The Works of Tacitus
tr. by Alfred John Church and William Jackson Brodribb
[1864-1877]
Tacitus: History Book 3 [70]
70. At dawn of day, before either side commenced hostilities, Sabinus sent Cornelius
Martialis, a centurion of the first rank, to Vitellius, with instructions to
complain of the infraction of the stipulated terms. “There has evidently,” he
said, “been a mere show and pretence of abdicating the Empire, with the view
of deceiving a number of distinguished men. If not, why, when leaving the Rostra,
had he gone to the house of his brother, looking as it did over the Forum, and
certain to provoke the gaze of the multitude, rather than to the Aventine, and
the family house of his wife? This would have befitted a private individual
anxious to shun all appearance of Imperial power. But on the contrary, Vitellius
retraced his steps to the palace, the very stronghold of Empire; thence issued
a band of armed men. One of the most frequented parts of the city was strewed
with the corpses of innocent persons. The Capitol itself had not been spared.
“I,” said Sabinus, “was only a civilian and a member of the Senate, while the
rivalry of Vitellius and Vespasian was being settled by conflicts between legions,
by the capture of cities, by the capitulation of cohorts; with Spain, Germany,
and Britain in revolt, the brother of Vespasian still remained firm to his allegiance,
till actually invited to discuss terms of agreement. Peace and harmony bring
advantage to the conquered, but only credit to the conqueror. If you repent
of your compact, it is not against me, whom you treacherously deceived, that
you must draw the sword, nor is it against the son of Vespasian, who is yet
of tender age. What would be gained by the slaughter of one old man and one
stripling? You should go and meet the legions, and fight there for Empire; everything
else will follow the issue of that struggle.” To these representations the embarrassed
Vitellius answered a few words in his own exculpation, throwing all the blame
upon the soldiers, with whose excessive zeal his moderation was, he said, unable
to cope. He advised Martialis to depart unobserved through a concealed part
of the palace, lest he should be killed by the soldiers, as the negotiator of
this abhorred convention. Vitellius had not now the power either to command
or to forbid. He was no longer Emperor, he was merely the cause of war.
71. Martialis had hardly returned to the Capitol, when the infuriated soldiery
arrived, without any leader, every man acting on his own impulse. They hurried
at quick march past the Forum and the temples which hang over it, and advanced
their line up the opposite hill as far as the outer gates of the Capitol. There
were formerly certain colonnades on the right side of the slope as one went
up; the defenders, issuing forth on the roof of these buildings, showered tiles
and stones on the Vitellianists. The assailants were not armed with anything
but swords, and it seemed too tedious to send for machines and missiles. They
threw lighted brands on a projecting colonnade, and following the track of the
fire would have burst through the half-burnt gates of the Capitol, had not Sabinus,
tearing down on all sides the statues, the glories of former generations, formed
them into a barricade across the opening. They then assailed the opposite approaches
to the Capitol, near the grove of the Asylum, and where the Tarpeian rock is
mounted by a hundred steps. Both these attacks were unexpected; the closer and
fiercer of the two threatened the Asylum. The assailants could not be checked
as they mounted the continuous line of buildings, which, as was natural in a
time of profound peace, had grown up to such a height as to be on a level with
the soil of the Capitol. A doubt arises at this point, whether it was the assailants
who threw lighted brands on to the roofs, or whether, as the more general account
has it, the besieged thus sought to repel the assailants, who were now making
vigorous progress. From them the fire passed to the colonnades adjoining the
temples; the eagles supporting the pediment, which were of old timber, caught
the flames. And so the Capitol, with its gates shut, neither defended by friends,
nor spoiled by a foe, was burnt to the ground.
72. This was the most deplorable and disgraceful event that had happened
to the Commonwealth of Rome since the foundation of the city; for now, assailed
by no foreign enemy, with Heaven ready to be propitious, had our vices only
allowed, the seat of Jupiter Supremely Good and Great, founded by our ancestors
with solemn auspices to be the pledge of Empire, the seat, which neither Porsenna,
when the city was surrendered, nor the Gauls, when it was captured, had been
able to violate, was destroyed by the madness of our Emperors. Once before indeed
during civil war the Capitol had been consumed by fire, but then only through
the crime of individuals; now it was openly besieged, and openly set on fire.
And what were the motives of this conflict? what the compensation for so great
a disaster? was it for our country we were fighting? King Tarquinius Priscus
had vowed its erection in his war with the Sabines, and had laid the foundations
on a scale which suited the hopes of future greatness rather than what the yet
moderate resources of Rome could achieve. After him, Servius Tullius, heartily
assisted by the allies, and Tarquinius Superbus, employing the spoils of war
from the conquered Suessa Pometia, raised the superstructure. But the glory
of its completion was reserved for the days of liberty. After the expulsion
of the Kings, Horatius Pulvillus, in his second consulate, dedicated it, a building
so magnificent, that the vast wealth afterwards acquired by the people of Rome
served to embellish rather than increase it. It was rebuilt on the same site,
when, after an interval of 415 years, it was burnt to the ground in the consulate
of Lucius Scipio and Caius Norbanus. Sulla, after his final triumph, undertook
the charge of restoring it, but did not live to dedicate it, the one thing denied
to his uniform good fortune. The name of Lutatius Catulus, the dedicator, remained
among all the vast erections of the Emperors, down to the days of Vitellius.
This was the building that was now on fire.
73. The catastrophe, however, caused more panic among the besieged than among
the besiegers. In fact, the troops of Vitellius lacked neither skill nor courage
in the midst of peril. Opposed to them were soldiers without self-possession,
and a spiritless and, so to speak, infatuated commander, who had not the use
of his tongue or his ears, who would not be guided by other men’s counsels,
and could not carry out his own, who, hurried to and fro by the shouts of the
enemy, forbade what he had just ordered, and ordered what he had just forbidden.
Then, as usually happens when everything is lost, all gave orders, and no one
obeyed. At last, they threw away their arms, and began to look about for ways
of escape and means of concealment. The Vitellianists burst in, carrying everywhere
with indiscriminate ferocity the firebrand and the sword. A few of the military
men, among whom the most conspicuous were Cornelius Martialis, Aemilius Pacensis,
Casperius Niger, and Didius Sceva, ventured to resist, and were cut down. Flavius
Sabinus, who was unarmed, and who did not attempt to fly, was surrounded, and
with him the consul Quinctius Atticus, marked out by his clinging to the shadow
of office, and by his folly in having scattered among the people edicts highly
eulogistic of Vespasian and insulting to Vitellius. The rest escaped by various
chances, some disguised as slaves, others concealed by the fidelity of dependants,
and hiding among the baggage. Some caught the watchword by which the Vitellianists
recognised each other, and, themselves challenging others and giving it when
challenged, found in their audacity an effectual disguise.
74. When the enemy first burst in, Domitian concealed himself in the house
of a servant of the temple. At the ingenious suggestion of a freedman, he assumed
a linen vestment, and passing unnoticed among a crowd of acolytes, found a refuge
with Cornelius Primus, one of his father’s dependants, in a house near the Velabrum.
When his father mounted the throne, he pulled down the chamber of the temple-servant,
and built a small chapel, dedicated to Jupiter the Preserver, with an altar
on which his own adventures were represented in marble. Afterwards, on his own
accession to the Imperial power, he consecrated a vast temple to Jupiter the
Guardian, with an effigy of himself in the arms of the god. Sabinus and Atticus
were loaded with chains, and conducted to Vitellius, who received them with
anything but anger in his words and looks, amidst the murmurs of those who demanded
the privilege of slaying them and their pay for the work they had done. Those
who were standing near began the clamour, and the degraded rabble cried out
for the execution of Sabinus, and mingled threats with their flatteries. Vitellius,
who was standing before the steps of the palace, and was preparing to intercede,
was induced to desist. The body of Sabinus, pierced and mutilated and with the
head severed from it, was dragged to the Gemoniae.
75. Such was the end of a man in no wise contemptible. In five and thirty
campaigns he had served the State, and had gained distinction both at home and
abroad. His blamelessness and integrity no one could question. He was somewhat
boastful; this was the only fault of which rumour accused him in the seven years
during which he had governed Moesia, and the twelve during which he was prefect
of the city. In the closing scene of his life some have seen pusillanimity,
many a moderate temper, sparing of the blood of his countrymen. One thing is
allowed by all, that, before the accession of Vespasian, the distinction of
the family was centred in Sabinus. I have heard that his death gratified Mucianus,
and many indeed asserted that the interests of peace were promoted by the removal
of the rivalry between these two men, one of whom felt himself to be the brother
of the Emperor, while the other thought himself his colleague. Vitellius resisted
the demands of the people for the execution of the Consul; he was now pacified,
and wished, it would seem, to recompense Atticus, who, when asked who had set
fire to the Capitol, had confessed his own guilt, and by this confession, which
may indeed have been an opportune falsehood, was thought to have taken upon
himself the odium of the crime, and to have acquitted the Vitellianist party.
76. Meanwhile Lucius Vitellius, who was encamped near Feronia, was threatening
Tarracina with destruction. There were shut up in the place a few gladiators
and seamen, who dared not leave the walls and risk an engagement in the plain.
I have mentioned before that Julianus was in command of the gladiators, Apollinaris
of the seamen, two men whose profligacy and indolence made them resemble gladiators
rather than generals. They kept no watch; they did not strengthen the weak points
of the fortifications; but, making each pleasant spot ring with the noise of
their daily and nightly dissipation, they dispersed their soldiers on errands
which were to minister to their luxury, and never spoke of war, except at their
banquets. Apinius Tiro had quitted the place a few days before, and was now,
by the harsh exaction of presents and contributions from the towns, adding to
the unpopularity rather than to the resources of his party.
77. Meanwhile a slave belonging to Verginius Capito deserted to L. Vitellius,
and having engaged, on being furnished with a force, to put him in possession
of the unoccupied citadel, proceeded at a late hour of the night to place some
light-armed cohorts on the summit of a range of hills which commanded the enemy’s
position. From this place the troops descended to what was more a massacre than
a conflict. Many whom they slew were unarmed or in the act of arming themselves,
some were just awaking from sleep, amid the confusion of darkness and panic,
the braying of trumpets, and the shouts of the foe. A few of the gladiators
resisted, and fell not altogether unavenged. The rest made a rush for the ships,
where everything was involved in a general panic, the troops being mingled with
country people, whom the Vitellianists slaughtered indiscriminately. Six Liburnian
ships with Apollinaris, prefect of the fleet, escaped in the first confusion.
The rest were either seized upon the beach, or were swamped by the weight of
the crowds that rushed on board. Julianus was brought before L. Vitellius, and,
after being ignominiously scourged, was put to death in his presence. Some persons
accused Triaria, the wife of L. Vitellius, of having armed herself with a soldier’s
sword, and of having behaved with arrogance and cruelty amid the horrors and
massacres of the storm of Tarracina. Lucius himself sent to his brother a laurelled
dispatch with an account of his success, and asked whether he wished him at
once to return to Rome, or to complete the subjugation of Campania. This circumstance
was advantageous to the State as well as to the cause of Vespasian. Had the
army fresh from victory, and with all the pride of success added to its natural
obstinacy, marched upon Rome, a conflict of no slight magnitude, and involving
the destruction of the capital, must have ensued. Lucius Vitellius, infamous
as he was, had yet some energy, but it was not through his virtues, as is the
case with the good, but through his vices, that he, like the worst of villains,
was formidable.
78. While these successes were being achieved on the side of Vitellius, the
army of Vespasian had left Narnia, and was passing the holiday of the Saturnalia
in idleness at Ocriculum. The reason alleged for so injurious a delay was that
they might wait for Mucianus. Some persons indeed there were who assailed Antonius
with insinuations, that he lingered with treacherous intent, after receiving
private letters from Vitellius, which conveyed to him the offer of the consulship
and of the Emperor’s daughter in marriage with a vast dowry, as the price of
treason. Others asserted that this was all a fiction, invented to please Mucianus.
Some again alleged that the policy agreed upon by all the generals was to threaten
rather than actually to attack the capital, as Vitellius’ strongest cohorts
had revolted from him, and it seemed likely that, deprived of all support, he
would abdicate the throne, but that the whole plan was ruined by the impatience
and subsequent cowardice of Sabinus, who, after rashly taking up arms, had not
been able to defend against three cohorts the great stronghold of the Capitol,
which might have defied even the mightiest armies. One cannot, however, easily
fix upon one man the blame which belongs to all. Mucianus did in fact delay
the conquerors by ambiguously-worded dispatches; Antonius, by a perverse acquiescence,
or by an attempt to throw the odium upon another, laid himself open to blame;
the other generals, by imagining that the war was over, contrived a distinction
for its closing scene. Even Petilius Cerialis, though he had been sent on with
a thousand cavalry by crossroads through the Sabine district so as to enter
Rome by the Via Salaria, had not been sufficiently prompt in his movements,
when the report of the siege of the Capitol put all alike on the alert.
79. Antonius marched by the Via Flaminia, and arrived at Saxa Rubra, when
the night was far spent, too late to give any help. There he received nothing
but gloomy intelligence, that Sabinus was dead, that the Capitol had been burnt
to the ground, that Rome was in consternation, and also that the populace and
the slaves were arming themselves for Vitellius. And Petilius Cerialis had been
defeated in a cavalry skirmish. While he was hurrying on without caution, as
against a vanquished enemy, the Vitellianists, who had disposed some infantry
among their cavalry, met him. The conflict took place not far from the city
among buildings, gardens, and winding lanes, which were well known to the Vitellianists,
but disconcerting to their opponents, to whom they were strange. Nor indeed
were all the cavalry one in heart, for there were with them some who had lately
capitulated at Narnia, and who were anxiously watching the fortunes of the rival
parties. Tullius Flavianus, commanding a squadron, was taken prisoner; the rest
fled in disgraceful confusion, but the victors did not continue the pursuit
beyond Fidenae.
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