89 1 Vitellius, mounted on a handsome horse and wearing a general’s cloak and arms, had set out from the Mulvian bridge, driving the senate and people before him; but he was dissuaded by his courtiers from entering Rome as if it were a captured city, and so he changed to a senator’s toga, ranged his troops in good order, and made his entry on foot. The eagles of four legions were at the head of the line, while the colours of four other legions were to be seen on either side; then came the standards of twelve troops of cavalry, and after them foot and horse; next marched thirty-four cohorts distinguished by the names of their countries or by their arms. Before the eagles marched the prefects of camp, the tribunes, and the chief centurions, dressed in white; the other centurions, with polished arms and decorations gleaming, marched each with his century. The common soldiers’ medals and collars were likewise bright and shining. It was an imposing sight and an army which deserved a better emperor than Vitellius. With this array he mounted the Capitol, where he embraced his mother and bestowed on her the name of Augusta.
90 1 The next day, as if he were speaking to the senate and people of an alien state, Vitellius made a boastful speech about himself, extolling his own industry and restraint, although his crimes were well known to his hearers and indeed to all Italy, through which he had come in shameful sloth and luxury. Yet the populace, careless and unable to distinguish between truth and falsehood, shouted loud the usual flattery, as it had been taught to do; in spite of his refusal they forced him to take the name of Augustus — but his acceptance proved as useless as his refusal.
91 1 A city which found a meaning in everything naturally regarded as an evil omen the fact that on becoming pontifex maximus Vitellius issued a proclamation concerning public religious ceremonies on the eighteenth of July, a day which for centuries had been held to be a day of ill-omen because of the disasters suffered at the Cremera and Allia: thus, wholly ignorant of law both divine and human, his freedmen and courtiers as stupid as himself, he lived as if among a set of drunkards. Yet at the time of the consular elections he canvassed with his candidates like an ordinary citizen; he eagerly caught at every murmur of the lowest orders in the theatre where he merely looked on, but in the circus he openly favoured his colours. All this no doubt gave pleasure and would have won him popularity, if it had been prompted by virtue; but as it was, the memory of his former life made men regard these acts as unbecoming and base. He frequently came to the senate, even when the senators were discussing trivial matters. Once it happened that Helvidius Priscus, being then praetor-elect, expressed a view which was opposed to his wishes. Vitellius was at first excited, but he did nothing more than call the tribunes of the people to support his authority that had been slighted. Later, when his friends, fearing that his anger might be deep-seated, tried to calm him, he replied that it was nothing strange for two senators to hold different views in the state; indeed he had usually opposed even Thrasea. Many regarded this impudent comparison as absurd; others were pleased with the very fact that he had selected, not one of the most influential, but Thrasea, to serve as a model of true glory.
92 1 Vitellius had appointed as prefects of the praetorian guard Publilius Sabinus, who was prefect of a cohort, and Julius Priscus, a centurion at the time. Priscus owed his position to the favour of Valens, Sabinus to that of Caecina. When these two disagreed Vitellius had no authority. The emperor’s duties were actually performed by Caecina and Valens. These had long hated each other with a hatred which had been hardly concealed during the war and in camp, and which was now increased by base friends and by civic life, always prolific in breeding enemies. In their efforts to have a great entourage, many courtiers, and long lines at their receptions they rivalled each other and provoked comparison, while the favour of Vitellius inclined now to one and again to the other; when a man has excessive power, he never can have complete trust: at the same time Vitellius himself, with his fickle readiness to take sudden offence or to resort to unseasonable flattery, was the object of their contempt and fears. This had not, however, made them slow to seize houses, gardens, and the wealth of the empire, while a pathetic and poverty-stricken crowd of nobles, whom with their children Galba had restored to their native city, received no pity or help from the emperor. An act which pleased the great and found approval even among the plebeians was that which gave those who returned from exile the rights of patrons over their freedmen; yet the freedmen by their servile cunning avoided the consequences of this act in every way, concealing their money by depositing it with obscure friends or with people of high position; some of them passed into Caesar’s household and became more powerful even than their masters.
93 1 But the soldiers, whose number was far too great for the crowded camp, wandered about in the colonnades, the temples, and in fact throughout the city; they did no guard-duty and were not kept in condition by service. Giving themselves up to the allurements of the capital and to excesses too shameful to name, they constantly weakened their physical strength by inactivity, their courage by debaucheries. Finally, with no regard even for their very lives, a large proportion camped in the unhealthy districts of the Vatican, which resulted in many deaths among the common soldiery; and the Tiber being close by, the inability of the Gauls and Germans to bear the heat and the consequent greed with which they drank from the stream weakened their bodies, which were already an easy prey to disease. Besides this, the different classes of service were thrown into confusion by corruption and self-seeking: sixteen praetorian, four city cohorts were enrolled with a quota of a thousand men each. In organizing these bodies Valens put himself forward as having rescued Caecina himself from peril. It was true that his arrival had enabled the party of Vitellius to prevail, and that by the victory he had got rid of the ugly rumour that he had delayed his advance; and all the troops of lower Germany were his enthusiastic followers, which gives us reason to think that this was the moment when Caecina’s fidelity to Vitellius began to waver.
94 1 However, the indulgences of Vitellius to his generals did not equal the licence he granted to his soldiers. Everyone selected the branch of the service he desired: no matter how unworthy a soldier might be, he was enrolled for service at Rome, if he preferred it. On the other hand, the good soldiers were allowed to remain with the legions or the cavalry if they wished; and there were some who did so desire, for they were exhausted by disease and cursed the climate of Rome. Nevertheless the strength was drawn off from the legions and cavalry, and the high prestige of the praetorian camp was shaken, for these twenty thousand men were not a picked body but only a confused mob taken from the whole army.
When Vitellius was addressing his troops, the soldiers demanded the punishment of Asiaticus, Flavius, and Rufinus, Gallic chiefs who had fought for Vindex. Vitellius did not try to check demands of this sort, for not only was he naturally without energy, but he was well aware that the time was close at hand when he must pay his soldiers a donative and that he had not the necessary money: therefore he indulged his troops in everything else. The freedmen of the imperial house were ordered to pay a tribute proportionate to the number of their slaves; but the emperor, whose only care was to spend money, kept building stables for jockeys, filling the arena with exhibitions of gladiators and wild beasts, and fooling away money as if his treasuries were filled to overflowing.
95 1 Moreover, Caecina and Valens celebrated his birthday by giving gladiatorial shows in every precinct of the city on an enormous scale unheard of up to that time. The worst element were delighted but the best citizens were scandalized by the act of Vitellius in erecting altars on the Campus Martius and sacrificing to the shades of Nero. The victims were killed and burned in the name of the state. The torch was applied to the sacrifices by the Augustales, a sacred college which Tiberius Caesar had dedicated to the Julian gens, as Romulus had dedicated a college to King Tatius. Four months had not yet passed since his victory, and yet Asiaticus, a freedman of Vitellius, already equalled a Polyclitus, a Patrobius, and the other detested names of th
e past. In his court no one tried to win a reputation through honesty or industry: there was one single road to power, and that was by satisfying the emperor’s boundless greed with extravagant banquets and expensive orgies. He himself was more than content to enjoy the present hour with no thought beyond: and he is believed to have squandered nine hundred million sesterces in a very few months. At once great and wretched, the state was forced to endure within a single year an Otho and Vitellius, and to suffer all the vicissitudes of a shameful fate at the hands of a Vinius, a Fabius, an Icelus, and an Asiaticus, until at last they were succeeded by a Mucianus and a Marcellus — other men rather than other characters.
96 1 The first defection reported to Vitellius was that of the Third legion. The news came in a letter sent by Aponius Saturninus before he also joined Vespasian’s side. But Aponius, in his excitement over the sudden change, had not written the whole truth, and the flattery of courtiers gave a less serious interpretation to the news. They said that this was the mutiny of only one legion; that the rest of the troops were faithful. It was to the same effect that Vitellius himself spoke to the soldiers: he attacked the praetorians who had lately been discharged, blaming them for spreading false rumours, and declared that there was no occasion to fear civil war, keeping back Vespasian’s name and sending soldiers round through the city to check the people’s talk. Nothing furnished rumour with more food.
97 1 Nevertheless he summoned auxiliaries from Germany, Britain, and the Spains; but he did this slowly and tried to conceal the necessity of his action. The governors and the provinces moved as slowly as he. Hordeonius Flaccusº already suspected the Batavians and was disturbed by the possibility of having a war of his own; Vettius Bolanus never enjoyed entire peace in Britain, and both of them were wavering in their allegiance. Nor did troops hurry from the Spains, for at that moment there was no governor there. The commanders of the three legions, who were equal in authority and who would have vied with each other in obedience to Vitellius if his affairs had been prosperous, now all alike shrank from sharing his adversity. In Africa the legion and the cohorts raised by Clodius Macer, but afterwards dismissed by Galba, resumed their service by order of Vitellius; at the same time the young civilians as well enlisted with enthusiasm. For the government of Vitellius as proconsul had been honest and popular, while that of Vespasian had been notorious and hated; from such memories the allies formed their conjectures as to what each would be as emperor; but experience proved exactly the opposite.
98 1 At first the commander, Valerius Festus, loyally supported the wishes of the provincials. But presently he began to waver; in his public letters and documents he favoured Vitellius, but by secret messages he fostered Vespasian’s interest and was ready to take whichever side prevailed. Some soldiers and centurions who had been dispatched through Raetia and the Gallic provinces were arrested with letters and proclamations of Vespasian on their persons, sent to Vitellius, and put to death. The majority of the messengers, however, escaped arrest, being concealed by faithful friends or escaping by their own wits. In this way the preparations of Vitellius became known while most of Vespasian’s plans remained secret. This was due first of all to the stupidity of Vitellius, and secondly to the fact that the guards stationed in the Pannonian Alps blocked the messengers. Moreover, as this was the season of the etesian winds, the sea was favourable for vessels sailing to the East, but unfavourable to those coming from that quarter.
99 1 Finally Vitellius became alarmed by the oncoming of the enemy and by the terrifying messages which reached him from every side, and ordered Caecina and Valens to prepare for war. Caecina was sent on in advance; Valens, who was at that moment just getting up from a serious sickness, was delayed by physical weakness. As the army from Germany left the city it presented a very different appearance from that which it had displayed on entering Rome: the soldiers had no vigour, no enthusiasm; they marched in a slow and ragged column, dragging their weapons, while their horses were without spirit; but the troops who could not endure sun, dust, or storm and who had no heart to face toil, were all the more ready to quarrel. Another factor in the situation was furnished by Caecina’s old ambition and his newly acquired sloth, for an excess of Fortune’s favours had made him give way to luxury; or he may have been already planning to turn traitor and so have made it part of his plan to break the morale of his army. It has been generally believed that it was the arguments of Flavius Sabinus that made Caecina’s loyalty waver, and that the go-between was Rubrius Gallus, who assured him that Vespasian would approve the conditions on which Caecina was to come over. At the same time he was reminded of his hatred and jealousy towards Fabius Valens and was urged, since his influence with Vitellius was not equal to that of his rival, to seek favour and support from the new emperor.
100 1 Caecina, departing from the embraces of Vitellius with great honours, sent a part of his horse ahead to occupy Cremona. Presently detachments of the First, Fourth, Fifteenth and Sixteenth legions followed; then the Fifth and Twenty-second; in the rear marched the Twenty-first Rapax and the First Italic with detachments from the three legions in Britain and with picked auxiliary troops. After Caecina had gone, Fabius Valens wrote to the troops which he had earlier commanded, and ordered them to wait for him on the way, saying that he and Caecina had agreed to this effect. But Caecina, being with the troops and therefore having the advantage over Valens, pretended that the plan had been changed that they might meet the rising tide of war with their whole strength. So the legions were ordered to press on, part to Cremona, part to Hostilia; he himself turned aside to Ravenna under the pretext of addressing the fleet; but presently he retired to the secrecy of Padua to arrange the conditions of betrayal. For Lucilius Bassus, who had previously been only a prefect of a squadron of cavalry, had been placed by Vitellius in command of the fleet of Ravenna along with that of Misenum; but his failure to receive promptly the prefecture of the praetorian guard had roused in him an unjust resentment, which he was now satisfying by a shameful and treacherous act of vengeance. It is impossible to determine whether Bassus drew Caecina on, or whether, since it often happens that is a likeness between bad men, the same villainy impelled them both. 101 The contemporary historians, who wrote their accounts of this war while the Flavian house occupied the throne, have indeed recorded their anxiety for peace and devotion to the State, falsifying motives in order to flatter; but to me it seems that both men, in addition to their natural fickleness and the fact that after betraying Galba they then held their honour cheap, were moved by mutual rivalry and a jealous fear that they would be surpassed by others in the imperial favour, and so overthrew Vitellius himself. Caecina caught up with his legions and began by various devices to undermine the unshaken loyalty of the centurions and soldiers towards Vitellius; Bassus found less difficulty when he attempted the same with the fleet, for the sailors, remembering their recent service to Otho, were ready to shift their allegiance.
BOOK III
1 1 The generals of the Flavian party were planning their campaign with better fortune and greater loyalty. They had come together at Poetovio, the winter quarters of the Thirteenth legion. There they discussed whether they should guard the passes of the Pannonian Alps until the whole mass of their forces could be raised behind them, or whether it would not be a bolder stroke to engage the enemy at once and struggle with him for the possession of Italy. Those who favoured waiting for the auxiliaries and prolonging the war, emphasized the strength and reputation of the German legions and dwelt on the fact that the flower of the army in Britain had recently arrived with Vitellius; they pointed out that they had on their side an inferior number of legions, and at best legions which had lately been beaten, and that although the soldiers talked boldly enough, the defeated always have less courage. But while they meantime held the Alps, Mucianus, they said, would arrive with the troops from the east; Vespasian had besides full control of the sea and his fleets, and he could count on the enthusiastic support of the provinces, through whose aid he
could raise the storm of almost a second war. Therefore they declared that delay would favour them, that new forces would join them, and that they would lose none of their present advantages.
2 1 In answer Antonius Primus, the most enthusiastic partisan of war, argued that haste was helpful to them, ruinous to Vitellius. “The victorious side,” he said, “has gained a spirit of sloth rather than confidence, for their soldiers have not been kept within the bounds of camp; they have been loafing about all the municipal towns of Italy, fearful only to their hosts; the savagery that they once displayed has been matched by the greed with which they have drunk deep of their new pleasures. They have been weakened, too, by the circus, by the theatres, and by the delights of Rome, or else exhausted by disease; but if they are given time, even they will recover their strength by preparing for war; Germany, from which they draw their strength, is not far away; Britain is separated only by a strait; the provinces of Gaul and Spain are near: from both they receive men, horses, and tribute; they hold Italy itself and the wealth of Rome; and if they wish to attack they have two fleets and the Illyrian Sea is open. In that case, what will the mountain barriers avail us? What profit shall we find in prolonging the war into another summer? Where shall we meantime find money and supplies? Rather let us take advantage of the fact that the Pannonian legions, which were deceived rather than defeated, are eager to rise in revenge; that the troops in Moesia have contributed their strength, which is quite unimpaired. If we reckon the number of soldiers rather than of legions, we see that we have on our side the greater force and no debauchery; the very shame of the defeat at Bedriacum has helped our discipline. Moreover, the cavalry were not beaten even then, but in spite of the disaster they broke the forces of Vitellius. On that day two squadrons from Pannonia and Moesia pierced the enemy’s line; now sixteen squadrons charging in a body, by the very noise they make and the cloud of dust they raise, will overwhelm and bury the horsemen and horses of our foes, for they have forgotten what a battle is. Unless someone restrains me, I who advise will also perform. Do you, whose fortune is still unblemished, hold back your legions, if you will; for me light cohorts will be enough. Presently you shall hear that the gates of Italy are open, that the power of Vitellius is overthrown. Yours will be the delight of following the victor and of treading in his footsteps.”
Complete Works of Tacitus (Delphi Classics) (Delphi Ancient Classics Book 24) Page 28
