(69 A.D.)
When they came to Cremona, they found a new and enormous difficulty.
In the war with Otho, the German legions had formed a camp round the
walls of the town, and fortified it with lines of circumvallation. New
works were added afterward. The victors stood astonished at the sight,
and even the generals were at a stand, undecided what orders to give.
With troops harassed by exertions through the night and day, to carry
the place by storm was difficult, and, without succors at hand, might
be dangerous; but if they marched to Bedriacum, the fatigue would be
insupportable, and the victory would end in nothing. To throw up
intrenchments was dangerous, in the face of an enemy, who might
suddenly sally forth and put them to the rout, while employed on the
work in detached parties. A difficulty still greater than all arose
from the temper of the men, more patient of danger than delay:
inasmuch as a state of security afforded no excitement, while hope
grew out of enterprise, however perilous; and carnage, wounds and
blood, to whatever extent, were counterbalanced by the insatiable
desire of plunder.
Antonius[129] determined upon the latter course and ordered the
rampart to be invested. The attack began at a distance with a volley
of stones and darts, with the greater loss to the Flavians, on whom
the enemy's weapons were thrown with advantage from above. Antonius
presently assigned portions of the rampart and the gates to the
legions that by this mode of attack in different quarters, valor and
cowardice might be distinguished, and a spirit of emulation in honor
animate the army. The third and seventh legions took their station
nearest the road to Bedriacum; the seventh and eighth Claudian, a
portion more to the right hand of the rampart; the thirteenth were
carried by their own impetuosity to the gate that looked toward
Brixia.[130] Some delay then took place while they supplied themselves
from the neighboring villages with pickaxes, spades, and hooks, and
scaling-ladders. They then formed a close military shell with their
shields raised above their heads, and under that cover advanced to the
ramparts. The Roman art of war was seen on both sides. The Vitellians
rolled down massy stones, with which, having disjoined and shaken the
shell, they inserted their long poles and spears; till at last, the
whole frame and texture of the shields being dissolved, they strewed
the ground with numbers of the crusht and mangled assailants....
Severe in the extreme was the conflict maintained by the third and
the seventh legions. Antonius in person led on a select body of
auxiliaries to the same quarter. The Vitellians were no longer able to
sustain the shock of men all bent on victory, and seeing their darts
fall on the military shell, and glide off without effect, at last they
rolled down their battering-engine on the heads of the besiegers. For
the moment, it dispersed and overwhelmed the party among which, it
fell; but it also drew after it, in its fall, the battlements and
upper parts of the rampart. An adjoining tower, at the same time,
yielded to the effect of stones which struck it, and left a breach, at
which the seventh legion, in the form of a wedge, endeavored to force
their way, while the third hewed down the gate with axes and swords.
The first man that entered, according to all historians, was Caius
Volusius, a common soldier of the third legion. He gained the summit
of the rampart, and, bearing down all resistance, in the view of all
beckoned with his hand, and cried aloud that the camp was captured.
The rest of the legion followed him with resistless fury, the
Vitellians being panic-struck, and throwing themselves headlong from
the works. The whole space between the camp and the walls of Cremona
was filled with slain.[131]
And now a new form of difficulty was presented by the high walls of
the city, and towers of stone, the gates secured by iron bars, and
troops brandishing their arms; the inhabitants, a large and numerous
body, all devoted to Vitellius; and a conflux of people from all parts
of Italy at the stated fair which was then held. The latter was
regarded by the garrison as an aid, from the increase of numbers; but
inflamed the ardor of the besiegers on the score of booty. Antonius
ordered his men to take combustibles, and set fire to the most elegant
edifices without the city; if, peradventure, the inhabitants, seeing
their mansions destroyed, would be induced to abandon the adverse
cause. In the houses that stood near the walls, of a height to
overlook the works, he placed the bravest of his troops; and from
those stations beams, tiles and firebrands were thrown down to drive
the defenders of the walls from their posts.
The legions under Antonius now formed a military shell, while the rest
poured in a volley of stones and darts; when the spirit of the
besieged gradually gave way. The men highest in rank were willing to
make terms for themselves, lest, if Cremona was taken by storm, they
should receive no quarter, and the conquerors, disdaining vulgar
lives, should fall on the tribunes and centurions, from whom the
largest booty was to be expected. The common men, as usual, careless
about future events, and safe in their obscurity, still held out.
Roaming about the streets, or lurking in private houses, they did not
sue for peace even when they had given up the contest. The principal
officers took down the name and images of Vitellius. Caecina, for he
was still in confinement, they released from his fetters, and desired
his aid in pleading their cause with the conqueror. He heard their
petition with disdain, swelling with insolence, while they importuned
him with tears; the last stage of human misery, when so many brave
and gallant men were obliged to sue to a traitor for protection! They
then hung out from the walls the fillets and badges of supplicants.
When Antonius ordered a cessation of hostilities, the garrison brought
out their eagles and standards; a mournful train of soldiers without
their aims, their eyes riveted to the ground, followed them. The
conquerors gathered round them, and first heaped reproaches upon them,
and threatened violence to their persons; but afterward, when they saw
the passiveness with which they received the insults, and that the
vanquished, abandoning all their former pride, submitted to every
indignity, the thought occurred that these very men lately conquered
at Bedriacum, and used their victory with moderation. But when Caecina
came forth, decorated with his robes, and preceded by his lictors, who
opened a way for him through the crowd, the indignation of the victors
burst into a flame. They reproached him for his pride, his cruelty,
and even for his treachery: so detested is villainy. Antonius opposed
the fury of his men, and sent him under escort to Vespasian.
Meanwhile, the common people of Cremona, in the midst of so many
soldiers, were subjected to grievous oppressions, and were in danger
of being all put to the sword, if the rage of the soldiery had not
been assuaged by the entreaties of their leaders. Antonius called them
to an assembly, when he spoke of the conquerors in lofty terms, and of
the vanquished with humanity; of Cremona he said nothing either way.
But the army, adding to their love of plunder an inveterate aversion
to the people, were bent on the extirpation of the inhabitants. In
the war against Otho they were deemed the abettors of Vitellius; and
afterward, when the thirteenth legion was left among them to build an
amphitheater, with the usual insolence of the lower orders in towns,
they had assailed them with offensive ribaldry. The spectacle of
gladiators exhibited there by Caecina inflamed the animosity against
the people. Their city, too, was now for the second time the seat of
war; and, in the heat of the last engagement, the Vitellians were
thence supplied with refreshments; and some of their women, led into
the field of battle by their zeal for the cause, were slain. The
period, too, of the fair had given to a colony otherwise affluent an
imposing appearance of accumulated wealth. Antonius, by his fame and
brilliant success, eclipsed all the other commanders: the attention of
all was fixt on him alone. He hastened to the baths to wash off the
blood; and on observing that the water was not hot enough, he said
that they would soon grow hotter. The expression was caught up: a
casual word among slaves had the effect of throwing upon him the whole
odium of having given a signal for setting fire to Cremona, which was
already in flames.
Forty thousand armed men had poured into it. The number of drudges and
camp-followers was still greater, and more abandoned to lust and
cruelty. Neither age nor dignity served as a protection; deeds of lust
were perpetrated amidst scenes of carnage, and murder was added to
rape. Aged men and women that had passed their prime, and who were
useless as booty, were made the objects of brutal sport. If a mature
maiden, or any one of comely appearance, fell in their way, after
being torn piecemeal by the rude hands of contending ruffians, they at
last were the occasion of their turning their swords against each
other. While eagerly carrying off money or massy gold from the
temples, they were butchered by others stronger than themselves. Not
content with the treasures that lay open to their view, some forced
the owners to discover their hidden wealth, and dig up their buried
riches. Numbers carried flaming torches, and, as soon as they had
brought forth their booty, in their wanton sport set the gutted houses
and plundered temples on fire. In an army differing in language and
manners, composed of Roman citizens, allies, and foreign auxiliaries,
all the diversities of passions were exhibited. Each had his separate
notions of right and wrong; nor was anything unlawful. Four days did
Cremona minister to their rapacity. When everything else, sacred and
profane, was leveled in the conflagration, the temple of Memphitis
alone remained standing, outside of the walls; saved either by its
situation, or the influence of the deity.
Such was the fate of Cremona, two hundred and eighty-six years from
its foundation. It was built during the consulship of Tiberius
Sempronius and Publius Cornelius, at the time when Hannibal threatened
an irruption into Italy, as a bulwark against the Gauls inhabiting
beyond the Po, or any other power that might break in over the Alps.
The colony, as might be expected, grew and flourished in the number of
its settlers, from the contiguity of rivers, the fertility of its
soil, from alliances and intermarriages with the neighboring people;
never having suffered from foreign wars, but a sad sufferer from civil
dissensions. Antonius, shrinking from the infamy of this horrible
transaction (for the detestation it excited was increasing), issued an
edict forbidding all manner of persons to detain the citizens of
Cremona as prisoners of war. At the same time the booty was rendered
valueless by a resolution adopted throughout Italy, not to purchase
the captives taken on that occasion. The soldiers then began to murder
them. However, when this was known, the prisoners were eagerly
ransomed by their friends and relations. The survivors in a short time
returned to Cremona. The temples and public places were rebuilt, at
the recommendation of Vespasian, by the munificence of the burgesses.