subjected to various insults. Eventually his steward Argius, one of
his former slaves, gave it a humble burial in his private garden. His
head, which the camp-followers and servants had mangled and carried on
a pole, was found next day in front of the tomb of Patrobius (one of
Nero's freedmen whom Galba had executed) and buried with the body
which had already been cremated. Such was the end of Servius Galba,
who for seventy-three years had enjoyed prosperity under five
different emperors, happier in their reign than his own. He came of an
old and noble family and possessed great wealth. His own character was
mediocre, rather free from vices than rich in virtues. Though not
indifferent to fame, he did not court it by advertisement. Not greedy
of other people's money, he was careful of his own, and a miser with
public funds. His attitude towards friends and freedmen, if they were
honest, was one of kindly complaisance; when they were not, he was
culpably blind. But his distinguished origin and the peculiar perils
of the time disguised his apathy, which passed as prudence.[84] In the
flower of his youth he served with distinction in Germany. As
pro-consul he governed Africa wisely, and in later years showed the
same equity in Nearer Spain.[85] When he was a commoner he seemed too
big for his station, and had he never been emperor, no one would have
doubted his ability to reign.
FOOTNOTES:
[79] Cn. Pompeius Magnus was Claudius' son-in-law, and
executed by him 'on a vague charge'. M. Licinius Crassus Frugi
was accused of treason to Nero by Aquilius Regulus, an
informer, whom one of Pliny's friends calls 'the vilest of
bipeds'. Regulus' brother was Vipstanus Messala. Cp. iv. 42.
[80] Scribonianus. Cp. chap. 15
[81] Under the second triumvirate.
[82] He was governor of Pannonia under Caligula.
[83] Sabinus and his wife were prosecuted, and both committed
suicide.
[84] Under Nero, says Tacitus in his Life of Agricola, 'the
wisest man was he who did least.'
[85] He had governed the upper province of Germany under
Caligula; Africa under Claudius; the Tarragona division of
Spain under Nero. In Germany he defeated the Chatti A.D. 41.
THE RISE OF VITELLIUS
The city was in a panic. The alarm aroused by the recent atrocious 50
crime and by Otho's well-known proclivities was further increased by
the fresh news about Vitellius.[86] This news had been suppressed
before Galba's murder, and it was believed that only the army of Upper
Germany had revolted. Now when they saw that the two men in the world
who were most notorious for immorality, indolence, and extravagance
had been, as it were, appointed by Providence to ruin the empire, not
only the senators and knights who had some stake and interest in the
country, but the masses as well, openly deplored their fate. Their
talk was no longer of the horrors of the recent bloody peace: they
reverted to the records of the civil wars, the taking and retaking of
Rome by her own troops, the devastation of Italy, the pillage of the
provinces, the battles of Pharsalia, Philippi, Perusia, and
Mutina,[87] those bywords of national disaster. 'The world was turned
upside down,' they mused, 'even when good men fought for the throne:
yet the Roman Empire survived the victories of Julius Caesar and of
Augustus, as the Republic would have survived had Pompey and Brutus
been victorious. But now--are we to go and pray for Otho or for
Vitellius? To pray for either would be impious. It would be wicked to
offer vows for the success of either in a war of which we can only be
sure that the winner will prove the worse.' Some cherished hopes of
Vespasian and the armies of the East: he was preferable to either of
the others; still they shuddered at the thought of a fresh war and
fresh bloodshed. Besides, Vespasian's reputation was doubtful. He was
the first emperor who ever changed for the better.
I must now explain the origin and causes of the rising of 51
Vitellius. After the slaughter of Julius Vindex[88] and his whole
force, the troops were in high spirits at the fame and booty they had
acquired. Without toil or danger they had won a most profitable
victory. So they were all for marching against the enemy: plunder
seemed better than pay. They had endured a long and unprofitable
service, rendered the more irksome by the country and climate and by
the strict discipline observed. But discipline, however stern in time
of peace, is always relaxed in civil wars, when temptation stands on
either hand and treachery goes unpunished. Men, armour, and horses
they had in abundance for use and for show. But, whereas before the
war the soldiers only knew the men of their own company or troop, and
the provincial frontier[89] separated the armies, now, having once
joined forces against Vindex, they had gained a knowledge of their own
strength and the state of the province, and were looking for more
fighting and fresh quarrels, calling the Gauls no longer allies, as
before, but 'our enemies' or 'the vanquished'. They had also the
support of the Gallic tribes on the banks of the Rhine, who had
espoused their cause and were now the most eager to rouse them
against 'the Galbians'[90] as they now called them, despising the name
of Vindex. So, cherishing hostility against the Sequani and Aedui,[91]
and against all the other communities in proportion to their wealth,
they drank in dreams of sacking towns and pillaging fields and looting
houses, inspired partly by the peculiar failings of the strong, greed
and vanity, and partly also by a feeling of irritation at the
insolence of the Gauls, who boasted, to the chagrin of the army, that
Galba had remitted a quarter of their tribute and given the franchise
and grants of land to their community.[92] Further fuel was added by a
rumour, cunningly circulated and rashly credited, that there was a
project on foot to decimate the legions and discharge all the most
enterprising centurions. From every side came alarming news and
sinister reports from the city. The colony of Lugdunum[93] was up in
arms, and its stubborn attachment to Nero made it a hotbed of rumour.
But in the camp itself the passions and fears of the soldiers, and,
when once they had realized their strength, their feeling of security,
furnished the richest material for lies and won them easy credence.
In the preceding year,[94] shortly after the beginning of 52
December, Aulus Vitellius had entered the province of Lower Germany
and held a careful inspection of the winter quarters of the legions.
He restored many to their rank, remitted degrading penalties, and
relieved those who had suffered disgrace, acting mainly from ambitious
motives, but partly also upon sound judgement. Amongst other things he
showed impartiality in remedying the injustices due to the mean and
dishonest way in which Fonteius Capito had issued promotions and
reductions. The soldiers did not judge Vitellius' actions as those of
a mere ex-consul: they took him for something more, and, while serious
critics found him undignified,[95] his supporters spoke of his
affability and beneficence, because he showed neither moderation nor
judgement in making presents out of his own money and squandering
other people's. Besides, they were so greedy for power that they took
even his vices for virtues. In both armies there were plenty of quiet,
law-abiding men as well as many who were unprincipled and disorderly.
But for sheer reckless cupidity none could match two of the legionary
legates, Alienus Caecina and Fabius Valens.[96] Valens was hostile to
Galba, because, after unmasking Verginius's hesitation[97] and
thwarting Capito's designs, he considered that he had been treated
with ingratitude: so he incited Vitellius by pointing out to him the
enthusiasm of the troops. 'You,' he would say to him, 'are famous
everywhere, and you need find no obstacle in Hordeonius Flaccus.[98]
Britain will join and the German auxiliaries will flock to your
standard. Galba cannot trust the provinces; the poor old man holds the
empire on sufferance; the transfer can be soon effected, if only you
will clap on full sail and meet your good fortune half-way. Verginius
was quite right to hesitate. He came of a family of knights, and his
father was a nobody. He would have failed, had he accepted the empire:
his refusal saved him. Your father was thrice consul, and he was
censor with an emperor for his colleague.[99] That gives you imperial
dignity to start with, and makes it unsafe for you to remain a private
citizen.'
These promptings stirred Vitellius' sluggish nature to form desires,
but hardly hopes.
Caecina, on the other hand, in Upper Germany, was a handsome 53
youth, whose big build, imperious spirit, clever tongue, and upright
carriage had completely won the hearts of the soldiers. While quaestor
in Baetica[100] he had promptly joined Galba's party, and in spite of
his youth had been given command of a legion. Later he was convicted
of misappropriating public funds, and, on Galba's orders, prosecuted
for peculation. Highly indignant, Caecina determined to embroil the
world and bury his own disgrace in the ruins of his country. Nor were
the seeds of dissension lacking in the army. The entire force had
taken part in the war against Vindex, nor was it until after Nero's
death that they joined Galba's side, and even then they had been
forestalled in swearing allegiance by the detachments of Lower
Germany. Then again the Treviri and Lingones[101] and the other
communities which Galba had punished by issuing harsh edicts and
confiscating part of their territory, were in close communication with
the winter quarters of the legions. They began to talk treason: the
soldiers degenerated in civilian society: it only wanted some one to
avail himself of the offer they had made to Verginius.
Following an ancient custom, the tribe of the Lingones had made a 54
present of a pair of silver hands[102] to the legions as a symbol of
hospitality. Assuming an appearance of squalid misery, their envoys
made the round of the officers' quarters and the soldiers' tents
complaining of their own wrongs and of the rewards lavished on
neighbouring tribes. Finding the soldiers ready to listen, they made
inflammatory allusions to the army itself, its dangers and
humiliation. Mutiny was almost ripe, when Hordeonius Flaccus ordered
the envoys to withdraw, and, in order to secure the secrecy of their
departure, gave instructions to them to leave the camp by night. This
gave rise to an alarming rumour. Many declared that the envoys had
been killed, and that, if they did not look out for themselves, the
leading spirits among the soldiers, who had complained of the present
state of things, would be murdered in the dark, while their comrades
knew nothing about it. So the legions formed a secret compact. The
auxiliaries were also taken into the plot, although at first they had
been distrusted, because their infantry and cavalry had been posted in
camp all round the legion's quarters as though an attack on them were
meditated. However, they soon showed themselves the keener
conspirators. Disloyalty is a better bond for war than it ever proves
in peace.
In Lower Germany, however, the legions on the first of January 55
swore the usual oath of allegiance to Galba, though with much
hesitation. Few voices were heard even in the front ranks; the rest
were silent, each waiting for his neighbour to take some bold step.
Human nature is always ready to follow where it hates to lead.
However, the feelings of the legions varied. The First and Fifth[103]
were already mutinous enough to throw a few stones at Galba's statue.
The Fifteenth and Sixteenth[104] dared not venture beyond muttered
threats, but they were watching to see the outbreak begin. In Upper
Germany, on the other hand, on the very same day, the Fourth and the
Twenty-second legions, who were quartered together,[105] smashed their
statues of Galba to atoms. The Fourth took the lead, the
Twenty-second at first holding back, but eventually making common
cause with them. They did not want it to be thought that they were
shaking off their allegiance to the empire, so in taking the oath they
invoked the long obsolete names of the Senate and People of Rome. None
of the officers made any movement for Galba, and indeed some of them,
as happens in such outbreaks, headed the rebellion. However, nobody
made any kind of set speech or mounted the platform, for there was no
one as yet with whom to curry favour.
The ex-consul Hordeonius Flaccus stood by and watched their 56
treachery. He had not the courage to check the storm or even to rally
the waverers and encourage the faithful. Sluggish and cowardly, it was
mere indolence that kept him loyal. Four centurions of the
Twenty-second legion, Nonius Receptus, Donatius Valens, Romilius
Marcellus, and Calpurnius Repentinus, who tried to protect Galba's
statues, were swept away by the rush of the soldiers and put under
arrest. No one retained any respect for their former oath of
allegiance, or even remembered it; and, as happens in mutinies, they
were all on the side of the majority.
On the night of the first of January a standard-bearer of the Fourth
legion came to Cologne,[106] and brought the news to Vitellius at his
dinner that the Fourth and Twenty-second legions had broken down
Galba's statues and sworn allegiance to the Senate and People of Rome.
As this oath was meaningless, it seemed best to seize the critical
moment and offer them an emperor. Vitellius dispatched messengers to
inform his own troops and generals that the army of the Upper Province
had revolted from Galba; so they must either make war on the rebels
immediately, or, if they preferred peace and unity, make an emperor
for themselves; and there was less danger, he reminded them, in
choosing an emperor than in looking for one.
The quarters of the First legion were nearest at hand, and Fabius 57
Valens was the most enterprising of the generals. On the following day
he entered Cologne with the cavalry of his legion and auxiliaries, and
saluted Vitellius as emperor. The other legions of the province
followed suit, vying with each other in enthusiasm; and the army of
the Upper Province, dropping the fine-sounding titles of the Senate
and People of Rome, joined Vitellius on the third of January, which
clearly showed that on the two previous days they were not really at
the disposal of a republican government. The inhabitants of Cologne
and the Treviri and Lingones, rivalling the zeal of the troops, made
offers of assistance, or of horses or arms or money, each according to
the measure of their strength, wealth, or enterprise. And these
offers came not only from the civil and military authorities, men who
had plenty of money to spare and much to hope from victory, but whole
companies or individual soldiers handed over their savings, or,
instead of money, their belts, or the silver ornaments[107] on their
uniforms, some carried away by a wave of enthusiasm, some acting from
motives of self-interest.
Vitellius accordingly commended the zeal of the troops. He 58
distributed among Roman knights the court-offices which had been
usually held by freedmen,[108] paid the centurions their furlough-fees
out of the imperial purse,[109] and for the most part conceded the
soldiers' savage demands for one execution after another, though he
occasionally cheated them by pretending to imprison their victims.
Thus Pompeius Propinquus,[110] the imperial agent in Belgica, was
promptly executed, while Julius Burdo, who commanded the fleet on the
Rhine, was adroitly rescued. The indignation of the army had broken
out against him, because he was supposed to have intrigued against
Fonteius Capito, and to have accused him falsely.[111] Capito's memory
was dear to the army, and when violence reigns murder may show its
face, but pardon must be stealthy. So Burdo was kept in confinement
and only released after victory had allayed the soldiers' rancour.
Meanwhile a centurion, named Crispinus, was offered as a scape-goat.
He had actually stained his hands with Capito's blood, so his guilt
seemed more obvious to those who clamoured for his punishment, and
Vitellius felt he was a cheaper sacrifice.
Julius Civilis[112] was the next to be rescued from danger. He was 59
all-powerful among the Batavi,[113] and Vitellius did not want to
alienate so spirited a people by punishing him. Besides, eight cohorts
of Batavian troops were stationed among the Lingones. They had been an
auxiliary force attached to the Fourteenth, and in the general
disturbance had deserted the legion. Their decision for one side or
the other would be of the first importance. Nonius, Donatius,
Romilius, and Calpurnius, the centurions mentioned above,[114] were
executed by order of Vitellius. They had been convicted of loyalty, a
heinous offence among deserters. His party soon gained the accession
of Valerius Asiaticus, governor of Belgica, who subsequently married
Vitellius' daughter, and of Junius Blaesus,[115] governor of the Lyons
division of Gaul, who brought with him the Italian legion[116] and a
regiment of cavalry known as 'Taurus' Horse',[117] which had been
quartered at Lugdunum. The forces in Raetia lost no time in joining
his standard, and even the troops in Britain showed no hesitation.
Trebellius Maximus, the governor of Britain, had earned by his 60
meanness and cupidity the contempt and hatred of the army,[118] which
was further inflamed by the action of his old enemy Roscius Coelius,
who commanded the Twentieth legion, and they now seized the
opportunity of the civil war to break out into a fierce quarrel.
Trebellius blamed Coelius for the mutinous temper and insubordination
of the army: Coelius complained that Trebellius had robbed his men and
impaired their efficiency. Meanwhile their unseemly quarrel ruined the
discipline of the forces, whose insubordination soon came to a head.
The auxiliary horse and foot joined in the attacks on the governor,
and rallied round Coelius. Trebellius, thus hunted out and abandoned,
took refuge with Vitellius. The province remained quiet, despite the
removal of the ex-consul. The government was carried on by the
commanding officers of the legions, who were equal in authority,
though Coelius' audacity gave him an advantage over the rest.
Thus reinforced by the army from Britain,[119] Vitellius, who now 61
had an immense force and vast resources at his disposal, decided on an
invasion by two routes under two separate generals. Fabius Valens was
to lure the Gauls to his standard, or, if they refused, to devastate
their country, and then invade Italy by way of the Cottian Alps.[120]
Caecina was to follow the shorter route and descend into Italy over
the Pennine Pass.[121] Valens' column comprised the Fifth legion with
its 'eagle',[122] and some picked detachments from the army of Lower
Germany, together with auxiliary horse and foot, amounting in all to
40,000 men. Caecina's troops from Upper Germany numbered 30,000, their
main strength consisting in the Twenty-first legion.[123] Both columns
were reinforced by German auxiliaries, whom Vitellius also recruited
to fill up his own army, intending to follow with the main force of
the attack.
Strange was the contrast between Vitellius and his army. The 62
soldiers were all eagerness, clamouring for battle at once, while Gaul
was still frightened and Spain still undecided. Winter was no obstacle
to them; peace and delay were for cowards: they must invade Italy and
seize Rome: haste was the safest course in civil war, where action is
better than deliberation. Vitellius was dully apathetic, anticipating
his high station by indulging in idle luxury and lavish
entertainments. At midday he would be drunk and drowsy with
over-eating. However, such was the zeal of the soldiers that they even
did the general's duties, and behaved exactly as if he had been
present to encourage the alert and threaten the laggards. They
promptly fell in and began to clamour for the signal to start. The
title of Germanicus was then and there conferred on Vitellius: Caesar
he would never be called, even after his victory.
FOOTNOTES:
[86] Cp. chap. 14.
[87] At Pharsalia Caesar defeated Pompey, 48 B.C.; at Mutina
the consul Hirtius defeated Antony, 43 B.C.; at Philippi
Octavian defeated Brutus and Cassius, 42 B.C.; at Perusia
Octavian defeated Antony's brother Lucius, 40 B.C.
[88] See note 15.
[89] Between the provinces of Upper and Lower Germany.
[90] In the Gallic tongue this signified 'pot-belly'.
[91] The Sequani had their capital at Vesontio (Besançon), the
Aedui at Augustodunum (Autun).
[92] Cp. chap. 8. The land was that taken from the Treviri
(chap. 53).
[93] Lyons.
[94] A.D. 68.
[95] According to Suetonius he used to kiss the soldiers he
met in the road; make friends with ostlers and travellers at
wayside inns; and go about in the morning asking everybody
'Have you had breakfast yet?' demonstrating by his hiccoughs
that he had done so himself.
[96] Cp. chap. 7. Caecina was in Upper Germany, Valens in Lower.
[97] Cp. chap. 8.
[98] He commanded the army of the Upper Province (chap. 9).
[99] He was Claudius' colleague twice in the consulship, and
once in the censorship.
[100] Andalusia and Granada.
[101] The Treviri have given their name to Trier (Trèves), the
Lingones to Langres.
[102] i.e. two right hands locked in friendship.
[103] At Bonn and at Vetera.
[104] At Vetera and at Neuss.
[105] At Mainz.
[106] The Ubii had been allowed by Agrippa to move their chief
town from the right to the left bank of the Rhine. Ten or
twelve years later (A.D. 50) a colony of Roman veterans was
planted there and called _Colonia Claudia Augusta
Agrippinensium_, because Agrippina, the mother of Nero, had
been born there.
[107] These were thin bosses of silver, gold, or bronze,
chased in relief, and worn as medals are.
[108] This important innovation was established as the rule by
Hadrian. These officials--nominally the private servants of
the emperor, and hitherto imperial freedmen--formed an
important branch of the civil service. (Cp. note 165.)
[109] Cp. chap. 46.
[110] Cp. chap. 12.
[111] Cp. chap. 7.
[112] The leader of the great revolt on the Rhine, described
in Book IV.
[113] The ancestors of the Dutch who lived on the island
formed by the Lek and the Waal between Arnhem and Rotterdam;
its eastern part is still called Betuwe.
[114] Chap. 56.
[115] His supposed murder by Vitellius is described, iii. 38, 39.
[116] Legio Prima Italica, formed by Nero.
[117] Called after Statilius Taurus, who first enlisted it. He
was Pro-consul of Africa under Nero. Cp. note 146.
[118] Their mutiny in A.D. 69 is described by Tacitus, _Agr._ 16.
[119] i.e. by detachments from it.
[120] Mt. Cenis.
[121] Great St. Bernard.
[122] i.e. he had the main body of the Legion V, known as 'The
Larks', and only detachments from the other legions.
[123] Known as 'Rapax', and stationed at Windisch
(Vindonissa), east of the point where the Rhine turns to flow
north.
THE MARCH OF VALENS' COLUMN
On the very day of departure a happy omen greeted Fabius Valens and
the army under his command. As the column advanced, an eagle flew
steadily ahead and seemed to lead the way. Loudly though the soldiers
cheered, hour after hour the bird flew undismayed, and was taken for a
sure omen of success.
They passed peaceably through the country of the Treviri, who were 63
allies. At Divodurum,[124] the chief town of the Mediomatrici,
although they were welcomed with all courtesy, the troops fell into a
sudden panic. Hastily seizing their arms, they began to massacre the
innocent citizens. Their object was not plunder. They were seized by a
mad frenzy, which was the harder to allay as its cause was a mystery.
Eventually the general's entreaties prevailed, and they refrained from
destroying the town. However, nearly 4,000 men had already been
killed. This spread such alarm throughout Gaul, that, as the army
approached, whole towns flocked out with their magistrates at their
head and prayers for mercy in their mouths. Women and boys prostrated
themselves along the roads, and they resorted to every possible means
by which an enemy's anger may be appeased,[125] petitioning for peace,
though war there was none.
It was in the country of the Leuci[126] that Valens heard the news 64
of Galba's murder and Otho's elevation. The soldiers showed no
emotion, neither joy nor fear: their thoughts were all for war. The
Gauls' doubts were now decided. They hated Otho and Vitellius equally,
but Vitellius they also feared. They next reached the Lingones,
faithful adherents of their party. There the courtesy of the citizens
was only equalled by the good behaviour of the troops. But this did
not last for long, thanks to the disorderly conduct of the Batavian
auxiliaries, who, as narrated above,[127] had detached themselves from
the Fourteenth legion and been drafted into Valens' column. A quarrel
between some Batavians and legionaries led to blows: the other
soldiers quickly took sides, and a fierce battle would have ensued,
had not Valens punished a few of the Batavians to remind them of the
discipline they seemed to have forgotten.
Coming to the Aedui,[128] they in vain sought an excuse for fighting.
For when the natives were ordered to contribute money and arms, they
brought a gratuitous present of provisions as well. Lugdunum did
gladly what the Aedui had done from fear. But the town was deprived of
the Italian legion and Taurus' Horse.[129] Valens decided to leave the
Eighteenth cohort[130] there in its old winter quarters as a garrison.
Manlius Valens, who was in command of the Italian legion, never
received any distinction from Vitellius, although he deserved well of
the party, the reason being that Fabius slandered him behind his back,
while to avert his suspicions he praised him to his face.
The recent war[131] had served to inflame the long-standing 65
quarrel between Lugdunum and Vienne.[132] Much damage was done on both
sides, and the frequency and animosity of their conflicts proved that
they were not merely fighting for Nero and Galba. Galba had made his
displeasure an excuse for confiscating to the Treasury the revenues of
Lugdunum, while on Vienne he had conferred various distinctions. The
result was a bitter rivalry between the towns, and the Rhone between
them only formed a bond of hatred. Consequently the inhabitants of
Lugdunum began to work on the feelings of individual Roman soldiers,
and to urge them to crush Vienne. They reminded them how the Viennese
had laid siege to Lugdunum, a Roman colony, had assisted the efforts
of Vindex, and had lately raised troops to defend Galba. Having
supplied a pretext for bad feeling, they went on to point out the rich
opportunity for plunder. Not content with private persuasion, they
presented a formal petition that the army would march to avenge them,
and destroy the head-quarters of the Gallic war. Vienne, they urged,
was thoroughly un-Roman and hostile, while Lugdunum was a Roman
colony,[133] contributing men to the army and sharing in its victories
and reverses. They besought them in the event of adverse fortune not
to leave their city to the fury of its enemies.
By these arguments and others of the same nature they brought 66
matters to such a pass, that even the generals and party leaders
despaired of cooling the army's indignation. However, the Viennese
realized their danger. Arrayed in veils and fillets,[134] they met the
approaching column and, seizing their hands and knees and the soles of
their feet in supplication, succeeded in appeasing the troops. Valens
made each of the soldiers a present of three hundred sesterces.[135]
They were thus persuaded to respect the antiquity and high standing of
the colony, and to listen with patience to their general's speech, in
which he commended to them the lives and property of the Viennese.
However, the town was disarmed, and private individuals had to assist
the army with various kinds of provisions. There was, however, a
persistent rumour that Valens himself had been bought with a heavy
bribe. He had long been in mean circumstances and ill concealed his
sudden accession of wealth. Prolonged poverty had whetted his
inordinate desires, and the needy youth grew into an extravagant old
man.
He next led the army by slow stages through the country of the
Allobroges and Vocontii,[136] bribes to the general determining the
length of each day's march and the choice of a camp. For Valens struck
disgraceful bargains with the landowners and municipal authorities,
often applying violent threats, as, for instance, at Lucus,[137] a
township of the Vocontii, which he threatened to burn, until he was
appeased with money. Where it was impossible to get money, he was
mollified by appeals to his lust. And so it went on until the Alps
were reached.
FOOTNOTES:
[124] Metz.
[125] They would wear veils and fillets, as suppliants. Cp.
chap. 66 and iii. 31.
[126] Living round Toul between the Marne and the Moselle.
[127] Chap. 59.
[128] Cp. chap. 51.
[129] Cp. chap. 59.
[130] This was probably one of the _cohortes civium
Romanorum_, volunteer corps raised in Italy on lighter terms
of service than prevailed in the legions.
[131] With Vindex.
[132] The chief town of the Allobroges, and the capital of
Narbonese Gaul.
[133] So was Vienne; but the status had been conferred on the
Gauls of this town as lately as Caligula's reign, whereas
Lugdunum had been colonized in B.C. 43 by Roman citizens
expelled from Vienne.
[134] Cf. iii. 31.
[135] Nearly fifty shillings.
[136] Part of Dauphiné and Provence, with a capital town at
Vaison.
[137] Luc-en-Diois.
THE MARCH OF CAECINA'S COLUMN
There was even more looting and bloodshed on Caecina's march. The 67
Helvetii, a Gallic tribe[138] once famous as fighting men and still
distinguished by the memory of their past, having heard nothing of
Galba's murder, refused to acknowledge the authority of Vitellius.
This exasperated Caecina's headstrong nature. Hostilities broke out
owing to the greed and impatience of the Twenty-first legion, who had
seized a sum of money which was being sent to pay the garrison of a
fort in which the Helvetii used to keep native troops at their own
expense.[139] The Helvetii, highly indignant at this, intercepted a
dispatch from the German army to the Pannonian legions, and kept a
centurion and some men in custody. Greedy for battle, Caecina hastened
to take immediate vengeance without giving them time for second
thoughts. Promptly breaking up his camp, he proceeded to harry the
country, and sacked a charming and much-frequented watering-place,[140]
which had grown during the long peace into the size and importance of
a town. Instructions were sent to the Raetian auxiliaries to attack
the Helvetii in the rear, while their attention was occupied with the
legion.
Full of spirit beforehand, the Helvetii were terrified in the face 68
of danger. At the first alarm they had chosen Claudius Severus
general, but they knew nothing of fighting or discipline and were
incapable of combined action. An engagement with the Roman veterans
would be disastrous; and the walls, dilapidated by time, could not
stand a siege. They found themselves between Caecina and his powerful
army on the one side, and on the other the Raetian auxiliaries, both
horse and foot, and the whole fighting force of Raetia as well,
trained soldiers well used to fighting.[141] Their country was given
over to plunder and massacre. Flinging away their arms, they wandered
miserably between two fires. Wounded and scattered, most of them took
refuge on the Bötzberg.[142] But some Thracian auxiliaries were
promptly sent to dislodge them. The German army, aided by the
Raetians, pursued them through the woods, and cut them to pieces in
their hiding-places. Many thousands were killed and many sold as
slaves. Having completed the work of destruction, the army advanced in
hostile array against Aventicum,[143] their capital town, and were met
by envoys offering surrender. The offer was accepted. Caecina executed
Julius Alpinus, one of their chief men, as the prime instigator of the
revolt. The rest he left to experience the clemency or cruelty of
Vitellius.
It is hard to say whether these envoys found Vitellius or the army the
more implacable. The soldiers clamoured for the destruction of the
town,[144] and shook their fists and weapons in the envoys' faces:
even Vitellius indulged in threatening language. Ultimately, however,
Claudius Cossus, one of the envoys, a noted speaker who greatly
enhanced the effect of his eloquence by concealing his skill under a
well-timed affectation of nervousness, succeeded in softening the
hearts of the soldiers. A mob is always liable to sudden changes of
feeling, and the men were as sensible to pity as they had been
extravagant in their brutality. Thus with streams of tears and
importunate prayers for a better answer the envoys procured a free
pardon for Aventicum.[145]
Caecina halted for a few days in Helvetian territory until he 70
could get news of Vitellius' decision. Meantime, while carrying on his
preparations for crossing the Alps, he received from Italy the joyful
news that 'Silius' Horse',[146] stationed at Padua, had come over to
Vitellius. The members of this troop had served under Vitellius when
pro-consul in Africa. They had subsequently been detached under orders
from Nero to precede him to Egypt, and had then been recalled, owing
to the outbreak of the war with Vindex. They were now in Italy. Their
officers, who knew nothing of Otho and were attached to Vitellius,
extolled the strength of the approaching column and the fame of the
German army. So the troop went over to Vitellius, bringing their new
emperor a gift of the four strongest towns of the Transpadane
district, Milan, Novara, Eporedia,[147] and Vercelli. Of this they
informed Caecina themselves. But one troop of horse could not garrison
the whole of the widest part of Italy. Caecina accordingly hurried
forward the Gallic, Lusitanian, and British auxiliaries, and some
German detachments, together with 'Petra's Horse',[148] while he
himself hesitated whether he should not cross the Raetian Alps[149]
into Noricum and attack the governor, Petronius Urbicus, who, having
raised a force of irregulars and broken down the bridges, was supposed
to be a faithful adherent of Otho. However, he was afraid of losing
the auxiliaries whom he had sent on ahead, and at the same time he
considered that there was more glory in holding Italy, and that,
wherever the theatre of the war might be, Noricum was sure to be among
the spoils of victory. So he chose the Pennine route[150] and led his
legionaries and the heavy marching column across the Alps, although
they were still deep in snow.[151]
FOOTNOTES:
[138] In Western Switzerland. Caesar had finally subdued them
in 58 B.C.
[139] This had happened before Caecina's arrival. Vindonissa,
their head-quarters (chap. 61, note 123), was on the borders
of the Helvetii.
[140] _Aquae Helvetiorum_ or _Vicus Aquensis_, about 16 miles
NW. of Zurich.
[141] Volunteers, not conscripts.
[142] Mount Vocetius.
[143] Avenches.
[144] Avenches.
[145] Vespasian made it a Latin colony.
[146] Probably raised by C. Silius, who was Governor of Upper
Germany under Tiberius. Troops of auxiliary horse were usually
named either after the governor of the province who first
organized the troop or after the country where it had first
been stationed, or where it had won fame.
[147] Ivrea.
[148] Petra occurs as the name of two Roman knights in _Ann._
xi. 4. One of these or a relative was probably the original
leader of the troop.
[149] The Arlberg.
[150] Great St. Bernard.
[151] Early in March.
OTHO'S GOVERNMENT AND THE DISTRIBUTION OF FORCES
Meanwhile, contrary to all expectation, Otho was no prey to idle 71
luxury. He postponed his pleasures and disguised his extravagance,
suiting all his behaviour to the dignity of his position. But people
knew they had not seen the last of his vices, and his virtuous
hypocrisy only increased their alarm. He gave orders to summon Marius
Celsus to the Capitol. This was the consul-elect whom he had rescued
from the savage clutches of the soldiers by pretending to put him in
prison.[152] Otho now wanted to earn a name for clemency by pardoning
a well-known man, who had fought against his party. Celsus was firm.
Pleading guilty to the charge of fidelity to Galba, he went on to show
that he had set an example which was all to Otho's advantage. Otho
treated him as if there was nothing to pardon. Calling on heaven to
witness their reconciliation, he then and there admitted him to the
circle of his intimate friends, and subsequently gave him an
appointment as one of his generals. Celsus remained faithful to Otho
too, doomed apparently to the losing side. His acquittal, which
delighted the upper classes and was popular with the mass of the
people, even earned the approval of the soldiers, who now admired the
qualities which had previously aroused their indignation.
Equal rejoicing, though for different reasons, followed the 72
long-looked-for downfall of Ofonius Tigellinus. Born of obscure
parentage, he had grown from an immoral youth into a vicious old man.
He rose to the command first of the Police,[153] and then of the
Praetorian Guards, finding that vice was a short cut to such rewards
of virtue. In these and other high offices he developed the vices of
maturity, first cruelty, then greed. He corrupted Nero and introduced
him to every kind of depravity; then ventured on some villainies
behind his back, and finally deserted and betrayed him. Thus in his
case, as in no other, those who hated Nero and those who wished him
back agreed, though from different motives, in calling loudly for his
execution. During Galba's reign he had been protected by the influence
of Titus Vinius, on the plea that he had saved his daughter. Saved her
he had, not from any feelings of pity (he had killed too many for
that), but to secure a refuge for the future. For all such rascals,
distrusting the present and fearing a change of fortune, always
prepare for themselves a shelter against public indignation by
obtaining the favour of private persons. So they rely to escape
punishment not on their innocence but on a system of mutual insurance.
People were all the more incensed against Tigellinus, since the recent
feeling against Vinius was added to their old hatred for him. From all
quarters of Rome they flocked to the palace and the squares; and above
all, in the circus and the theatre, where the mob enjoys complete
licence, they assembled in crowds and broke out into riotous uproar.
Eventually Tigellinus at Sinuessa Spa[154] received the news that his
last hour was inevitably come. There after a cowardly delay in the
foul embraces of his prostitutes he cut his throat with a razor, and
blackened the infamy of his life by a hesitating and shameful death.
About the same time there arose a demand for the punishment of 73
Calvia Crispinilla. But she was saved by various prevarications, and
Otho's connivence cost him some discredit. This woman had tutored Nero
in vice, and afterwards crossed to Africa to incite Clodius Macer[155]
to civil war. While there she openly schemed to start a famine in
Rome. However, she secured herself by marrying an ex-consul, and lived
to enjoy a wide popularity in Rome. She escaped harm under Galba,
Otho, and Vitellius, and eventually wielded a great influence due to
her being both rich and childless, considerations of the first
importance in any state of society.
During this time Otho wrote constantly to Vitellius, holding out 74
various effeminate inducements, making him offers of money or an
influential position, or any retreat he liked to select for a life of
luxury.[156] Vitellius made similar offers. At first both wrote in the
mildest tone, though the affectation on either side was stupid and
inappropriate. But they soon struck a quarrelsome note, and reproached
each other with immorality and crime, both with a good deal of truth.
Otho recalled the commission which Galba had sent out to Germany,[157]
and, using the pretext of senatorial authority, sent fresh
commissioners to both the armies in Germany, and also to the Italian
legion, and the troops quartered at Lugdunum. However, the
commissioners remained with Vitellius with a readiness which showed
they were under no compulsion; and the guards who had been attached to
them, ostensibly as a mark of honour, were sent back at once before
they had time to mix with the legionary soldiers. Further than this,
Fabius Valens sent letters in the name of the German army to the
Guards and the City Garrison, extolling the strength of his own side
and offering to join forces. He even went so far as to reproach them
with having transferred to Otho the title which had long before[158]
been conferred on Vitellius. Thus they were assailed with threats 75
as well as promises, and told that they were not strong enough to
fight, and had nothing to lose by making peace. But, in spite of all,
the fidelity of the Guards remained unchanged. However, Otho
dispatched assassins to Germany, Vitellius to Rome. Neither met with
success. Vitellius' assassins were lost in the crowds of Rome, where
nobody knows anybody, and thus escaped detection: Otho's were betrayed
by their strange faces, since the troops all knew each other by sight.
Vitellius then composed a letter to Otho's brother Titianus,[159]
threatening that his life and his son's should answer for the safety
of Vitellius' mother and children. As it happened neither household
suffered. Fear was perhaps the reason in Otho's time, but Vitellius,
after his victory, could certainly claim credit for clemency.
The first news which gave Otho any degree of confidence was the 76
announcement from Illyricum that the legions of Dalmatia and Pannonia
and Moesia[160] had sworn allegiance to him. Similar news arrived from
Spain, and Cluvius Rufus[161] was commended in a special decree, but
it was found out immediately afterwards that Spain had gone over to
Vitellius. Even Aquitania soon fell away, although Julius Cordus had
sworn in the province for Otho. Loyalty and affection seemed dead: men
changed from one side to the other under the stress of fear or
compulsion. It was fear which gave Vitellius the Province of Narbonese
Gaul,[162] for it is easy to go over when the big battalions are so
near. The distant provinces and the troops across the sea all remained
at Otho's disposal, but not from any enthusiasm for his cause; what
weighed with them was the name of Rome and the title of the senate.
Besides, Otho had got the first hearing. Vespasian swore in the Jewish
army[163] for Otho, and Mucianus the legions in Syria;[164] Egypt too
and all the provinces towards the East were held for him. He also
received the submission of Africa, where Carthage had taken the lead,
without waiting for the sanction of the governor, Vipstanus
Apronianus. Crescens, one of Nero's freedmen--in evil days these
creatures play a part in politics[165]--had given the common people of
the town a gala dinner in honour of the new emperor, with the result
that the inhabitants hurried into various excesses. The other African
communities followed the example of Carthage.
The provinces and their armies being thus divided, Vitellius could 77
only win the throne by fighting. Otho meanwhile was carrying on the
government as if the time were one of profound peace. Sometimes he
consulted the country's dignity, though more often the exigencies of
the moment forced him into unseemly haste. He held the consulship
himself with his brother Titianus as colleague until the first of
March. For the next two months he appointed Verginius, as a sort of
sop to the army in Germany.[166] As colleague he gave him Pompeius
Vopiscus, ostensibly because he was an old friend of his own, but it
was generally understood as a compliment to Vienne.[167] For the rest
of the year the appointments which Nero or Galba had made were allowed
to stand. The brothers Caelius and Flavius Sabinus[168] were consuls
for June and July, Arrius Antoninus[169] and Marius Celsus for August
and September; even Vitellius after his victory did not cancel their
appointment. To the pontifical and augural colleges Otho either
nominated old ex-magistrates, as the final crown of their career, or
else, when young aristocrats returned from exile, he instated them by
way of recompense in the pontifical posts which their fathers or
grandfathers had held. He restored Cadius Rufus, Pedius Blaesus, and
_Saevinus Proculus_[170] to their seats in the senate. They had been
convicted during Claudius' and Nero's reigns of extortion in the
provinces. In pardoning them the name of their offence was changed,
and their greed appeared as 'treason'. For so unpopular was the law of
treason that it sapped the force of better statutes.[171]
Otho next tried to win over the municipalities and provincial 78
towns by similar bribes. At the colonies of Hispalis and Emerita[172]
he enrolled new families of settlers, granted the franchise to the
whole community of the Lingones,[173] and made over certain Moorish
towns as a gift to the province of Baetica. Cappadocia and Africa were
also granted new privileges, as showy as they were short-lived. All
these grants are excused by the exigences of the moment and the
impending crisis, but he even found time to remember his old amours
and passed a measure through the senate restoring Poppaea's
statues.[174] He is believed also to have thought of celebrating
Nero's memory as a means of attracting public sympathy. Some persons
actually erected statues of Nero, and there were times when the
populace and the soldiers, by way of enhancing his fame and dignity,
saluted him as Nero Otho. However, he refused to commit himself. He
was ashamed to accept the title, yet afraid to forbid its use.
While the whole of Rome was intent upon the civil war, foreign 79
affairs were neglected. Consequently a Sarmatian tribe called the
Rhoxolani,[175] who had cut up two cohorts of auxiliaries in the
previous winter, now formed the still more daring scheme of invading
Moesia. Inspirited by success, they assembled nearly 9,000 mounted
men, all more intent on plunder than on fighting. While they were
riding about aimlessly without any suspicion of danger, they were
suddenly attacked by the Third legion[176] and its native auxiliaries.
On the Roman side everything was ready for a battle: the Sarmatians
were scattered over the country; some in their greed for plunder were
heavily laden, and their horses could scarcely move on the slippery
roads. They were caught in a trap and cut to pieces. It is quite
extraordinary how all a Sarmatian's courage is, so to speak, outside
himself. Fighting on foot, no one is more cowardly; but their cavalry
charge would break almost any troops. On this occasion it was raining
and the ground was greasy with thaw; their pikes and their long
swords, needing both hands to wield, were useless; their horses
slipped and they were encumbered by the heavy coat of mail which all
their chiefs and nobles wear. Being made of iron plates and a very
hard kind of leather, it is impenetrable to blows, but most
inconvenient for any one who is knocked down by a charge of the enemy
and tries to get up. Besides, they sank into the deep, soft snow. The
Roman soldiers in their neat leather jerkins, armed with javelin and
lance, and using, if need be, their light swords, sprang on the
unarmed Sarmatians (they never carry shields) and stabbed them at
close quarters. A few, surviving the battle, hid themselves in the
marshes, and there perished miserably from the severity of the winter
and their wounds. When the news of this reached Rome, Marcus Aponius,
the governor of Moesia, was granted a triumphal statue,[177] while the
commanding officers of the legions, Fulvius Aurelius, Tettius
Julianus, and Numisius Lupus, received the insignia of consular rank.
Otho was delighted and took all the credit to himself, as if he had
been the successful general, and had himself employed his officers and
armies to enlarge the empire.
In the meantime a riot broke out in an unexpected quarter, and, 80
though trivial at first, nearly ended in the destruction of Rome. Otho
had given orders that the Seventeenth cohort[178] should be summoned
from the colony of Ostia to the city, and Varius Crispinus, a tribune
of the guards, was instructed to provide them with arms. Anxious to
carry out his instructions undisturbed while the camp was quiet, he
arranged that the arsenal was to be opened and the cohort's wagons
loaded after nightfall. The hour aroused suspicion; the motive was
questioned; his choice of a quiet moment resulted in an uproar. The
mere sight of swords made the drunken soldiers long to use them. They
began to murmur and accuse their officers of treachery, suggesting
that the senators' slaves were going to be armed against Otho. Some of
them were too fuddled to know what they were saying: the rascals saw
a chance of plunder: the mass of them, as usual, were simply eager for
a change: and such as were loyal could not carry out their orders in
the darkness. When Crispinus tried to check them, the mutineers killed
him together with the most determined of the centurions, seized their
armour, bared their swords, and mounting the horses, made off at full
speed for Rome and the palace.
It so happened that a large party of Roman senators and their 81
wives was dining with Otho. In their alarm they wondered whether the
soldiers' outbreak was unpremeditated or a ruse of the emperor's:
would it be safer to fly in all directions or to stay and be arrested?
At one moment they would make a show of firmness, at the next their
terror betrayed them. All the time they were watching Otho's face,
and, as happens when people suspect each other, he was just as afraid
himself as they were of him. But feeling no less alarm for the
senators than for himself, he promptly dispatched the prefects of the
Guards to appease the anger of the troops, and told all his guests to
leave immediately. Then on all sides Roman officials could be seen to
throw away their insignia, avoid their suite, and slink off
unattended. Old gentlemen and their wives roamed the dark streets in
all directions. Few went home, most of them fled to friends, or sought
an obscure refuge with the humblest of their clients.
The soldiers' onrush could not be stopped at the gates of the 82
palace. They demanded to see Otho and invaded the banquet-hall.
Julius Martialis, a tribune of the Guards, and Vitellius Saturninus,
the camp-prefect[179] of the legion, were wounded while endeavouring
to bar their progress. On every side they brandished swords and hurled
threats, now against their officers, now against the whole senate; and
since they could not select any one victim for their wrath, in a blind
frenzy of panic they clamoured for a free hand against all the
senators. At last Otho, sacrificing his dignity, stood up on a couch
and with great difficulty restrained them by means of prayers and
tears. They returned to their camp unwillingly, and with a guilty
conscience.
The next day Rome was like a captured city. The houses were all shut,
the streets almost deserted, and everybody looked depressed. The
soldiers, too, hung their heads, though they were more sulky than
sorry for what they had done. Their prefects, Licinius Proculus and
Plotius Firmus, harangued them by companies, the one mildly, the other
harshly, for they were men of different natures. They concluded by
announcing that the men were to receive five thousand sesterces[180]
apiece. After that Otho ventured to enter the camp. The tribunes and
centurions each flinging away the insignia of his rank,[181] crowded
round him begging for a safe discharge. Stung by the disgrace of this,
the troops soon quieted down, and even went the length of demanding
that the ringleaders should be punished. In the general disturbance
Otho's position was difficult. The soldiers were by no means 83
unanimous. The better sort wanted him to put a stop to the prevalent
insubordination, but the great bulk of them liked faction-fighting and
emperors who had to court their favour, and with the prospect of
rioting and plunder were ready enough for civil war. He realized,
also, that one who wins a throne by violence cannot keep it by
suddenly trying to enforce the rigid discipline of earlier days.
However, the danger of the crisis both for the city and the senate
seriously alarmed him, so he finally delivered himself as follows:--
'Fellow soldiers, I have not come to fan the fire of your affection
for me, or to instil courage into your hearts: in both those qualities
you are more than rich. No, I have come to ask you to moderate your
courage and to set some bounds to your affection. These recent
disturbances did not originate in those passions of greed or violence,
which so often cause dissension in an army; nor was it that you
feared some danger and tried to shirk it. The sole cause was your
excessive loyalty, which you displayed with more ardour than
judgement. For with the best of motives, indiscretion often lands men
in disaster. We are preparing for war. Do you imagine that we could
publish all our dispatches, and discuss our plans in the presence of
the whole army, when we have to devise a systematic campaign and keep
up with the rapid changes of the situation? There are things a soldier
ought to know, but there is much of which he must be ignorant. It is
necessary for the maintenance of strict discipline and of the
general's authority that even his tribunes and centurions should often
obey blindly. If every one is going to inquire into his motives,
discipline is done for, and his authority falls to the ground. Suppose
in actual warfare you are called to arms at dead of night: shall a few
drunken blackguards--for I cannot believe that many lost their heads
in the recent panic--go and stain their hands with their officers'
blood, and then break into the general's tent?
'Now I know you did it to protect me, but the riot and the 84
darkness and the general confusion might easily have provided an
opportunity to kill me. Suppose Vitellius and his satellites had their
choice of the state of mind they would pray to find us in; what more
could they desire than mutiny and dissension, the men insubordinate to
the centurions, and the centurions to their superior officers, and the
whole force, horse and foot alike, rushing in headlong confusion to
their ruin? Good soldiering, my comrades, consists in obedience, not
in scrutinizing the general's orders; and the army which is most
orderly in peace is most courageous on the field of battle. Yours are
the swords and the courage; you must leave it to me to plan the
campaign, and to direct your valour. The culprits were but few, and
only two are to be punished; the rest of you must blot out all memory
of that discreditable night. No army must ever hear again such words
spoken against the senate. It is the brain of the empire and the glory
of all the provinces. Why, in Heaven's name, the very Germans
themselves, whom Vitellius is stirring up with all his might against
us, would not dare to call its members into question! Shall it be said
that Italy's own sons, the real soldiery of Rome, are clamouring to
murder and massacre the very senators whose lustre it is that throws
into the shade the obscure and vulgar adherents of Vitellius?
Vitellius has seized a few provinces and raised a sort of shadow of an
army; but the senate is on our side. Therefore, Rome is for us; they
are against her. Do you imagine that the stability of this beautiful
city consists in houses and edifices built of stone upon stone? Nay,
they are dumb inanimate things that may fall to pieces and be rebuilt
at pleasure. The eternity of our empire, the peace of the world, your
welfare and mine, all depend upon the safety of the senate. Instituted
with solemn ceremony by the father and founder of Rome, the senate has
come down in undying continuity from the kings to the emperors; and as
we have received it from our ancestors, so let us hand it on to our
posterity. From your ranks come the senators, and from the senate come
the emperors of Rome.'
This speech, as being well calculated to provide a reprimand and a 85
sedative for the soldiers, and Otho's moderation--for he only ordered
the punishment of two men--were well received. He had calmed for a
moment the troops he could not control. Yet peace and quiet were not
restored in Rome. One could still detect the clash of arms and the
lurid face of war. Refraining from organized riot, the soldiers now
dispersed to private houses and lived in disguise, giving vent to
their bad feeling by maligning all whom nobility of birth or wealth or
any other distinction made a mark for scandal. Many, besides, believed
that some of Vitellius' soldiers had come to Rome to study the state
of party feeling. Everywhere suspicion was rife, and terror invaded
even the privacy of the home. But far greater was the alarm displayed
in public places. With every fresh piece of news that rumour brought,
men's feelings and the expression on their faces changed. They were
afraid to be found lacking in confidence when things looked doubtful,
or in joy when they went well for Otho. Above all, when the senate was
summoned to the House, they found it extraordinarily hard always to
strike the right note. Silence would argue arrogance; plain speaking
would arouse suspicion; yet flattery would be detected by Otho, who
had so lately been a private citizen, practising the art himself. So
they had to turn and twist their sentences. Vitellius they called
enemy and traitor, the more prudent confining themselves to such vague
generalities. A few ventured to fling the truth at him, but they
always chose a moment of uproar when a great many people were all
shouting at once, or else they talked so loud and fast as to drown
their own words.
Another cause of alarm was the various portents vouched for by 86
many witnesses. In the Capitoline Square, it was said, the figure of
Victory had let the reins of her chariot slip from her hands: a ghost
of superhuman size had suddenly burst out of the chapel of Juno:[182]
a statue of the sainted Julius on the island in the Tiber had, on a
fine, still day, turned round from the west and faced the east: an ox
had spoken in Etruria: animals had given birth to strange monsters.
Many were the stories of these occurrences, which in primitive ages
are observed even in time of peace, though now we only hear of them in
time of panic. But the greatest damage at the moment, and the greatest
alarm for the future, was caused by a sudden rising of the Tiber.
Immensely swollen, it carried away the bridge on piles,[183] and, its
current being stemmed by the heavy ruins, it flooded not only the
flat, low-lying portions of the city, but also districts that seemed
safe from inundation. Many people were swept away in the streets,
still more were overtaken by the flood in shops or in their beds at
home. The result was a famine, since food was scarce,[184] and the
poor were deprived of their means of livelihood. Blocks of flats, the
foundations of which had rotted in the standing water, collapsed when
the river sank. No sooner had the panic caused by the flood subsided
than it was found that, whereas Otho was preparing an expedition, its
route over the Martian Plain and up the Flaminian Road was blocked.
Though probably caused by chance, or the course of Nature, this mishap
was turned into a miraculous omen of impending disaster.
FOOTNOTES:
[152] Chap. 45.
[153] Cp. note 46.
[154] A much-frequented watering-place on the borders of
Latium and Campania. The hot baths were considered good for
hysteria.
[155] Cp. chap. 7.
[156] Dio and Suetonius both say that Otho offered to share
the empire with Vitellius, and the latter adds that he
proposed for the hand of Vitellius' daughter. Tacitus here
follows Plutarch.
[157] Chap. 19.
[158] As a matter of fact, only twelve days before. It was on
the 2nd or 3rd of January that the troops of Lower and Upper
Germany proclaimed Vitellius. Galba fell to Otho on January
15.
[159] L. Salvius Otho Titianus, Otho's elder brother.
[160] There were two legions in Dalmatia, two in Pannonia,
three in Moesia, and two in Spain (see Summary, note 3).
[161] Cp. chap. 8.
[162] This included Savoy, Dauphiné, part of Provence or
Languedoc.
[163] Legs. V Macedonica, X Fretensis, XV Apollinaris.
[164] IV Scythica, VI Ferrata, XII Fulminata, and III Gallica.
[165] Since Claudius the great imperial bureaux, the posts of
private secretary, patronage-secretary, financial secretary,
&c., had all been held by freedmen. Cp. chap. 58.
[166] Otho and Titianus would naturally have held it for four
months.
[167] Vopiscus presumably came from Vienne, which had espoused
the cause first of Vindex, then of Galba. Cp. chap. 65.
[168] Not to be confused with Vespasian's brother.
[169] Grandfather of the Emperor Antoninus Pius.
[170] Name uncertain in MS.
[171] i.e. to be accused of 'treason' was in these days to win
public sympathy, even though the defendant were guilty of
offences under other more useful statutes.
[172] Seville and Merida.
[173] As the rest of this sentence refers to Spain and
Portugal it has been proposed to read for _Lingones Lusones_,
a Celtiberian tribe round the sources of the Tagus. The
Lingones were devoted to the cause of Vitellius. (See chap.
53, &c.)
[174] They had been thrown down by the populace, when Nero,
after divorcing Antonia, was shamed--or frightened--into
taking her back. (Cp. chap. 13.)
[175] They lived between the Dnieper and the Don, to the north
of the Sea of Azov.
[176] Gallica.
[177] This would depict him in full triumphal garb. But only
the emperor could actually hold a triumph, since it was under
his auspices that his generals fought.
[178] _Cohors civium Romanorum_. See note 130.
[179] The meaning of the title _praefectus legionis_ is
doubtful. It seems most likely to mean the same as _praefectus
castrorum_, an officer who superintended the camp and
sometimes acted as second-in-command (cp. ii. 89). The post
was one to which senior centurions could rise. At this period
they were not attached to a legion, but to a camp, where more
than one legion might be quartered. That makes the phrase here
used curious. The legion is that of the marines now stationed
in Rome (cp. chaps. 6 and 9). They appear to have joined the
mutinous Seventeenth cohort when they reached the city.
[180] About £40.
[181] The insignia of a tribunus were a tunic with a broad or
narrow stripe (accordingly as they were of senatorial or
equestrian rank), and a gold ring. A centurion carried a staff
made of a vine-branch, for disciplinary purposes.
[182] One of the three chapels in the temple of Jupiter on the
Capitoline.
[183] The pons Sublicius which led from the Velabrum to
Janiculum. It was the bridge which Horatius Cocles defended,
and a certain sanctity attached to it.
[184] Plutarch mentions that the quarter which suffered most
was that which contained the retail provision-shops.
OTHO'S PLANS
Otho had held a purification of the city[185] and meditated his 87
plans for the war. Recognizing that the Pennine and Cottian Alps and
all the other passes into Gaul were held by Vitellius, he decided to
invade Narbonese Gaul by sea. His fleet was now a strong and reliable
arm, devoted to his cause. For he had formed the full strength of a
legion out of the survivors of the Mulvian Bridge massacre,[186] whom
Galba's cruelty had kept in prison, and to all the marines he had
held out hopes of honourable service.[187] To the fleet he attached
the cohorts of the City Garrison and a large force of Guards. These
were the flower of the army and its chief strength, well able to
advise their own generals and to take good care of them. The command
of the expedition was entrusted to Antonius Novellus and Suedius
Clemens, both senior centurions,[188] and to Aemilius Pacensis, to
whom Otho had restored his commission,[189] of which Galba had
deprived him. In charge of the fleet he still retained the freedman
Moschus[190] to keep an eye on his betters. In command of the cavalry
and infantry he placed Suetonius Paulinus, Marius Celsus, and Annius
Gallus, but the man in whom he put most faith was the Prefect of the
Guards, Licinius Proculus. This officer had shown himself efficient in
garrison service, but was without any experience of warfare. He
maligned the characteristic virtues of his colleagues, Paulinus' power
of influence, Celsus' energy, Gallus' ripe judgement, and being a
knave and no fool, he easily got the better of men who were both
honest and loyal.
It was about this time that Cornelius Dolabella[191] was banished 88
to the colony of Aquinum,[192] though not kept in close or
dishonourable confinement. There was no charge against him: the stigma
upon him was his ancient name and kinship[193] to Galba. Otho issued
orders that several of the magistrates and a large number of
ex-consuls were to join the expedition, not to take part in the
campaign or to assist in any way, but simply as a friendly escort.
Among these was Lucius Vitellius, whom he treated neither as an
emperor's brother nor as the brother of an enemy, but just like
anybody else. Much anxiety was aroused for the safety of the city,
where all classes feared danger. The leading members of the senate
were old and infirm, and enervated by a long period of peace: the
aristocracy were inefficient and had forgotten how to fight: the
knights knew nothing of military service. The more they all tried to
conceal their alarm, the more obvious it became. Some of them, on the
other hand, went in for senseless display, and purchased beautiful
armour and fine horses: others procured as provisions of war elaborate
dinner-services or some other contrivance to stimulate a jaded taste.
Prudent men were concerned for the country's peace: the frivolous,
without a thought for the future, were inflated by empty hopes: a good
many, whose loss of credit made peace unwelcome, were delighted at the
general unrest, feeling safer among uncertainties. Though the 89
cares of state were too vast to arouse any interest in the masses, yet
as the price of food rose, and the whole revenue was devoted to
military purposes, the common people gradually began to realize the
evils of war. During the revolt of Vindex they had not suffered so
much. Being carried on in the provinces between the legionaries and
the natives of Gaul it was to all intents a foreign war, and the city
had not been affected. For from the time when the sainted Augustus
organized the rule of the Caesars the wars of the Roman people had
been fought in distant countries: all the anxiety and all the glory
fell to the emperor alone. Under Tiberius and Caligula the country
only suffered from the evils of peace.[194] Scribonianus' rising
against Claudius was no sooner heard of than crushed.[195] Nero had
been dethroned more by rumours and dispatches than by force of arms.
But now not only the legions and the fleet, but, as had seldom
happened before, the Guards and the City Garrison were called out for
the campaign. Behind them were the East and the West and all the
forces of the empire, material for a long war under any other
generals. An attempt was made to delay Otho's departure by pointing
out the impiety of his not having replaced the sacred shields in the
temple of Mars.[196] But delay had ruined Nero: Otho would have none
of it. And the knowledge that Caecina had already crossed the
Alps[197] acted as a further stimulus.
Accordingly, on the fourteenth of March he commended the 90
government of the country to the senate, and granted to the restored
exiles all the rest of the property confiscated by Nero which had not
yet been sold for the imperial treasury.[198] The gift was a just one,
and made a very good impression, but as a matter of fact it was
nullified by the haste with which the work of collecting the money had
been conducted.[199] He then summoned a public meeting, and, after
extolling the majesty of Rome and praising the wholehearted adherence
of the senate and people to his cause, he used very moderate language
against the Vitellian party, criticizing the legions more for folly
than treason, and making no mention of Vitellius himself. This may
have been due to his own moderation, or it may be that the writer of
the speech felt some qualms for his own safety, and therefore
refrained from insulting Vitellius. For it was generally believed that
as in strategy he took the advice of Suetonius Paulinus and Marius
Celsus, so too in political matters he employed the talents of
Galerius Trachalus.[200] Some people even thought they could
recognize Trachalus' style of oratory, fluent and sonorous, well
adapted to tickle the ears of the crowd: and as he was a popular
pleader his style was well known. The crowd's loud shouts of applause
were in the best style of flattery, excessive and insincere. Men vied
with each other in their enthusiasm and prayers for his success, much
as though they were sending off the dictator Caesar or the emperor
Augustus. Their motive was neither fear nor affection, but a sheer
passion for servility. One can see the same in households of slaves,
where each obeys his own interest and the common welfare counts for
nothing. On his departure Otho entrusted the peace of the city and the
interests of the empire to his brother Salvius Titianus.
FOOTNOTES:
[185] He would lead the victim, before sacrificing it, round
the ancient boundary of the city, and thus avert the disasters
threatened by the alarming omens detailed in the last chapter.
[186] Cp. chaps. 6 and 37.
[187] i.e. of becoming eventually a legion or praetorian cohort.
[188] Cp. note 57.
[189] The command of a cohort in the City Garrison.
[190] He had held this post under Nero and Galba. His
functions were those of steward and spy combined.
[191] He had been a rival candidate for adoption by Galba.
Vitellius had him killed (ii. 63).
[192] Aquino.
[193] It is not known what this was.
[194] Mainly connected with the elaborate system of espionage.
[195] Furius Camillus Scribonianus, governor of Dalmatia,
rebelled against Claudius, A.D. 42, and was crushed within
five days.
[196] They would be taken out on the 1st of March to be used
in the sacred dances of the Salii (the 'Dancing Priests').
Their festival lasted the whole month, and Otho started on the
14th.
[197] See chap. 70.
[198] Cp. chap. 20.
[199] Nero had put the confiscated property of political
exiles up to auction. His treasury officials had been so
prompt in selling it all off and getting the money in, that
there was very little left for Otho to restore, since he could
only give back those lots which had not been paid for.
[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.