The city was in a panic. The alarm aroused by the recent
atrocious 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
Vitellius. After the slaughter of Julius Vindex88 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 frontier89 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 Lugdunum93 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
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 hesitation97 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 youth, whose big build, imperious spirit, clever tongue,
and upright carriage had completely won the hearts of the soldiers.
While quaestor in Baetica100 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
Lingones101 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 present of a pair of silver hands102 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 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
Fifth103 were already mutinous enough to throw a few stones at
Galba's statue. The Fifteenth and Sixteenth104 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
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 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 ornaments107 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
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 Civilis112 was the next to be rescued from danger.
He was 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 legion116 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 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.