TRANSLATED WITH INTRODUCTION AND NOTES
PUBLISHER TO THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD
LONDON, EDINBURGH, NEW YORK
TO D.H.F.
'The cause of undertaking a work of this kind was a good will in
this scribling age not to do nothing, and a disproportion in the
powers of my mind, nothing of mine owne invention being able to
passe the censure of mine owne judgement, much less, I presumed, the
judgement of others....
'If thy stomacke be so tender as thou canst not disgest Tacitus in
his owne stile, thou art beholding to one who gives thee the same
food, but with a pleasant and easie taste.'
SIR HENRY SAVILE (A.D. 1591).
CONTENTS
VOLUME I
INTRODUCTION 5
TEXT: BOOKS I, II 17
VOLUME II
TEXT: BOOKS III-V 9
INDEX OF NAMES 231
MAPS
INTRODUCTION
Tacitus held the consulship under Nerva in the year 97. At this point
he closed his public career. He had reached the goal of a politician's
ambition and had become known as one of the best speakers of his time,
but he seems to have realized that under the Principate politics was a
dull farce, and that oratory was of little value in a time of peace
and strong government. The rest of his life was to be spent in writing
history. In the year of his consulship or immediately after it, he
published the _Agricola_ and _Germania_, short monographs in which he
practised the transition from the style of the speaker to that of the
writer. In the preface to the _Agricola_ he foreshadows the larger
work on which he is engaged. 'I shall find it a pleasant task to put
together, though in rough and unfinished style, a memorial of our
former slavery and a record of our present happiness.' His intention
was to write a history of the Principate from Augustus to Trajan. He
began with his own times, and wrote in twelve or fourteen books a full
account of the period from Nero's death in 68 A.D. to the death of
Domitian in 96 A.D. These were published, probably in successive
books, between 106 and 109 A.D. Only the first four and a half books
survive to us. They deal with the years 69 and 70, and are known as
_The Histories_. _The Annals_, which soon followed, dealt with the
Julian dynasty after the death of Augustus. Of Augustus' constitution
of the principate and of Rome's 'present happiness' under Trajan,
Tacitus did not live to write.
_The Histories_, as they survive to us, describe in a style that has
made them immortal one of the most terrible and crucial moments of
Roman history. The deadly struggle for the throne demonstrated finally
the real nature of the Principate--based not on constitutional
fictions but on armed force--and the supple inefficiency of the
senatorial class. The revolt on the Rhine foreshadowed the debacle of
the fifth century. Tacitus was peculiarly well qualified to write the
history of this period. He had been the eye-witness of some of the
most terrible scenes: he was acquainted with all the distinguished
survivors: his political experience gave him a statesman's point of
view, and his rhetorical training a style which mirrored both the
terror of the times and his own emotion. More than any other Roman
historian he desired to tell the truth and was not fatally biassed by
prejudice. It is wrong to regard Tacitus as an 'embittered
rhetorician', an 'enemy of the Empire', a 'détracteur de
l'humanité'.[1] He was none of these. As a member of a noble, though
not an ancient, family, and as one who had completed the republican
_cursus honorum_, his sympathies were naturally senatorial. He
regretted that the days were passed when oratory was a real power and
the consuls were the twin towers of the world. But he never hoped to
see such days again. He realized that monarchy was essential to peace,
and that the price of freedom was violence and disorder. He had no
illusions about the senate. Fault and misfortune had reduced them to
nerveless servility, a luxury of self-abasement. Their meekness would
never inherit the earth. Tacitus pours scorn on the philosophic
opponents of the Principate, who while refusing to serve the emperor
and pretending to hope for the restoration of the republic, could
contribute nothing more useful than an ostentatious suicide. His own
career, and still more the career of his father-in-law Agricola,
showed that even under bad emperors a man could be great without
dishonour. Tacitus was no republican in any sense of the word, but
rather a monarchist _malgré lui_. There was nothing for it but to pray
for good emperors and put up with bad ones.
Those who decry Tacitus for prejudice against the Empire forget that
he is describing emperors who were indubitably bad. We have lost his
account of Vespasian's reign. His praise of Augustus and of Trajan was
never written. The emperors whom he depicts for us were all either
tyrannical or contemptible, or both: no floods of modern biography can
wash them white. They seemed to him to have degraded Roman life and
left no room for _virtus_ in the world. The verdict of Rome had gone
against them. So he devotes to their portraiture the venom which the
fifteen years of Domitian's reign of terror had engendered in his
heart. He was inevitably a pessimist; his ideals lay in the past; yet
he clearly shows that he had some hope of the future. Without sharing
Pliny's faith that the millennium had dawned, he admits that Nerva and
Trajan have inaugurated 'happier times' and combined monarchy with
some degree of personal freedom.
There are other reasons for the 'dark shadows' in Tacitus' work.
History to a Roman was _opus oratorium,_ a work of literary art. Truth
is a great but not a sufficient merit. The historian must be not only
_narrator_ but _ornator rerum_. He must carefully select and arrange
the incidents, compose them into an effective group, and by the power
of language make them memorable and alive. In these books Tacitus has
little but horrors to describe: his art makes them unforgettably
horrible. The same art is ready to display the beauty of courage and
self-sacrifice. But these were rarer phenomena than cowardice and
greed. It was not Tacitus, but the age, which showed a preference for
vice. Moreover, the historian's art was not to be used solely for its
own sake. All ancient history was written with a moral object; the
ethical interest predominates almost to the exclusion of all others.
Tacitus is never merely literary. The [Greek: semnotês] which Pliny
notes as the characteristic of his oratory, never lets him sparkle to
no purpose. All his pictures have a moral object 'to rescue virtue
from oblivion and restrain vice by the terror of posthumous
infamy'.[2] His prime interest is character: and when he has
conducted some skilful piece of moral diagnosis there attaches to his
verdict some of the severity of a sermon. If you want to make men
better you must uncover and scarify their sins.
Few Christian moralists deal much in eulogy, and Tacitus' diatribes
are the more frequent and the more fierce because his was the morality
not of Christ but of Rome. 'The Poor' are as dirt to him: he can stoop
to immortalize some gleam of goodness in low life, but even then his
main object is by scorn of contrast to galvanize the aristocracy into
better ways. Only in them can true _virtus_ grow. Their degradation
seems the death of goodness. Tacitus had little sympathy with the
social revolution that was rapidly completing itself, not so much
because those who rose from the masses lacked 'blood', but because
they had not been trained in the right traditions. In the decay of
Education he finds a prime cause of evil. And being a Roman--wherever
he may have been born--he inevitably feels that the decay of Roman
life must rot the world. His eyes are not really open to the Empire.
He never seems to think that in the spacious provinces to which the
old Roman virtues had taken flight, men were leading happy, useful
lives, because the strong hand of the imperial government had come to
save them from the inefficiency of aristocratic governors. This
narrowness of view accounts for much of Tacitus' pessimism.
Recognition of the atmosphere in which Tacitus wrote and the objects
at which his history aimed helps one to understand why it sometimes
disappoints modern expectations. Particular scenes are seared on our
memories: persons stand before us lit to the soul by a fierce light of
psychological analysis: we learn to loath the characteristic vices of
the time, and to understand the moral causes of Roman decadence. But
somehow the dominance of the moral interest and the frequent
interruption of the narrative by scenes of senatorial inefficiency
serve to obscure the plain sequence of events. It is difficult after a
first reading of the _Histories_ to state clearly what happened in
these two years. And this difficulty is vastly annoying to experts who
wish to trace the course of the three campaigns. Those whose interest
is not in Tacitus but in the military history of the period are
recommended to study Mr. B.W. Henderson's _Civil War and Rebellion in
the Roman Empire_, a delightful book which makes the dark places
plain. But they are not recommended to share his contempt for Tacitus
because his accounts of warfare are as bad as, for instance,
Shakespeare's. Tacitus does not describe in detail the tactics and
geography of a campaign, perhaps because he could not do so, certainly
because he did not wish to. He regarded such details as dry bones,
which no amount of literary skill could animate. His interest is in
human character. Plans of campaign throw little light on that: so they
did not interest him, or, if they did, he suppressed his interest
because he knew that his public would otherwise behave as Dr. Johnson
did when Fox talked to him of Catiline's conspiracy. 'He withdrew his
attention and thought about Tom Thumb.'
There is no worse fault in criticism than to blame a work of art for
lacking qualities to which it makes no pretension. Tacitus is not a
'bad military historian'. He is not a 'military' historian at all.
Botticelli is not a botanist, nor is Shakespeare a geographer. It is
this fault which leads critics to call Tacitus 'a stilted pleader at a
decadent bar', and to complain that his narrative of the war with
Civilis is 'made dull and unreal by speeches'--because they have not
found in Tacitus what they had no right to look for. Tacitus inserts
speeches for the same reason that he excludes tactical details. They
add to the human interest of his work. They give scope to his great
dramatic powers, to that passionate sympathy with character which
finds expression in a style as nervous as itself. They enable him to
display motives, to appraise actions, to reveal moral forces. It is
interest in human nature rather than pride of rhetoric which makes him
love a good debate.
The supreme distinction of Tacitus is, of course, his style. That is
lost in a translation. 'Hard' though his Latin is, it is not obscure.
Careful attention can always detect his exact thought. Like Meredith
he is 'hard' because he does so much with words. Neither writer leaves
any doubt about his meaning. It is therefore a translator's first duty
to be lucid, and not until that duty is done may he try by faint
flushes of epigram to reflect something of the brilliance of Tacitus'
Latin. Very faint indeed that reflection must always be: probably no
audience could be found to listen to a translation of Tacitus, yet one
feels that his Latin would challenge and hold the attention of any
audience that was not stone-deaf. But it is because Tacitus is never a
mere stylist that some of us continue in the failure to translate him.
His historical deductions and his revelations of character have their
value for every age. 'This form of history,' says Montaigne, 'is by
much the most useful ... there are in it more precepts than stories:
it is not a book to read, 'tis a book to study and learn: 'tis full of
sententious opinions, right or wrong: 'tis a nursery of ethic and
politic discourses, for the use and ornament of those who have any
place in the government of the world.... His pen seems most proper for
a troubled and sick state, as ours at present is; you would often say
it is us he paints and pinches.' Sir Henry Savile, Warden of Merton
and Provost of Eton, who translated the _Histories_ into racy
Elizabethan English at a time when the state was neither 'troubled'
nor 'sick' is as convinced as Montaigne or the theorists of the French
Revolution that Tacitus had lessons for his age. 'In Galba thou maiest
learne, that a Good Prince gouerned by evill ministers is as dangerous
as if he were evill himselfe. By Otho, that the fortune of a rash man
is _Torrenti similis_, which rises at an instant, and falles in a
moment. By Vitellius, that he that hath no vertue can neuer be happie:
for by his own baseness he will loose all, which either fortune, or
other mens labours have cast upon him. By Vespasian, that in civill
tumults an advised patience, and opportunitie well taken are the onely
weapons of advantage. In them all, and in the state of Rome under them
thou maiest see the calamities that follow civill warres, where lawes
lie asleepe, and all things are iudged by the sword. If thou mislike
their warres be thankfull for thine owne peace; if thou dost abhor
their tyrannies, love and reverence thine owne wise, iust and
excellent Prince.' So whatever guise our age may assume, there are
lessons to be drawn from Tacitus either directly or _per contra_, and
his translators may be acquitted at a time when Latin scholarship is
no longer an essential of political eminence.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Napoleon's phrase.
[2] _Ann._ iii. 65.
SUMMARY OF CHIEF EVENTS
I. THE FIGHT FOR THE THRONE.
A.D. 68.
_June_
9. Death of Nero.
16. Galba, Governor of Nearer Spain, declared Emperor at Clunia.
Fonteius Capito, Governor of Lower Germany, Clodius Macer,
Governor of Africa, and Nymphidius Sabinus, Prefect of the
Guard, murdered as possible rivals. Verginius Rufus, Governor
of Upper Germany, refuses to compete.
_October_
Galba enters Rome. Massacre of Marines at Mulvian Bridge.
His government controlled by Laco, Vinius, and Icelus.
A.D. 69.
_January_
1. News of mutiny in Upper Germany, now governed by Hordeonius
Flaccus.
3. The armies of Upper Germany (under Caecina) and of Lower Germany
(under Valens) salute Vitellius, Governor of Lower Germany, as
Emperor.
10. Galba adopts Piso Licinianus as his successor.
15. Otho declared Emperor in Rome and recognized by Praetorian
Guard.
Murder of Galba, Vinius, and Piso.
Otho recognized by the Senate.
_February_
The Vitellian armies are now marching on Italy: Caecina through
Switzerland and over the Great St. Bernard with Legio XXI Rapax
and detachments of IV Macedonica and XXII Primigenia: Valens
through Gaul and over Mount Genèvre with Legio V Alaudae and
detachments of I Italica, XV Primigenia, and XVI.
_March_
Caecina crosses the Alps.
Otho dispatches an advance-guard under Annius Gallus and Spurinna.
Otho starts for the Po with Suetonius Paulinus, Marius Celsus,
and Proculus.
Titianus left in charge of Rome.
Otho sends fleet to Narbonese Gaul, and orders Illyric
Legions[3] to concentrate at Aquileia.
Spurinna repulses Caecina from Placentia.
Otho's main army joins Gallus at Bedriacum.
Titianus summoned to take nominal command.
_April_
6. Battle of Locus Castorum. Caecina defeated.
Valens joins Caecina at Cremona.
15. Battle of Bedriacum. Othonian defeat.
17. Otho commits suicide at Brixellum.
19. Vitellius recognized by the Senate.
_May_
Vitellius greeted by his own and Otho's generals at Lyons.
24. Vitellius visits the battle-field of Bedriacum.
_June_
Vitellius moves slowly towards Rome with a huge retinue.
_July_
1. Vespasian, Governor of Judaea, proclaimed Emperor at Alexandria.
3. At Caesarea.
15. At Antioch.
The Eastern princes and the Illyric Legions[4] declare for
Vespasian. His chief supporters are Mucianus; Governor of Syria,
Antonius Primus commanding Leg. VII Galbiana, and Cornelius
Fuscus, Procurator of Pannonia.
Mucianus moves slowly westward with Leg. VI Ferrata and
detachments from the other Eastern legions.
Vespasian holds Egypt, Rome's granary.
Titus takes command in Judaea.
Antonius Primus with Arrius Varus hurries forward into Italy.
_August_
Vitellius vegetates in Rome.
Caecina marches to meet the invasion. (Valens aegrotat.) His
Legions are I, IV Macedonica, XV Primigenia, XVI, V Alaudae,
XXII Primigenia, I Italica, XXI Rapax, and detachments from
Britain.
FOOTNOTES:
[3] i.e. in Pannonia Legs. VII Galbiana and XIII Gemina; in
Dalmatia XI Claudia and XIV Gemina; in Moesia III Gallica, VII
Claudia, VIII Augusta.
[4] See note above.
NOTE
The text followed is that of C.D. Fisher (_Oxford Classical Texts_).
Departures from it are mentioned in the notes.
BOOK I
PREFACE
[A.D. 69.] I propose to begin my narrative with the second 1
consulship of Servius Galba, in which Titus Vinius was his colleague.
Many historians have dealt with the 820 years of the earlier period
beginning with the foundation of Rome, and the story of the Roman
Republic has been told with no less ability than truth. After the
Battle of Actium, when the interests of peace were served by the
centralization of all authority in the hands of one man, there
followed a dearth of literary ability, and at the same time truth
suffered more and more, partly from ignorance of politics, which were
no longer a citizen's concern, partly from the growing taste for
flattery or from hatred of the ruling house. So between malice on one
side and servility on the other the interests of posterity were
neglected. But historians find that a tone of flattery soon incurs the
stigma of servility and earns for them the contempt of their readers,
whereas people readily open their ears to the criticisms of envy,
since malice makes a show of independence. Of Galba, Otho, and
Vitellius, I have known nothing either to my advantage or my hurt. I
cannot deny that I originally owed my position to Vespasian, or that I
was advanced by Titus and still further promoted by Domitian;[5] but
professing, as I do, unbiassed honesty, I must speak of no man either
with hatred or affection. I have reserved for my old age, if life is
spared to me, the reigns of the sainted Nerva and of the Emperor
Trajan, which afford a richer and withal a safer theme:[6] for it is
the rare fortune of these days that a man may think what he likes and
say what he thinks.
The story I now commence is rich in vicissitudes, grim with 2
warfare, torn by civil strife, a tale of horror even during times of
peace. It tells of four emperors slain by the sword, three several
civil wars, an even larger number of foreign wars and some that were
both at once: successes in the East, disaster in the West, disturbance
in Illyricum, disaffection in the provinces of Gaul, the conquest of
Britain and its immediate loss, the rising of the Sarmatian and Suebic
tribes. It tells how Dacia had the privilege of exchanging blows with
Rome, and how a pretender claiming to be Nero almost deluded the
Parthians into declaring war. Now too Italy was smitten with new
disasters, or disasters it had not witnessed for a long period of
years. Towns along the rich coast of Campania were submerged or
buried. The city was devastated by fires, ancient temples were
destroyed, and the Capitol itself was fired by Roman hands. Sacred
rites were grossly profaned, and there were scandals in high
places.[7] The sea swarmed with exiles and the island cliffs[8] were
red with blood. Worse horrors reigned in the city. To be rich or
well-born was a crime: men were prosecuted for holding or for refusing
office: merit of any kind meant certain ruin. Nor were the Informers
more hated for their crimes than for their prizes: some carried off a
priesthood or the consulship as their spoil, others won offices and
influence in the imperial household: the hatred and fear they inspired
worked universal havoc. Slaves were bribed against their masters,
freedmen against their patrons, and, if a man had no enemies, he was
ruined by his friends.
However, the period was not so utterly barren as to yield no 3
examples of heroism. There were mothers who followed their sons, and
wives their husbands into exile: one saw here a kinsman's courage and
there a son-in-law's devotion: slaves obstinately faithful even on the
rack: distinguished men bravely facing the utmost straits and matching
in their end the famous deaths of older times. Besides these manifold
disasters to mankind there were portents in the sky and on the earth,
thunderbolts and other premonitions of good and of evil, some
doubtful, some obvious. Indeed never has it been proved by such
terrible disasters to Rome or by such clear evidence that Providence
is concerned not with our peace of mind but rather with vengeance for
our sin.
FOOTNOTES:
[5] To Vespasian Tacitus probably owed his quaestorship and a
seat in the senate; to Titus his tribunate of the people; to
Domitian the praetorship and a 'fellowship' of one of the
great priestly colleges, whose special function was the
supervision of foreign cults. This last accounts for Tacitus'
interest in strange religions.
[6] This project, also foreshadowed in _Agricola_ iii, was
never completed.
[7] Referring in particular to the scandals among the Vestal
Virgins and to Domitian's relations with his niece Julia.
[8] i.e. the Aegean islands, such as Seriphus, Gyarus,
Amorgus, where those in disfavour were banished and often
murdered.
THE STATE OF THE EMPIRE
Before I commence my task, it seems best to go back and consider 4
the state of affairs in the city, the temper of the armies, the
condition of the provinces, and to determine the elements of strength
and weakness in the different quarters of the Roman world. By this
means we may see not only the actual course of events, which is
largely governed by chance, but also why and how they occurred.
The death of Nero, after the first outburst of joy with which it was
greeted, soon aroused conflicting feelings not only among the
senators, the people, and the soldiers in the city, but also among the
generals and their troops abroad. It had divulged a secret of state:
an emperor could be made elsewhere than at Rome. Still the senate was
satisfied. They had immediately taken advantage of their liberty and
were naturally emboldened against a prince who was new to the throne
and, moreover, absent. The highest class of the knights[9] seconded
the senate's satisfaction. Respectable citizens, who were attached as
clients or freedmen to the great families, and had seen their patrons
condemned or exiled, now revived their hopes. The lowest classes, who
had grown familiar with the pleasures of the theatre and the circus,
the most degraded of the slaves, and Nero's favourites who had
squandered their property and lived on his discreditable bounty, all
showed signs of depression and an eager greed for news.
The troops in the city[10] had long been inured to the allegiance 5
of the Caesars, and it was more by the pressure of intrigue than of
their own inclination that they came to desert Nero. They soon
realized that the donation promised in Galba's name was not to be paid
to them, and that peace would not, like war, offer opportunity for
great services and rich rewards. Since they also saw that the new
emperor's favour had been forestalled by the army which proclaimed
him, they were ripe for revolution and were further instigated by
their rascally Praefect Nymphidius Sabinus, who was plotting to be
emperor himself. His design was as a matter of fact detected and
quashed, but, though the ringleader was removed, many of the troops
still felt conscious of their treason and could be heard commenting on
Galba's senility and avarice. His austerity--a quality once admired
and set high in soldiers' estimation--only annoyed troops whose
contempt for the old methods of discipline had been fostered by
fourteen years of service under Nero. They had come to love the
emperors' vices as much as they once reverenced their virtues in older
days. Moreover Galba had let fall a remark, which augured well for
Rome, though it spelt danger to himself. 'I do not buy my soldiers,'
he said, 'I select them.' And indeed, as things then stood, his words
sounded incongruous.
FOOTNOTES:
[9] Probably those who owned one million sesterces, the
property qualification for admission to the senate.
[10] This includes 'The Guards' (_cohortes praetoriae_) and
'The City Garrison' (_cohortes urbanae_), and possibly also
the _cohortes vigilum_, who were a sort of police corps and
fire brigade.
GALBA'S POSITION
Galba was old and ill. Of his two lieutenants Titus Vinius was the 6
vilest of men and Cornelius Laco the laziest. Hated as he was for
Vinius' crimes and despised for Laco's inefficiency, between them
Galba soon came to ruin. His march from Spain was slow and stained
with bloodshed. He executed Cingonius Varro, the consul-elect, and
Petronius Turpilianus, an ex-consul, the former as an accomplice of
Nymphidius, the latter as one of Nero's generals. They were both
denied any opportunity of a hearing or defence--and might as well have
been innocent. On his arrival at Rome the butchery of thousands of
unarmed soldiers[11] gave an ill omen to his entry, and alarmed even
the men who did the slaughter. The city was filled with strange
troops. A legion had been brought from Spain,[12] and the regiment of
marines enrolled by Nero still remained.[11] Moreover there were
several detachments from Germany, Britain, and Illyricum,[13] which
had been selected by Nero, dispatched to the Caspian Pass[14] for the
projected war against the Albanians, and subsequently recalled to aid
in crushing the revolt of Vindex.[15] These were all fine fuel for a
revolution, and, although their favour centred on nobody in
particular, there they were at the disposal of any one who had
enterprise.
It happened by chance that the news of the death of Clodius Macer 7
and of Fonteius Capito arrived in Rome simultaneously. Macer,[16] who
was undoubtedly raising a disturbance in Africa, was put to death by
the imperial agent Trebonius Garutianus, acting under Galba's orders:
Capito[17] had made a similar attempt in Germany and was killed by two
officers, Cornelius Aquinus and Fabius Valens, without waiting for
instructions. While Capito had a foul reputation for extortion and
loose living, some people yet believed that he had withheld his hand
from treason. His officers, they supposed, had urged him to declare
war, and, when they could not persuade him, had gone on to charge him
falsely with their own offence,[18] while Galba from weakness of
character, or perhaps because he was afraid to inquire too far,
approved what had happened for good or for ill, since it was past
alteration. At any rate both executions were unpopular. Now that Galba
was disliked, everything he did, whether right or wrong, made him more
unpopular. His freedmen were all-powerful: money could do anything:
the slaves were thirsting for an upheaval, and with so elderly an
emperor were naturally expecting to see one soon. The evils of the new
court were those of the old, and while equally oppressive were not so
easily excused. Even Galba's age seemed comic and despicable to a
populace that was used to the young Nero and compared the emperors, as
such people will, in point of looks and personal attraction.
FOOTNOTES:
[11] i.e. the marines, whom Nero had formed into a reserve
force (Legio I Adiutrix). They had met Galba at the Mulvian
Bridge, probably with a petition for service in the Line.
[12] Legio VII Galbiana, sent later to Pannonia.
[13] Illyricum included all the Danube provinces.
[14] The Pass of Dariel over the centre of the Caucasus. The
Albanians lay to the east of its southern end, on the
south-west coast of the Caspian.
[15] Vindex, Pro-praetor in the Lyons division of Gaul, had
revolted against Nero early in the year 68 and offered his
support to Galba, then governor of the Tarragona division of
Spain. He was defeated by Verginius Rufus, commanding the
forces in Upper Germany, and committed suicide. Verginius
afterwards declared for Galba, though his troops wanted to
make him emperor. Cp. chap. 8.
[16] Clodius Macer commanded Legio III Augusta and governed
Numidia, which Tiberius at the end of his reign had detached
from the pro-consulate of Africa.
[17] Governor of Lower Germany. See chap. 58 and iii. 62.
[18] Cp. chap. 58.
THE DISTRIBUTION OF FORCES
Such then at Rome was the variety of feeling natural in so vast a 8
population. To turn to the provinces abroad: Spain was under the
command of Cluvius Rufus, a man of great eloquence, and more skilled
in the arts of peace than of war.[19] The Gallic provinces had not
forgotten Vindex: moreover, they were bound to Galba by his recent
grant of Roman citizenship and his rebate of their tribute for the
future. The tribes, however, which lay nearest to the armies stationed
in Germany had not received these honours: some even had lost part of
their territory and were equally aggrieved at the magnitude of their
own injuries and of their neighbours' benefits. The troops in Germany
were proud of their recent victory, indignant at their treatment and
perplexed by a nervous consciousness that they had supported the wrong
side: a very dangerous state for so strong a force to be in. They had
been slow to desert Nero, and Verginius[20] did not immediately
declare for Galba. Whether he really did not want the throne is
doubtful: without question his soldiers made him the offer. The death
of Fonteius Capito aroused the indignation even of those who had no
right to complain. However, they still lacked a leader: Galba had sent
for Verginius under a pretence of friendship, and, when he was not
allowed to return and was even charged with treachery, the soldiers
considered his case their own.
The army of Upper Germany felt no respect for their commander, 9
Hordeonius Flaccus.[21] Weakened by age and an affection of the feet
he was without resolution or authority, and could not have controlled
the mildest troops. These fiery spirits were only the further inflamed
when they felt such a weak hand on the reins. The legions of Lower
Germany had been for some time without a commander,[22] until Aulus
Vitellius appeared. He was the son of the Lucius Vitellius who had
been censor and thrice consul,[23] and Galba thought this sufficient
to impress the troops. The army in Britain showed no bad feeling. All
through the disturbance of the civil wars no troops kept cleaner
hands. This may have been because they were so far away and severed by
the sea, or perhaps frequent engagements had taught them to keep their
rancour for the enemy. Quiet ruled in Illyricum also, although the
legions, which had been summoned by Nero,[24] while lingering in Italy
had made overtures to Verginius. But the armies lay far apart, always
a sound assistance to the maintenance of military discipline, since
the men could neither share vices nor join forces.
The East was still untroubled. Licinius Mucianus held Syria with 10
four legions.[25] He was a man who was always famous, whether in good
fortune or in bad. As a youth he was ambitious and cultivated the
friendship of the great. Later he found himself in straitened
circumstances and a very ambiguous position, and, suspecting Claudius'
displeasure, he withdrew into the wilds of Asia, where he came as near
to being an exile as afterwards to being an emperor. He was a strange
mixture of good and bad, of luxury and industry, courtesy and
arrogance. In leisure he was self-indulgent, but full of vigour on
service. His outward behaviour was praiseworthy, though ill was spoken
of his private life. However, with those who were under him or near
him, and with his colleagues he gained great influence by various
devices, and seems to have been the sort of man who would more readily
make an emperor than be one.
The Jewish war was being conducted by Flavius Vespasianus--appointed
by Nero--with three legions.[26] He had no ill-will against Galba, and
nothing to hope from his fall. Indeed he had sent his son Titus to
carry his compliments and offer allegiance, an incident we must
reserve for its proper place.[27] It was only after Vespasian's rise
that Roman society came to believe in the mysterious movings of
Providence, and supposed that portents and oracles had predestined the
throne for him and his family.
Of Egypt and its garrison, ever since the days of the sainted 11
Augustus, the knights of Rome have been uncrowned kings.[28] The
province being difficult to reach, rich in crops, torn and tossed by
fanaticism and sedition, ignorant of law, unused to bureaucratic
government, it seemed wiser to keep it in the control of the
Household.[29] The governor at that date was Tiberius Alexander,
himself a native of Egypt.[30] Africa and its legions, now that
Clodius Macer had been executed,[31] were ready to put up with any
ruler after their experience of a petty master. The two Mauretanias,
Raetia, Noricum, Thrace, and the other provinces governed by
procurators had their sympathies determined by the neighbourhood of
troops, and always caught their likes or dislikes from the strongest
army. The ungarrisoned provinces, and chief amongst these Italy, were
destined to be the prize of war, and lay at the mercy of any master.
Such was the state of the Roman world when Servius Galba, consul for
the second time, and Titus Vinius his colleague, inaugurated the year
which was to be their last, and almost the last for the commonwealth
of Rome.
FOOTNOTES:
[19] He wrote a history of his own time, which was one of
Tacitus' chief authorities.
[20] See note 17.
[21] Verginius' successor.
[22] Since Capito's death, chap. 7.
[23] He died in A.D. 54. In the censorship and in two of his
consulships he had been Claudius' colleague.
[24] For the war with Vindex.
[25] See note 164. The fourth legion is III Gallica,
afterwards moved into Moesia.
[26] See note 163.
[27] ii. 1.
[28] Cp. _Ann._, ii. 59. 'Amongst other secret principles of
his imperial policy, Augustus had put Egypt in a position by
itself, forbidding all senators and knights of the highest
class to enter that country without his permission. For Egypt
holds the key, as it were, both of sea and land' (tr. Ramsay).
Cp. iii. 8.
[29] i.e. to govern it by the emperor's private agents. The
province was regarded as part of the emperor's estate
(patrimonium). This post was the highest in the imperial
service.
[30] A member of a Jewish family settled in Alexandria and
thus entitled to Roman citizenship. He was a nephew of the
historian Philo; had been Procurator of Judaea and chief of
Corbulo's staff in Armenia.
[31] See chap. 7.
THE GERMAN REVOLT AND THE ADOPTION OF PISO
A few days after the first of January a dispatch arrived from 12
Belgica, in which Pompeius Propinquus,[32] the imperial agent,
announced that the legions of Upper Germany had broken their oath of
allegiance and were clamouring for a new emperor, but that by way of
tempering their treason they referred the final choice to the Senate
and People of Rome. Galba had already been deliberating and seeking
advice as to the adoption of a successor, and this occurrence hastened
his plans. During all these months this question formed the current
subject of gossip throughout the country; Galba was far spent in years
and the general propensity for such a topic knew no check. Few people
showed sound judgement or any spirit of patriotism. Many were
influenced by foolish hopes and spread self-interested rumours
pointing to some friend or patron, thereby also gratifying their
hatred for Titus Vinius,[33] whose unpopularity waxed daily with his
power. Galba's affability only served to strengthen the gaping
ambition of his newly powerful friends, for his weakness and credulity
halved the risk and doubled the reward of treason.
The real power of the throne was divided between the consul, Titus 13
Vinius, and Cornelius Laco, the prefect of the Guards; and an
influence as great was enjoyed by Icelus, one of Galba's freedmen, who
had been given the gold ring[34] and was now greeted by the name of
Marcianus. These three ordinarily disagreed, and followed each his own
interest in smaller matters: on the question of the succession they
fell into two camps. Vinius was for Marcus Otho. Laco and Icelus were
agreed not so much on any one as on any other. Galba was aware of the
friendship between Otho and Vinius. Otho was a bachelor and Vinius had
an unmarried daughter: so gossip, never reticent, pointed to them as
father and son-in-law. Galba, one may suppose, felt some concern for
his country, too. Why take the throne from Nero, if it was to be left
to Otho? Otho had led a careless boyhood and a dissolute youth, and
endeared himself to Nero by aping his vices. Thus it was to Otho, as
being already in the secret, that Nero entrusted his favourite
mistress, Poppaea Sabina,[35] until he could get rid of Octavia. Later
he grew jealous and removed Otho to the province of Lusitania under
cover of a governorship. Otho had been popular in his administration
of the province, and was one of the first to join Galba's party. Being
a man of action and one of the most distinguished of Galba's officers
in the war, when once he had conceived the hope of succeeding him, he
eagerly indulged it. Most of the soldiers were on his side and the
Court supported him as Nero's double.
After receiving the news of the German revolt, although Galba knew 14
nothing for certain of Vitellius' plans, he was fearful to what
lengths the outbreak of the troops might go; so, being unable to trust
the troops in the city,[36] he had recourse to what seemed his sole
remedy and held an Imperial Election. Besides Vinius and Laco he
summoned Marius Celsus, consul-elect and the City-Prefect Ducenius
Geminus.[37] After prefacing a few words about his own advanced age he
ordered Piso Licinianus[38] to be sent for, either on his own
initiative, or, as some believed, at the instance of Laco. Laco had
met Piso at Rubellius Plautus' house and they had formed a friendship,
but he cunningly pretended that he was supporting a stranger, and
Piso's good repute gave colour to this policy. Piso was a noble on
both sides, being the son of Marcus Crassus and Scribonia. There was
an old-world austerity in his face and bearing, and just critics spoke
of his strict morality: people who took a less favourable view thought
him soured. But while those who disliked this side of his character
carped at it, it was a recommendation in the eyes of the emperor who
intended to adopt him.
Galba is said to have taken Piso's hand and addressed him as 15
follows: 'Were I a private citizen, and were I to adopt you in the
presence of the Priests by the usual formality of a curial
statute,[39] it would be an honour for me to introduce into my family
a descendant of Cnaeus Pompeius and of Marcus Crassus, and for you it
would be a distinction to add to your noble ancestry the glories of
the Sulpician and Lutatian houses.[40] As it is, I have been called by
the consent of gods and men to be an emperor. Your distinguished
qualities and your patriotism have persuaded me to offer to you
peacefully and quietly the throne for which our ancestors fought on
the field of battle,[41] and which I too won by war. In so doing I am
following the precedent set by the sainted Augustus, who raised to the
rank next himself first his nephew Marcellus, then his son-in-law
Agrippa, then his daughter's sons,[42] and finally his stepson
Tiberius Nero. However, while Augustus looked for a successor in his
own family, I have searched throughout the country. Not that I lack
either kinsmen or supporters, but it was by no favour of birth that I
myself came to the throne, and, to prove my policy in this matter,
consider how I have passed over not only my own relatives but yours.
You have an elder brother,[43] as noble as yourself. He would have
been worthy of this position, but you are worthier. You are old enough
to have outlived youthful passions. Your life has been such that you
have nothing in your past to excuse. So far you have only experienced
misfortune. Prosperity probes the heart with a keener touch; misery
only calls for patience, but there is corruption in success. Honesty,
candour, and affection are the best of human qualities, and doubtless
you yourself have enough character to retain them. But the
complaisance of others will weaken your character. Flattery and
servile compliments will break down its defences and self-interest
too, the bane of all sincerity. What though you and I can talk plainly
with each other to-day? Others will address themselves not to us but
to our fortunes. To persuade an emperor what he ought to do is a
laborious task: any one can flatter him without a spark of sincerity.
'If the vast bulk of this empire could stand and keep its balance 16
without a guiding hand, the Republic might well have dated its birth
from me. As it is, things have long ago come to such a pass that
neither I in my old age can give the Roman people any better gift than
a good successor, nor you in your prime anything better than a good
emperor. Under Tiberius, Caligula, and Claudius, Rome was the heirloom
of a single family. There is a kind of liberty in the free choice we
have begun to exercise. Now that the Julian and Claudian houses are
extinct, by the plan of adoption the best man will always be
discovered. Royal birth is the gift of fortune, and is but valued as
such. In adoption we can use a free judgement, and if we wish to
choose well, the voice of the country points the way. Think of Nero,
swollen with the pride of his long line of royal ancestry. It was not
Vindex with a powerless province at his back, nor I with a single
legion that freed Rome's shoulders of that burden: it was his own
cruelty and profligacy. And that was before there was any precedent
for the conviction of an emperor.
'We have been called to the throne by the swords of those who thought
us worthy. Our high state will not escape the eye of envy. You may be
sure of that. But there is no reason for you to feel alarm because in
this world-wide upheaval a couple of legions have not yet settled
down. I myself did not succeed to a safe and peaceful throne, and,
when once the news of your adoption is spread, I shall cease to be
charged with my advanced age, which is now the only fault they find in
me. The rascals will always miss Nero: you and I have got to see that
good citizens do not miss him too.
'A longer sermon would ill befit the time and I have fulfilled my
purpose, if I have done right in choosing you. The soundest and
easiest criterion of right and wrong policy is to consider what you
would have approved or condemned in another emperor. For Rome is not
like the nations which are ruled by kings, where one house is supreme
and the rest are slaves. Your future subjects are men who cannot
endure the extremes either of bondage or of freedom.'
Galba spoke these words and more to the same effect in the tone of one
creating an emperor: the rest addressed Piso as though he were emperor
already. He is said to have betrayed no sign of amazement or 17
elation either before those who were then present, or later when
everybody's eyes centred upon him. His language to his emperor and
adoptive father was deeply respectful and he spoke modestly of
himself. He made no change in his expression or bearing, showing
himself more able than anxious to rule. A discussion then took place
whether the adoption should be announced before the people or in the
senate, or in the guards' camp. They decided in favour of the camp, on
the ground that it would be a compliment to the troops, whose goodwill
was hard to win by flattery or bribes, but was by no means to be
despised, if it could be won by good means. Meanwhile the curiosity of
the populace, impatient of any important secret, had brought together
crowds all round the Palace, and when once the rumour began to leak
out an attempt at suppression only resulted in spreading it.
The tenth of January was a dreary wet day, and an extraordinary 18
storm of thunder and lightning showed the displeasure of Providence.
Such phenomena were regarded in old days as a sign for the suspension
of public business, but they did not deter Galba from proceeding to
the camp. Either he disregarded such things as the result of pure
chance or else he felt that the blows of fate may be foretold but not
forestalled. He addressed a crowded assembly of the soldiers with true
imperial brevity, stating simply that in adopting Piso he was
following the example of the sainted Augustus, and the old military
custom whereby each man chose another.[44] He was afraid that by
suppressing the news of the German rebellion he might only seem to
exaggerate the danger, so he voluntarily declared that the Fourth and
Twenty-second legions had been led by a few traitors into seditious
murmurings but no further, and would soon return to their allegiance.
He made no attempt to enhance his words either by eloquence or
largess. However, the tribunes and centurions and those of the
soldiers who stood nearest to him gave well-sounding answers. The rest
were sorry and silent, for the war seemed to have lost them the
largess that had always been usual even in peace. Everybody agrees
that they could have been won over had the parsimonious old emperor
made the least display of generosity. He was ruined by his strict
old-fashioned inflexibility, which seems too rigorous for these
degenerate days.
From the camp they proceeded to the senate, and Galba's speech to 19
its members was no fuller or finer than to the soldiers. Piso spoke
graciously, and there was no lack of support in the senate. Many
wished him well. Those who did not were the more effusive. The
majority were indifferent, but displayed a ready affability, intent on
their private speculations without thought of the country's good. No
other public action is reported of Piso during the four days which
intervened between his adoption and assassination.
FOOTNOTES:
[32] i.e. the emperor's finance agent in the province of
Belgica.
[33] Cp. chap. 6.
[34] A gold signet-ring was the sign of a free-born Roman
knight. Its grant to freedmen was an innovation of which
Tacitus disapproved.
[35] Tacitus here follows the story told by Suetonius in his
life of Otho. In the _Annals_, xiii. 45, 46, Tacitus gives in
detail a more probable version. It is more likely that Poppaea
used Otho as a stepping-stone to Nero's favour than that Otho,
as Suetonius quotes, 'committed adultery with his own wife.'
[36] See chap. 5, note 10.
[37] One of the three Commissioners of Public Revenue
appointed by Nero in A.D. 62 (_Ann._, xv. 18).
[38] Lucius Calpurnius Piso Frugi Licinianus was the son of M.
Licinius Crassus Frugi, and adopted son of L. Calpurnius Piso
Frugi. His mother, Scribonia, was a descendant of Pompey.
[39] Adoption from one family into another needed in old days
the sanction of the Comitia Curiata. When that assembly became
obsolete, the priests summoned a formal meeting of thirty
lictors, and their sanction of an act of adoption was still
called _lex curiata_. Galba was now _Pontifex maximus_.
[40] Galba belonged to the _Gens Sulpicia_, and was connected
through his mother, Mummia, with Q. Lutatius Catulus, who had
led the senatorial party in the first half of the last
century.
[41] i.e. Galba's great-grandfather had fought for Caesar
against Piso's ancestor, Pompey.
[42] The children of Julia and Agrippa.
[43] Crassus Scribonianus, cp. chap. 47, and iv. 39.
[44] i.e. co-optation, employed in former days to raise a
special contingent for emergencies.
GALBA'S MEASURES OF PRECAUTION
Reports of the German rebellion grew daily more insistent and the
public was always ready to believe any news, provided it was bad.
Accordingly the senate decided that a commission must be sent to the
army in Germany. It was discussed in private whether Piso should go
himself to add dignity to the commission, since he could carry the
authority of the emperor, while the others represented the senate. It
was also proposed to send Laco, the prefect of the Guards, but he
objected. The senate had allowed Galba to nominate the commissioners
and he showed the most miserable indecision, now nominating members,
now excusing them, now making exchanges, yielding always to pressure
from people who wanted to go or to stay at home according as they were
determined by their hopes or their fears. The next question was 20
one of finance. After investigating all possible sources it seemed
most reasonable to recover the revenue from those quarters where the
cause of the deficit lay. Nero had squandered in lavish presents two
thousand two hundred million sesterces.[45] Galba gave instructions
that these monies should be recovered from the individual recipients,
leaving each a tithe of their original gift. However, in each case
there was scarcely a tenth part left, for these worthless spendthrifts
had run through Nero's money as freely as they had squandered their
own: they had no real property or capital left, nothing but the
apparatus of their luxury. Thirty of the knights were entrusted with
the duty of recovering the money. This commission, for which there was
no precedent, proved vastly unpopular owing to the scope of its
authority, and the large number of the victims. Every quarter seemed
beset with sales and brokers and lawsuits. And yet lively satisfaction
was caused by the discovery that the beneficiaries of Nero's bounty
were as poor as the victims of his greed.
At this time several officers were cashiered, Antonius Taurus and
Antonius Naso of the Guards, Aemilius Pacensis of the City Garrison,
and Julius Fronto of the Police.[46] However, this proved no remedy.
The others only began to feel alarmed, thinking that Galba's craft and
timidity had sacrificed a few, while his suspicions rested on them
all.
FOOTNOTES:
[45] About twenty-three million sterling of our money.
[46] i.e. of the cohorts which formed the police and
fire-brigade of the city. See chap. 5, note 10.
THE RISE OF OTHO
Meanwhile Otho had nothing to hope from a peaceful settlement: all 21
his plans demanded a disturbance. Many motives spurred him on: his
extravagance would have ruined a prince, and his poverty have
perplexed a private person: he was angry with Galba and jealous of
Piso. He also alleged fears for his safety, by way of whetting his
ambition. 'I proved a nuisance to Nero,' he would say, 'and can
scarcely expect the compliment of a second exile to Lusitania.[47]
Besides, monarchs always hate and suspect the man who is mentioned as
"next to the throne". This was what did me harm with the old emperor,
and it will weigh still more with the youthful Piso, who is naturally
savage and has been exasperated by a long period of exile. It would be
easy to kill me. I must do and dare while Galba's authority is on the
wane and Piso's not yet established. These times of change suit big
enterprises; inaction is more deadly than daring; there is no call for
delay. Death is the natural end for all alike, and the only difference
is between fame and oblivion afterwards. Seeing that the same end
awaits the innocent and the guilty, a man of spirit should at least
deserve his fate.'
Otho's character was by no means so effeminate as his person. His 22
intimate freedmen and slaves, who were allowed a licence unusual in
private households, dangled before him the baits for which he was
greedy: the luxuries of Nero's Court, the marriages he could make, the
adulteries he could commit, and all the other imperial pleasures. They
were his, they pointed out, if he would bestir himself; it was
shameful to lie quiet and leave them to others. He was also incited by
the astrologers, who declared that their study of the stars pointed to
great changes and a year of glory for Otho. Creatures of this class
always deceive the ambitious, though those in power distrust them.
Probably we shall go on for ever proscribing them and keeping them by
us.[48] Poppaea[49] had always had her boudoir full of these
astrologers, the worst kind of outfit for a royal ménage. One of them,
called Ptolemy, had gone with Otho to Spain[50] and foretold that he
would outlive Nero. This came true and Otho believed in him. He now
based his vague conjectures on the computations of Galba's age and
Otho's youth, and persuaded him that he would ascend the throne. But,
though the man had no real skill, Otho accepted the prophecy as if it
was the finger of fate. Human nature always likes to believe what it
cannot understand.
Nor was Ptolemy himself slow to incite his master to crime, to 23
which it is only a short step from such ambitions. But whether his
criminal designs were deliberate or suddenly conceived, it is
impossible to say. He had long been courting the goodwill of the
soldiers either in the hope of being adopted by Galba or to prepare
the way for treason. On the road from Spain, while the men were
marching or on outpost duty, he would address the veterans by name,
reminding them how he and they had served together under Nero, and
calling them his comrades. He renewed acquaintance with some, asked
after others and helped them with money or influence, frequently
letting fall complaints and ambiguous remarks about Galba, using all
the arts which work upon uneducated minds. The soldiers grumbled
bitterly at the exertions of the march, the shortage of provisions,
and the strict discipline. What they were used to was a journey to the
Campanian Lakes or Greek seaports on board ship;[51] they found it
hard to struggle over the Pyrenees and Alps, and march immense
distances under arms.
While the soldiers were thus already fired with discontent, 24
Maevius Pudens, one of Tigellinus'[52] intimates, added fuel to their
feelings by luring on all who were naturally unstable or in need of
money, or rashly eager for a change. Eventually, whenever Galba dined
with him, Otho went the length of presenting a hundred sesterces to
each of the soldiers on guard, on the pretext that this was instead of
entertaining them.[53] This system of public largess Otho extended by
making presents in confidence to individuals, and such spirit did he
show in bribery that when a member of the Body Guard, Cocceius
Proculus, brought an action to claim part of his neighbour's farm,
Otho bought the whole property out of his own pocket and gave it to
him. He was enabled to do this by the inefficiency of the Prefect
Laco, who was no less blind to notorious than to secret scandals.
Otho then put Onomastus, one of his freedmen, in charge of the 25
projected crime, and Onomastus took into his confidence Barbius
Proculus, an aide-de-camp, and a subaltern named Veturius, both in the
Body Guard.[54] Having assured himself by many interviews that they
were both bold and cunning, Otho proceeded to load them with bribes
and promises, providing them with funds to enable them to test the
feelings of the others. And so a couple of common soldiers took it
upon them to transfer the Roman Empire: and they did it. A very few
were admitted as accomplices. These, by various devices, worked on the
indecision of the others. The non-commissioned officers who had been
promoted by Nymphidius felt themselves under suspicion; the private
soldiers were indignant and in despair at the constant postponement of
Galba's largess; some few were fired by the recollection of Nero's
régime and longed for the days of licence; all in common shared the
fear of being drafted out of the Praetorian Guards.
The infection of treason soon spread to the legions and 26
auxiliaries, whose excitement had been aroused as soon as they heard
that the armies of Germany were wavering in their allegiance. So, as
the disloyal were ready for treason and the loyal shut their eyes,
they at first determined to acclaim Otho as he was returning from
dinner on the night of the fourteenth. However, they hesitated: the
darkness spelt uncertainty, the troops were scattered all over the
town, and unanimity could scarcely be expected from drunken men. They
were not deterred by any affection for their country's honour, which
they were deliberately preparing to stain with its emperor's blood,
but they were afraid that, as Otho was unknown to the majority, some
one else might by mistake be offered to the Pannonian or German
legions and proclaimed emperor. Some evidence of the brewing plot
leaked out, but it was suppressed by the conspirators. Rumours even
reached Galba's ears, but Laco made light of them, being totally
ignorant of soldiers' characters, hostile to any suggestion, however
wise, that was not his own, and extremely obstinate with men who knew
more than he did.
On January 15, as Galba was sacrificing in front of the temple of 27
Apollo, the priest Umbricius declared the omens unfavourable: treason
was impending, and an enemy within the walls. Otho, who was standing
beside Galba, overheard and construed the omen as being from his own
point of view a good one, favourable to his plans. In a few moments
his freedman, Onomastus, announced that the architect and contractors
were waiting to see him. This had been agreed upon as the signal that
the troops were assembling and the conspiracy was ripe. On being asked
where he was going, Otho pretended that he was buying an old property,
but suspected its condition and so had to inspect it first. Thus,
leaning on his freedman's shoulder, he passed through Tiberius' house
into the Velabrum and thence to the Golden Milestone at the foot of
the Temple of Saturn.[55] There thirty-three soldiers of the Body
Guard saluted him as emperor. When he showed alarm at the smallness of
their number they put him hastily into a litter, and, drawing their
swords, hurried him away. About the same number of soldiers joined
them on the way, some accomplices, others merely curious. Some marched
along shouting and flourishing swords; others kept silent, intending
to take their cue from subsequent events.
Julius Martialis was the tribune on duty in the camp. He was so 28
overcome by the magnitude of this unexpected crime and so afraid that
the treason was widespread in the camp, and that he might be killed if
he offered any opposition, that he led most people to suppose he was
in the plot. So, too, the other tribunes and centurions all preferred
present safety to a risky loyalty. In fact the general attitude was
this: few dared to undertake so foul a crime, many wished to see it
done, and everybody was ready to condone it.
FOOTNOTES:
[47] Cp. chap. 13.
[48] Decrees excluding astrologers from Italy had been passed
in B.C. 33, A.D. 16, and again in A.D. 52. Vitellius passed
another. See ii. 62.
[49] Nero's wife. Cp. chap. 13.
[50] i.e. to Lusitania. See chap. 13.
[51] They were 'Guards' who had escorted Nero on his singing
tours through Greece. Perhaps some of them came to meet Galba
on his way from Spain. Otherwise they could not have shared
the toils of this march.
[52] See chap. 72.
[53] The public dinner given in older days by patrons to their
clients had long ago been commuted for a 'tip' (sportula).
Pudens, instead of providing dinner for Galba's guard, sought
their favour by giving them about 17_s._ apiece.
[54] The English terms do not of course represent the exact
position of these soldiers. The former was one of the
emperor's personal body-guard (speculatores), who received the
watchword (tessera) and passed it round: the latter was one to
whom a centurion had delegated some part of his work.
[55] Plutarch explains this. 'He passed through Tiberius'
house, as it is called, and walked down to the Forum, where
stands the golden pillar to which all the high-roads of Italy
lead.' The Velabrum lies between the Forum, the Tiber, and the
Aventine.
THE FALL OF GALBA
Meanwhile Galba in total ignorance and intent upon his sacrifices 29
continued to importune the gods of an empire that had already ceased
to be his. First there came a rumour that some one or other of the
senators was being hurried to the camp, then that it was Otho.
Immediately people who had met Otho came flocking in from all quarters
of Rome; some in their terror exaggerated the truth, some minimized
it, remembering even then to flatter. After discussion it was decided
that the temper of the cohort on guard in the palace should be tested,
but not by Galba himself. His authority was held in reserve for more
heroic remedies. The troops were summoned. Piso, standing out on the
steps of the palace, addressed them as follows:
'Fellow soldiers, it is now five days since I was made a Caesar. I
knew nothing of the future nor whether the name was more to be desired
or feared. It now lies with you to decide whether or no my adoption is
to prove a calamity for my house and for my country. In saying this, I
do not dread disaster on my own account. I have known misfortune, and
I am now discovering to the full that prosperity is just as dangerous.
But for the sake of my adoptive father, of the senate, and of the
whole empire, I deplore the thought that we may have to-day either to
die or--what for good men is as wretched--to kill. In the recent
revolution our comfort was that Rome was spared the sight of blood,
and the transfer was effected without disturbance. We thought that my
adoption would be a safeguard against an outbreak of civil war even
after Galba's death.
'I will make no claims to rank or respectability. To compare 30
myself with Otho, I need not recite my virtues. His vices are all he
has to be proud of. They ruined the empire, even when he was only
playing the part of an emperor's friend. Why should he deserve to be
emperor? For his swaggering demeanour? For his effeminate costume?
Extravagance imposes on some people. They take it for liberality. They
are wrong. He will know how to squander money, but not how to give it
away. His mind is full of lechery and debauchery and intrigues with
women. These are in his eyes the prerogatives of the throne. And the
pleasure of his vices would be all his, the blushes of shame would be
ours. No man has ever ruled well who won the throne by bad means.
'The whole Roman world agreed to give Galba the title of Caesar. Galba
with your approval gave that title to me. Even if the "country", the
"senate", the "people", are empty terms, it is to your interest, my
fellow soldiers, to see that it is not the rascals who create an
emperor. From time to time one hears of the legionaries being in
mutiny against their generals. But your good faith and your good name
have stood to this day unimpaired. It was not you who deserted Nero:
he deserted you. Are you going to allow less than thirty deserters and
renegades to bestow the crown? Why! no one would tolerate their
choosing so much as a centurion or a tribune for themselves. Are you
going to allow this precedent, and by your acquiescence make their
crime your own? You will soon see this lawless spirit spreading to the
troops abroad, and in time the treason will recoil on us and the war
on you. Besides, innocence wins you as much as the murder of your
emperor: you will get from us as large a bounty for your loyalty as
you would from others for your crime.'
The members of the Body Guard dispersed. The rest of the cohort 31
paid some heed to his speech. Aimlessly, as happens in moments of
confusion, they seized their standards, without as yet any fixed plan,
and not, as was afterwards believed, to cloak their treachery. Marius
Celsus had been dispatched to the picked detachments of the Illyrian
army, which were quartered in the Vipsanian arcade,[56] while
instructions had been given to two senior centurions,[57] Amullius
Serenus and Domitius Sabinus, to summon the German troops from the
Hall of Liberty. They distrusted the legion of marines, who had been
alienated by Galba's butchery of their comrades on his entry into
Rome.[58] Three officers of the guards, Cetrius Severus, Subrius
Dexter, and Pompeius Longinus, also hurried to the camp in the hope
that the mutiny was still in its early stages and might be averted by
good advice before it came to a head. The soldiers attacked Subrius
and Cetrius with threats and forcibly seizing Longinus disarmed him,
because he had not come in virtue of his military rank, but simply as
one of Galba's private friends; and for his loyalty to his master the
rebels disliked him all the more. The marines without any hesitation
joined the guards. The Illyrian draft[59] drove Celsus away at the
point of their javelins. The German detachments[59] wavered for some
time. They were still in poor condition physically, and inclined to be
passive. Nero had dispatched them as an advance-guard to
Alexandria;[60] the long voyage back again had damaged their health,
and Galba had spared no expense in looking after them.
The whole populace of Rome was now crowding into the palace 32
together with a good sprinkling of slaves. With discordant shouts they
demanded the death of Otho and the doom of the conspirators. They
might have been in the circus or the theatre, clamouring for
entertainment. There was neither sense nor sincerity in their
behaviour. They were quite ready on the same day to clamour for the
opposite with equal zeal. But it is an established custom to flatter
any emperor with unbridled cheering and meaningless enthusiasm.
Meanwhile Galba was torn between two opinions. Titus Vinius maintained
that they ought to remain within the palace, employ the slaves to
offer resistance and block up all the doors, instead of going out to
face the angry troops. 'This will give time,' he urged, 'for the
disloyal to repent and the loyal to unite their forces. Crimes demand
haste, good counsels profit by delay. Besides, if need be, we shall
have the same chance of leaving the palace later: if we leave and
repent of it, it will not be in our power to return.'
All the others voted for immediate action before the conspiracy 33
gathered strength and numbers. 'Otho,' they argued, 'will soon lose
heart. He crept away by stealth and was introduced in a litter to a
parcel of strangers, and now because we dally and waste time he has
leisure to rehearse his part of emperor. What is the good of waiting
until Otho sets his camp in order and approaches the Capitol, while
Galba peeps out of a window? Are this famous general and his gallant
friends to shut the doors and not to stir a foot over the threshold,
as if they were anxious to endure a siege? Much help may we hope from
slaves, when once the unwieldy crowd loses its unity and their first
indignation, which counts for so much, begins to cool. No, cowardice
is too risky. Or if we must fall, let us meet the danger half-way, and
cover Otho with disgrace, ourselves with honour.'
When Vinius resisted this proposal, Laco, prompted by Icelus,
assailed him with threats, persisting in his private quarrel to the
ruin of his country. Galba without further delay supported those 34
whose plan would look best. However, Piso was first dispatched to the
camp. The young man had a great name, his popularity was still fresh,
and moreover, he disliked Titus Vinius, or, if he did not, Vinius'
enemies hoped he did: it is so easy to believe in hatred. Scarcely had
Piso departed, when there arrived a rumour that Otho had been killed
in the camp. At first it was vague and uncertain, but eventually, as
so often happens with daring lies, people began to assert that they
had been present and seen the deed. Some were glad and some
indifferent, so the news gained easy credence. Many, however, thought
that the report had been concocted and disseminated by friends of
Otho, who now mingled in the crowd and tried to lure Galba out by
spreading this agreeable falsehood. At this point not only the 35
populace and the inexperienced mob but many of the knights and
senators as well broke out into applause and unbridled enthusiasm.
With their fear they had lost their caution. Breaking open the palace
gates they rushed in and presented themselves before Galba,
complaining that they had been forestalled in the task of revenge. All
the cowards who, as events proved, could show no pluck in action,
indulged in excessive heroics and lip-courage. Nobody knew, everybody
talked. At last, for lack of the truth, Galba yielded to the consensus
of error. When he had put on his breastplate he was lifted into a
chair, for he was too old and infirm to stand against the crowds that
kept flocking in. In the palace he was met by Julius Atticus, of the
Body Guard, who displayed a dripping sword and shouted out that he had killed Otho. 'Comrade,' said Galba, 'who bade you?' Galba had a
remarkable power of curbing soldiers' presumption, for he was not
afraid of threats nor moved by flattery.
Meanwhile in Otho's camp there was no longer any doubt of the 36
soldiers' unanimity. Such was their enthusiasm that they were not
content with carrying Otho shoulder-high in procession; they placed
him among the standards on the platform, where shortly before a gilt
statue of Galba had stood, and made a ring round him with their
colours.[61] Tribunes and centurions were allowed no approach: the
common soldiers even called out, 'Beware of the officers.' The whole
camp resounded with confused shouts of mutual encouragement. It was
quite unlike the wavering and spiritless flattery of a civil mob. As
new adherents streamed in, directly a soldier caught sight of one of
them, he grasped him by the hand, flung his arms round him, kept him
at his side, and dictated the oath of allegiance. Some commended their
general to his soldiers, and some the soldiers to their general. Otho,
for his part, was not slow to greet the crowd with outstretched hand
and throw kisses to them. In every way he played the slave to gain a
throne. When the whole legion of the marines had sworn allegiance, he
gained confidence in his strength, and, considering that those whom he
had incited individually needed a few words of general encouragement,
he stood out on the rampart and began as follows:--'In what guise 37
I come forward to address you, Fellow Soldiers, I cannot tell. Dubbed
emperor by you, I dare not call myself a private citizen: yet
"emperor" I cannot say with another on the throne. And what am I to
call you? That too will remain in doubt until it is decided whether
you have here in your camp an enemy or an emperor of Rome. You hear
how they clamour at once for my death and your punishment. So clear is
it that we must fall or stand together. Doubtless Galba--such is his
clemency--has already promised our destruction. Is he not the man who
without the least excuse butchered thousands of utterly innocent
soldiers?[62] I shudder whenever I recall his ghastly entry into the
city, when before the face of Rome he ordered the decimation of the
troops whom at their humble petition he had taken under his
protection. That is Galba's only "victory". These were the auspices
under which he made his entry; and what glory has he brought to the
throne he occupies, save the murder of Obultronius Sabinus and
Cornelius Marcellus in Spain, of Betuus Cilo in Gaul, of Fonteius
Capito in Germany, of Clodius Macer in Africa, of Cingonius on his
march to Rome, of Turpilianus in the city, and of Nymphidius in the
camp? What province is there in the empire that has not been polluted
with massacre? He calls it "salutary correction". For his "remedies"
are what other people call crimes: his cruelty is disguised as
"austerity", his avarice as "economy", while by "discipline" he means
punishing and insulting you. It is but seven months since Nero's
death, and already Icelus alone has embezzled more than all the
depredations of Polyclitus and Vatinius and Aegialus[63] put together.
Why, Vinius would have been less greedy and lawless had he been
emperor himself. As it is, he treats us as his own subjects and
despises us as Galba's. His own fortune alone could provide the
largess which they daily cast in your teeth but never pay into your
pocket.
'Nor in Galba's successor either is there any hope for you. Galba 38
has seen to that. He has recalled from exile the man whose avarice and
sour temper he judged most like his own. You witnessed for yourselves,
my comrades, the extraordinary storm which signified Heaven's
abhorrence at that ill-starred adoption. The Senate and People of Rome
feel the same. They are counting on your courage. You alone can give
strength to the right policy: it is powerless without you, however
good it be. It is not to war and danger that I call you. All the
troops are with us. That single plain-clothes cohort[64] is no longer
a defence to Galba, but a hindrance. When once they have caught sight
of you, when once they come to take their orders from me, the only
quarrel between you will be who can do most to put me in their debt.
There is no room for delay in plans which cannot be commended until
they are put into action.'
Otho then gave orders to open the arsenal. The soldiers immediately
seized their arms in such haste that all the ordinary distinctions of
the service were neglected: neither Guards nor Legionaries carried
their own arms:[65] in the confusion they took the helmets and shields
of the auxiliaries. There were no tribunes or centurions to encourage
them: each man followed his own lead, and the rascals found their
chief incentive in the consternation of the loyal. As the riot 39
increased, Piso, alarmed by the din of their shouts, which could be
heard even in the city, had overtaken Galba, who had meanwhile left
the palace and was approaching the Forum. Marius Celsus had also
brought back no good news. Some were for returning to the palace,
others for seeking the shelter of the Capitol, many for seizing the
Rostra. The majority merely disagreed with other people's proposals,
and, as so often happens in these disasters, the best course always
seemed the one for which it was now too late. It is said that Laco,
without Galba's knowledge, proposed the assassination of Titus Vinius,
either with the idea that his execution would be a sop to the
soldiers, or because he believed him Otho's accomplice, or, as a last
alternative, hatred may have been his motive. However, the time and
the place both bred scruples; when killing once begins it is difficult
to set a limit: besides, their plans were upset by the arrival of
terrified messengers, by the continual desertion of their supporters,
and by a general waning of enthusiasm even among those who at first
had been the keenest to display their loyalty and courage.
Galba was driven hither and thither by the tide of the surging 40
mob. The temples and public buildings[66] were crowded with
spectators, who viewed a sorry scene. No shouts came from the crowd:
astonishment was on their faces, and their ears open to every sound.
There was neither uproar nor quiet, but the silence of strong emotion
and alarm. However, a report reached Otho that the populace was
arming. He bade his men fly headlong to forestall the danger. Off went
the Roman soldiers as if they were going to drag Vologaesus or Pacorus
from the ancestral throne of the Arsacids[67]--and not to butcher
their own emperor, a helpless old man. Armed to the teeth, they broke
at a full gallop into the Forum, scattering the populace and trampling
senators under foot. Neither the sight of the Capitol nor the sanctity
of the temples towering above them, nor the thought of Roman emperors
past and to come, could avail to deter them from committing that crime
which the next successor always avenges.
Seeing the armed ranks now close at hand, the standard-bearer of 41
the cohort on guard over Galba[68]--tradition says his name was
Atilius Vergilio--tore off the medallion of Galba[69] and flung it to
the ground. This signal clearly showed that all the troops were for
Otho: the people fled from the deserted Forum and swords were drawn
against any who lingered. Near 'Lake Curtius'[70] Galba was
precipitated from his chair by the panic-stricken haste of the bearers
and flung to the ground. The accounts of his last words vary according
as they are prompted by hatred or admiration. Some say that he whined
and asked what harm he had deserved, begging for a few days' respite
to pay the troops their largess. The majority say that he offered his
neck to the blow and bade them, 'Come, strike, if it serves the
country's need.' Whatever he said mattered little to his assassins. As
to the actual murderer there is a difference of opinion. Some say it
was Terentius, a reservist,[71] others that his name was Laecanius.
The most common account is that a soldier of the Fifteenth legion, by
name Camurius, pierced his throat with a sword-thrust. The others
foully mangled his arms and legs (his breast was covered) and with
bestial savagery continued to stab the headless corpse. Then they made
for Titus Vinius. Here, too, there is a doubt whether the fear of 42
imminent death strangled his voice, or whether he called out that they
had no mandate from Otho to kill him. He may have invented this in his
terror, or it may have been a confession of his complicity in the
plot. His whole life and reputation give reason to suppose that he was
an accomplice in the crime of which he was the cause. He was brought
to the ground in front of the temple of Julius by a blow on the knee,
and afterwards a common soldier named Julius Carus ran him through
with a sword.
However, Rome found one hero that day. This was Sempronius Densus, 43
a centurion of the Guards, who had been told off by Galba to protect
Piso. Drawing his dagger he faced the armed assassins, flinging their
treason in their teeth, and by his shouts and gestures turned their
attention upon himself, thus enabling Piso to escape despite his
wounds. Piso, reaching the temple of Vesta, was mercifully sheltered
by the verger, who hid him in his lodging. There, no reverence for
this sanctuary but merely his concealment postponed his immediate
death. Eventually, Otho, who was burning to have him killed,[72]
dispatched as special agents, Sulpicius Florus of the British cohorts,
a man whom Galba had recently enfranchised, and Statius Murcus of the
Body Guard. They dragged Piso forth and butchered him on the threshold
of the temple.
FOOTNOTES:
[56] These troops, having no head-quarters in Rome, were put
up in a piazza built by M. Vipsanius Agrippa, and decorated
with paintings of Neptune and of the Argonauts. Cp. ii. 93,
where troops are quartered in collonades or temples.
[57] The term primipilaris denotes one who had been the
centurion commanding the first maniple (pilani) of the first
cohort of a legion. He was an officer of great importance,
highly paid, and often admitted to the general's council.
Otho's expedition to Narbonese Gaul (chap. 87) was commanded
by two such 'senior centurions'.
[58] See chap. 6, note 11.
[59] See chap. 6.
[60] Nero was meditating an Ethiopian campaign when the revolt
of Vindex broke out. Cp. chap. 6.
[61] Probably the colours of the different maniples as
distinct from the standards of the cohorts.
[62] Cp. chap. 6.
[63] Freedmen who had curried favour with Nero. Polyclitus was
sent to inquire into Suetonius Paulinus' administration of
Britain after the revolt of Boadicea in A.D. 61. Vatinius was
a deformed cobbler from Beneventum who became a sort of court
buffoon, and acquired great wealth and bad influence.
[64] The cohort on guard seem to have been in mufti, without
helmets and shields or their military cloaks, but armed with
swords and javelins.
[65] The legionaries armed themselves with lances (_hastae_),
and the auxiliaries with javelins (_pila_).
[66] The word _basilica_ refers to the buildings round the
Forum, used for legal, financial, and commercial purposes.
Most of them had cloisters.
[67] The Parthian royal family: Vologaesus was king of
Parthia, and his brother Pacorus viceroy of Media Atropatene.
[68] Cp. chap. 29.
[69] Attached to the pole of the standard.
[70] An enclosed pond in the middle of the Forum, supposed to
be the spot where Curtius leapt on horseback into the chasm,
or by others the spot where a Sabine chieftain was engulfed in
the days of Romulus.
[71] The word here used usually means a veteran re-enlisted in
a special corps after his term had expired. It was also
applied at this time in a special sense to a corps of young
knights, who, without losing their status, acted as Galba's
special body-guard in the imperial palace. One of these may
have been the murderer.
OTHO ON THE THRONE
None of his murders pleased Otho so much as this. On Piso's head, 44
as on no other, they say, he gazed with insatiable eyes. This was
possibly the first moment at which he felt relieved of all anxiety,
and free to indulge his glee; or perhaps, in the case of Galba and of
Vinius, the recollection of his treason to the one and of his former
friendship with the other troubled even his unfeeling heart with
gloomy thoughts, whereas, Piso being an enemy and a rival, he
considered it a pious duty to gloat over his murder. Their heads were
fixed on poles and carried along with the standards of the cohorts
side by side with the eagle of the legion.[73] Those who had done the
deed and those who had witnessed it vied with each other in displaying
their bloody hands, all boasting of their share--some falsely, some
truly--as if it were a fine and memorable exploit. Vitellius
subsequently discovered more than 120 petitions demanding rewards for
distinguished services rendered on that day. He gave orders to search
out all the petitioners and put them to death. This was from no
respect for Galba: he merely followed the traditional custom by which
princes secure their present safety and posthumous vengeance.
The senate and people seemed different men. There was a general 45
rush for the camp, every one shouldering his neighbour and trying to
overtake those in front. They heaped insults on Galba, praised the
prudence of the troops, and covered Otho's hand with kisses, their
extravagance varying inversely with their sincerity. Otho rebuffed no
one, and succeeded by his words and looks in moderating the menace of
the soldiers' greed for vengeance. They loudly demanded the execution
of Marius Celsus, the consul-elect, who had remained Galba's faithful
friend to the last. They were as much offended at his efficiency and
honesty as if these had been criminal qualities. What they wanted was
obviously to find a first excuse for plunder and murder and the
destruction of all decent citizens. But Otho had as yet no influence
to prevent crimes: he could only order them. So he simulated anger,
giving instructions for Celsus' arrest, and by promising that he
should meet with a worse penalty, thus rescued him from immediate
death.
The will of the soldiers was now henceforward supreme. The 46
Praetorian Guards chose their own prefects, Plotius Firmus, a man who
had risen from the ranks to the post of Chief of Police,[74] and
joined Otho's side before Galba's fall, and Licinius Proculus, an
intimate friend of Otho, and therefore suspected of furthering his
plans. They made Flavius Sabinus[75] prefect of the city, therein
following Nero's choice, under whom Sabinus had held that post;
besides, most of them had an eye to the fact that he was Vespasian's
brother. An urgent demand arose that the customary fees to centurions
for granting furlough should be abolished, for they constituted a sort
of annual tax upon the common soldier. The result had been that a
quarter of each company could go off on leave or lounge idly about the
barracks, so long as they paid the centurion his fee, nor was there
any one to control either the amount of this impost or the means by
which the soldiers raised the money: highway robbery or menial service
was the usual resort whereby they purchased leisure. Then, again, a
soldier who had money was savagely burdened with work until he should
buy exemption. Thus he soon became impoverished and enervated by
idleness, and returned to his company no longer a man of means and
energy but penniless and lazy. So the process went on. One after
another they became deteriorated by poverty and lax discipline,
rushing blindly into quarrels and mutiny, and, as a last resource,
into civil war. Otho was afraid of alienating the centurions by his
concessions to the rank and file, and promised to pay the annual
furlough-fees out of his private purse. This was indubitably a sound
reform, which good emperors have since established as a regular custom
in the army. The prefect Laco he pretended to banish to an island, but
on his arrival he was stabbed by a reservist[76] whom Otho had
previously dispatched for that purpose. Marcianus Icelus, as being one
of his own freedmen,[77] he sentenced to public execution.
Thus the day was spent in crimes, and worst of all was the joy 47
they caused. The senate was summoned by the urban praetor.[78] The
other magistrates all vied in flattery. The senators arrived
post-haste. They decreed to Otho the powers of the tribunate, the
title of Augustus, and all the imperial prerogatives. Their unanimous
object was to blot out all recollection of former insults; but, as
these had been hurled equally from all sides, they did not, as far as
any one could see, stick in his memory. Whether he had forgotten them
or only postponed punishment, his reign was too short to show. He was
then carried through the still reeking Forum among the piles of dead
bodies to the Capitol, and thence to the palace. He granted permission
to burn and bury the bodies of his victims. Piso's wife Verania and
his brother Scribonianus laid out his body, and this was done for
Vinius by his daughter Crispina. They had to search for the heads and
buy them back from the murderers, who had preserved them for sale.
FOOTNOTES:
[72] According to Plutarch, when they brought Otho Galba's
head, he said, 'That's nothing: show me Piso's.'
[73] i.e. the legion of marines--Prima Adiutrix. Cp. chap. 6, &c.
[74] i.e. in command of the _cohortes vigilum_. Cp. chap. 5,
note 10.
[75] Vespasian's elder brother. He continued to hold the
office under Vitellius (ii. 63).
[76] See chap. 42, note 71.
[77] As a _libertus Caesaris_ he passed into Otho's hands with
the rest of the palace furniture.
[78] The consuls Galba and Vinius (chap. 1), were both dead.
DRAMATIS PERSONAE
Piso was in his thirty-first year. His reputation was better than 48
his fortune. His brothers had been executed, Magnus by Claudius,
Crassus by Nero.[79] He himself after being long in exile was a Caesar
for four days. Hastily adopted in preference to his elder brother,[80]
the only advantage he reaped was to be killed first.
Titus Vinius in his fifty-seven years had displayed strange contrasts
of character. His father belonged to a family of praetorian rank; his
mother's father was one of the proscribed.[81] A scandal marked his
first military service under the general Calvisius Sabinus.[82] The
general's wife suffered from a suspicious desire to inspect the
arrangements of the camp, which she entered by night disguised in
soldier's uniform. There she brazenly interfered with the guard and
the soldiers on duty, and eventually had the effrontery to commit
adultery in the general's own quarters. The man convicted of
implication in this scandal was Titus Vinius. He was therefore put in
irons by order of Caligula.[83] However, the fortunes of the time soon
changed and he was set at liberty. After mounting the ladder of office
without check, he was as an ex-praetor given the command of a legion,
and proved successful. But soon again he soiled his reputation, and
laid himself under the charge of having been mean enough to steal a
gold cup from Claudius' dinner-table. Claudius gave orders that on the
next day Vinius alone of all his guests should be served on
earthenware. However, as pro-consul, Vinius' government of Narbonese
Gaul was strict and honest. Subsequently his friendship with Galba
brought him into danger. He was bold, cunning, and efficient, with
great power for good or for evil, according to his mood. Vinius' will
was annulled because of his great wealth. Piso was poor, so his last
wishes were respected.
Galba's body lay long neglected, and under cover of darkness was 49
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 an