The Works of Tacitus
tr. by Alfred John Church and William Jackson Brodribb
[1864-1877]
Tacitus: History Book 3 [10]
10. On the subsequent arrival of two legions, the third commanded by Dillius
Aponianus, the eighth by Numisius Lupus, it was resolved to make a demonstration
of their strength, and to surround Verona with military lines. It so happened
that Galba’s legion had had their work allotted to them on that side the lines
which faced the enemy, and that some of the allied cavalry appearing in the
distance were taken for the enemy, and excited a groundless panic. They flew
to arms, and as the rage of the soldiers at the supposed treachery fell upon
T. Ampius Flavianus, not from any proof of his guilt, but because he had been
long unpopular, they clamoured for his death in a very whirlwind of passion,
vociferating that he was the kinsman of Vitellius, that he had betrayed Otho,
that he had embezzled the donative. He could get no opportunity of defending
himself, even though he stretched out his hands in entreaty, repeatedly prostrating
himself on the ground, his garments torn, his breast and features convulsed
with sobs. This very conduct provoked afresh these furious men, for fear so
excessive seemed to argue a consciousness of guilt. Aponius was clamoured down
by the shouts of the soldiers, when he attempted to address them; every one
else was repulsed with noisy cries. To Antonius alone the soldiers’ ears were
open; for he had eloquence, the art of soothing an angry crowd, and personal
influence. As the mutiny grew fiercer, and the soldiers went on from abuse and
taunts to use their hands and their weapons, he ordered that Flavianus should
be put in irons. The soldiers saw what a mockery it was, and pushing aside those
who were guarding the tribunal, were about to commit the most outrageous violence.
Antonius threw himself in the way with his sword drawn, protesting that he would
die either by the soldiers’ hands or by his own; whenever he saw any one who
was known to him, or who was distinguished by any military decoration, he summoned
him by name to his assistance. Then he turned to the standards, and prayed to
the gods of war, that they would inspire the armies of the enemy, rather than
his own, with such madness and such strife. So the mutiny began to abate, and
at the close of the day the men dispersed to their tents. The same night Flavianus
set out, and being met by letters from Vespasian, was relieved from his perilous
position.
11. The legions had caught the infection of mutiny, and next assailed Aponius
Saturnius, legate of the army of Moesia, this time the more furiously because
their rage broke out, not as before, when they were wearied with labour and
military toils, but at mid-day. Some letters had been published, which Saturninus
was believed to have written to Vitellius. If once they had emulated each other
in valour and obedience, so now there was a rivalry in insubordination and insolence,
till they clamoured as violently for the execution of Aponius as they had for
that of Flavianus. The legions of Moesia recalled how they had aided the vengeance
of the Pannonian army, while the soldiers of Pannonia, as if they were absolved
by the mutiny of others, took a delight in repeating their fault. They hastened
to the gardens in which Saturninus was passing his time, and it was not the
efforts of Primus Antonius, Aponianus, and Messalla, though they exerted themselves
to the uttermost, that saved him, so much as the obscurity of the hiding-place
in which he concealed himself, for he was hidden in the furnace of some baths
that happened to be out of use. In a short time he gave up his lictors, and
retired to Patavium. After the departure of the two men of consular rank, all
power and authority over the two armies centred in Antonius alone, his colleagues
giving way to him, and the soldiers being strongly biased in his favour. There
were those who believed that both these mutinies were set on foot by the intrigues
of Antonius, in order that he might engross all the prizes of the war.
12. Nor indeed was there less restlessness among the partisans of Vitellius,
who were distracted by yet more fatal dissensions, springing, not from the suspicions
of the common men, but from the treachery of the generals. Lucilius Bassus,
prefect of the Ravenna fleet, finding that the troops wavered in purpose, from
the fact that many were natives of Dalmatia and Pannonia, provinces held for
Vespasian, had attached them to the Flavianist party. The night-time was chosen
for accomplishing the treason, because then, unknown to all the rest, the ringleaders
alone might assemble at head-quarters. Bassus, moved by shame, or perhaps by
fear, awaited the issue in his house. The captains of the triremes rushed with
a great outcry on the images of Vitellius; a few, who attempted to resist, were
cut down; the great majority, with the usual love of change, were ready to join
Vespasian. Then Bassus came forward and openly sanctioned the movement. The
fleet appointed Cornelius Fuscus to be prefect, and he hastened to join them.
Lucilius was put under honourable arrest, and conveyed as far as Adria by the
Liburnian ships; there he was thrown into prison by Vivennius Rufinus, prefect
of a squadron of cavalry, which was there in garrison. His chains, however,
were immediately struck off on the interference of Hormus, one of the Emperor’s
freedmen, for he too ranked among the generals.
13. On the revolt of the fleet becoming known, Caecina called together to
head-quarters, which he purposely selected as being the most retired part of
the camp, the chief centurions and some few soldiers, while the rest were dispersed
on various military duties. Then he extolled the valour of Vespasian, and the
strength of his party; he told them that the fleet had changed sides, that they
were straitened for supplies, that Gaul and Spain were against them, that in
the capital there was nothing on which to rely, thus making the worst of everything
that concerned Vitellius. Then, the conspirators present setting the example,
and the rest being paralysed by the strangeness of the proceeding, he made them
swear allegiance to Vespasian. At the same time the images of Vitellius were
torn down, and persons were despatched to convey the intelligence to Antonius.
But when this treason became noised abroad throughout the camp, when the soldiers,
hurrying back to head-quarters, saw the name of Vespasian written on the colours,
and the images of Vitellius thrown upon the ground, first there was a gloomy
silence, then all their rage burst out at once. “What,” they cried, “has the
glory of the army of Germany fallen so low, that without a battle, even without
a wound, they should yield up hands ready bound and arms resigned to surrender?
What legions indeed are these against us? Only the conquered. The first and
the twelfth, the sole strength of the Othonianist army, are not there, and even
them we routed and crushed on these very plains, only that so many thousands
of armed men, like a herd of slaves for sale, might be given as a present to
the exile Antonius. Thus, forsooth, the adhesion of one fleet would be worth
eight legions. So it pleases Bassus and Caecina, after robbing the Emperor of
palaces, gardens, and money, to rob the soldiers of their Emperor. But we, who
have seen nothing of toil and bloodshed, we, who must be contemptible even to
the Flavianists, what shall we answer to those who shall ask us of our victories
and our defeats?”
14. Joining one and all in these cries, by which each expressed his own vexation,
they proceeded, following the lead of the fifth legion, to replace the images
of Vitellius, and to put Caecina in irons. They elected to the command Fabius
Fabullus, legate of the fifth legion, and Cassius Longus, prefect of the camp;
they massacred the soldiers from three Liburnian ships, who happened to fall
in their way, but who were perfectly ignorant and innocent of these proceedings;
they then abandoned the camp, and, after breaking down the bridge, fell back
on Hostilia, and thence on Cremona, in order to effect a junction with the two
legions, the 1st Italica and the 21st Rapax, which, with a portion of the cavalry,
Caecina had sent on to occupy Cremona.
15. On this becoming known to Antonius, he determined to attack the hostile
armies, while they were still distracted in feeling and divided in strength,
before the generals could recover their authority, and the soldiers their subordination
along with that confidence which would spring from the junction of the legions.
He concluded indeed that Fabius Valens had left the capital, and would hasten
his march, on hearing of the treason of Caecina; and Fabius was loyal to Vitellius,
and not without some military skill. At the same time he dreaded the approach
of a vast body of Germans by way of Rhaetia. Vitellius had also summoned reinforcements
from Britain, Gaul, and Spain, whose arms would have wasted like a wide-spread
pestilence, had not Antonius, fearful of this very danger, hurried on an engagement,
and thus secured his victory. He reached Bedriacum with his whole army in two
days’ march from Verona. The next day, keeping the legions to fortify the position,
he sent the auxiliary infantry into the territories of Cremona, ostensibly to
collect supplies, really to imbue the soldiery with a taste for the spoils of
civil war. He himself advanced with 4000 cavalry as far as the 8th milestone
from Bedriacum, in order that they might plunder with greater freedom. The scouts,
as usual, took a wider range.
16. It was almost eleven o’clock, when a horseman arrived at full speed with
the news, that the enemy were approaching, that a small body was moving in front,
but that the stir and noise could be heard far and wide. While Antonius was
deliberating as to what was to be done, Arrius Varus, eager to do his best,
charged with the bravest of the cavalry, and drove back the Vitellianists, inflicting
upon them some slight loss; as more came up, the fortune of the day changed,
and those who had been most eager in the pursuit found themselves last in the
flight. This rash act did not originate with Antonius; he anticipated in fact
what actually happened. He now urged his soldiers to enter on the battle with
a good heart; he then drew off the squadrons of his cavalry to the two flanks,
leaving in the midst an open space in which to receive Varus and his troopers;
the legions were ordered to arm themselves, signals were made over the country
that every man should leave plundering, and join the battle at the nearest point.
Meanwhile the terror-stricken Varus plunged into the disordered ranks of his
friends, and brought a panic with him. The fresh troops were driven back along
with the wounded fugitives, confused by their own alarm and by the difficulties
of the road.
17. In the midst of this panic Antonius omitted nothing that a self-possessed
commander or a most intrepid soldier could do. He threw himself before the terrified
fugitives, he held back those who were giving way, and wherever the struggle
was hardest, wherever there was a gleam of hope, there he was with his ready
skill, his bold hand, his encouraging voice, easily recognized by the enemy,
and a conspicuous object to his own men. At last he was carried to such a pitch
of excitement, that he transfixed with a lance a flying standard bearer, and
then, seizing the standard, turned it towards the enemy. Touched by the reproach,
a few troopers, not more than a hundred in number, made a stand. The locality
favoured them, for the road was at that point particularly narrow, while the
bridge over the stream which crossed it had been broken down, and the stream
itself, with its varying channel and its precipitous banks, checked their flight.
It was this necessity, or a happy chance, that restored the fallen fortunes
of the party. Forming themselves into strong and close ranks, they received
the attack of the Vitellianists, who were now imprudently scattered. These were
at once overthrown. Antonius pursued those that fled, and crushed those that
encountered him. Then came the rest of his troops, who, as they were severally
disposed, plundered, made prisoners, or seized on weapons and horses. Roused
by the shouts of triumph, those who had lately been scattered in flight over
the fields hastened to share in the victory.
18. At the fourth milestone from Cremona glittered the standards of two legions,
the Italica and the Rapax, which had been advanced as far as that point during
the success achieved by the first movement of their cavalry. But when fortune
changed, they would not open their ranks, nor receive the fugitives, nor advance
and themselves attack an enemy now exhausted by so protracted a pursuit and
conflict. Vanquished by accident, these men had never in their success valued
their general as much as they now in disaster felt his absence. The victorious
cavalry charged the wavering line; the tribune Vipstanus Messalla followed with
the auxiliary troops from Moesia, whom, though hurriedly brought up, long service
had made as good soldiers as the legionaries. The horse and foot, thus mixed
together, broke through the line of the legions. The near neighbourhood of the
fortifications of Cremona, while it gave more hope of escape, diminished the
vigour of their resistance.
19. Antonius did not press forward, for he thought of the fatigue and the
wounds with which a battle so hard fought, notwithstanding its successful termination,
must have disabled his cavalry and their horses. As the shadows of evening deepened
the whole strength of the Flavianist army came up. They advanced amid heaps
of dead and the traces of recent slaughter, and, as if the war was over, demanded
that they should advance to Cremona, and receive the capitulation of the vanquished
party, or take the place by storm. This was the motive alleged, and it sounded
well, but what every one said to himself was this: “The colony, situated as
it is on level ground, may be taken by assault. If we attack under cover of
darkness, we shall be at least as bold, and shall enjoy more licence in plunder.
If we wait for the light, we shall be met with entreaties for peace, and in
return for our toil and our wounds shall receive only the empty satisfaction
of clemency and praise, but the wealth of Cremona will go into the purses of
the legates and the prefects. The soldiers have the plunder of a city that is
stormed, the generals of one which capitulates.” The centurions and tribunes
were spurned away; that no man’s voice might be heard, the troops clashed their
weapons together, ready to break through all discipline, unless they were led
as they wished.
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