The Works of Tacitus
tr. by Alfred John Church and William Jackson Brodribb
[1864-1877]
Tacitus: History Book 2 [10]
10. In a state that was distracted by strife, and that from frequent changes
in its rulers trembled on the verge between liberty and licence, even little
matters were attended with great excitement. Vibius Crispus, whose wealth, power,
and ability, made him rank among men of distinction, rather than among men of
worth, demanded that Annius Faustus, of the Equestrian order, who in the days
of Nero had practised the trade of the informer, should be brought to trial
before the Senate. The Senators indeed had recently, during the reign of Galba,
passed a resolution, that cognizance should be taken of the cases of the informers.
This decree was variously carried out, and, while retained as law, was powerless
or effectual, according as the person, who happened to be accused, was influential
or helpless. Besides the terror of the law, Crispus had exerted his own power
to the utmost to destroy the man who had informed against his brother. He had
prevailed upon a great part of the Senate to demand that he should be consigned
to destruction, undefended and unheard. But, on the other hand, there were some
with whom nothing helped the accused person so much as the excessive power of
the accuser. They gave it as their opinion, that time ought to be allowed, that
the charges ought to be specified, that, odious and guilty as the man might
be, he yet ought to be heard, as precedent required. At first they carried their
point, and the trial was postponed for a few days, but before long Faustus was
condemned, but by no means with that unanimity on the part of the people which
his detestable character had deserved. Men remembered that Crispus had followed
the same profession with profit; nor was it the penalty but the prosecutor that
they disliked.
11. Meanwhile the campaign had opened favourably for Otho, at whose bidding
the armies of Dalmatia and Pannonia had begun to move. These comprised four
legions, from each of which two thousand troops were sent on in advance. The
7th had been raised by Galba, the 11th, 13th, and 14th were veteran soldiers,
the 14th having particularly distinguished itself by quelling the revolt in
Britain. Nero had added to their reputation by selecting them as his most effective
troops. This had made them long faithful to Nero, and kindled their zeal for
Otho. But their self-confidence induced a tardiness of movement proportionate
to their strength and solidity. The auxiliary infantry and cavalry moved in
advance of the main body of the legions. The capital itself contributed no contemptible
force, namely five Praetorian cohorts, some troops of cavalry, and the first
legion, and together with these, 2000 gladiators, a disreputable kind of auxiliaries,
but employed throughout the civil wars even by strict disciplinarians. Annius
Gallus was put at the head of this force, and was sent on with Vestricius Spurinna
to occupy the banks of the Padus, the original plan of the campaign having fallen
to the ground, now that Caecina, who they had hoped might have been kept within
the limits of Gaul, had crossed the Alps. Otho himself was accompanied by some
picked men of the body-guard, with whom were the rest of the Praetorian cohorts,
the veteran troops from the Praetorian camp, and a vast number of the levies
raised from the fleet. No indolence or riot disgraced his march. He wore a cuirass
of iron, and was to be seen in front of the standards, on foot, rough and negligent
in dress, and utterly unlike what common report had pictured him.
12. Fortune seemed to smile on his efforts. Through his fleets, which commanded
the sea, he held the greater part of Italy, even as far as where the chain of
the Maritime Alps begins. The task of attempting the passage of this chain,
and of advancing into the Provincia Narbonensis, he had entrusted to three generals,
Suedius Clemens, Antonius Novellus, and Aemilius Pacensis. Pacensis, however,
was put in irons by his insubordinate troops, Antonius possessed no kind of
authority, and Clemens commanded only for popularity, and was as reckless in
transgressing the good order of military discipline as he was eager to fight.
One would not have thought that it was Italy, the fields, and the habitations
of their native country, that they were passing through. They burnt, spoiled,
and plundered, as if they were among the lands of the foreigner and the cities
of a hostile people, and all with the more frightful effect as nowhere had there
been made any provision against the danger. The fields were full of rural wealth,
the houses stood with open doors; and the owners, as with their wives and children
they came forth to meet the army, found themselves surrounded, in the midst
of the security of peace, with all the horrors of war. Marius Maturus was then
governing as procurator the province of the Maritime Alps. Raising the population,
in which is no lack of able-bodied men, he resolved to drive back the Othonianists
from the borders of his province; but the mountaineers were cut down and broken
by the first charge, as might be expected of men who had been hastily collected,
who were not familiar with camps or with regular command, who saw no glory in
victory, no infamy in flight.
13. Exasperated by this conflict, the troops of Otho vented their rage on
the town of Albintemilium. In the field indeed they had secured no plunder;
their rustic adversaries were poor, and their arms worthless; nor could they
be taken prisoners, for they were swift of foot, and knew the country well.
But the rapacity of the troops glutted itself in the ruin of an innocent population.
The horror of these acts was aggravated by a noble display of fortitude in a
Ligurian woman; she had concealed her son, and when the soldiers, who believed
that some money had been hidden with him, questioned her with torture as to
where she was hiding him, she pointed to her bosom, and replied, “It is here
that he is concealed”; nor could any subsequent threats or even death itself
make her falter in this courageous and noble answer.
14. Messengers now came in haste and alarm to inform Fabius Valens, how Otho’s
fleet was threatening the province of Gallia Narbonensis, which had sworn allegiance
to Vitellius. Envoys from the colonies were already on the spot praying for
aid. He despatched two cohorts of Tungrian infantry, four squadrons of horse,
and all the cavalry of the Treviri under the command of Julius Classicus. Part
of these troops were retained for the defence of the colony of Forum Julii,
for it was feared, that if the whole army were sent by the route through the
interior, the enemy’s fleet might make a rapid movement on the unprotected coast.
Twelve squadrons of cavalry and some picked infantry advanced against the enemy;
they were reinforced by a cohort of Ligurians, an auxiliary local force of long
standing, and five hundred Pannonians, not yet regularly enrolled. The conflict
commenced without delay, the enemy’s line of battle being so arranged, that
part of the levies from the fleet, who had a number of rustics among their ranks,
were posted on the slope of the hills which border on the coast, the Praetorians
fully occupying the level ground between the hills and the shore, while on the
sea was the fleet, moored to the land and ready for action, drawn up in line
so as to present a formidable front. The Vitellianists whose infantry was inferior,
but who were strong in cavalry, stationed the mountaineers on the neighbouring
heights, and their infantry in close ranks behind the cavalry. The squadrons
of the Treveri charged the enemy incautiously, and found themselves encountered
in front by the veteran troops, while on the flanks they were also annoyed by
showers of stones from the rustic band, who were skilful throwers, and who,
mixed up as they were among the regular soldiers, whether cowardly or brave,
were all equally bold in the moment of victory. The general consternation of
the Vitellianists was increased by a new alarm as the fleet attacked the rear
of the combatants. By this movement they were hemmed in on all sides, and the
whole force would have perished, had not the shades of night checked the advance
of the victorious army, and covered the retreat of the vanquished.
15. The Vitellianists, however, though beaten, did not remain inactive. They
brought up reinforcements and attacked the enemy, who felt themselves secure,
and whose vigilance was relaxed by success. The sentinels were cut down, the
camp stormed, and the panic reached the ships, till, as the alarm gradually
subsided, they again assumed the offensive under the protection of some neighbouring
heights which they had occupied. A terrible slaughter ensued, and the prefects
of the Tungrian cohorts, after having long maintained their line unbroken, fell
beneath a shower of missiles. The Othonianists, however, did not achieve a bloodless
victory, as the enemy’s cavalry wheeled round, and cut off some who had imprudently
prolonged the pursuit. And then, as if a sort of armistice had been concluded
to provide against any sudden panic that the cavalry of the one party or the
fleet of the other might cause, the Vitellianists retreated to Antipolis, a
town of Gallia Narbonensis, the Othonianists to Albigaunum, in Upper Liguria.
16. Corsica, Sardinia, and the other islands of the neighbouring seas, were
retained in the interests of Otho by the fame of these naval successes. Corsica,
however, all but suffered fatal injury from the rash proceedings of Decumus
Pacarius, the procurator, proceedings which in so gigantic a war could contribute
nothing to the general result, and which only brought destruction upon their
author. In his hatred of Otho he resolved to support Vitellius with the whole
strength of Corsica, an insignificant assistance even had the design succeeded.
He collected the chief men of the island, and explained his plans. Claudius
Pyrrhicus, captain of the Liburnian ships stationed in the place, and Quintius
Certus, a Roman knight, who ventured to offer opposition, he ordered to execution.
All who were present were terrified at their death, and, with the ignorant populace,
which ever blindly shares in the fears of others, took the oath of allegiance
to Vitellius. But when Pacarius began to enlist troops, and to weary with military
duties an undisciplined population, disgusted with the unusual toil, they began
to reflect upon their own weakness. “The country which we inhabit,” they said
to themselves, “is an island: Germany and its mighty legions are far from us,
and we know that even countries protected by infantry and cavalry have been
plundered and ravaged by the fleet.” Their feelings underwent a sudden change;
they did not, however, resort to open violence, but chose an opportunity for
a treacherous attack. When the persons who usually surrounded Pacarius had left
him, and he was naked and helpless in the bath, they slew him. His associates
were slaughtered with him. The perpetrators of the deed carried the heads of
the slain to Otho, as being the heads of public enemies; but, lost among the
crowd of greater criminals, in the vast confusion of events, they were neither
rewarded by Otho nor punished by Vitellius.
17. Silius’ Horse had now, as I have already related, opened the way into
Italy, and transferred the war across the borders. No one entertained any attachment
to Otho, yet it was not because they preferred Vitellius: long years of peace
had subdued them to any kind of servitude, had made them ready to submit to
the first comer and careless about the better cause. The wealthiest district
of Italy, the broad plains and cities which lie between the Padus and the Alps,
was now held by the troops of Vitellius; for by this time the infantry sent
on in advance by Caecina had also arrived. A cohort of Pannonians had been taken
prisoners at Cremona, a hundred cavalry, and a thousand of the levies from the
fleet intercepted between Placentia and Ticinum. Elated by these successes the
troops of Vitellius would no longer be restrained by the boundaries of the river’s
bank. The very sight of the Padus excited the men from Batavia and the Transrhenane
provinces. Crossing the stream by a sudden movement, they advanced on Placentia,
and seizing some reconnoiterers so terrified the rest, that, deceived by their
alarm, they announced that the whole army of Caecina was at hand.
18. Spurinna, who now held Placentia, was sure that Caecina had not yet arrived,
and that, even were he approaching, he ought to keep his men within their fortifications,
and not confront a veteran army with three Praetorian cohorts, a thousand veterans,
and a handful of cavalry. But the undisciplined and inexperienced soldiery seized
their standards and colours, and rushed to the attack, brandishing their weapons
in the face of their general when he sought to restrain them, and spurning from
them the tribunes and centurions, and even crying out that Otho was betrayed
and that Caecina had come by invitation. Spurinna associated himself with the
rash movement which others had originated, at first acting under compulsion,
but afterwards pretending to consent, in the hope that his counsels might have
more influence should the mutinous spirit abate.
19. When the Padus was in sight and night began to fall they judged it expedient
to entrench a camp. The labour, new as it was to the soldiery of the capital,
broke their spirits. All the oldest among them began to inveigh against their
own credulity, and to point out the difficulty and danger of their position,
if on those open plains Caecina and his army were to surround their scanty forces.
By this time more temperate language was heard throughout the camp, and the
tribunes and centurions, mixing with the troops, suggested commendations of
the prudence of their general in selecting for the rallying point and basis
of his operations a colony rich in military strength and resources. Finally,
Spurinna himself, not so much reproaching them with their error as exposing
it by his arguments, conducted them all back to Placentia, except some scouts
whom he left, in a less turbulent temper and more amenable to command. The walls
were strengthened, battlements were added, and the towers were raised in height.
It was not only of the implements of war that provision and preparation were
made, but of the spirit of subordination and the love of obedience. This was
all that was wanting to the party, for they had no reason to be dissatisfied
with their courage.
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