LI.
In funere eius novata luctu ac dolore militum seditio, nec erat qui coerceret. ad Verginium versi, modo ut reciperet imperium, nunc ut legatione apud Caecinam ac Valentem fungeretur, minitantes orabant: Verginius per aversam domus partem furtim digressus inrumpentis frustratus est. earum quae Brixelli egerant cohortium preces Rubrius Gallus tulit, et venia statim impetrata, concedentibus ad victorem per Flavium Sabinum iis copiis quibus praefuerat.
51.
At his funeral, the grief and bitter resentment of the soldiers caused a new seditious breakout, with no one there to contain it. They applied to Verginius and, mingling threats with prayers, now begged him to assume the imperial power, now to act as their spokesman before Caecina and Valens. Verginius escaped them as they forced his doors by slipping out unseen by the back entrance of his house. Rubius Gallus took the petition for pardon from the cohorts camped at Brixellum [to the Vitellians] and the appeal was accepted at once. Flavius Sabinus also surrendered to the victors the troops he had commanded.
LII.
Posito ubique bello magna pars senatus extremum discrimen adiit, profecta cum Othone ab urbe, dein Mutinae relicta. illuc adverso de proelio adlatum: sed milites ut falsum rumorem aspernantes, quod infensum Othoni senatum arbitrabantur, custodire sermones, vultum habitumque trahere in deterius; conviciis postremo ac probris causam et initium caedis quaerebant, cum alius insuper metus senatoribus instaret, ne praevalidis iam Vitellii partibus cunctanter excepisse victoriam crederentur. ita trepidi et utrimque anxii coeunt, nemo privatim expedito consilio, inter multos societate culpae tutior. onerabat paventium curas ordo Mutinensis arma et pecuniam offerendo, appellabatque patres conscriptos intempestivo honore.
52.
The war was ended everywhere, but the larger part of the Senate, who had started from Rome with Otho and then was left behind at Mutina, were facing a grave danger. When news of the defeat reached Mutina, the soldiers dismissed it as false and, in their belief that the Senate was hostile to Otho, they kept close watch on their talk and assigned a negative twist to the expression of their faces and their general demeanor. In the end they sought some excuse for provoking a massacre by openly insulting and abusing them. Another fear hung over the senators’ heads now that Vitellius’ fortunes were on the rise, that of appearing too slow in welcoming his victory. So they held an assembly, frightened and dismayed by the two-headed danger, no one venturing to advance any idea of his own, each feeling safer in a community of guilt. Adding to the dilemma of the terrified company, the municipal council of Mutina made them an offer of arms and money, addressing them by the flattering but inopportune name of ‘conscript fathers’.
LIII.
Notabile iurgium fuit quo Licinius Caecina Marcellum Eprium ut ambigua disserentem invasit. nec ceteri sententias aperiebant: sed invisum memoria delationum expositumque ad invidiam Marcelli nomen inritaverat Caecinam, ut novus adhuc et in senatum nuper adscitus magnis inimicitiis claresceret. moderatione meliorum dirempti. et rediere omnes Bononiam, rursus consiliaturi; simul medio temporis plures nuntii sperabantur. Bononiae, divisis per itinera qui recentissimum quemque percontarentur, interrogatus Othonis libertus causam digressus habere se suprema eius mandata respondit; ipsum viventem quidem relictum, sed sola posteritatis cura et abruptis vitae blandimentis. hinc admiratio et plura interrogandi pudor, atque omnium animi in Vitellium inclinavere.
53.
A quarrel worthy of mention arose when Licinius Caecina attacked Marcellus Eprius for speaking in riddles. The rest of the senators did not speak their mind openly either, but Marcellus’ name was unpopular and a target for scorn, for all remembered he had been an informer and this had prodded Caecina, a new man only recently admitted to the senate, to gain renown by opposing prominent citizens. The moderation of better men separated the two opponents, then all returned to Bononia with the intent of having a new debate there and in the hope that in the meantime more news would arrive. At Bononia they placed men along the various routes to question anyone coming in. When one of Otho’s freedmen, [thus intercepted], was asked the reason for leaving the prince, he said he was the bearer of his master’s last wishes and that Otho was indeed alive when he had left him, but that his only concern was for posterity, having rejected all the allurements of life. At this there was much admiration and a certain hesitancy to inquire further. Then all minds turned their attention to pleasing Vitellius.
LIV.
Intererat consiliis frater eius L. Vitellius seque iam adulantibus offerebat, cum repente Coenus libertus Neronis atroci mendacio universos perculit, adfirmans superventu quartae decimae legionis, iunctis a Brixello viribus, caesos victores; versam partium fortunam. causa fingendi fuit ut diplomata Othonis, quae neglegebantur, laetiore nuntio revalescerent. et Coenus quidem raptim in urbem vectus paucos post dies iussu Vitellii poenas luit: senatorum periculum auctum credentibus Othonianis militibus vera esse quae adferebantur. intendebat formidinem quod publici consilii facie discessum Mutina desertaeque partes forent. nec ultra in commune congressi sibi quisque consuluere, donec missae a Fabio Valente epistulae demerent metum. et mors Othonis quo laudabilior eo velocius audita.
54.
Vitellius’ brother Lucius was participating in the debates and was now offering his services to his fawning peers, when suddenly Coenus, one of Nero’s freedmen, struck terror into them by a reckless lie, affirming that, with the arrival of the Fourteenth legion and its junction with the forces from Brixellum, the victors had suffered a crushing defeat and that the parties’ fortunes had been reversed. The reason for inventing the story was so that this more welcome news would lend renewed validity to Otho’s safe-conducts, which were now being ignored. And in fact Coenus was able to reach Rome in a hurry, but a few days later, at Vitellius’ orders, he paid dearly for his ruse. The danger the Senate was in now increased, as the Othonian soldiers believed the report to be true. What deepened their alarm was that their departure from Mutina and their desertion of Otho’s cause had seemingly official character. They now no longer assembled to deliberate and each senator thought of his own safety, until a message from Fabius Valens dispelled their fears. Besides, the more Otho’s death was admired, the faster news of it spread.
LV.
At Romae nihil trepidationis; Ceriales ludi ex more spectabantur. ut cessisse Othonem et a Flavio Sabino praefecto urbis quod erat in urbe militum sacramento Vitellii adactum certi auctores in theatrum attulerunt, Vitellio plausere; populus cum lauru ac floribus Galbae imagines circum templa tulit, congestis in modum tumuli coronis iuxta lacum Curtii, quem locum Galba moriens sanguine infecerat. in senatu cuncta longis aliorum principatibus composita statim decernuntur; additae erga Germanicum exercitum laudes gratesque et missa legatio quae gaudio fungeretur. recitatae Fabii Valentis epistulae ad consules scriptae haud immoderate: gratior Caecinae modestia fuit quod non scripsisset.
55.
At Rome, on the other hand, there was no unrest. As usual [at that time of the year] the festival of Ceres was being celebrated and when in the theatre it was announced on good authority that Otho was out of the way and that all troops left in the city had taken the oath of allegiance to Vitellius at the prompting of the city prefect, Fabius Sabinus, there was enthusiastic cheering for Vitellius. The populace, bearing olive branches and flowers, carried Galba’s images {in procession] around the city temples and piled up garlands into a sort of burial mound near Lacus Curtius, on the spot Galba had stained in death with his blood. All the honors devised in the long years of rule under different emperors were bestowed on Vitellius at once. In addition, official praise and thanks were decreed to the German army and a delegation was sent to express the people’s joy. A letter from Fabius Valens, written in a restrained style, was read out in the Senate, but Caecina’s modesty in not writing at all gave more pleasure.
LVI.
Ceterum Italia gravius atque atrocius quam bello adflictabatur. dispersi per municipia et colonias Vitelliani spoliare, rapere, vi et stupris polluere: in omne fas nefasque avidi aut venales non sacro, non profano abstinebant. et fuere qui inimicos suos specie militum interficerent. ipsique milites regionum gnari refertos agros, ditis dominos in praedam aut, si repugnatum foret, ad exitium destinabant, obnoxiis ducibus et prohibere non ausis. minus avaritiae in Caecina, plus ambitionis: Valens ob lucra et quaestus infamis eoque alienae etiam culpae dissimulator. iam pridem attritis Italiae rebus tantum peditum equitumque, vis damnaque et iniuriae aegre tolerabantur.
56.
Greater and more terrible evils, however, were besetting Italy. Spread out among the towns and colonies the Vitellian troops plundered, robbed, raped, and perverted all by their brutality and lust. Greedy and unscrupulous, they cared nothing for right or wrong and spared nothing whether sacred or profane. There were men who, pretending to be soldiers, murdered their personal enemies. The soldiers themselves, those who were familiar with the lay of the land, singled out the prosperous estates and rich landowners for robbery and, if resisted, for destruction. The generals were at the mercy of the troops and dared not intervene. Caecina was less greedy but courted popularity with the troops. Valens, notorious for his graft and extorsions, was for that reason more inclined to close his eyes to the iniquities of others. Italy’s resources had been depleted well before this time and all this infantry and cavalry and their violence, devastations, and abuses were more than the country could endure.
LVII.
Interim Vitellius victoriae suae nescius ut ad integrum bellum reliquas Germanici exercitus viris trahebat. pauci veterum militum in hibernis relicti, festinatis per Gallias dilectibus, ut remanentium legionum nomina supplerentur. cura ripae Hordeonio Flacco permissa; ipse e Britannico [exercitu] delecta octo milia sibi adiunxit. et paucorum dierum iter progressus prosperas apud Bedriacum res ac morte Othonis concidisse bellum accepit: vocata contione virtutem militum laudibus cumulat. postulante exercitu ut libertum suum Asiaticum equestri dignitate donaret, inhonestam adulationem conpescit; dein mobilitate ingenii, quod palam abnuerat, inter secreta convivii largitur, honoravitque Asiaticum anulis, foedum mancipium et malis artibus ambitiosum.
57.
In the meantime, still unaware of his victory, Vitellius was moving forward with the rest of the German forces, as if the war was still undecided. He had left in their winter quarters a small number of veterans and had hastened the conscription of new troops in Gaul in order to bring the remaining legions up to full strength. He entrusted the defense of the Rhine to Hordeonius Flaccus and bolstered his own forces with eight thousand picked troops from the army of Britain. After a march of a few days, he heard of the success at Bedriacum and of the end of the war at Otho’s death. He called an assembly of the troops and praised to the skies the valor of his men. On being entreated by the soldiery to grant his freedman Asiaticus the equestrian dignity, he reproved their unseemly adulation. But later, with an inconsistency typical of the man, what he had publicly refused he accorded in the intimacy of a banquet, honoring with the gold ring of a knight a foul creature who owed his success to evil practices.
LVIII.
Isdem diebus accessisse partibus utramque Mauretaniam, interfecto procuratore Albino, nuntii venere. Lucceius Albinus a Nerone Mauretaniae Caesariensi praepositus, addita per Galbam Tingitanae provinciae administratione, haud spernendis viribus agebat. decem novem cohortes, quinque alae, ingens Maurorum numerus aderat, per latrocinia et raptus apta bello manus. caeso Galba in Othonem pronus nec Africa contentus Hispaniae angusto freto diremptae imminebat. inde Cluvio Rufo metus, et decimam legionem propinquare litori ut transmissurus iussit; praemissi centuriones qui Maurorum animos Vitellio conciliarent. neque arduum fuit, magna per provincias Germanici exercitus fama; spargebatur insuper spreto procuratoris vocabulo Albinum insigne regis et Iubae nomen usurpare.
58.
In those same days news came that both Mauritanias had joined his party, after murdering Lucceius Albinus, the imperial governor. He had been placed at the head of Mauritania Caesariensis by Nero, to which Galba had added Mauretania Tingitana, and had significant forces at his command. These included nineteen cohorts, five cavalry regiments and a strong contingent of Mauri, a people whom brigandage and rapine make quite effective in war. After Galba’s murder he had sided with Otho and, not satisfied with Africa alone, he was threatening Spain, separated from Africa by a narrow strait. This alarmed Cluvius Rufus, who ordered the Tenth legion to move closer to the coast, as if he had the intention to take it across. He sent over an advanced party of centurions to gain over to Vitellius the sympathies of the Moors. That was not an arduous task, for the reputation of the German army was high throughout the provinces. Besides, it was rumored that Albinus, disdaining the title of governor, was assuming the trappings of royalty and the name of Juba.
LIX.
Ita mutatis animis Asinius Pollio alae praefectus, e fidissimis Albino, et Festus ac Scipio cohortium praefecti opprimuntur: ipse Albinus dum e Tingitana provincia Caesariensem Mauretaniam petit, adpulsu litoris trucidatus; uxor eius cum se percussoribus obtulisset, simul interfecta est, nihil eorum quae fierent Vitellio anquirente: brevi auditu quamvis magna transibat, impar curis gravioribus. Exercitum itinere terrestri pergere iubet: ipse Arare flumine devehitur, nullo principali paratu, sed vetere egestate conspicuus, donec Iunius Blaesus Lugudunensis Galliae rector, genere inlustri, largus animo et par opibus, circumdaret principi ministeria, comitaretur liberaliter, eo ipso ingratus, quamvis odium Vitellius vernilibus blanditiis velaret. praesto fuere Luguduni victricium victarumque partium duces. Valentem et Caecinam pro contione laudatos curuli suae circumposuit. mox universum exercitum occurrere infanti filio iubet, perlatumque et paludamento opertum sinu retinens Germanicum appellavit cinxitque cunctis fortunae principalis insignibus. nimius honos inter secunda rebus adversis in solacium cessit.
59.
Once the loyalty of the Mauritanians had been subverted, Asinius Pollio, prefect of one of the cavalry regiment and one of the subordinates most faithful to Albinus, together with Festus and Scipio, two cohort commanders, were done away with. Albinus himself, while sailing from the Tingitiana province to Mauretania Caesariensis, was killed upon landing. His wife offered herself to the assassins and was murdered as well. Vitellius made no enquiries into these doings: however important the issue before him he would accord it but superficial attention, incapable as he was to attend to more serious matters. He ordered his armies to proceed by land, while he descended the course of the Arar by boat. He attracted notice not by princely display, but by a penury indicative of his former state, until Junius Blaesus, the governor of Gallia Lugdunensis, a man of illustrious birth, whose wealth equaled his liberality, furnished him with attendance worthy of an emperor, including a splendid retinue. But his very kindness earned him only resentment, although Vitellius concealed his hate under servile expressions of gratitude. At Lugdunum he found the leaders of both winning and defeated parties awaiting him. Before the assembled troops he paid tribute to Valens and Caecina and assigned them places next to his chair of state. Then he required his entire army to come and meet his infant son. He had the child brought to him, bundled up in a military cloak and holding him in his arms called him Germanicus and placed around him all the emblems of imperial rank. This excessive display of honors when fortune smiled became a consolation when adversity struck.
LX.
Tum interfecti centuriones promptissimi Othonianorum, unde praecipua in Vitellium alienatio per Illyricos exercitus; simul ceterae legiones contactu et adversus Germanicos milites invidia bellum meditabantur. Suetonium Paulinum ac Licinium Proculum tristi mora squalidos tenuit, donec auditi necessariis magis defensionibus quam honestis uterentur. proditionem ultro imputabant, spatium longi ante proelium itineris, fatigationem Othonianorum, permixtum vehiculis agmen ac pleraque fortuita fraudi suae adsignantes. et Vitellius credidit de perfidia et fidem absolvit. Salvius Titianus Othonis frater nullum discrimen adiit, pietate et ignavia excusatus. Mario Celso consulatus servatur: sed creditum fama obiectumque mox in senatu Caecilio Simplici, quod eum honorem pecunia mercari, nec sine exitio Celsi, voluisset: restitit Vitellius deditque postea consulatum Simplici innoxium et inemptum. Trachalum adversus criminantis Galeria uxor Vitellii protexit.
60.
Next, the centurions most active in Otho’s service were eliminated; this was the reason of the bitter animosity towards Vitellius felt by all the troops in Illyricum. At the same time, the other legions, by contagion, [came to share the same hatred], and because of their aversion to the German soldiery, they began to entertain thoughts of war. Kept in squalid confinement, Suetonius Paulinus and Licinius Proculus, when finally heard after a humiliating delay, used for their defense arguments inspired more by necessity than by honor, going so far as to incriminate themselves by ascribing to fraudulent design on their part the long march before the battle, the exhaustion of Otho’s troops, the congestion and confusion of baggage train and soldiers, even incidents really fortuitous. [Being a rogue himself], Vitellius believed in their knavery, when in fact he was excusing their fidelity. Salvius Titianus, Otho’s brother, was never in any danger: fraternal ties and his own ineffectiveness exonerated him. Marius Celsus remained consul, but it was rumored and later it was laid to Caecilius Simplex’ charge in the Senate, that he had sought to buy the consulship, even at the cost of Celsus’ life. Vitellius stayed the charge and later gave the consulship to Simplex, at no cost to him and without recourse to crime. Trachalus was shielded from prosecution by Vitellius’ wife Galeria.