The Works of Tacitus
tr. by Alfred John Church and William Jackson Brodribb
[1864-1877]
Tacitus: History Book 2 [50]
50. Thus Otho ended his life in the 37th year of his age. He came from the municipal
town of Ferentinum. His father was of consular, his grandfather of praetorian
rank. His family on the mother’s side was of less distinction, but yet respectable.
What his boyhood and his youth had been, we have already shewn. By two daring
acts, one most atrocious, the other singularly noble, he earned in the eyes
of posterity about an equal share of infamy and of glory. I should think it
unbecoming the dignity of the task which I have undertaken, to collect fabulous
marvels, and to amuse with fiction the tastes of my readers; at the same time
I would not venture to impugn the credit of common report and tradition. The
natives of these parts relate that on the day when the battle was being fought
at Bedriacum, a bird of unfamiliar appearance settled in a much frequented grove
near Regium Lepidum, and was not frightened or driven away by the concourse
of people, or by the multitude of birds that flocked round it, until Otho killed
himself; then it vanished. When they came to compute the time, it was found
that the commencement and the end of this strange occurrence tallied with the
last scenes of Otho’s life.
51. At the funeral the mutinous spirit of the soldiers was kindled afresh
by their sorrow and regret, and there was no one to check them. They turned
to Verginius, and in threatening language, at one time besought him to accept
the Imperial dignity, at another, to act as envoy to Caecina and Valens. Verginius
secretly departed by a back way from his house, and thus managed to elude them
when they burst in. Rubrius Gallus was charged with the petition of the cohorts
which had been quartered at Brixellum. An amnesty was immediately granted to
them, while at the same time the forces which had been commanded by Flavius
Sabinus signified through him their submission to the conqueror.
52. Hostilities had ceased everywhere, but a considerable number of the Senate,
who had accompanied Otho from Rome, and had been afterwards left at Mutina,
encountered the utmost peril. News of the defeat was brought to this place.
The soldiers, however, rejected it as a false report; and judging the Senate
to be hostile to Otho, watched their language, and put an unfavourable construction
on their looks and manner. Proceeding at last to abuse and insults, they sought
a pretext for beginning a massacre, while a different anxiety also weighed upon
the Senators, who, knowing that the party of Vitellius was in the ascendant,
feared that they might seem to have been tardy in welcoming the conqueror. Thus
they met in great alarm and distracted by a twofold apprehension; no one was
ready with any advice of his own, but looked for safety in sharing any mistake
with many others. The anxieties of the terrified assembly were aggravated when
the Senate of Mutina made them an offer of arms and money, and, with an ill-timed
compliment, styled them “Conscript Fathers.”
53. There then ensued a notable quarrel, Licinius Caecina inveighing against
Marcellus Eprius, for using ambiguous language. The rest indeed did not express
their opinions, but the name of Marcellus, exposed as it was to odium from the
hateful recollection of his career as an informer, had roused in Caecina, who
was an unknown man, and had lately been made a Senator, the hope of distinguishing
himself by making great enemies. The moderation of wiser men put an end to the
dispute. They all returned to Bononia, intending there to deliberate again,
and also expecting further news in the meantime. At Bononia they posted men
on the different roads to make enquiries of every newcomer; one of Otho’s freedmen,
on being questioned as to the cause of his departure, replied that he was entrusted
with his master’s last commands; Otho was still alive, he said, when he left
him, but his only thoughts were for posterity, and he had torn himself from
all the fascinations of life. They were struck with admiration, and were ashamed
to put any more questions, and then the hearts of all turned to Vitellius.
54. Lucius Vitellius, the brother of the Emperor, was present at their deliberations,
and was preparing to receive their flatteries, when of a sudden Coenus, a freedman
of Nero, threw them all into consternation by an outrageous falsehood. He asserted
that, by the arrival of the 14th legion, joined to the forces from Brixellum,
the victorious army had been routed and the fortunes of the party changed. The
object of this fabrication was that the passports of Otho, which were beginning
to be disregarded, might through more favourable news recover their validity.
Coenus was conveyed with rapidity to the capital, but a few days after suffered
the penalty of his crime by the order of Vitellius. The peril of the Senators
was increased by the soldiers of Otho’s army believing that the intelligence
thus brought was authentic. Their alarm was heightened by the fact that their
departure from Mutina and their desertion of the party had the appearance of
a public resolution. They did not meet again for general deliberation, but every
man consulted his own safety, till letters arrived from Fabius Valens which
removed their fear. Besides, the very glory of Otho’s death made the news travel
more quickly.
55. At Rome, however, there was no alarm; the games of Ceres were attended
as usual. When trustworthy messengers brought into the theatre the news that
Otho was dead, and that all the troops in the capital had taken the oath to
Vitellius under the direction of Flavius Sabinus, prefect of the city, the spectators
greeted the name of Vitellius with applause. The people carried round the temples
images of Galba, ornamented with laurel leaves and flowers, and piled chaplets
in the form of a sepulchral mound near the lake of Curtius, on the very spot
which had been stained with the blood of the dying man. In the Senate all the
customary honours, which had been devised during the long reigns of other Emperors,
were forthwith decreed. Public acknowledgments and thanks were also given to
the armies of Germany, and envoys were sent charged with congratulations. There
was read a letter from Fabius Valens to the consuls, which was written in a
not unbecoming style, but they liked better the modesty of Caecina in not writing
at all.
56. Italy, however, was prostrated under sufferings heavier and more terrible
than the evils of war. The soldiers of Vitellius, dispersed through the municipal
towns and colonies, were robbing and plundering and polluting every place with
violence and lust. Everything, lawful or unlawful, they were ready to seize
or to sell, sparing nothing, sacred or profane. Some persons under the soldiers’
garb murdered their private enemies. The soldiers themselves, who knew the country
well, marked out rich estates and wealthy owners for plunder, or for death in
case of resistance; their commanders were in their power and dared not check
them. Caecina indeed was not so rapacious as he was fond of popularity; Valens
was so notorious for his dishonest gains and peculations that he was disposed
to conceal the crimes of others. The resources of Italy had long been impaired,
and the presence of so vast a force of infantry and cavalry, with the outrages,
the losses, and the wrongs they inflicted, was more than it could well endure.
57. Meanwhile Vitellius, as yet unaware of his victory, was bringing up the
remaining strength of the army of Germany just as if the campaign had yet to
be fought. A few of the old soldiers were left in the winter quarters, and the
conscription throughout Gaul was hastily proceeded with, in order that the muster
rolls of the legions which remained behind might be filled up. The defence of
the bank of the Rhine was entrusted to Hordeonius Flaccus. Vitellius himself
added to his own army 8000 men of the British conscription. He had proceeded
a few days’ march, when he received intelligence of the victory at Bedriacum,
and of the termination of the war through Otho’s death. He called an assembly,
and heaped praises on the valour of the soldiers. When the army demanded that
he should confer equestrian rank on Asiaticus his freedman, he checked the disgraceful
flattery. Then, with his characteristic fickleness, in the privacy of a banquet
he granted the very distinction which he had publicly refused; and honoured
with the ring of Knighthood this same Asiaticus, a slave of infamous character,
ever seeking power by unprincipled intrigues.
58. About the same time news came to Vitellius that the procurator Albinus
had fallen, and that both the provinces of Mauritania had declared for him.
Lucceius Albinus, whom Nero had appointed to the government of Mauritania Caesariensis,
to which Galba had subsequently added the charge of the province of Tingitana,
had the disposal of no contemptible force. He had with him 19 cohorts of infantry,
5 squadrons of cavalry, and a vast number of Moors, a force trained to war by
robbery and plunder. When Galba had fallen, he was strongly disposed in favour
of Otho. He even looked beyond Africa and threatened Spain, which is separated
from it only by a narrow strait. This alarmed Cluvius Rufus, who ordered the
10th legion to approach the coast, as if he intended to send them across. Some
of the centurions were sent on before to gain for Vitellius the good-will of
the Moors. This was no difficult task, as the fame of the German army was great
in the provinces. Besides this, a report was circulated that Albinus, scorning
the title of procurator, was assuming the insignia of royalty and the name of
Juba.
59. The tide of feeling turned, and Asinius Pollio, one of the stanchest
friends of Albinus, prefect of one of the squadrons of cavalry, with Festus
and Scipio, prefects of two infantry cohorts, were killed. Albinus himself,
who was sailing from the province Tingitana to Mauritania Caesariensis, was
murdered as he reached the shore. His wife threw herself in the way of the murderers
and was killed with him. Vitellius made no inquiries into what was going on.
He dismissed matters of even the greatest importance with brief hearing, and
was quite unequal to any serious business. He directed the army to proceed by
land, but sailed himself down the river Arar. His progress had nothing of imperial
state about it, but was marked by the poverty of his former condition, till
Junius Blaesus, governor of Gallia Lugdunensis, a man of noble birth, whose
munificence was equal to his wealth, furnished him with suitable attendance,
and escorted him with a splendid retinue; a service which was of itself displeasing,
though Vitellius masked his dislike under servile compliments. At Lugdunum the
generals of the two parties, the conquerors and the conquered, were waiting
for him. Valens and Caecina he put by his own chair of state, after celebrating
their praises before a general assembly. He then ordered the whole army to come
and greet his infant son; he brought him out, wrapped in a military cloak, and
holding him in his arms, gave him the title of Germanicus and surrounded him
with all the insignia of the imperial rank. It was an extravagant distinction
for a day of prosperity, but it served as a consolation in adversity.
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