, the whole group now moved back to Bononia, intending to discuss the situation further, while in the meantime hoping for further news. At Bononia, men were sent separately along different roads to question every newcomer. One of Otho’s freedmen, upon being asked the reason for his journey, replied that he was bringing his master’s last wishes. When he left Otho, it seemed, the emperor was still alive, but his only concern was with posterity after abandoning the pleasures of life. At this there was admiration and a reluctance to probe further, and their feelings unanimously turned to Vitellius. 54. Vitellius’ brother Lucius was present at their deliberations and was making himself available to the senators, who were already fawning. That was when Nero’s freedman Coenus suddenly appeared and caused general consternation by telling an atrocious lie. He asserted that with the arrival of the Fourteenth Legion, which had joined forces with the soldiers from Brixellum, the victorious Vitellians had been slaughtered and the fortune of Otho’s party had been turned around. His reason for telling this lie was to enable the travel warrants64 approved by Otho, which were now being disregarded, to regain their validity thanks to this happier news. True enough, Coenus succeeded in getting to Rome at full speed – only to pay the penalty a few days later on Lucius Vitellius’ instructions.65 Yet the threat to the senators was increased, since the Othonian troops thought the news was true. What intensified their alarm was the thought that the departure from Mutina and abandonment of Otho’s cause looked like official acts. After that, they held no more meetings, and each senator looked after his own interests until a dispatch from Fabius Valens dispelled their fears. Indeed, the nobility of Otho’s death helped to spread the news of it like wildfire.
55. At Rome, however, there was no panic. The festival of Ceres was being celebrated in the usual way.66 When reliable informants brought word to the theatre that Otho had died and that the city prefect, Flavius Sabinus, had made such soldiers as were in the city take the oath to Vitellius, the audience applauded Vitellius. Adorned with laurel and flowers, the people carried busts of Galba around the temples, and heaped their garlands into a kind of funeral mound near the Pool of Curtius, which was the place that the dying Galba had stained with his blood. In the senate all the powers accumulated over the long principates of previous emperors were immediately decreed. Congratulations and thanks to the armies of Germany were paid in addition, and a deputation was sent off to convey their joy formally. A letter was read out in the senate written by Fabius Valens to the consuls in very restrained terms. Yet Caecina’s self-control was more pleasing to the senators, for he had not written at all.67
56. However, Italy was being plagued more severely and dreadfully than it had been during the war. Scattered throughout the towns and settlements, the Vitellians pillaged, plundered and perpetrated violent and vicious rapes. Driven by natural greed or mercenary instincts, they were ready for anything, right or wrong, and they did not hold back from attacking any target, regardless of whether or not it was sacred. There were also civilians who disguised themselves as soldiers in order to kill their own personal enemies, while the soldiers themselves, knowing the local area, picked out prosperous farms and rich landowners as targets for plunder, or, if they resisted, death. The generals were at their mercy and lacked the guts to intervene. Caecina was the less greedy of the pair, but more given to popularity seeking. Valens, notorious because of his ill-gotten gains and profits, was therefore prepared to turn a blind eye to the transgressions of others as well. Italy’s resources had long since been worn down, which meant that such vast numbers of infantry and cavalry, the financial losses and the acts of injustice were only barely tolerated.
57. Meanwhile Vitellius, unaware that he had won, began to gather the remaining strength of the German army as if the war had yet to be won. A few veterans were left in the winter-quarters, and recruiting was stepped up in the Gallic provinces in order that the enlistments of the remaining legions could be raised to full strength. Responsibility for the Rhine frontier was entrusted to Hordeonius Flaccus. Vitellius supplemented his own army with 8,000 men drawn from the army of Britain. He had only completed a few days’ march when he heard about the victory at Bedriacum and that armed resistance had collapsed on the death of Otho. So he called a meeting and heaped fulsome praise on the valour of the troops. While the army was demanding that he reward his freedman Asiaticus with equestrian status, he put a stop to this degrading flattery. Then with characteristic inconsistency, he granted at a private banquet the very privilege which he had refused to grant in public, and he honoured Asiaticus with the rings of a knight, despite the fact that he was a disgusting slave who was aiming for the top by his evil ways.68
58. Over these same days, the news arrived that both provinces of Mauretania had gone over to Vitellius as a sequel to the murder of their governor Albinus.69 Lucceius Albinus had been put in charge of Mauretania Caesariensis by Nero, with Galba entrusting to him the control of Mauretania Tingitana as well. The forces at the governor’s disposal were considerable – nineteen cohorts, five cavalry regiments and a large force of Moors, a band ready for war thanks to their brigandage and robbery. On Galba’s death, Albinus was inclined to back Otho, and, not content with Africa, threatened to invade Spain which was separated from it only by a narrow strait. At this, Cluvius Rufus was alarmed, so he moved the Tenth Legion down to the shore as if in preparation for a crossing. Centurions were sent ahead to win over the Moors to Vitellius – not a difficult task, given that the army of Germany enjoyed a great reputation in every province. A rumour was also being spread that Albinus, scorning the title ‘governor’, had assumed the distinction of a king and the name ‘Juba’.70 59. So there was a change of feeling. The cavalry commander Asinius Pollio, one of Albinus’ most loyal supporters, and Festus and Scipio, two cohort commanders, were assassinated. Albinus himself, who was on his way from Tingitana to Mauretania Caesariensis, was murdered when he put in to land. When his wife faced up to the assassins, she met the same fate, although Vitellius did not investigate any of these events.71 With a cursory hearing he used to pass over reports, however important they were, since he was unequal to the more serious responsibilities of his position.
He ordered his army to proceed by road, while he himself travelled by boat down the River Arar. He had no imperial trappings, but was conspicuous only for his long-standing poverty until the governor of Lugdunese Gaul, Junius Blaesus, a man of high birth, who was as generous spirited as he was wealthy, surrounded the emperor with attendants and accompanied him in sumptuous style. For precisely that reason Blaesus proved disagreeable, although Vitellius concealed his resentment beneath cringing compliments.72 At Lyons, the leaders of the victorious and vanquished sides were at hand. Valens and Caecina received a glowing tribute from Vitellius at a military parade, and were stationed close to his official chair. Then he ordered the whole army to march out to meet his infant son, who was solemnly conducted to the spot and enveloped in a general’s cloak. Holding the child in his arms, Vitellius gave him the name ‘Germanicus’ and surrounded him with all the emblems of imperial rank. This lavish honour conferred in prosperity proved fatal in adversity.73
60. Then the leading Othonian centurions were executed, which above all caused the armies of Illyricum to become estranged from Vitellius. At the same time, the other legions began to contemplate war since their association with the German armies had bred hatred for them. As for Suetonius Paulinus and Licinius Proculus, Vitellius kept them waiting miserably, dressed filthily in defendants’ clothing until he finally granted them an audience and they resorted to defence pleas which were more mandatory than honourable. They actually claimed credit for treachery and attributed to their own duplicity the long march before the battle, the exhaustion of the Othonians, the jumbled column of marching men and vehicles, and several other factors which were purely accidental. In fact, Vitellius believed their claims of treachery and acquitted them of loyalty. Otho’s brother Salvius Titianus was not in danger, for he was excused by his indolence and his family obligations. Marius Celsus retained his consulship, but it was commonly believed and afterwards alleged in the senate that Caecilius Simplex had been willing to buy the distinguished office and to secure Celsus’ destruction as well. Vitellius rejected the charge and later awarded Simplex a consulship which cost him neither murder nor money. Galeria, the wife of Vitellius, protected Trachalus from his accusers.
61. While great men went in peril of their lives, shameful to report, a certain Mariccus, a humble member of the Boian tribe, had the nerve to push himself to prominence and to challenge the armed might of Rome by pretending to have divine power. This liberator of Gaul and god (for he had bestowed those titles upon himself) had raised a force of 8,000 men and was already coercing the neighbouring Aeduan cantons when that most responsible state, using chosen men of military age together with some additional cohorts contributed by Vitellius, scattered the fanatical mob. In the battle, Mariccus was captured. Later, he was thrown to the beasts, but because they refused to tear him to pieces the common people stupidly believed that he was indestructible – until he was executed as Vitellius watched.
62. No further severe measures were taken against the rebels or anyone’s property. The wills of those who had fallen in battle fighting for Otho were ratified, or else the law of intestacy was applied. Indeed, you should not have feared Vitellius’ avarice, if he were in control of his love of luxury, but he displayed a revolting and insatiable appetite for banquets. Stimulants for his gullet were being brought from Rome and Italy, while the routes from the Tuscan and Adriatic seas were bustling noisily. Leading members of the various cities had their pockets drained by providing feasts, and the very cities were being devastated. The Vitellian troops became flabby and work-shy as they became accustomed to pleasures and despised their leader.
Vitellius forwarded to Rome a decree postponing his acceptance of the title ‘Augustus’ and refusing that of ‘Caesar’, although he did not reduce his real power at all. Astrologers were expelled from Italy,74 and strict orders issued that Roman knights should not disgrace themselves by performing in the games and the arena. Previous emperors had driven them to take part by offering money or, more often, by using force, and a number of the provincial towns vied with one another in attracting with enticements the most decadent of the young men.
63. With the arrival of his brother and the crawling intrusion of tutors in tyranny, Vitellius became more overbearing and brutal and ordered the execution of Dolabella, whose banishment to the city of Aquinum by Otho I have already recorded.75 Dolabella had heard about Otho’s death and entered the capital. The ex-praetor Plancius Varus, once one of Dolabella’s closest friends, had laid this charge against him before Flavius Sabinus, the city prefect. The allegation was that he had broken out of custody and offered himself as general to the beaten side. The accuser added that an attempt had been made to seduce the cohort stationed at Ostia. In the complete absence of any proofs for such serious charges, Varus in due course repented of his action and begged for forgiveness, but it was too late and the damage had been done. As Flavius Sabinus hesitated over such a grave matter, Lucius Vitellius’ wife, Triaria, aggressive to a degree scarcely credible in a woman, terrified him through hints that he was seeking to win a reputation for clemency by endangering the emperor. Sabinus, lenient when left to his own devices, easily changed his tune whenever fear pressed down upon him. Alarmed for himself although the danger threatened another man, he shoved someone who was already falling, lest he should appear to have helped him to his feet. 64. Therefore Vitellius, who feared and hated Dolabella because he had later married his divorced wife Petronia, summoned him by letter, and gave orders that he should turn off from the busy Flaminian Way to Interamna,76 where he was to be put to death. The assassin thought this far too elaborate. On the journey, he threw his victim to the ground in a wayside inn and cut his throat, bringing enormous resentment upon the new regime, since this was taken as the first sign of its character. Moreover, the outrageous conduct of Triaria was made more burdensome by the exemplary moderation of someone close at hand, the emperor’s wife, Galeria, who was not mixed up in these grim events. No less virtuous was the mother of the two Vitellii, Sextilia, a woman of old-fashioned morals. The story went that in response to the first letter from her son as emperor, she said that she had not borne a ‘Germanicus’, but a ‘Vitellius’. She was not moved to exultation subsequently by any allurements of rank or flattery from the public, but felt only the calamities of her house.
65. Once Vitellius had departed from Lyons, Cluvius Rufus caught up with him after relinquishing his responsibilities in Spain. He showed an expression of delight and congratulation on his face, but at heart he was worried and aware that charges had been levelled against him. An imperial freedman named Hilarus had denounced him because on hearing about the imperial claims of Vitellius and Otho, Rufus had allegedly planned to make a bid for power himself with the Spanish provinces as his base, and for this reason he had not endorsed his travel warrants with the name of any emperor. The accuser also construed some passages from his speeches as insults towards Vitellius and rabble rousing in favour of himself. Yet Cluvius’ personal clout was strong enough that Vitellius actually gave orders for his own freedman to be punished. Cluvius was given a place in the emperor’s entourage without losing Spain, which he governed by proxy according to the precedent set by Lucius Arruntius.77 However, Tiberius Caesar kept Arruntius at court because he feared him, whereas Vitellius was not the least bit frightened of Cluvius. The same honour was not paid to Trebellius Maximus, who fled from Britain because of his troops’ angry temperaments. Vettius Bolanus, one of those on the spot, was sent to replace him.
66. The spirit of the conquered legions, which was far from broken, was making Vitellius worried. Scattered throughout Italy and mingled in with the victors, they were engaging in hostile talk, with particular defiance shown by the Fourteenth Legion, whose men would not concede that they had been beaten. For at the battle of Bedriacum, they asserted, only some advance detachments had been routed, but the backbone of the legion had not been present.78 It was decided that they should be returned to Britain, from where Nero had summoned them. Meanwhile, they were to share camp with the Batavian cohorts, on the grounds that these auxiliaries had a long-standing dispute with the men of the Fourteenth. Amidst such hostile feelings between armed men, peace and quiet was inevitably short-lived. At Turin, while a Batavian auxiliary was attacking a certain workman for cheating him and a legionary was defending the man as his host, each man was joined by his respective comrades and insults turned into bloodshed. Indeed, a fierce battle would have blazed up but for the fact that two praetorian cohorts took up the cause of the Fourteenth, bolstering the legionaries and intimidating the Batavians. Vitellius ordered that the Batavians should be attached to his marching column on the grounds that they were loyal soldiers, while the legion should cross the Graian Alps by a roundabout route avoiding Vienne (for its citizens were also a source of fear). On the night of the legion’s departure, fires were carelessly left alight everywhere and part of the city of Turin was burnt down. This loss, like many catastrophes of war, has been effaced by more substantial disasters which struck other cities. After the men of the Fourteenth had descended from the Alps, the most unruly elements were all for marching to Vienne, but they were stopped by the united efforts of the better soldiers and the legion crossed over into Britain.
67. The next source of anxiety for Vitellius came from the praetorian cohorts. The men were first split up, and then offered the appeasement of an honourable discharge, so they began to hand in their weapons to their tribunes until the news spread that Vespasian’s bid for power had gathered momentum. Then they rejoined the army and became the main strength of the Flavian party.
The First Legion of marines was sent to Spain to cool down in an atmosphere of peace and quiet. The Eleventh and Seventh were returned to their winter camps, while the Thirteenth was ordered to build amphitheatres, as Caecina and Valens were preparing to put on gladiatorial shows (at Cremona and Bononia respectively) and Vitellius was never so preoccupied by the cares of office as to forget his pleasures.
68. Indeed, Vitellius had managed to split up the defeated using restrained measures, but a mutiny arose amongst the victors: it started off as fun, but the number of men slaughtered enhanced the feelings of resentment against Vitellius. At Ticinum, Vitellius was at dinner and Verginius had been invited to the feast. Legates and tribunes tend to emulate the behaviour of their supreme commanders, either copying their strictness or indulging in prolonged dinners, and accordingly the ordinary soldier either does his duty conscientiously or gets out of hand. In Vitellius’ circle, everything was chaotic and drunken, an atmosphere more in tune with all-night orgies than the discipline of the camp. So it happened that two soldiers – one belonging to the Fifth Legion, the other a Gallic auxiliary – were fired up by high spirits to engage in a bout of wrestling. After the legionary had taken a tumble and the Gaul was jeering at him, and after those who had gathered to watch had taken opposite sides, the legionaries launched themselves against the auxiliaries and two cohorts were annihilated.79 One alarming outbreak was only cured by another. In the distance could be seen a cloud of dust and the glint of arms. The sudden cry went up that the Fourteenth Legion had turned on its tracks and was coming to the attack. However, the troops were in fact the rearguard of their own column. Once they were recognized, this set their minds at rest.
Meanwhile a slave of Verginius happened to appear on the scene and was accused of being Vitellius’ assassin, whereupon the troops stormed the dinner-party and clamoured for Verginius’ head. Nobody doubted his innocence, not even Vitellius, although he quaked in his boots at the slightest hint of a plot. These men, who were pressing for the execution of an ex-consul and their own former commander, were only restrained with difficulty. Indeed, nobody more than Verginius was the target of every mutinous act. Admiration and esteem for the man remained, but they hated him because he had scorned them.
69. On the next day after Vitellius had given a hearing to a senatorial embassy which had been told to wait at Ticinum, he went over to the camp and actually heaped praise on the troops for their devotion, although the auxiliaries noisily protested that the legionaries had been allowed to get away with such arrogant behaviour without being punished. To prevent the Batavian cohorts daring some even more truculent act, they were sent back to Germany – this was the beginning of a war that was both civil and foreign, for which destiny was preparing the way.80 The Gallic auxiliaries were returned to their various communities. They formed a numerous contingent whose help had been accepted at the very beginning of the Vitellian uprising as a form of military window-dressing. However, to enable the already depleted resources of the empire to meet the drain of lavish bounties, Vitellius ordered the strength of legionary and auxiliary units to be reduced by a veto on recruiting, and men were being offered discharges without distinction. This policy was fatal to the country and unpopular with the troops, who found that the same number of duties was divided between a small number of men, so that danger and toil came round with greater frequency. Moreover, their strength was being sapped by pleasures, in a way totally at variance with old-fashioned discipline and the traditions of our ancestors, in whose hands the Roman state found a firmer footing in character than in money.
70. From Ticinum Vitellius turned off to Cremona, and after watching Caecina’s gladiatorial show conceived a desire to set foot on the plain of Bedriacum and to cast his eyes over the traces of his recent victory.81 It was a dreadful and revolting sight. Less than forty days had elapsed since the engagement, and mutilated corpses, severed limbs and the decaying carcasses of men and horses lay everywhere. The ground was tainted with gore, the trees and crops had been trampled down – the devastation was appalling. No less callous was the part of the road which the people of Cremona had strewn with laurel and roses, after building altars and sacrificing victims in the manner appropriate for a king. These signs of present happiness soon proved devastating to them. Valens and Caecina were there, pointing out the significant locations for the battle: from here the battleline of the legions had burst forth; from that point the cavalry had attacked; from there the auxiliaries had overwhelmed the enemy.82 Now each of the tribunes and prefects magnified his own contribution, blending lies with the truth (or an exaggeration of the truth). The ordinary soldiers, too, turned off the high road with shouts of glee, retracing the extent of the fighting and gazing admiringly at the heaps of weapons and piles of corpses. There were indeed some who were moved to tears and pity by the mutability of human life, but not Vitellius. He did not avert his gaze or feel horror at so many thousands of Roman citizens lying there unburied.83 He was actually happy, and, utterly ignorant about how close his fateful day was, he offered a sacrifice to the gods of the place.
71. Next, a gladiatorial show was put on by Fabius Valens at Bononia after the equipment was brought from Rome. Indeed, the closer the emperor got to the capital, the more riotous his journey became since he was joined by actors, gangs of eunuchs and everything else that was typical of Nero’s court. For Vitellius had always been an admirer of Nero, habitually attending the emperor’s song recitals, not – like the better sort – under compulsion,84 but because he was enslaved and bound to luxury and gluttony.
To open up a few spare months of office for Valens and Caecina, Vitellius cut short the consulships of other men, passing over the tenure of Martius Macer because he had been a leader of Otho’s party, and postponing the consulship to which Valerius Marinus had been nominated by Galba. Valerius had done nothing to annoy Vitellius, but he was a mild man likely to accept the snub without resentment. The name of Pedanius Costa was omitted from the list because the emperor resented his activities against Nero and support of Verginius, although he put forward other reasons in public. In addition they all thanked Vitellius, a sign of the habitual servility of the time.
72. A masquerade now took place which lasted for no more than a few days, although it caused great excitement at the start. A man had turned up passing himself off as Scribonianus Camerinus85 and claiming that during the Neronian reign of terror, he had gone into hiding in Histria. This was because in this area there were still some retainers and estates belonging to the ancient family of the Crassi and respect for their name endured. Therefore after every scoundrel was assigned a role in the plot of the impostor’s play, the gullible lower classes, together with some of the troops, eagerly flocked to join him, whether genuinely misled or just bent on causing trouble. That was when the man was brought before Vitellius and asked who on earth he was. After nobody believed his story and he was recognized by his master as a runaway slave called Geta, he was executed in the manner appropriate to slaves.86
73. It is scarcely believable to relate how much Vitellius’ arrogance and indolence increased when couriers from Syria and Judaea brought word that the East had sworn allegiance to him. For there was nevertheless widespread talk about Vespasian, however vague and unreliable the sources, and Vitellius was generally agitated at any mention of his name. At that point, however, he and his army, as though without a rival, erupted into patterns of behaviour more usually associated with foreigners and marked by savagery, debauchery and plundering.
74. By contrast, Vespasian was pondering war, weapons and the forces available to him far and near.87 The troops were devoted to him, so much so that when he dictated the oath of allegiance to them and prayed that everything would be favourable for Vitellius, they listened to him in silence. Mucianus, while not unfriendly to Vespasian, was still more attached to Titus. The prefect of Egypt, Tiberius Alexander, had already come to an understanding with him.88 The Third Legion was counted by Vespasian as his own, since it had crossed into Moesia from Syria.89 It was hoped that the other legions from Illyricum would follow any lead it gave, as the whole army was incensed by the arrogance of the soldiers coming from Vitellius, who (despite being savage in appearance and talking raucously) derided everyone else as their inferiors. However, men generally hesitate when confronted by the prospect of such a huge war; and Vespasian was no exception. Excited and optimistic at one moment, at other times he reflected on the dangers. What would that day mean – the day on which he committed his sixty years and two young sons to the hazards of war? In private deliberations a steady advance was possible, and just as people wished, they could advance more boldly or cautiously, depending on how they fared. However, for those pursuing the principate there was no halfway point between the summit and the abyss. 75. There danced before his eyes the strength of the German army, which was of course well known to a military man. He reflected that his own legions had no experience of civil war, while Vitellius’ soldiers had been victorious in it; and the beaten side was better supplied with complaints than with military strength. Amidst civil strife, the loyalty of troops was precarious and danger could come from individual men. What was the use of cohorts and cavalry regiments if by a well-timed crime one or two traitors should seek the reward offered from the other side? That was how Scribonianus had been killed during Claudius’ principate; that was how his assassin Volaginius was promoted from a common soldier to the highest rank. It was easier to set whole armies in motion than to avoid lone killers!
76. As Vespasian was faltering because of these anxieties, he was being heartened by his legates and friends, including Mucianus. After many confidential discussions, Mucianus now also made an appeal to Vespasian in public along the following lines:90
‘Everyone who plans some great exploit must reckon whether his initiative is helpful to the state, likely to bring glory to himself, and easy to achieve – or at least not unduly difficult. At the same time the man who gives the advice must be scrutinized carefully to see whether he backs his advice by involving himself in danger, and to establish who is likely to gain the highest distinction if fortune lends her support to the undertaking.
‘I call you, Vespasian, to the principate, to take up an office as beneficial to the state as it will be honourable to yourself. By the will of the gods, it has been placed in your hands. Do not fear what might seem to be mere flattery: it is perhaps closer to an insult than a compliment to be chosen to succeed Vitellius. We are not rising in revolt against the very sharp intellect of the divine Augustus, nor against the supremely wary old age of Tiberius, nor even against Gaius or Claudius or Nero, a dynasty put on a firm basis through long rule. You even yielded to Galba’s aristocratic lineage, but any further passivity while our country is left to suffer inevitable defilement and decay would seem slothful and cowardly, even if such slavery were as safe for you as it would be dishonourable. Now the time has gone and is long past when you could have appeared to covet power. At the moment the principate is your only refuge. Has Corbulo’s murder slipped your mind?91 He came from a more distinguished family than either of us, I grant you, but Nero, too, was more highly born than Vitellius.92 A fearful ruler regards as sufficiently illustrious any humble man who makes him afraid. Besides, Vitellius’ own case proves to him that an army can create an emperor. He was a man with no record of army service, no military reputation, elevated only by Galba’s unpopularity. Not even Otho was beaten by skilful generalship or a mighty army, but by his own premature despair. Vitellius has now made his predecessor seem a great and desirable emperor, given that in the meantime he scatters his legions, disarms his cohorts and sows fresh seeds of conflict every day. Whatever keenness and dash his troops had in the past is being steadily dissipated in eating-houses and revels while they imitate their emperor. You, Vespasian, can draw on Judaea, Syria and Egypt for nine fresh legions not sapped by any battle, not infected by mutiny, with soldiers in good training and victorious in a foreign war; and you also have strong fleets, cavalry regiments and cohorts, devoted native kings, and your own experience, in which you excel all others.
77. ‘For myself I shall claim nothing beyond not being counted below Valens and Caecina. However, you must not despise Mucianus as an ally because you have not experienced him as a rival. I rank myself before Vitellius and after you. Your family can boast the distinction of a triumph and two young sons, one of whom is already capable of holding power and in his first years of military career became renowned amongst the German armies. It would be illogical not to yield power to a man whose son I should adopt if I were emperor myself.93 However, our relative positions will not be the same in success as in failure. For if we win, I will have whatever status you grant me, but before then we will endure the risks and dangers on an equal footing. Actually, no: better still, you should exercise supreme command over your armies, and leave the fighting and uncertainties of battle to me.
‘At this moment the defeated are better disciplined than the victors, for their resentment, hatred and thirst for revenge fire them to be courageous, while boredom and insubordination continue to blunt the efficiency of the Vitellians. The war itself will open up and expose the hidden festering wounds of the victorious side. I am relying less on your vigilance, restraint and wisdom than on Vitellius’ sloth, ignorance and malice. However, we have better prospects if we declare war than if we kept the peace, for those who plan rebellion are already rebels.’
78. After Mucianus’ speech, the rest clustered around Vespasian more confidently, encouraging him and citing the prophecies of soothsayers and the conjunctions of the stars. Vespasian was considerably influenced by such superstitious beliefs, for after he gained supreme power he was the sort of man to retain openly at court a certain Seleucus, an astrologer, as his guide and seer. His thoughts now went back to omens from the past.94 For instance, a remarkably tall cypress tree on his estate had suddenly toppled over, but on the following day it had sprung up again on the same spot, and in due course it grew just as tall with even broader foliage. The seers were unanimous that this was a notable sign of future prosperity and that Vespasian, still a very young man, was destined for the highest distinction. At first his triumphal awards, the consulship and the renown of his Jewish victory seemed to have provided confirmation of the omen, but once he obtained these honours he began to believe that it was his destiny to hold imperial power.
Between Judaea and Syria lies Carmel.95 This is what people call the mountain and its god. Yet this god has neither an image nor a temple (that is the ancient tradition), only an altar and the reverence of his worshippers. While Vespasian was offering sacrifice in this place and was turning over in his mind his secret ambitions, the priest Basilides repeatedly examined the entrails of the victims and finally said to him: ‘Whatever you are planning, Vespasian – be it building a house, enlarging your estate or engaging more slaves – you will be granted a mighty house, far-flung boundaries and a host of people.’ Rumour had immediately pounced on this ambiguous statement and was now starting to reveal its meaning. Indeed, ordinary people talked of little else. There were more frequent discussions in Vespasian’s company to the extent that optimism always prompts more grandiose talk. With their resolve strong, they departed, Mucianus going to Antioch and Vespasian to Caesarea. These are the capitals of Syria and Judaea respectively.
79. The first move to confer imperial power on Vespasian took place at Alexandria, as Tiberius Alexander speedily got his legions to swear the new imperial oath on 1 July. This date was subsequently celebrated as the day of his accession, although it was on 3 July that the army of Judaea had sworn the oath before Vespasian with such passion that they would not even wait for his son Titus, who was returning from Syria, where he had acted as an intermediary between Mucianus and his father in their negotiations.
It all happened because of a spontaneous move from the troops, although no assembly had been prepared and the legions had not been marshalled. 80. While the party was still looking for a suitable time and place, and – the most difficult thing in such a situation – the man to speak first, and while hope and trepidation, reason and chance passed through their minds, one day Vespasian came out of his bedroom when a few soldiers were standing on duty in the usual way to greet him as imperial governor. However, they saluted him as emperor. Then the rest rushed up and heaped on him all the imperial titles, including ‘Caesar’ and ‘Augustus’. They all banished fear from their minds and turned their thoughts to imperial power. Vespasian himself showed no sign of pride, arrogance or transformed personality in the face of his transformed situation. As soon as the dizziness that had blurred his vision after such a great elevation had cleared, he addressed his men in the manner of a soldier and received a whole torrent of congratulations. For in addition, Mucianus, who had been waiting for just this moment, made his eager troops swear loyalty to Vespasian. Then he entered the theatre at Antioch, which those people customarily use for their political meetings, and addressed the crowd which had flocked to the spot with flattering effusiveness. Mucianus was quite a graceful speaker, even in Greek, and was a skilful showman in displaying to advantage whatever he said and did. There was nothing that kindled the province and army more than the fact that Mucianus asserted that Vitellius had decided to transfer the legions of Germany to a lucrative and quiet posting in Syria, while those in Syria were to be moved to the bases in Germany, where the climate was severe and conditions hard.96 The fact is that even the provincials liked dealing with familiar troops, and many had formed ties of intimacy and kinship with them, while the troops took pleasure in the camp where they had served so long and which felt like home.
81. By 15 July the whole of Syria had sworn allegiance to Vespasian. In addition support came from Sohaemus and his kingdom, whose resources were not to be despised, and Antiochus, who was mighty in ancestral wealth and the richest of the kings offering their services.97 Then Agrippa was called from Rome by secret messengers from his people and while Vitellius was still in the dark, he had sailed double quick to Vespasian.98 No less enthusiasm to support the cause was shown by Queen Berenice, who was at the age where her beauty was in full bloom, while even the old man Vespasian was pleased by her generous gifts. Every province located on the seaboard up to and including Asia and Achaia, and the whole Roman territory extending inland towards Pontus and Armenia, swore to support Vespasian, but governors who had no troops at their disposal controlled these lands, since at this date legions had not yet been posted to Cappadocia. A council was held at Berytus to decide the most important issues. To this meeting came Mucianus with his legates and tribunes, as well as his most distinguished centurions and soldiers and the pick of the crop from the army of Judaea. The simultaneous array of infantry and cavalry, and the spectacle of client-kings outbidding each other in splendour, immediately created the impression of imperial grandeur.
82. The first priority of the campaign was to levy troops and to recall the veterans. Some powerful cities were selected for the manufacture of armaments, while at Antioch gold and silver coins were struck. All these measures were rapidly put in hand, each in the proper place, by appropriate officials. Vespasian himself made inspections, encouraging efficient men by praise and spurring on the idle by example rather than correcting them, more ready to see his friends’ merits than their faults. He honoured many men by making them prefects and procurators, while he adorned a number with senatorial status. These were men of exceptional calibre, who would soon obtain the highest offices, but in some cases luck took the place of merit. As for a bounty to the troops, Mucianus had only conjured up the prospect of a modest sum at the initial parade, and even Vespasian offered no more under conditions of civil war than other emperors had in peacetime. He was impressively resistant to bribing the troops and therefore he had a better army. Ambassadors were sent to Parthia and Armenia, and precautions were taken to protect their backs while the legions were preoccupied with civil war. It was decided that Titus should maintain pressure on Judaea while Vespasian should take hold of Egypt,99 which was the key to power. Against Vitellius it seemed adequate to deploy only a part of their forces with Mucianus as general, given the magic of Vespasian’s name and the irresistible trend of destiny. Letters were written to all the armies and legates with instructions to entice the praetorians who hated Vitellius with the prize of readmission to the service.
83. Mucianus set off with his troops in battle-order, behaving as the emperor’s colleague rather than as his subordinate.100 Not advancing so slowly as to look as though he was dawdling, but still not hurrying, he allowed his army’s reputation to grow by mere distance. He realized only too well that his force was small, but that people form inflated ideas of what they cannot see for themselves. However, the Sixth Legion and a force of 13,000 men in special detachments were following along behind in a mighty marching column. He had ordered the fleet to sail from the Black Sea to Byzantium, since he was in two minds about the strategy, pondering whether he should bypass Moesia, take Dyrrachium with his infantry and cavalry, and shut off the Adriatic with his warships. This would secure Achaia and Asia behind him, and, as unarmed provinces, they would otherwise be at Vitellius’ mercy unless they were reinforced especially. What is more, Vitellius would not know which part of Italy to protect if enemy ships were threatening Brundisium, Tarentum and the coasts of Calabria and Lucania.
84. So the eastern provinces now hummed with the preparation of ships, soldiers and weapons, but nothing exhausted them as much as the financial levy. Mucianus kept on saying that money formed the sinews of civil war, and in judicial inquiries he had no regard for the principles of law or truth, but only the lavishness of a man’s resources. Informers were everywhere, and all the richest men were seized as plunder. These burdens were grievous and intolerable, but measures which could be excused by the needs of war continued to be imposed even in peacetime, since, while Vespasian himself over the early stages of his principate was not exactly determined to maintain unjust practices, he learned the knack from indulgent fortune and wicked advisers, and became daring. Mucianus also helped the war effort with his own fortune, but his lavish expenditure of private means only meant that he could help himself to public money even more liberally. Others followed his lead in contributing their wealth, but very few had the same opportunities to recoup themselves.
85. Meanwhile, Vespasian’s initial plans were accelerated by the eagerness with which the army of Illyricum joined his party.101 The Third Legion set an example to the other forces in Moesia, namely the Eighth Augustan and the Seventh Claudian Legions, who were deeply devoted to Otho, although they had not been on hand for the battle of Bedriacum. After advancing as far as Aquileia, they attacked the messengers who brought news of Otho’s defeat and tore up the colours which displayed the name of Vitellius, finally seizing the camp funds and dividing them among themselves. They had behaved in a thoroughly hostile manner. As a result they became afraid, but fear generated a plan that credit could be claimed with Vespasian for conduct which would require an apology before Vitellius. So the three legions in Moesia wrote letters inviting the Pannonian army to join their cause, but they also prepared to use force in the event of a refusal. In this fluid situation, Aponius Saturninus, the governor of Moesia, dared to commit an appalling crime. He sent a centurion to assassinate the legate of the Seventh Legion, Tettius Julianus. The motive was a private dispute, camouflaged as a bid to help the Flavian cause. Julianus discovered he was in danger, and, seeking help from locals who knew the area intimately, made his escape through the trackless wilds of Moesia and travelled beyond Mount Haemus. From then on he took no part in the civil war, spinning out his journey to Vespasian by various means, and either loitering or hurrying forward according to the latest news.
86. In Pannonia, however, the Thirteenth and Seventh Galbian Legions, maintaining their resentful fury about the battle of Bedriacum, promptly declared for Vespasian, being influenced in particular by Antonius Primus.102 This man had been found guilty before the laws and in Nero’s principate was convicted of fraud. It was one of the unfortunate results of civil war that he had managed to recover his senatorial rank. After being put in charge of the Seventh Legion by Galba, he was believed to have written more than once to Otho, offering himself as a general for the party, but he was ignored and played no practical part in the Othonian campaign. As Vitellius’ power crumbled, he switched his allegiance to Vespasian and added tremendous force to the campaign. Physically energetic and a ready talker, he made an art of cultivating hatred against other men and was a powerful force with regard to riots and mutinies; a grasping crook who gave out bribes, he was a scoundrel in peacetime, but a force to be reckoned with in war.
After that the united front of the armies of Moesia and Pannonia drew in the troops from Dalmatia, although their consular legates were by no means actively rebellious. Pannonia and Dalmatia were governed respectively by Tampius Flavianus and Pompeius Silvanus, who were rich and elderly, but there was also the imperial agent Cornelius Fuscus, who was in the prime of life and came from a good family.103 In early youth Fuscus had resigned from the senatorial order through his desire to pass up an official career. All the same, he was the leading force in getting his colony to support Galba, and for his services he won the office of procurator. Once he had rallied to the Flavian side, he applied the strongest torch to the war. Exulting less in the rewards generated by danger than in danger for its own sake, he preferred a novel and hazardous gamble over what was certain and long established. So the Flavians proceeded to stir and shake elements anywhere that were tottering. Letters were written to the Fourteenth Legion in Britain and the First in Spain, because both had supported Otho and opposed Vitellius. Messages were sprinkled throughout the Gaulish provinces, and in an instant a mighty war was ablaze, as the legions of Illyricum were in open revolt and the rest were likely to follow their lead if they proved successful.
87. While this was what Vespasian and his generals were doing in the provinces, Vitellius was becoming more despicable and lazy every day, stopping to enjoy all the delightful towns and country houses as he headed towards Rome with a ponderous marching-column. In his wake followed 60,000 armed men, ruined by loose discipline. The number of soldiers’ attendants was even larger, together with the camp-followers, who were particularly undisciplined even by the standard of slaves. The vast escort of officers and friends was not cut out for obedience, even if it had been controlled by the strictest discipline. The unwieldy mob was further encumbered by the senators and knights who came out from the city to meet it. Some came because they were afraid, many wanted to engage in flattery, while the rest, and in due course all of them, joined in because they did not want to be left behind. Men from the low-born populace also flocked to join the column: these jokers, actors and charioteers were known to Vitellius through their degrading services and he took remarkable pleasure in these ignoble friendships. It was not only the colonies and the towns that were being devastated to furnish supplies: the very farmers and the fields now ready for harvest were being stripped bare, as if this were enemy soil.
88. There were many vicious fights among the troops, for the legionaries and auxiliaries still did not see eye to eye after the original outburst at Ticinum,104 although when they had to fight civilians they agreed well enough. Yet the worst slaughter took place at a point seven miles from Rome. Vitellius was distributing cooked food among the individual soldiers there as if he were fattening up a lot of gladiators, and the common people had poured out from the capital and were milling about everywhere in the camp. In what passed with the likes of them for wit, some people disarmed the oblivious soldiers by cutting off their belts surreptitiously and kept on asking the soldiers whether they were wearing their swords. The soldiers were not used to being made fun of and took the joke badly, attacking the unarmed populace with their swords. Among other casualties, the father of one of the soldiers was killed while accompanying his son. Then he was recognized, and as news of his murder spread they held back from attacking innocent people.
However, there was panic in Rome, as the first soldiers to arrive were dashing about everywhere. They made chiefly for the Forum, in their desire to see the spot where Galba had fallen. No less grim was the spectacle they themselves presented, as they bristled with shaggy animal hides and huge weapons. Not being used to crowds, they made little effort to avoid collisions, and sometimes fell over because the street was slippery or someone had got in their way, whereupon they became abusive and soon used their fists and swords. Furthermore, their tribunes and prefects were flitting about everywhere with terrifying squadrons of armed men.
89. Vitellius himself, after crossing the Milvian Bridge105 mounted on a fine horse, wearing a general’s cloak and kitted out with a sword, drove the senate and people before him. However, his entourage deterred him from entering Rome as if it were a conquered city; so he exchanged his uniform for a bordered toga and marched on foot before a carefully arranged column. Four legionary eagles surrounded by four banners representing the other legions formed the front. After that came twelve cavalry standards and the serried ranks of the infantry, followed by the cavalry. Then followed thirty-four auxiliary cohorts arranged according to their nationality or type of equipment. In front of the eagles went the camp prefects, the tribunes and senior centurions wearing white, while the other centurions were marching with their respective companies and shone with weapons and decorations. The troops, too, were resplendent in their medals and honorific collars. It was a noble sight, and an army worthy of an emperor – though not when that emperor was Vitellius. In this way he entered the Capitol and there embraced his mother and honoured her with the title ‘Augusta’.
90. On the following day he delivered a boastful speech about himself as if he were addressing the senate and people of a foreign state, extolling his own energy and restraint, despite the fact that those present were well aware of his scandalous behaviour, as was all of Italy through which he had made his shameful way in sloth and luxury. However, the carefree people, unable to distinguish between what was false and true, and thoroughly versed in the customary flatteries, shouted and yelled their approval, and although Vitellius rejected the title ‘Augustus’, they compelled him to assume it. The acceptance was as pointless as the refusal.
91. In a city which puts an interpretation on everything, it was regarded as a deadly omen that Vitellius took up the office of Pontifex Maximus on 18 July and issued a decree concerning public worship. This date has long been considered unlucky because it is the anniversary of the disasters on the Cremera and the Allia.106 He was that ignorant about all civil and religious precedent, but his friends and freedmen were just as complacent, and he used to transact business as if surrounded by drunkards. However, at the consular elections he canvassed with his candidates like a common citizen, and courted constant talk from the dregs of the people by appearing at the theatre as a member of the audience and at the racecourse as a punter. This behaviour would indeed have been graceful and democratic had it been prompted by virtuous impulses, but the memory of his past life deprived it of honour and value.
He habitually attended the senate even when the agenda was about trivial matters. Once it happened that the praetor-designate, Helvidius Priscus, made a proposal which conflicted with the emperor’s own wishes.107 Vitellius was put out at first, but he did nothing more than summon the tribunes of the people to come to the aid of his scorned authority. In due course when his friends, who feared his deeper resentment, were trying to soothe him, Vitellius remarked that there was nothing unusual in a difference of opinion between two senators on a matter of politics and that he himself had often opposed even Thrasea.108 Most people laughed at the impertinence of this comparison, but others found it pleasing that he had chosen Thrasea and not one of the powerful political giants as the pattern of true glory.
92. To command the praetorians he had selected Publilius Sabinus, who had been prefect of an auxiliary cohort,109 and Julius Priscus, at the moment a centurion. Priscus flourished through Valens’ support, while Sabinus prospered with Caecina’s help. In this conflict between rivals, Vitellius was a mere pawn: Caecina and Valens in fact carried out the functions of government. They had long been wary of one another, but the dishonesty of friends and a city prolific in generating quarrels had sharpened their mutual hatred, which had barely been concealed in the camp during the war. They competed and courted comparison by their ostentatious retinues and the huge columns attending their morning receptions, while Vitellius leaned now towards one, now the other. For power is never completely trustworthy, even when it is excessive. As Vitellius alternated between suddenly taking offence and untimely flatteries, they felt contempt, but feared him at the same time. Yet they had not for that reason been any slower to seize mansions, parks and the riches of the empire, although the tearful and destitute crowd of nobles who had been allowed by Galba to return home from exile with their children got no pity or assistance from the emperor. One measure welcome to the leading men of the state, and also endorsed by the people, was that Vitellius had allowed returned exiles to resume rights over their freedmen, although these wily creatures tried in every way to get around the edict by concealing their money in the pockets of obscure or ambitious men.110 Some of them passed into the imperial household and became more powerful than their former masters.
93. As for the soldiers, the barracks were packed, so an overflowing crowd of men camped in colonnades or temples and roamed around the whole city. There was no question of parades, proper sentry duty or a training programme. Amid the lures of the capital and pursuits too shocking to be described, they were ruining their physique by idleness and their morale by debauchery. Finally, careless of life itself, a great number camped in the unhealthy Vatican district, as a result of which death frequently descended on the throngs of soldiers. Since the Tiber was flowing near at hand, the Germans and Gauls, who are in any case susceptible to illness, damaged their health in their eagerness for the river because they were unable to bear the heat. What is more, the organization of military service was thrown into confusion by misguided policy or corruption. Sixteen praetorian and four urban cohorts were being formed, each to consist of a thousand men.111 Valens was more audacious in levying these troops because he felt that it was he who had saved Caecina from danger. It is true that Valens’ arrival had bolstered the Vitellians, and the bad name he had won by marching so slowly had been effaced by victory. In any case, all the troops from Lower Germany were enthusiastic devotees of Valens, as a result of which it is believed that Caecina’s loyalty first began to deteriorate.
94. However, Vitellius’ indulgence towards his generals was nothing compared with the licence he allowed his soldiers. Each man chose his division of service for himself. Anyone, however undeserving, was enrolled in the urban garrison if that was his preference. On the other hand, really good soldiers were permitted to stay with the legions or cavalry if they so desired. There was no dearth of such volunteers among those who were worn out with sickness and blamed the extremes of the Italian climate. Nevertheless, the legions and cavalry lost their strongest elements, and the prestige of the urban units was shattered, after 20,000 men were randomly recruited from the whole army rather than carefully chosen for service.
While Vitellius was making a speech to the soldiers, a demand was raised for the execution of the Gallic leaders Asiaticus, Flavus and Rufinus on the grounds that they had fought for Vindex. Vitellius made no effort to curb outcries of this sort. Quite apart from his natural indolence, he was aware that the gratuity for the soldiers was almost upon him and that he had no money, so he lavished every other sort of concession on the troops. The freedmen of leading citizens were ordered to pay a kind of extraordinary tax which was proportionate to the number of their slaves. Vitellius himself was concerned only with wasting money. He constructed stables for his charioteers, filled the circus with gladiatorial and wild beast shows, and frittered away his money as if it were a boom time.
95. Moreover, Caecina and Valens celebrated Vitellius’ birthday by giving gladiatorial shows throughout the city, in every district, on a lavish scale unknown before that day.112 It delighted the rabble, but earned the contempt of good men that the emperor had set up altars in the Campus Martius and made ritual funeral offerings to Nero, after sacrificial victims were slaughtered and burnt at public expense. The torch was applied to the pyre by the Augustales, a college of priests which Tiberius Caesar had instituted for the worship of the Julian clan, in imitation of Romulus’ foundation in honour of King Tatius.113
Four months had not yet elapsed since the victory, yet Vitellius’ freedman Asiaticus had already rivalled the efforts of Polyclitus, Patrobius and the hated names of the past. Nobody in that court sought distinction by honesty or hard work. The one route to power was to try to gratify the insatiable appetites of Vitellius with lavish banquets, expenditure and gluttonous meals. The emperor himself was more than happy if he enjoyed the present without considering the longer term. It is believed that he squandered 900 million sesterces within a very few months. Mighty and wretched, Rome had endured an Otho and a Vitellius in the same year and suffered every variety of humiliations at the hands of men like Vinius, Fabius, Icelus and Asiaticus, until finally Mucianus and Marcellus succeeded them – fresh faces rather than a new outlook.
96. The defection of the Third Legion was the first to be announced to Vitellius, after Aponius Saturninus sent a letter with the news before he, too, joined Vespasian’s side. However, Aponius had not described everything that had happened, since he was wavering at this sudden development, and Vitellius’ flattering friends played down the news. Only one legion was mutinous, they assured him, but the other armies were unshakably loyal. Vitellius gave a speech to the soldiers along just the same lines, blaming the recently discharged praetorians who were spreading false rumours and emphatically asserting that there was no reason to fear civil war. Any reference to Vespasian was censored, and troops patrolled the city to stop people gossiping. This offered ample fuel to encourage rumours.
97. However, Vitellius summoned reinforcements from Germany, Britain and the Spanish provinces, but he did so sluggishly and pretending that there was no need for urgency. The governors and provinces were just as slow to act. Hordeonius Flaccus suspected the Batavians by now and was alarmed at a possible war of his own, while under Vettius Bolanus, Britain was never peaceful enough; and each man’s loyalty was in doubt.114 Nor did the Spanish provinces make any haste, as there was no consular governor there at the time. The three legionary commanders held equal authority, and while they would have bent over backwards to please Vitellius if he had looked like winning, they all kept their distance from his misfortunes. In Africa, the legion there, together with the auxiliary cohorts recruited by Clodius Macer and later disbanded by Galba, were marshalled again at Vitellius’ command, and at the same time the remaining men of military age signed on promptly. This was because Vitellius had been an upright and popular proconsul there, but Vespasian had been notorious and hated.115 So the provincials speculated that they would display the same qualities as emperors, but experience proved them wrong. 98. Indeed, at first the legate Valerius Festus faithfully backed up the enthusiastic provincials, but he soon began to waver. In official correspondence and proclamations he supported Vitellius, but was in secret contact with Vespasian, intending to use in his defence one set of exchanges or the other, depending on which strengthened his position. In various parts of Raetia and the Gallic provinces, some soldiers and centurions were arrested in possession of letters and proclamations of Vespasian. They were sent to Vitellius and put to death. Most escaped capture after being hidden by loyal friends or their own cunning ruses. In this way, Vitellius’ preparations became known, but Vespasian’s plans for the most part remained undisclosed. This was partly due to Vitellius’ slackness, but also to the fact that the garrisons occupying the Pannonian Alps detained all messengers. Also, thanks to the Etesian winds, the sea favoured those sailing eastwards, but hampered the voyage in the opposite direction.116
99. Vitellius finally ordered Caecina and Valens to mobilize for war when he became terrified at the prospect of an enemy invasion amidst alarming news on all sides. Caecina was sent on ahead, but Valens was just getting back on his feet after a severe illness and was being slowed down by his convalescence.117 The appearance of the German army as it left Rome was vastly different from before. There was no physical vigour, no passion in their hearts; the column was slow and straggling, their weapons were being carried any old how, their horses were sluggish. The soldiers could not endure sun, dust or hot weather, and as their ability to put up with hard work was blunted, so their readiness for making trouble grew. In addition to these problems, there was Caecina. He had always courted popularity, but was now gripped by something new – apathy. Excessive indulgence in the spoils of power had turned him into a flabby hedonist, or, perhaps for someone contemplating treachery, sapping the army’s morale was just another trick. Many believed that Caecina’s loyalty was undermined by the strategy of Flavius Sabinus, with Rubrius Gallus acting as the go-between in their negotiations and promising that any conditions agreed for changing sides would be validated by Vespasian. At the same time, Caecina was also reminded of the dislike and jealousy he felt for Fabius Valens. If his rival stood higher with Vitellius, Caecina could always win influence and power by courting a new emperor.
100. After an embrace from Vitellius and much courteous treatment, Caecina set off and sent on part of his cavalry in advance to occupy Cremona. Next came units from the First, Fourth, Fifteenth and Sixteenth Legions, then the Fifth and Twenty-Second. The rearguard was formed of the Twenty-First Hurricane and First Italian Legions, accompanied by detachments from the three British legions and selected auxiliaries. Once Caecina had gone, Fabius Valens wrote to the army which he himself had commanded to wait for him on the march. This, he said, was what he had agreed on with Caecina. However, Caecina was on the spot and had more influence, so he pretended that this plan had been changed in order that they could confront the impending war with their full strength. Thus the legions made haste, some with orders to head for Cremona, others for Hostilia. Caecina himself made a diversion to Ravenna, ostensibly to address the fleet. Later, it became clear that he had sought a secret interview for concocting treachery. For Lucilius Bassus, after commanding a cavalry regiment, had been appointed by Vitellius as admiral of both the Ravenna and Misenum fleets, but because he had not at once been made praetorian prefect, he quite unjustifiably took umbrage and was now planning this scandalous betrayal as his revenge.118 It is impossible to be sure whether Bassus induced Caecina to desert, or whether (since it often happens that bad men resemble each other) the same wicked impulse drove them both on. 101. The historians of the time who wrote accounts of this war during the Flavian dynasty have referred to ‘concern for peace’ and ‘patriotism’, twisting their explanations for the sake of flattery.119 My own view is that in addition to the pair’s innate fickleness and the low regard in which their loyalty was held after betraying Galba, they were apparently also prompted by their rivalry and jealousy to ruin Vitellius himself, in case other men outpaced them in his affections.
After catching up with the legions, Caecina used various devices to undermine the obstinate devotion to Vitellius of the centurions and troops. Bassus had less difficulty in engineering a similar plot, since the fleet was ready at the least impulse to change its allegiance because it remembered its recent service on behalf of Otho.