No More Learning

[200] Cp. ii. 60. Quintilian alludes several times to the
extreme beauty of his voice and his commanding
delivery--better, he thinks, than that of any tragedian he had
ever seen. To read, his speeches were less effective.




BOOK II


VESPASIAN AND THE EAST

Meanwhile, on the other side of Europe, Fortune was already sowing 1
the seeds of a dynasty, the varying fortunes of which were destined to
bring at one time happiness to the country and success to its rulers,
at another misery to the country and to the rulers destruction. [201]
Before Galba's fall Titus Vespasianus had been dispatched by his
father from Judaea to Rome. [202] The ostensible reason of his journey
was to show respect to the new emperor, and to solicit some post for
which his years now fitted him. [203] However, the popular passion for
invention suggested that he had been summoned to be adopted. This
rumour was based on the fact that Galba was old and childless: the
public never wearies of appointing successors until the choice is
made. The character of Titus gave still more colour to it. He seemed
capable of filling any position. His appearance lacked neither charm
nor dignity. Vespasian's successes also and the utterances of certain
oracles further endorsed the rumour, to say nothing of the chance
occurrences which pass for omens where the wish is father to the
thought. It was at Corinth in Achaia that Titus received the news of
Galba's murder, and was assured by people in the town that Vitellius
had declared war. In great perplexity he summoned a few of his friends
and discussed all the possibilities of the situation. If he continued
his journey to Rome he would earn no gratitude for compliments
addressed to another sovereign,[204] and would be held as a hostage
either for Vitellius or for Otho: on the other hand, if he returned to
Judaea he would inevitably offend the victor. However, the struggle
was still undecided, and the father's adherence to the successful
party would excuse the conduct of the son. Or if Vespasian himself
assumed sovereignty, they would have to plan war and forget all about
giving offence.

Such considerations held him balanced between hope and fear; but 2
ultimately hope prevailed. Some people believed that his longing to
get back to Queen Berenice[205] fired him to return. True, the young
man's fancy was attracted by Berenice, but he did not allow this to
interfere with business. Still his youth was a time of gay
self-indulgence, and he showed more restraint in his own reign than in
his father's. Accordingly he sailed along the coasts of Greece and
Asia Minor, and, skirting the seas which lay upon his left, reached
the islands of Rhodes and Cyprus, whence he made a bolder crossing to
Syria. [206] On his way he conceived a desire to visit the temple of
Venus at Paphos,[207] which is famous among all the inhabitants and
visitors. It may not be tedious to give here a short account of the
origin of this worship, the ritual of the cult, and the
shape--unparalleled elsewhere--in which the goddess is depicted.

According to an old tradition the temple was founded by King 3
Aerias, and some people maintain that the goddess bears the same name.
A more modern version states that the temple was consecrated by
Cinyras,[208] on the spot where the goddess landed when the sea gave
her birth. The method of divination,[209] however, according to this
account, was imported from elsewhere by the Cilician Tamiras, and an
arrangement was made that the descendants of both families should
preside over the rites. Later, however, it seemed wrong that the royal
line should have no prerogative, so the descendants of the
foreigner[210] resigned the practice of the art which they had
themselves introduced, and now the priest whom you consult is always
of the line of Cinyras. They accept any victim that is offered, but
males are preferred. They put most faith in kids' entrails. Blood
must not be poured on the altar, at which they offer only prayers and
fire untainted by smoke. Although the altars stand in the open air
they are never wetted by rain. The goddess is not represented in human
form; the idol is a sort of circular pyramid,[211] rising from a broad
base to a small round top, like a turning-post. The reason of this is
unknown.

Titus inspected the temple treasures and the offerings made by 4
various kings, and other curiosities which the Greek passion for
archaeology attributes to a dim antiquity. He then consulted the
oracle first about his voyage. Learning that the sea was calm, and
that no obstacles stood in his way, he sacrificed a large number of
victims, and put covert questions about his own fortunes. The priest,
whose name was Sostratus, seeing that the entrails were uniformly
favourable, and that the goddess assented to Titus' ambitious schemes,
returned at the moment a brief and ordinary reply, but afterwards
sought a private interview and revealed the future to him. So Titus
returned to his father with heightened hopes, and amid the general
anxiety of the provinces and their armies his arrival spread boundless
confidence of success.

Vespasian had already broken the back of the Jewish war. [212] Only the
siege of Jerusalem remained. That this proved a difficult and
laborious task was due rather to the high situation of the town and
the stubborn superstition of its inhabitants than to any adequate
provision enabling them to endure the hardships of the siege.
Vespasian had, as we have already stated,[213] three legions well
tried in war. Four others were under Mucianus' command. [213] Although
these had never seen war, yet their envy of the neighbouring army's
fame had banished sloth. Indeed, as the former were hardened by work
and danger, so the latter owed their ardour to their unbroken
inaction, and their shame at having no share in the war. [214] Both
generals had, besides auxiliary infantry and cavalry, foreign
fleets[215] and allied princes,[216] and a fame that rested on widely
differing claims. Vespasian was an indefatigable campaigner. He 5
headed the column, chose the camping-ground, never ceasing by night or
day to use strategy, and, if need be, the sword to thwart the enemy.
He eat what he could get, and dressed almost like a common soldier.
Indeed, save for his avarice, he matched the generals of old days.
Mucianus, on the other hand, was distinguished by his wealth and
luxury, and his general superiority to the standards of a private
person. He was the better speaker, and a skilful administrator and
statesman. Their combined qualities would have made a fine emperor,
if one could have blended their virtues and omitted their vices.
Governing as they did the neighbouring provinces of Judaea and Syria,
jealousy at first led to quarrels. However, on the death of Nero, they
forgot their dislike and joined hands. It was their friends who first
brought them together, and subsequently Titus became the chief bond of
union and for the common good suppressed their ignoble jealousy. Both
by nature and training he had charm to fascinate even such a man as
Mucianus. The tribunes and centurions and the common soldiers were
attracted, each according to his character, either by Titus'
meritorious industry or by his gay indulgence in pleasure.

Before the arrival of Titus both armies had sworn allegiance to 6
Otho. News travels fast in such cases, but civil war is a slow and
serious undertaking, and the East, after its long repose, was now for
the first time beginning to arm for it. In earlier times all the
fiercest civil wars broke out in Italy or Cisalpine Gaul among the
forces of the West. Pompey, Cassius, Brutus, and Antony all courted
disaster by carrying the war oversea. Syria and Judaea often heard of
Caesars, but seldom saw one. There were no mutinies among the
soldiers. They merely made demonstrations against Parthia with varying
success. Even in the last civil war[217] the peace of these provinces
had been untroubled by the general confusion. Later they were loyal to
Galba. But when they heard that Otho and Vitellius were engaged in a
wicked contest for the possession of the Roman world, the troops
began to chafe at the thought that the prizes of empire should fall to
others, while their own lot was mere compulsory submission. They began
to take stock of their strength. Syria and Judaea had seven legions on
the spot with a vast force of auxiliaries. Next came Egypt with two
legions:[218] beyond lay Cappadocia and Pontus, and all the forts
along the Armenian frontier. Asia and the remaining provinces were
rich and thickly populated. As for the islands, their girdle of sea
was safe from the enemy and aided the prosecution of the war.

The generals were well aware of the soldiers' feelings, but decided 7
to await the issue between Vitellius and Otho. 'In civil war,' they
reckoned, 'there are no sure ties to unite victor and vanquished. It
matters little which survives: even good generals are corrupted by
success: as for Otho and Vitellius, their troops are quarrelsome,
lazy, and luxurious, and they are both the victims of their own vices.
One will fall on the field and the other succumb to his success. ' So
Vespasian and Mucianus postponed their attack for the present. They
were themselves recent converts to the project of war, which the
others[219] had long fostered from various motives. The better sort
were animated by patriotism, many by mere love of plunder, some by the
uncertainty of their own fortunes. Thus, though their motives
differed, all, good and bad alike, agreed in their eager desire for
war.

About this time Achaia and Asia were thrown into 8 a groundless panic
by a rumour that 'Nero was at hand'. The accounts of his death being
many and various, people were all the more inclined to allege and to
believe that he was still alive. We shall mention in the course of
this work the attempts and the fate of the other pretenders. [220] This
time it was a slave from Pontus, or, according to other traditions, a
freedman from Italy. His skill as a singer and harpist, combined with
his facial resemblance to Nero, gave him some credentials for
imposture. He bribed some penniless and vagabond deserters by dazzling
promises to join him, and they all set out to sea. A storm drove them
on to the island of Cythnus,[221] where he found some troops homeward
bound on leave from the East. Some of these he enrolled, killing all
who resisted, and then proceeded to plunder the local merchants and
arm all the sturdiest of the slaves. Finding a centurion named Sisenna
carrying home a pair of silver hands[222] as a token of alliance from
the army in Syria to the Household Guards, he tried by various devices
to seduce him, until Sisenna took fright and escaped secretly from the
island in fear of violence. Thus the panic spread. The great name of
Nero attracted many who pined for revolution and hated the existing
state of things. The rumours waxed daily, until a chance dispelled
them. Galba had entrusted the government of Galatia and 9
Pamphylia[223] to Calpurnius Asprenas, who had been granted an escort
of two triremes from the fleet at Misenum. It so happened that with
these he touched at Cythnus. The rebels lost no time in appealing to
the ship's captains in the name of Nero. The pretender, assuming an
air of melancholy, appealed to 'the loyalty of his former soldiers',
and begged them to establish him in Syria or Egypt. The captains
either from sympathy or guile alleged that they must talk to their
men, and would come back when they had prepared all their minds.
However, they faithfully made a full report to Asprenas, on whose
instructions they boarded the ship and killed the impostor, whoever he
was. The man's eyes and hair and ferocious look were so remarkable
that the body was carried into Asia and thence to Rome.

FOOTNOTES:

[201] The Flavian dynasty. Vespasian and Titus brought the
happiness, Domitian the misery.

[202] Cp. i. 10.

[203] He was 30.

[204] i. e. to Galba.

[205] She was the granddaughter of Herod the Great, and lived
with her brother, Herod Agrippa (cp. chap. 81), ruler of
Peraea. They heard St. Paul at Caesarea. She had married first
her uncle, Herod Agrippa, prince of Chalcis; then Polemo II,
king of Pontus, whom she left. She was known to have visited
Titus in Rome, and he was said to have promised her marriage.

[206] i. e. across the open sea.

[207] In Cyprus.

[208] Another mythical king of Cyprus. Hesychius calls him a
son of Apollo, and Ovid makes him the father of Adonis.

[209] From the flight and cries of birds.

[210] i. e. the Tamiradae.

[211] i. e. a conical stone.

[212] Cp. v. 10.

[213] See i. 10 and 76.

[214] Reading _inexperti belli rubor_ (Andresen).

[215] Of Pontus, Syria, and Egypt.

[216] Antiochus of Commagene (between Syria and Cappadocia),
Agrippa of Peraea (east of Jordan), and Sohaemus of Sophene
(on the Upper Euphrates, round the sources of the Tigris). See
chap. 81.

[217] Which dethroned Nero.

[218] III Cyrenaica, XXII Deiotariana.

[219] Titus and their officers and friends.

[220] These accounts are lost. There was one such attempt
under Domitian and another under Titus. The Christians
expected him to re-appear as Antichrist.

[221] Thermia.

[222] See i. 54.

[223] These with Lycia at this date formed a single imperial
province.


THE TRIAL OF ANNIUS FAUSTUS

In a country so divided and tossed by frequent change of rulers 10
between liberty and licence even small events caused serious
disturbance. It happened that Vibius Crispus,[224] a man whose wealth,
influence, and ability had won him a reputation that was great rather
than good, had impeached before the senate a man of equestrian rank,
called Annius Faustus, who had been a professional informer under
Nero. The senate had recently in Galba's principate passed a
resolution authorizing the prosecution of informers. This resolution
had been variously applied from time to time, and interpreted
rigorously or leniently according as the defendant was helpless or
influential. But it still retained some terrors. Crispus, moreover,
had exerted all his powers to secure the conviction of the man who had
informed against his brother. [225] He had, in fact, induced a large
proportion of the senate to demand that Faustus should be sent to
execution undefended and unheard. However, with others, the defendant
gained a great advantage from his prosecutor's undue influence. 'We
must give him time,' they argued, 'the charges must be published:
however hateful the criminal his case must be properly heard. ' At
first this advice prevailed. The trial was postponed for a few days.
At length came the conviction of Faustus, which aroused in the country
less satisfaction than his vile character warranted. People recalled
the fact that Crispus himself had turned informer with pecuniary
profit. It was not the penalty but the prosecutor that was unpopular.

FOOTNOTES:

[224] A close friend of Vespasian, who was supposed to ply the
trade of informer (cp. iv. 41 and 43).

[225] Vibius Secundus, banished for extortion in Mauretania.


OTHO'S MEASURES OF DEFENCE

Meanwhile the war opened successfully for Otho. At his order the 11
armies of Dalmatia and Pannonia started from their base. They
comprised four legions,[226] each of which had sent forward
detachments two thousand strong. The rest followed at a short
interval: the Seventh legion raised by Galba,[227] the Eleventh and
Thirteenth, both composed of veteran troops, and the Fourteenth, which
had won great distinction by crushing the rebellion in Britain. [228]
Nero had further increased their glory by choosing them for special
service,[229] which accounts for their lasting loyalty to Nero and
their keen support of Otho. But the stronger their numbers the greater
their self-confidence and the slower their march. The cavalry and
auxiliaries preceded the main body of the legions. From Rome itself
came no mean force, five regiments of Guards with some detachments of
cavalry and the First legion. [230] To these were added an irregular
force of 2,000 gladiators,[231] a shameful assistance of which during
the civil wars even strict generals availed themselves. Annius Gallus
was placed in command of these forces with Vestricius Spurinna,[232]
and they were sent forward to hold the line of the Po. Their first
plans had failed, Caecina, whom Otho had hoped to hold within the
Gallic provinces, having already crossed the Alps. [233] Under Otho's
personal command marched picked detachments of his Body Guard and the
rest of the Household troops, together with reservists of the Guard
and a large force of marines. [234] He let no luxury either delay or
disgrace his march. In an iron breast-plate he marched on foot at the
head of his troops, looking rough and dishevelled, quite unlike his
reputation.

Fortune smiled on his first efforts. By sea his fleet held most of 12
the Italian coast right up to the foot of the Maritime Alps. To secure
these mountains and attack the province of Narbonese Gaul he had
placed in command Suedius Clemens, Antonius Novellus, and Aemilius
Pacensis. [235] Pacensis, however, was made a prisoner by his mutinous
troops: Novellus had no authority: Clemens' command rested on
popularity, and he was as greedy of battle as he was criminally blind
to insubordination. No one could have imagined they were in Italy, on
the soil of their native land. As though on foreign shores and among
an enemy's towns, they burnt, ravaged, plundered, with results all the
more horrible since no precautions had been taken against danger. The
fields were full, the houses open. The inhabitants came to meet them
with their wives and children, and were lured by the security of
peace into all the horrors of war. The Governor of the Maritime
Alps[236] at that time was Marius Maturus. He summoned the
inhabitants, whose fighting strength was ample, and proposed to resist
at the frontier the Othonians' invasion of the province. But at the
first engagement the mountaineers were cut down and dispersed. They
had assembled in random haste; they knew nothing of military service
or discipline, nothing of the glory of victory or the disgrace of
flight.

Enraged by this engagement, Otho's troops visited their 13
indignation on the town of Albintimilium. [237] The battle had brought
them no booty, for the peasants were poor and their armour worthless,
and being swift of foot, with a good knowledge of the country, they
had escaped capture. However, the soldiers sated their greed at the
expense of the innocent town. A Ligurian woman afforded a fine example
of courage which made their conduct the more odious.
She had concealed
her son, and when the soldiers, who believed that she had hidden some
money as well, demanded from her under torture where she was keeping
him concealed, she pointed to her belly and replied, 'He is in
hiding. ' No subsequent tortures nor even death itself could bring her
to change that brave and noble answer.

Panic-stricken couriers brought to Fabius Valens the news that 14
Otho's fleet was threatening the province of Narbonese Gaul, which had
sworn allegiance to Vitellius. Representatives from the Roman colonies
also arrived beseeching his aid. He dispatched two cohorts of the
Tungri[238] and four troops of horse, together with the entire cavalry
regiment of the Treviri. [239] This force was put under the command of
Julius Classicus,[240] and part of it was detained in the colony of
Forum Julii,[241] since if the whole force marched inland and the
sea-board were left unprotected Otho's fleet would swoop down at once.
Twelve troops of cavalry and a picked body of auxiliaries marched
against the enemy: these were reinforced by a Ligurian cohort which
had long garrisoned this district, and a draft of five hundred
Pannonian recruits who had not yet joined their legion. [242] The
engagement began promptly. Their line was so arranged that some of the
marines, reinforced by the peasants, held the rising ground by the
sea, while the Guards filled the level space between the hills and the
shore. The fleet, acting in conjunction with the land force, was ready
to play its part in the battle, and extended a threatening front
facing the coast. The Vitellians, weaker in infantry, put their trust
in their horse. The mountaineers[243] were posted on the neighbouring
heights, and the auxiliaries massed in close order behind the cavalry.
The Treviran cavalry rashly charged the enemy, and meeting Otho's
guards in front were simultaneously assailed in the flank by the
peasants, flinging stones. This they could do well enough; and,
drafted among the regulars, they all, bold and timid alike, showed the
same courage in the hour of victory. Panic struck the defeated
Vitellians when the fleet began to harass their rear. They were now
surrounded, and would have been entirely destroyed had not darkness
arrested the victors and sheltered their flight. But though beaten 15
the Vitellians were not cowed. Calling up reinforcements, they
suddenly attacked while the unsuspecting enemy were taking their ease
after the victory. They killed the pickets, broke into the camp and
terrified the sailors. In time the panic subsided. The Othonians
seized a hill, defended their position, and eventually assumed the
offensive. The slaughter was frightful. The officers commanding the
Tungri, after a long defence of their position, fell beneath a shower
of weapons. The victory also cost the Othonians heavy loss, for the
enemy's cavalry rallied and cut off all who rashly ventured too far in
pursuit. So they agreed to a sort of armistice. As a safeguard against
sudden raids either by the fleet on the one side or the cavalry on the
other, the Vitellians retired to Antipolis,[244] a town of the
Narbonese province, and the Othonians to Albingaunum[245] in the
interior of Liguria.

The fame of this naval victory kept Corsica and Sardinia and the 16
adjacent islands faithful to Otho's cause. However, Decumus Pacarius,
the procurator,[246] nearly ruined Corsica by an act of indiscretion,
which in a war of such dimensions could not possibly have affected the
issue, and only ended in his own destruction. He hated Otho and
determined to aid Vitellius with all the forces of Corsica; a useless
assistance, even if it had been forthcoming. He summoned the chief men
of the island and disclosed his project. Claudius Pyrrhicus, who
commanded the Liburnian cruisers[247] stationed there, and a Roman
knight named Quintius Certus ventured to oppose him. He ordered their
execution. This overawed the others who were present. So they swore
allegiance to Vitellius, as did also the general mass of ignorant
people, who blindly shared a fear they did not feel. However, when
Pacarius began to enlist them and to harass his undisciplined men with
military duties, their loathing for the unwonted labour set them
thinking of their weakness. 'They lived in an island: Vitellius'
legions were in Germany, a long way off: Otho's fleet had already
sacked and plundered districts that had even horse and foot to protect
them. ' The revulsion was sudden, but did not issue in overt
resistance. They chose a suitable moment for their treachery. Waiting
till Pacarius' visitors[248] were gone, they murdered him, stripped
and helpless, in his bath, and killed his comrades too. The heads they
bore themselves to Otho, like enemies' scalps. Neither did Otho reward
nor Vitellius punish them. In the general confusion their deed was
overshadowed by more heinous crimes.

We have already described[249] how 'Silius' Horse' had admitted the 17
war into the heart of Italy. No one there either supported Otho or
preferred Vitellius. But prolonged peace had broken their spirits to
utter servility. They were an easy prey to the first comer and cared
little who was the better man. All the fields and cities between the
Alps and the Po, the most fertile district in Italy, were held by the
Vitellian forces, the cohorts sent forward by Caecina[249] having
already arrived. One of the Pannonian cohorts had been captured at
Cremona: a hundred cavalry and a thousand marines had been cut off
between Placentia and Ticinum. [250] After this success the river and
its steep banks were no barrier to the Vitellian troops: indeed the
Batavians and other Germans found the Po a positive temptation.
Crossing suddenly opposite Placentia, they captured a handful of
scouts and created such a panic that the others in terror spread the
false report that Caecina's whole army was upon them.

Spurinna, who was holding Placentia, had made up his mind that 18
Caecina had not yet arrived, and that, if he should, his troops must
be kept within their lines: he could not pit three cohorts of guards
with one detachment a thousand strong,[251] and a few cavalry, against
Caecina's veteran army. But his men were unruly and ignorant of
war. [252] Seizing the standards and colours[253] they broke out,
threatening to kill the general who tried to check them and paying no
heed to their superior officers. They even clamoured that Otho was
being betrayed, and Caecina had been summoned. [254] Spurinna yielded
unwillingly to their folly, at first under compulsion, later with a
show of sympathy. He was anxious to gain weight for his advice,
should the mutiny cool.

At nightfall, with the Po in sight, Spurinna decided to entrench 19
his camp. [255] The unaccustomed hard work soon blunted the enthusiasm
of his town-bred troops. The older men began to curse their credulity,
and to point out the fearful danger to their small force of being
surrounded by Caecina's army in the open country. Soon a more sober
spirit pervaded the camp. The tribunes and centurions mingled with the
men, and every one talked with admiration of Spurinna's foresight in
selecting a powerful and wealthy colony as a strong base for their
operations. Finally Spurinna himself rather explained his plans than
reproached their faults, and, leaving patrols behind, succeeded
eventually in leading the rest of the men back to Placentia in a
quieter and more submissive frame of mind. There the walls were
repaired, outworks built, and the turrets increased in height and
number, while Spurinna provided not only for arms and ammunition but
also for obedience and discipline. This was all his party lacked, for
their courage was unimpeachable.

Caecina, on the other hand, seemed to have left his cruelty and 20
profligacy on the other side of the Alps. He marched through Italy
with a well-disciplined force. The people in the country-towns and
colonies took offence at his costume as showing arrogance. While they
wore the plain toga, Caecina addressed them attired in a
parti-coloured plaid and trousers. [256] Moreover, his wife Salonina
rode on a fine horse with purple trappings, and though this did no one
any harm, they grumbled and seemed hurt. It is an ineradicable human
trait to turn critical eyes on new-found fortune, and to insist upon
moderation most of all in those who used to be our equals. Crossing
the Po, Caecina tried to undermine the loyalty of the Othonians by
negotiations and promises. They retaliated with the same weapons, and
when they had finished bandying empty and fine-sounding phrases about
Peace and Union, Caecina devoted all his attention and plans to an
assault on Placentia in terrific force. He knew that his future
reputation rested on the issue of his first engagements. [257]

But the first day's work savoured more of impatience than of a 21
veteran army's methods. The men ventured under the walls without cover
or precaution, drunk and overfed. Meanwhile the amphitheatre, a fine
building outside the walls, was burnt down. It was set on fire either
by the attacking force hurling torches and heated shot and
fire-brands, or by the besieged in returning their fire. The common
people of the town harboured a suspicion that fuel for the fire had
been surreptitiously introduced from one of the neighbouring colonies,
and that the motive was jealousy, since no building in Italy could
hold so many people. However it happened, they thought little of it,
while worse disasters threatened: safety assured, they bewailed it as
the worst calamity they could have suffered. To return, however, to
Caecina: he was repulsed with heavy losses, and the night was spent in
preparations. The Vitellians provided mantlets, fascines, and
penthouses,[258] to protect the assailants while undermining the
walls: the Othonians procured stakes and huge masses of stone or lead
or brass, to break through the enemy's formation and crush them to
pieces. Both parties were actuated by feelings of pride and ambition.
Various encouragements were used, one side praising the strength of
the legions and the German army, the other the reputation of the
Guards and the City Garrison. The Vitellians decried their enemy as
lazy effeminates demoralized by the circus and the theatre: to which
they replied that the Vitellians were a pack of foreigners and
barbarians. Meanwhile, Otho and Vitellius were held up to praise or
blame, insult providing the more fruitful stimulus.

Hardly had day dawned before the walls of Placentia bristled with 22
defenders, and the fields glittered with the soldiers' armour. The
Vitellian legions[259] advancing in close order with their auxiliaries
in scattered bands assailed the higher portions of the walls with
stones and arrows: where the walls were in disrepair or crumbling from
age they came close up to them. The Othonians above, poising and
aiming their weapons with surer effect, rained them down on the
Germans, who came rashly charging under the walls with the wild songs
and scanty dress of their country, brandishing their shields over
their heads. Meanwhile, the legionaries under cover of their mantlets
and fascines set to work to undermine the walls, build up a mound, and
assail the gates, while Otho's Guards rolled on to them with terrific
crashes huge millstones, which they had arranged for this purpose
along the walls. Of those beneath, some were crushed by the stones;
others, wounded by darts, were left mangled and bleeding to death.
Panic redoubled the slaughter, and the rain of missiles came all the
fiercer from the walls. At last they sacrificed the honour of their
party and beat a retreat. Caecina, ashamed of his rash attempt at
assault, was afraid of looking ridiculous and useless if he sat still
in the same camp. So he crossed the Po and made for Cremona. As he
was retiring, Turullius Cerialis with a large force of marines, and
Julius Briganticus[260] with a few cavalry, came over to his side. The
latter, a Batavian born, had held a cavalry command: the former was a
senior centurion, who was known to Caecina, as he had served in that
capacity in Germany.

Spurinna, learning the enemy's route, informed Annius Gallus[261] 23
by letter of all that had happened, the defence of Placentia and
Caecina's plans. Gallus was leading the First legion to the relief of
Placentia, for he doubted the ability of the weak force of Guards to
resist a long siege and the full strength of the German army. Hearing
that Caecina was defeated and making for Cremona, he halted at
Bedriacum, though he found it hard to restrain the ardour of his
troops, whose zeal for battle nearly broke into mutiny. The village of
Bedriacum lies between Verona and Cremona,[262] and two Roman
disasters have now given it a sinister notoriety.

In the same week Martius Macer[263] gained a victory in the
neighbourhood of Cremona. With great enterprise he had transported his
gladiators across the Po, and suddenly flung them on to the opposite
bank. There they routed the Vitellian auxiliaries and killed all who
offered resistance, the rest taking flight to Cremona. But Macer
checked their victorious ardour, for fear that the enemy might be
reinforced and reverse the fortune of the battle. This aroused
suspicion among the Othonians, who put a bad construction on all that
their generals did. All the least courageous and most impudent of the
troops vied incessantly with each other in bringing various charges
against Annius Gallus, Suetonius Paulinus, and Marius Celsus, for the
two latter had also been placed in command by Otho. [264] The most
energetic in promoting mutiny and dissension were Galba's murderers,
who, maddened by their feelings of fear and of guilt, created endless
disorder, sometimes talking open sedition, sometimes sending anonymous
letters to Otho. As he always believed men of the meaner sort and
distrusted patriots, he now wavered nervously, being always irresolute
in success and firmer in the face of danger. He therefore sent for his
brother Titianus[265] and gave him the chief command.

Meanwhile success attended the generalship of Paulinus and 24
Celsus. [266] Caecina was tortured by his constant failure and the
waning reputation of his army. Repulsed from Placentia, he had lately
seen his auxiliaries defeated, and his patrols constantly worsted in
skirmishes more frequent than memorable. Now that Fabius Valens was
close at hand, he determined not to let all the glory of the war fall
to him, and hastened with more zeal than prudence to retrieve his
reputation. About twelve miles[267] distant from Cremona, at a place
called _Twin Brethren_,[268] he carefully concealed the bravest of his
auxiliaries in a wood overlooking the road. The cavalry were ordered
to ride forward down the road and provoke an engagement. They were
then to feign flight and lure the pursuers on in hot haste until they
fell into the ambush. This plan was betrayed to Otho's generals.
Paulinus took charge of the infantry, Celsus of the horse. A
detachment of the Thirteenth legion,[269] four auxiliary cohorts of
foot, and five hundred cavalry were stationed on the left flank. Three
cohorts of the Guards in column occupied the raised high-road. [270] On
the right flank marched the First legion, two auxiliary cohorts of
foot, and five hundred cavalry. Besides these they moved out a
thousand cavalry--Guards and auxiliaries--as a reserve to crown their
success, or assist them in difficulties.

Before they came to close quarters, the Vitellians began to 25
retire. Celsus, forewarned of the ruse, halted his men. Whereupon the
Vitellians impatiently rose from their ambush and, while Celsus slowly
retired, followed him further and further until they plunged headlong
into an ambush themselves. The auxiliaries were on their flanks; the
legions faced them in front; and the cavalry by a sudden manoeuvre had
closed in on their rear. However, Suetonius Paulinus did not
immediately give the signal for his infantry to charge. He was by
nature dilatory, and preferred cautiously reasoned measures to
accidental success. He kept on issuing orders about filling up the
ditches, clearing the fields and extending the line, convinced that it
was soon enough to play for victory when he had taken every precaution
against defeat. This delay gave the Vitellians time to take refuge in
the vineyards, where the interlaced vine-stems made it hard to follow.
Adjoining these was a little wood, from under cover of which they
ventured another sally and killed the foremost of the Guards' cavalry.
There Prince Epiphanes[271] was wounded, while making vigorous efforts
to rally Otho's forces.

At this point Otho's infantry charged, crushed the opposing line, 26
and even routed the troops who were hurrying up in support. For
Caecina had brought up his reinforcements not all at once but in
separate detachments. These, arriving in scattered units, and never in
sufficient force, only added to the confusion, since the panic of the
rout infected them as well. Mutiny, too, broke out in the camp,
because the troops were not all taken into battle. Julius Gratus, the
camp-prefect, was put in irons on a charge of plotting with his
brother, who was fighting on Otho's side. It was known that the
Othonians had arrested the brother, Julius Fronto, on the same charge.
For the rest, such was the universal panic among pursuers and pursued,
on the field and in the camp, that it was commonly said on both sides
that, if Suetonius Paulinus had not sounded the retreat, Caecina's
whole army might have been destroyed. Paulinus maintained that he
avoided any excessive strain of work or marching, for fear of exposing
his exhausted troops to a counter-attack from the Vitellians in the
camp, who were still fresh for battle: besides, he had no reserves to
fall back on in case of defeat. A few approved of the general's
strategy, but the common opinion was adverse. [272]

FOOTNOTES:

[226] See note 3.

[227] The legion brought from Spain, mentioned in i. 6.

[228] The revolt of Boadicea crushed by Suetonius Paulinus;
described by Tacitus in his life of Agricola and in Book XIV
of the _Annals_.

[229] i. e. for his projected war against the Albanians (cp. i.
6). Probably they stopped in Dalmatia on hearing of Nero's
fall.

[230] The quondam marines (cp. i. 6, 9, &c. ).

[231] They were commanded by Martius Macer (see chaps. 23, 35. &c. ).

[232] The defender of Placentia. He earned further laurels
under Trajan in Germany. He was a friend of Tacitus and the
younger Pliny, and is suspected of writing some bad verse.

[233] Early in March (cp. i. 70).

[234] Not regularly formed into a legion: those to whom 'he
held out hopes of honourable service' (cp. i. 87).

[235] Cp. i. 87.

[236] The mountainous district north of the Italian frontier
on the Var.

[237] Ventimiglia, the modern frontier town between France and
Italy on the Riviera.

[238] A Gallic tribe living round Tongres and Spa.

[239] Living round Trier.

[240] Afterwards one of the leaders in the rebellion on the
Rhine (cp. iv. 55).

[241] Fréjus.

[242] i. e. either the VII Galbian or XIII Gemina, both of
which were on Otho's side.

[243] i. e. the Ligurian cohort, mentioned above.

[244] Antibes.

[245] Albenga.

[246] Sardinia and Corsica were an imperial province A. D.
6-67. Then Nero gave it back to the senate to compensate for
his declaration of the independence of Achaia. Vespasian once
more transferred it to imperial government. If _procurator_ is
correct here, Pacarius must have been a subordinate imperial
functionary in a senatorial province. As the province changed
hands so often and was so soon after this placed under
imperial control, it is possible that Tacitus made a mistake
and that Pacarius was an ex-praetor. Those who feel that
Tacitus is unlikely to have made this error, and that Pacarius
can hardly have been anything but governor, adopt the
suggestion that Corsica did not share the fate of Sardinia in
A. D. 67, but remained under the control of an imperial
procurator. There is no clear evidence of this, but under
Diocletian Corsica was certainly separate.

[247] These cruisers were of a peculiarly light build, called
after the Liburni, an Illyrian tribe, who fought for Octavian
in the battle of Actium. He introduced similar craft into the
Roman navy. They were very fast, and worked with a triangular,
instead of the usual square sail.