Tacitus: HISTORIAE

[1] Meliore fato fideque partium Flavianarum duces consilia belli tractabant. Poetovionem in hiberna tertiae decimae legionis convenerant. illic agitavere placeretne obstrui Pannoniae Alpes, donec a tergo vires universae consurgerent, an ire comminus et certare pro Italia constantius foret.

[1] With the fortune and fidelity of the Flavian party the better, the leaders were handling the counsels of war. They had assembled at Poetovio, in the winter quarters of the Thirteenth Legion. There they debated whether it were preferable to obstruct the Alps of Pannonia until the forces in their entirety should rise up in the rear, or to go to close quarters and contend for Italy more steadfastly.

quibus opperiri auxilia et trahere bellum videbatur, Germanicarum legionum vim famamque extollebant, et advenisse mox cum Vitellio Britannici exercitus robora: ipsis nec numerum parem pulsarum nuper legionum, et quamquam atrociter loquerentur, minorem esse apud victos animum. sed insessis interim Alpibus venturum cum copiis Orientis Mucianum; superesse Vespasiano mare, classis, studia provinciarum, per quas velut alterius belli molem cieret. ita salubri mora novas viris adfore, ex praesentibus nihil periturum.

To those to whom it seemed good to await auxiliaries and to drag out the war, they were extolling the force and fame of the Germanic legions, and that the strengths of the British army would soon arrive with Vitellius; for themselves neither an equal number to the legions lately routed, and, although they spoke atrociously, a smaller spirit was present among the vanquished. But, with the Alps meanwhile occupied, Mucianus would come with the forces of the Orient; to Vespasian there remained the sea, the fleets, the loyalties of the provinces, through which he would, as it were, stir into motion the mass of another war. Thus, by a healthful delay, new forces would be at hand, and from the things present nothing would be lost.

[2] Ad ea Antonius Primus (is acerrimus belli concitator) festinationem ipsis utilem, Vitellio exitiosam disseruit. plus socordiae quam fiduciae accessisse victoribus; neque enim in procinctu et castris habitos: per omnia Italiae municipia desides, tantum hospitibus metuendos, quanto ferocius ante se egerint, tanto cupidius insolitas voluptates hausisse. circo quoque ac theatris et amoenitate urbis emollitos aut valetudinibus fessos: sed addito spatio rediturum et his robur meditatione belli; nec procul Germaniam, unde vires; Britanniam freto dirimi, iuxta Gallias Hispaniasque, utrimque viros equos tributa, ipsamque Italiam et opes urbis; ac si inferre arma ultro velint, duas classis vacuumque Illyricum mare.

[2] To this Antonius Primus (he the keenest inciter of war) argued that haste was useful to themselves, ruinous to Vitellius. More sloth than confidence had come to the victors; for they had not been kept in battle-array and in camps: idle through all the municipalities of Italy, fearful only to their hosts, the more fiercely they had behaved before, the more greedily they had drained unwonted pleasures. Softened also by the circus and theaters and the amenity of the city, or wearied by ailments: but with added time, strength would return even to these through meditation/training for war. Nor is Germany far, whence their forces; Britain is severed by the strait; close by are the Gauls and the Spains, on both sides men, horses, tributes, and Italy itself and the resources of the city; and if they should wish to carry arms unprovoked, two fleets and the untenanted Illyrian sea.

quid tum claustra montium profutura? quid tractum in aestatem aliam bellum? unde interim pecuniam et commeatus?

What then would the mountain-barriers profit? What of the war dragged out into another summer? Whence, in the meantime, money and supplies?

quin potius eo ipso uterentur quod Pannonicae legiones deceptae magis quam victae resurgere in ultionem properent, Moesici exercitus integras viris attulerint. si numerus militum potius quam legionum putetur, plus hinc roboris, nihil libidinum; et profuisse disciplinae ipsum pudorem: equites vero ne tum quidem victos, sed quamquam rebus adversis disiectam Vitellii aciem. 'duae tunc Pannonicae ac Moesicae alae perrupere hostem: nunc sedecim alarum coniuncta signa pulsu sonituque et nube ipsa operient ac superfundent oblitos proeliorum equites equosque.

why not rather make use of that very fact, that the Pannonian legions, deceived more than conquered, are hastening to rise again for vengeance, and that the Moesian armies have brought forces intact in manpower. if the number of soldiers rather than of legions be reckoned, there is more strength here, nothing of libidinousness; and the very shame has profited their discipline. the cavalry, in truth, were not even then beaten; rather, though circumstances were adverse, Vitellius’s line was scattered. 'two then, the Pannonian and Moesian wings, broke through the enemy: now the conjoined standards of sixteen wings, with their beat and sound and with the cloud itself, will cover and pour over cavalrymen and horses forgetful of battles.

nisi quis retinet, idem suasor auctorque consilii ero. vos, quibus fortuna in integro est, legiones continete: mihi expeditae cohortes sufficient. iam reseratam Italiam, impulsas Vitellii res audietis.

unless someone restrains me, I myself will be both advocate and author of the counsel. you, whose fortune is intact, contain the legions; for me the unencumbered cohorts will suffice. presently you will hear Italy unbarred, the fortunes of Vitellius struck.

iuvabit sequi et vestigiis vincentis insistere.'

it will be a pleasure to follow and to tread in the victor’s footsteps.'

[3] Haec ac talia flagrans oculis, truci voce, quo latius audiretur (etenim se centuriones et quidam militum consilio miscuerant), ita effudit ut cautos quoque ac providos permoveret, vulgus et ceteri unum virum ducemque, spreta aliorum segnitia, laudibus ferrent. hanc sui famam ea statim contione commoverat, qua recitatis Vespasiani epistulis non ut plerique incerta disseruit, huc illuc tracturus interpretatione, prout conduxisset: aperte descendisse in causam videbatur, eoque gravior militibus erat culpae vel gloriae socius.

[3] These and such things, blazing in his eyes, with a grim voice, so that he might be heard more widely (for even centurions and certain of the soldiers had mixed themselves into the council), he thus poured forth as to move even the cautious and the provident; the crowd and the rest, spurning the sloth of the others, were bearing one man as leader with praises. He had set this report of himself astir in that very assembly, in which, Vespasian’s letters having been read aloud, he did not, as most do, discourse on uncertainties, to drag them hither and thither by interpretation, as it might have suited: he seemed to have descended openly into the cause, and for that reason he was the more weighty to the soldiers as a partner in fault or in glory.

[4] Proxima Cornelii Fusci procuratoris auctoritas. is quoque inclementer in Vitellium invehi solitus nihil spei sibi inter adversa reliquerat. Tampius Flavianus, natura ac senecta cunctator, suspiciones militum inritabat, tamquam adfinitatis cum Vitellio meminisset; idemque, quod coeptante legionum motu profugus, dein sponte remeaverat, perfidiae locum quaesisse credebatur.

[4] Next came the authority of the procurator Cornelius Fuscus. He too, being accustomed to inveigh vehemently against Vitellius, had left no hope for himself amid adverse circumstances. Tampius Flavianus, a delayer by nature and by old age, was provoking the soldiers’ suspicions, as though he remembered an affinity with Vitellius; and likewise, because at the beginning of the legions’ movement he had fled, then had returned of his own accord, he was believed to have sought an opening for perfidy.

nam Flavianum, omissa Pannonia ingressum Italiam et discrimini exemptum, rerum novarum cupido legati nomen resumere et misceri civilibus armis impulerat, suadente Cornelio Fusco, non quia industria Flaviani egebat, sed ut consulare nomen surgentibus cum maxime partibus honesta specie praetenderetur.

for Flavianus—Pannonia having been abandoned, having entered Italy, and removed from peril—a desire for revolution impelled him to resume the name of legate and to be mixed in civil arms, Cornelius Fuscus advising, not because he needed the industry of Flavianus, but so that the consular name might be held forth with an honorable appearance to the rising party.

[5] Ceterum ut transmittere in Italiam impune et usui foret, scriptum Aponio Saturnino, cum exercitu Moesico celeraret. ac ne inermes provinciae barbaris nationibus exponerentur, principes Sarmatarum Iazugum, penes quos civitatis regimen, in commilitium adsciti. plebem quoque et vim equitum, qua sola valent, offerebant: remissum id munus, ne inter discordias externa molirentur aut maiore ex diverso mercede ius fasque exuerent.

[5] But, that the crossing into Italy might be with impunity and to utility, a dispatch was written to Aponius Saturninus to hasten with the Moesian army. And, lest unarmed provinces be exposed to barbarian nations, the princes of the Sarmatian Iazyges, in whose hands was the governance of the commonwealth, were enrolled into comradeship-in-arms. They were also offering the plebs and the force of cavalry, wherein alone they are strong: that service was remitted, lest amid discords they contrive external ventures, or, for a greater wage from the opposite side, strip off right and divine law.

trahuntur in partis Sido atque Italicus reges Sueborum, quis vetus obsequium erga Romanos et gens fidei ~commissior~ patientior. posita in latus auxilia, infesta Raetia, cui Porcius Septiminus procurator erat, incorruptae erga Vitellium fidei. igitur Sextilius Felix cum ala Auriana et octo cohortibus ac Noricorum iuventute ad occupandam ripam Aeni fluminis, quod Raetos Noricosque interfluit, missus.

Into the party are drawn Sido and Italicus, kings of the Suebi, who had an old obedience toward the Romans, and a people more committed to fidelity and more patient. With auxiliaries posted on the flank, Raetia was hostile, whose procurator was Porcius Septiminus, of uncorrupted loyalty toward Vitellius. Therefore Sextilius Felix, with the Ala Auriana and eight cohorts and the youth of the Norici, was sent to seize the bank of the river Aenus, which flows between the Raeti and the Norici.

nec his aut illis proelium temptantibus, fortuna partium alibi transacta.

and as neither these nor those attempted a battle, the fortune of the parties was settled elsewhere.

[6] Antonio vexillarios e cohortibus et partem equitum ad invadendam Italiam rapienti comes fuit Arrius Varus, strenuus bello, quam gloriam et dux Corbulo et prosperae in Armenia res addiderant. idem secretis apud Neronem sermonibus ferebatur Corbulonis virtutes criminatus; unde infami gratia primum pilum adepto laeta ad praesens male parta mox in perniciem vertere. sed Primus ac Varus occupata Aquileia <per> proxima quaeque et Opitergii et Altini laetis animis accipiuntur.

[6] As Antonius was snatching up vexillaries from the cohorts and a part of the cavalry for the invading of Italy, a companion to him was Arrius Varus, strenuous in war, a glory to which both the general Corbulo and the prosperous affairs in Armenia had added. The same man was reported, in private conversations with Nero, to have arraigned the virtues of Corbulo; whence, having obtained the primipilate by infamous favor, his present joys, ill-gotten, soon turned into ruin. But Primus and Varus, Aquileia having been occupied, <per> every neighboring place, both at Opitergium and at Altinum, are received with joyful minds.

relictum Altini praesidium adversus classis Ravennatis <conatus>, nondum defectione eius audita. inde Patavium et Ateste partibus adiunxere. illic cognitum tris Vitellianas cohortis et alam, cui Sebosianae nomen, ad Forum Alieni ponte iuncto consedisse.

at Altinum a garrison was left against the attempts of the Ravenna fleet, its defection not yet heard of. thence they added Patavium and Ateste to their party. there it was learned that three Vitellian cohorts and a wing of cavalry, by name Sebosiana, had taken up position at Forum Alieni, a bridge having been thrown across.

placuit occasio invadendi incuriosos; nam id quoque nuntiabatur. luce prima inermos plerosque oppressere. praedictum ut paucis interfectis ceteros pavore ad mutandam fidem cogerent.

The occasion of attacking the unwary met with approval; for this too had been reported. At first light they overpowered most while unarmed. It had been prescribed beforehand that, with a few slain, they should compel the rest by fear to change their allegiance.

et fuere qui se statim dederent: plures abrupto ponte instanti hosti viam abstulerunt. principia belli secundum Flavianos data.

and there were those who straightway surrendered themselves: more, with the bridge broken off, took away the way from the pressing enemy. the beginnings of the war were given in favor of the Flavians.

[7] Vulgata victoria legiones septima Galbiana, tertia decima Gemina cum Vedio Aquila legato Patavium alacres veniunt. ibi pauci dies ad requiem sumpti, et Minicius Iustus praefectus castrorum legionis septimae, quia adductius quam civili bello imperitabat, subtractus militum irae ad Vespasianum missus est. desiderata diu res interpretatione gloriaque in maius accipitur, postquam Galbae imagines discordia temporum subversas in omnibus municipiis recoli iussit Antonius, decorum pro causa ratus, si placere Galbae principatus et partes revirescere crederentur.

[7] With the victory publicized, the Seventh Galbian Legion, the Thirteenth Gemina, together with the legate Vedius Aquila, come to Patavium with alacrity. There a few days were taken for repose, and Minicius Iustus, prefect of the camp of the Seventh Legion, because he was commanding more tightly than was fitting for a civil war, being withdrawn from the soldiers’ wrath, was sent to Vespasian. A thing long desired is interpreted and amplified in glory, after Antonius ordered that Galba’s images, overthrown by the discord of the times, be restored to honor in all the municipia, judging it decorous for the cause, if Galba’s principate were thought to be pleasing and his party to be reviving.

[8] Quaesitum inde quae sedes bello legeretur. Verona potior visa, patentibus circum campis ad pugnam equestrem, qua praevalebant: simul coloniam copiis validam auferre Vitellio in rem famamque videbatur. possessa ipso transitu Vicetia; quod per se parvum (etenim modicae municipio vires) magni momenti locum obtinuit reputantibus illic Caecinam genitum et patriam hostium duci ereptam.

[8] Inquiry was then made as to what seat should be chosen for the war. Verona seemed preferable, with open fields around for an equestrian battle, in which they prevailed: at the same time it seemed to be to their advantage and reputation to take from Vitellius a colony strong in forces. Vicetia was possessed in the very passage; which in itself was a small matter (for the municipality’s forces were modest) obtained a place of great moment in their reckoning, since Caecina had been born there and the fatherland of the enemy general had been snatched away.

in Veronensibus pretium fuit: exemplo opibusque partis iuvere; et interiectus exercitus Raetiam Iuliasque Alpis, [ac] ne pervium illa Germanicis exercitibus foret, obsaepserat. quae ignara Vespasiano aut vetita: quippe Aquileiae sisti bellum expectarique Mucianum iubebat, adiciebatque imperio consilium, quando Aegyptus, claustra annonae, vectigalia opulentissimarum provinciarum obtinerentur, posse Vitellii exercitum egestate stipendii frumentique ad deditionem subigi. eadem Mucianus crebris epistulis monebat, incruentam et sine luctu victoriam et alia huiusce modi praetexendo, sed gloriae avidus atque omne belli decus sibi retinens.

with the Veronese it was of value: by their example and resources they aided the party; and the army interposed had fenced off Raetia and the Julian Alps, [and], lest those places be passable to the German armies, had closed them. of which Vespasian was either unaware or had forbidden it: for indeed he ordered the war to be halted at Aquileia and for Mucianus to be awaited, and he added counsel to his command, since Egypt, the bolts of the grain-supply, and the revenues of the most opulent provinces were held, that the army of Vitellius could be driven to surrender by want of pay and grain. the same things Mucianus was urging in frequent letters, pretexting a bloodless and without-mourning victory and other things of this kind, but greedy for glory and keeping all the honor of the war for himself.

ceterum ex distantibus terrarum spatiis consilia post res adferebantur.

However, from the distant stretches of the lands, counsels were brought after the events.

[9] Igitur repentino incursu Antonius stationes hostium inrupit; temptatisque levi proelio animis ex aequo discessum. mox Caecina inter Hostiliam, vicum Veronensium, et paludes Tartari fluminis castra permuniit, tutus loco, cum terga flumine, latera obiectu paludis tegerentur. quod si adfuisset fides, aut opprimi universis Vitellianorum viribus duae legiones, nondum coniuncto Moesico exercitu, potuere, aut retro actae deserta Italia turpem fugam conscivissent.

[9] Therefore, by a sudden incursion Antonius broke into the enemy outposts; and, with spirits tested by a light skirmish, there was a parting on equal terms. Soon Caecina, between Hostilia, a vicus of the Veronenses, and the marshes of the river Tartarus, thoroughly fortified a camp, safe by the location, since the rear was covered by the river and the flanks by the interposition of the marsh. But if fidelity had been present, either the two legions, with the Moesian army not yet joined, could have been crushed by the entire forces of the Vitellians, or, driven back, with Italy abandoned, they would have resorted to disgraceful flight.

sed Caecina per varias moras prima hostibus prodidit tempora belli, dum quos armis pellere promptum erat, epistulis increpat, donec per nuntios pacta perfidiae firmaret. interim Aponius Saturninus cum legione septima Claudiana advenit. legioni tribunus Vipstanus Messala praeerat, claris maioribus, egregius ipse et qui solus ad id bellum artis bonas attulisset.

but Caecina, through various delays, betrayed to the enemy the first opportunities of the war, while those whom it was easy to drive off by arms he rebuked by letters, until he should confirm, through messengers, the pacts of perfidy. meanwhile Aponius Saturninus arrived with the 7th Claudia Legion. over the legion the tribune Vipstanus Messala was in command, of illustrious ancestors, distinguished himself, and the only one who had brought the liberal arts to that war.

has ad copias nequaquam Vitellianis paris (quippe tres adhuc legiones erant) misit epistulas Caecina, temeritatem victa arma tractantium incusans. simul virtus Germanici exercitus laudibus attollebatur, Vitellii modica et vulgari mentione, nulla in Vespasianum contumelia: nihil prorsus quod aut corrumperet hostem aut terreret. Flavianarum partium duces omissa prioris fortunae defensione pro Vespasiano magnifice, pro causa fidenter, de exercitu securi, in Vitellium ut inimici praesumpsere, facta tribunis centurionibusque retinendi quae Vitellius indulsisset spe; atque ipsum Caecinam non obscure ad transitionem hortabantur.

To these forces by no means equal to the Vitellians (for as yet there were three legions), Caecina sent letters, arraigning the temerity of men who handled arms after defeat. At the same time the virtue of the Germanic army was lifted up with praises, with a modest and commonplace mention of Vitellius, with no contumely against Vespasian: absolutely nothing that either would corrupt the enemy or terrify them. The leaders of the Flavian party, dropping the defense of their former fortune, spoke splendidly on behalf of Vespasian, confidently for the cause, secure about the army; against Vitellius they presumed as enemies, and promises were made to the tribunes and centurions with the hope of retaining what Vitellius had indulged; and they were urging Caecina himself, not obscurely, to a transition.

recitatae pro contione epistulae addidere fiduciam, quod submisse Caecina, velut offendere Vespasianum timens, ipsorum duces contemptim tamquam insultantes Vitellio scripsissent.

the letters, read out before the assembly, added confidence, because Caecina had written submissively, as if fearing to offend Vespasian, while their own leaders had written contemptuously, as though insulting Vitellius.

[10] Adventu deinde duarum legionum, e quibus tertiam Dillius Aponianus, octavam Numisius Lupus ducebant, ostentare viris et militari vallo Veronam circumdare placuit. forte Galbianae legioni in adversa fronte valli opus cesserat, et visi procul sociorum equites vanam formidinem ut hostes fecere. rapiuntur arma metu proditionis.

[10] With the arrival then of two legions, of which the Third Dillius Aponianus, the Eighth Numisius Lupus were leading, it pleased them to display their men and to surround Verona with a military rampart. By chance the work on the face of the rampart toward the enemy had fallen to the Galbian legion, and horsemen of the allies, seen from afar, created a groundless fear, as if they were enemies. Weapons are snatched up in fear of treason.

ira militum in Tampium Flavianum incubuit, nullo criminis argumento, sed iam pridem invisus turbine quodam ad exitium poscebatur: propinquum Vitellii, proditorem Othonis, interceptorem donativi clamitabant. nec defensioni locus, quamquam supplicis manus tenderet, humi plerumque stratus, lacera veste, pectus atque ora singultu quatiens. id ipsum apud infensos incitamentum erat, tamquam nimius pavor conscientiam argueret.

the anger of the soldiers pressed upon Tampius Flavianus, with no evidence of a crime; but long since hated, he was being demanded to destruction by a kind of whirlwind: they kept shouting that he was a kinsman of Vitellius, a betrayer of Otho, an interceptor of the donative. nor was there room for a defense, although he stretched forth the hands of a suppliant, for the most part laid on the ground, with garment torn, shaking his breast and face with sobbing. this very thing was an incitement among the hostile, as though excessive fear evidenced a guilty conscience.

obturbabatur militum vocibus Aponius, cum loqui coeptaret; fremitu et clamore ceteros aspernantur. uni Antonio apertae militum aures; namque et facundia aderat mulcendique vulgum artes et auctoritas. ubi crudescere seditio et a conviciis ac probris ad tela et manus transibant, inici catenas Flaviano iubet.

Aponius was being thrown into confusion by the soldiers’ voices when he began to speak; with rumbling and clamor they spurned the others. To Antonius alone were the soldiers’ ears open; for he had both facundity, the arts of soothing the vulgus, and authority. When the sedition was growing raw and they were passing from revilings and reproaches to weapons and hands, he orders Flavianus to be put in chains.

sensit ludibrium miles, disiectisque qui tribunal tuebantur extrema vis parabatur. opposuit sinum Antonius stricto ferro, aut militum se manibus aut suis moriturum obtestans, ut quemque notum et aliquo militari decore insignem aspexerat, ad ferendam opem nomine ciens. mox conversus ad signa et bellorum deos, hostium potius exercitibus illum furorem, illam discordiam inicerent orabat, donec fatisceret seditio et extremo iam die sua quisque in tentoria dilaberentur.

The soldiery sensed the mockery, and, once those who were guarding the tribunal had been scattered, extreme violence was being prepared. Antonius presented his bosom with drawn steel, adjuring that he would die either by the soldiers’ hands or by his own, and, as he caught sight of each man known to him and marked by some military decorum, he called him by name to bring aid. Soon, turning to the standards and the gods of wars, he prayed that they would cast that fury, that discord rather upon the enemies’ armies, until the sedition gave way and, with the day now at its end, each man slipped away into his own tent.

profectus eadem nocte Flavianus obviis Vespasiani litteris discrimini exemptus est.

Having set out that same night, Flavianus was exempted from peril by Vespasian’s letters encountered en route.

[11] Legiones velut tabe infectae Aponium Saturninum Moesici exercitus legatum eo atrocius adgrediuntur, quod non, ut prius, labore et opere fessae, sed medio diei exarserant, vulgatis epistulis, quas Saturninus ad Vitellium scripsisse credebatur. ut olim virtutis modestiaeque, tunc procacitatis et petulantiae certamen erat, ne minus violenter Aponium quam Flavianum ad supplicium deposcerent. quippe Moesicae legiones adiutam a se Pannonicorum ultionem referentes, et Pannonici, velut absolverentur aliorum seditione, iterare culpam gaudebant.

[11] The legions, as if infected with a canker, assailed Aponius Saturninus, legate of the Moesian army, the more savagely because, not, as before, worn out by toil and labor, but at mid-day they had flared up, once the letters were published which Saturninus was believed to have written to Vitellius. As formerly there had been a contest of virtue and modesty, so now it was a contest of procacity and petulance, that they might demand Aponius for punishment no less violently than Flavianus. Indeed the Moesian legions, alleging that the vengeance of the Pannonians had been aided by themselves, and the Pannonians, as though they were absolved by the sedition of others, rejoiced to repeat the fault.

in hortos, in quibus devertebatur Saturninus, pergunt. nec tam Primus et Aponianus et Messala, quamquam omni modo nisi, eripuere Saturninum quam obscuritas latebrarum, quibus occulebatur, vacantium forte balnearum fornacibus abditus. mox omissis lictoribus Patavium concessit.

into the gardens, in which Saturninus was lodging, they proceed. nor was it so much Primus and Aponianus and Messala—although they strove in every way—that rescued Saturninus as the obscurity of the hiding-places in which he was concealed, having been hidden in the furnaces of some baths that happened to be vacant. soon, his lictors dismissed, he withdrew to Patavium.

digressu consularium uni Antonio vis ac potestas in utrumque exercitum fuit, cedentibus collegis et obversis militum studiis. nec deerant qui crederent utramque seditionem fraude Antonii coeptam, ut solus bello frueretur.

with the departure of the consulars, to Antonius alone there was force and power over both armies, his colleagues yielding and the soldiers’ zeal turned toward him. nor were there lacking those who believed that each sedition had been begun by the fraud of Antonius, so that he alone might enjoy the war.

[12] Ne in Vitellii quidem partibus quietae mentes: exitiosiore discordia non suspicionibus vulgi, sed perfidia ducum turbabantur. Lucilius Bassus classis Ravennatis praefectus ambiguos militum animos, quod magna pars Dalmatae Pannoniique erant, quae provinciae Vespasiano tenebantur, partibus eius adgregaverat. nox proditioni electa, ut ceteris ignaris soli in principia defectores coirent.

[12] Not even in Vitellius’s party were minds quiet: they were disturbed by a more ruinous discord, not by suspicions of the crowd, but by the perfidy of the leaders. Lucilius Bassus, prefect of the Ravenna fleet, had attached the soldiers’ wavering spirits to Vespasian’s party, because a great part were Dalmatians and Pannonians, provinces which were held by Vespasian. Night was chosen for the betrayal, so that, the rest unaware, only the defectors might assemble at headquarters.

Bassus pudore seu metu, quisnam exitus foret, intra domum opperiebatur. trierarchi magno tumultu Vitellii imagines invadunt; et paucis resistentium obtruncatis ceterum vulgus rerum novarum studio in Vespasianum inclinabat. tum progressus Lucilius auctorem se palam praebet.

Bassus, whether from shame or from fear of what the outcome would be, waited inside his house. The trierarchs, with great tumult, assail the images of Vitellius; and, a few of those resisting having been cut down, the rest of the crowd, in zeal for new things, inclined toward Vespasian. Then, having come forth, Lucilius openly presents himself as the author.

classis Cornelium Fuscum praefectum sibi destinat, qui propere adcucurrit. Bassus honorata custodia Liburnicis navibus Atriam pervectus a praefecto alae Vibennio Rufino, praesidium illic agitante, vincitur, sed exoluta statim vincula interventu Hormi Caesaris liberti: is quoque inter duces habebatur.

The fleet designates Cornelius Fuscus as prefect for itself, and he hastens promptly. Bassus, under honorable custody, having been conveyed to Atria on Liburnian ships, is bound by the prefect of an ala, Vibennio Rufinus, who was maintaining a garrison there; but the bonds were immediately loosed through the intervention of Hormus, the Caesar’s freedman: he too was counted among the leaders.

[13] At Caecina, defectione classis vulgata, primores centurionum et paucos militum, ceteris per militiae munera dispersis, secretum castrorum adfectans in principia vocat. ibi Vespasiani virtutem virisque partium extollit: transfugisse classem, in arto commeatum, adversas Gallias Hispaniasque, nihil in urbe fidum; atque omnia de Vitellio in deterius. mox incipientibus qui conscii aderant, ceteros re nova attonitos in verba Vespasiani adigit; simul Vitellii imagines dereptae et missi qui Antonio nuntiarent.

[13] But Caecina, when the defection of the fleet was made public, aiming at a secluded spot of the camp, summons the foremost of the centurions and a few soldiers to the principia, the rest being scattered through their military duties. There he extols Vespasian’s virtue and the forces of his party: that the fleet has gone over, supplies are in straits, the Gauls and the Spains are adverse, nothing in the city is trustworthy; and everything concerning Vitellius is for the worse. Soon, as those in the secret who were present began, he forces the others, astonied by the new situation, to swear the words to Vespasian; at the same time the images of Vitellius were torn down and men were sent to announce it to Antonius.

sed ubi totis castris in fama proditio, recurrens in principia miles praescriptum Vespasiani nomen, proiectas Vitellii effigies aspexit, vastum primo silentium, mox cuncta simul erumpunt. huc cecidisse Germanici exercitus gloriam ut sine proelio, sine vulnere vinctas manus et capta traderent arma? quas enim ex diverso legiones?

but when through the whole camp the rumor of treachery spread, the soldier, running back to the headquarters, saw the posted name of Vespasian and Vitellius’s effigies cast down: a vast silence at first; soon everything bursts forth at once. Has the glory of the German army fallen to this point—that without battle, without wound, they should hand over bound hands and captured arms? for what legions, indeed, stand on the opposite side?

nempe victas; et abesse unicum Othoniani exercitus robur, primanos quartadecimanosque, quos tamen isdem illis campis fuderint straverintque. ut tot armatorum milia, velut grex venalium, exuli Antonio donum darentur? octo nimirum legiones unius classis accessionem fore.

namely, defeated; and that the sole strength of Otho’s army, the Primani and the Fourteenth, was absent—whom, however, in those same fields they had routed and laid low. That so many thousands of armed men, like a herd of slaves for sale, should be given as a gift to the exile Antonius? Eight legions, forsooth, were to be the mere accession of a single fleet.

id Basso, id Caecinae visum, postquam domos hortos opes principi abstulerint, etiam militem auferre. integros incruentosque, Flavianis quoque partibus vilis, quid dicturos reposcentibus aut prospera aut adversa?

That seemed good to Bassus and to Caecina, after they had taken from the princeps his houses, gardens, and resources, to carry off the soldiery as well. Intact and unbloodied—cheap even to the Flavian party—what would they say to those demanding an account, whether of prosperous or adverse outcomes?

[14] Haec singuli, haec universi, ut quemque dolor impulerat, vociferantes, initio a quinta legione orto, repositis Vitellii imaginibus vincla Caecinae iniciunt; Fabium Fabullum quintae legionis legatum et Cassium Longum praefectum castrorum duces deligunt; forte oblatos trium Liburnicarum milites, ignaros et insontis, trucidant; relictis castris, abrupto ponte Hostiliam rursus, inde Cremonam pergunt, ut legionibus primae Italicae et unietvicensimae Rapaci iungerentur, quas Caecina ad obtinendam Cremonam cum parte equitum praemiserat.

[14] These things severally, these things collectively, vociferating as each one’s pain impelled him—since the beginning arose from the Fifth legion—after restoring Vitellius’s images they throw bonds upon Caecina; they choose as leaders Fabius Fabullus, legate of the Fifth legion, and Cassius Longus, prefect of the camp; soldiers of three Liburnian ships, who happened to present themselves, unaware and innocent, they slaughter; abandoning the camp, with the bridge broken off, they proceed back to Hostilia, thence to Cremona, so that they might be joined to the legions the First Italica and the Twenty-first Rapax, which Caecina had sent ahead with part of the cavalry to secure Cremona.

[15] Vbi haec comperta Antonio, discordis animis, discretos viribus hostium exercitus adgredi statuit, antequam ducibus auctoritas, militi obsequium et iunctis legionibus fiducia rediret. namque Fabium Valentem profectum ab urbe adceleraturumque cognita Caecinae proditione coniectabat; et fidus Vitellio Fabius nec militiae ignarus. simul ingens Germanorum vis per Raetiam timebatur.

[15] When these things were found out by Antonius, he resolved to attack the enemy armies, discordant in spirit and separated in forces, before authority should return to the leaders, obedience to the soldiery, and, with the legions joined, confidence. For he conjectured that Fabius Valens had set out from the city and, once Caecina’s treason was known, would hasten; and Fabius was loyal to Vitellius and not unacquainted with soldiery. At the same time a vast force of Germans was feared through Raetia.

et Britannia Galliaque et Hispania auxilia Vitellius acciverat, immensam belli luem, ni Antonius id ipsum metuens festinato proelio victoriam praecepisset. universo cum exercitu secundis a Verona castris Bedriacum venit. postero die legionibus ad muniendum retentis, auxiliares cohortes in Cremonensem agrum missae ut specie parandarum copiarum civili praeda miles imbueretur: ipse cum quattuor milibus equitum ad octavum a Bedriaco progressus quo licentius popularentur.

and from Britain, Gaul, and Spain Vitellius had called in auxilia, an immense pestilence of war, had not Antonius, fearing that very thing, by a hastened battle pre-empted the victory. with the entire army he came to Bedriacum, at the second camp from Verona. on the next day, the legions being held back for fortifying, the auxiliary cohorts were sent into the Cremonese territory so that, under the appearance of mustering forces, the soldier might be imbued with civil booty: he himself, with four thousand horse, advanced to the eighth milestone from Bedriacum, in order that they might ravage the more freely.

exploratores, ut mos est, longius curabant.

the scouts, as is the custom, ranged farther ahead.

[16] Quinta ferme hora diei erat, cum citus eques adventare hostis, praegredi paucos, motum fremitumque late audiri nuntiavit. dum Antonius quidnam agendum consultat, aviditate navandae operae Arrius Varus cum promptissimis equitum prorupit impulitque Vitellianos modica caede; nam plurium adcursu versa fortuna, et acerrimus quisque sequentium fugae ultimus erat. nec sponte Antonii properatum, et fore quae acciderant rebatur.

[16] It was about the fifth hour of the day, when a swift horseman reported that the enemy were approaching, that a few were preceding, and that movement and a rumble were being heard far and wide. While Antonius was consulting what ought to be done, out of an avidity of rendering service Arrius Varus burst forth with the most prompt of the cavalry and drove the Vitellians with moderate slaughter; for with the running up of more men fortune was reversed, and each most keen of the pursuers was the last in flight. Nor had there been hurrying by Antonius’s own will, and he reckoned that what occurred would be.

hortatus suos ut magno animo capesserent pugnam, diductis in latera turmis vacuum medio relinquit iter quo Varum equitesque eius reciperet; iussae armari legiones; datum per agros signum ut, qua cuique proximum, omissa praeda proelio occurreret. pavidus interim Varus turbae suorum miscetur intulitque formidinem. pulsi cum sauciis integri suomet ipsi metu et angustiis viarum conflictabantur.

having exhorted his men to take up the fight with great spirit, with the squadrons drawn off to the flanks he leaves an empty path in the middle by which he might receive Varus and his cavalry; the legions were ordered to be armed; a signal was given across the fields that, wherever was nearest to each, abandoning the booty, he should run to meet the battle. meanwhile the timorous Varus is mingled with the crowd of his own men and brings in panic. driven back along with the wounded, the unwounded themselves were being buffeted by their own fear and by the narrowness of the roads.

[17] Nullum in illa trepidatione Antonius constantis ducis aut fortis militis officium omisit. occursare paventibus, retinere cedentis, ubi plurimus labor, unde aliqua spes, consilio manu voce insignis hosti, conspicuus suis. eo postremo ardoris provectus est ut vexillarium fugientem hasta transverberaret; mox raptum vexillum in hostem vertit.

[17] In that trepidation Antonius omitted no duty of a constant leader or a brave soldier. He kept running to meet the panic-stricken, restraining those giving ground; where the toil was greatest, whence there was any hope, he was distinguished to the enemy by counsel, hand, and voice, conspicuous to his own. To such a pitch of ardor was he carried that he ran a fleeing standard-bearer through with a spear; soon he turned the seized standard against the enemy.

quo pudore haud plures quam centum equites restitere: iuvit locus, artiore illic via et fracto interfluentis rivi ponte, qui incerto alveo et praecipitibus ripis fugam impediebat. ea necessitas seu fortuna lapsas iam partis restituit. firmati inter se densis ordinibus excipiunt Vitellianos temere effusos, atque illi consternantur.

By that shame, not more than a hundred cavalry stood their ground; the place helped, the road being narrower there and the bridge of the stream flowing between broken, which, with its uncertain channel and precipitous banks, impeded flight. That necessity, or Fortune, restored the side already slipping. Once steadied among themselves in dense ranks, they receive the Vitellians rashly poured out, and those men are thrown into consternation.

Antonius instare perculsis, sternere obvios, simul ceteri, ut cuique ingenium, spoliare, capere, arma equosque abripere. et exciti prospero clamore, qui modo per agros fuga palabantur, victoriae se miscebant.

Antonius pressed upon the stricken, laid low those who met him; at the same time the others, as each one’s ingenuity prompted, to despoil, to capture, to snatch away arms and horses. And roused by the prosperous clamor, those who just now were wandering in flight through the fields were mingling themselves with the victory.

[18] Ad quartum a Cremona lapidem fulsere legionum signa Rapacis atque Italicae, laeto inter initia equitum suorum proelio illuc usque provecta. sed ubi fortuna contra fuit, non laxare ordines, non recipere turbatos, non obviam ire ultroque adgredi hostem tantum per spatium cursu et pugnando fessum. [forte victi] haud perinde rebus prosperis ducem desideraverant atque in adversis deesse intellegebant.

[18] At the fourth milestone from Cremona the standards of the legions Rapax and Italica flashed forth, advanced thus far, gladdened at the outset by an engagement of their own cavalry. But when fortune turned against them, they did not loosen the ranks, did not take in the disordered, did not go to meet and of their own accord assault the foe, though he was tired by so great a span of running and fighting. [perhaps defeated] they had not, in prosperous affairs, missed a leader to the same degree as they realized him to be lacking in adverse ones.

nutantem aciem victor equitatus incursat; et Vipstanus Messala tribunus cum Moesicis auxiliaribus adsequitur, quos multi e legionariis quamquam raptim ductos aequabant: ita mixtus pedes equesque rupere legionum agmen. et propinqua Cremonensium moenia quanto plus spei ad effugium minorem ad resistendum animum dabant. nec Antonius ultra institit, memor laboris ac vulnerum, quibus tam anceps proelii fortuna, quamvis prospero fine, equites equosque adflictaverat.

the victorious cavalry charges the wavering battle line; and Vipstanus Messala, a tribune, comes up with the Moesian auxiliaries, whom many of the legionaries, although led in haste, were matching: thus foot and horse, mingled, broke the column of the legions. And the walls of the Cremonans, being near, the more hope they gave for escape, the less spirit they gave for resisting. Nor did Antonius press farther, mindful of the toil and wounds, by which the so two-edged fortune of the battle, although with a prosperous end, had afflicted both the horsemen and the horses.

[19] Inumbrante vespera universum Flaviani exercitus robur advenit. utque cumulos super et recentia caede vestigia incessere, quasi debellatum foret, pergere Cremonam et victos in deditionem accipere aut expugnare deposcunt. haec in medio, pulchra dictu: illa sibi quisque, posse coloniam plano sitam impetu capi.

[19] As evening was throwing its shade, the entire strength of the Flavian army arrived. And when they trod over the piles and the traces fresh with slaughter, as though the fighting were finished, they demand to proceed to Cremona and either accept the vanquished into surrender or storm it. These things in the open, fair to say: those things each to himself, that the colony, set on level ground, could be taken by a sudden assault.

idem audaciae per tenebras inrumpentibus et maiorem rapiendi licentiam. quod si lucem opperiantur, iam pacem, iam preces, et pro labore ac vulneribus clementiam et gloriam, inania, laturos, sed opes Cremonensium in sinu praefectorum legatorumque fore. expugnatae urbis praedam ad militem, deditae ad duces pertinere.

the same thing gives boldness to those bursting in through the darkness and a greater license for rapine. but if they wait for daylight, already peace, already prayers, and, in return for toil and wounds, clemency and glory—empty things—they will bring, but the wealth of the Cremonans will be in the bosom of the prefects and legates. the booty of a stormed city belongs to the soldier; of a surrendered city to the leaders.

spernuntur centuriones tribunique, ac ne vox cuiusquam audiatur, quatiunt arma, rupturi imperium ni ducantur.

the centurions and tribunes are spurned, and, lest anyone’s voice be heard, they rattle their arms, on the point of breaking the command unless they are led.

[20] Tum Antonius inserens se manipulis, ubi aspectu et auctoritate silentium fecerat, non se decus neque pretium eripere tam bene meritis adfirmabat, sed divisa inter exercitum ducesque munia: militibus cupidinem pugnandi convenire, duces providendo, consultando, cunctatione saepius quam temeritate prodesse. ut pro virili portione armis ac manu victoriam iuverit, ratione et consilio, propriis ducis artibus, profuturum; neque enim ambigua esse quae occurrant, noctem et ignotae situm urbis, intus hostis et cuncta insidiis opportuna. non si pateant portae, nisi explorato, nisi die intrandum.

[20] Then Antonius, inserting himself among the maniples, when by his sight and authority he had produced silence, affirmed that he was not snatching away glory nor reward from men so well deserving, but that duties are divided between the army and the leaders: for the soldiers it is fitting to have the desire of fighting; the leaders, by providing and taking counsel, are of use more often by delay than by temerity. As, for his part, he has aided victory by arms and hand, so by reason and counsel, the proper arts of a leader, he will be of advantage; for the things that present themselves are not ambiguous—night and the site of an unknown city, the enemy inside, and everything opportune for ambush. Not even if the gates stand open is it to be entered unless after reconnaissance, unless by day.

an obpugnationem inchoaturos adempto omni prospectu, quis aequus locus, quanta altitudo moenium, tormentisne et telis an operibus et vineis adgredienda urbs foret? mox conversus ad singulos, num securis dolabrasque et cetera expugnandis urbibus secum attulissent, rogitabat. et cum abnuerent, 'gladiisne' inquit 'et pilis perfringere ac subruere muros ullae manus possunt?

or were they about to begin an assault with every prospect removed—what place was level, how great the height of the walls, whether the city should be approached with engines and missiles, or with works and vineae? Soon, turning to individuals, he kept asking whether they had brought with them axes and mattocks and the other things for storming cities. And when they said no, 'with swords' he said 'and javelins can any hands break through and undermine walls?'

si aggerem struere, si pluteis cratibusve protegi necesse fuerit, ut vulgus improvidum inriti stabimus, altitudinem turrium et aliena munimenta mirantes? quin potius mora noctis unius, advectis tormentis machinisque, vim victoriamque nobiscum ferimus?' simul lixas calonesque cum recentissimis equitum Bedriacum mittit, copias ceteraque usui adlaturos.

"if it should be necessary to build an embankment, if to be protected by mantelets or wickerwork, shall we, an improvident rabble, stand to no purpose, marveling at the height of the towers and another’s fortifications? Why not rather, with the delay of a single night, artillery and machines brought up, carry force and victory with us?" At the same time he sends the sutlers and camp-servants with the freshest of the cavalry to Bedriacum, to bring provisions and the other things for use.

[21] Id vero aegre tolerante milite prope seditionem ventum, cum progressi equites sub ipsa moenia vagos e Cremonensibus corripiunt, quorum indicio noscitur sex Vitellianas legiones omnemque exercitum, qui Hostiliae egerat, eo ipso die triginta milia passuum emensum, comperta suorum clade in proelium accingi ac iam adfore. is terror obstructas mentis consiliis ducis aperuit. sistere tertiam decimam legionem in ipso viae Postumiae aggere iubet, cui iuncta a laevo septima Galbiana patenti campo stetit, dein septima Claudiana, agresti fossa (ita locus erat) praemunita; dextro octava per apertum limitem, mox tertia densis arbustis intersepta.

[21] As the soldiers could scarcely endure this, they came near to sedition, when the cavalry, having advanced, under the very walls seized stragglers from among the Cremonenses, by whose disclosure it was learned that six Vitellian legions and the whole army which had been at Hostilia had on that very day covered 30 miles, and, once the ruin of their own had been discovered, were girding for battle and would now be at hand. That terror opened minds blocked to the counsels of their leader. He orders the 13th legion to halt on the very embankment of the Postumian road; joined to it on the left, the 7th Galbiana stood on open ground, then the 7th Claudiana, fortified by a country ditch (such was the place); on the right the 8th along an open track, and after it the 3rd, cut up by dense arbusta.

hic aquilarum signorumque ordo: milites mixti per tenebras, ut fors tulerat; praetorianum vexillum proximum tertianis, cohortes auxiliorum in cornibus, latera ac terga equite circumdata; Sido atque Italicus Suebi cum delectis popularium primori in acie versabantur.

this was the order of the eagles and standards: the soldiers, mixed in the darkness, as chance had brought it; the praetorian banner next to the men of the Third; the cohorts of auxiliaries on the wings, the flanks and rear surrounded with cavalry; Sido and Italicus, Suebians, with chosen men of their fellow-countrymen, were active in the foremost line.

[22] At Vitellianus exercitus, cui adquiescere Cremonae et reciperatis cibo somnoque viribus confectum algore atque inedia hostem postera die profligare ac proruere ratio fuit, indigus rectoris, inops consilii, tertia ferme noctis hora paratis iam dispositisque Flavianis impingitur. ordinem agminis disiecti per iram ac tenebras adseverare non ausim, quamquam alii tradiderint quartam Macedonicam dextrum suorum cornu, quintam et quintam decimam cum vexillis nonae secundaeque et vicensimae Britannicarum legionum mediam aciem, sextadecimanos duoetvicensimanosque et primanos laevum cornu complesse. Rapaces atque Italici omnibus se manipulis miscuerant; eques auxiliaque sibi ipsi locum legere.

[22] But the Vitellian army, whose plan had been to rest at Cremona and, their forces restored by food and sleep, to rout and hurl down on the next day an enemy worn out by cold and fasting, being in need of a director and destitute of counsel, at about the third hour of the night is driven headlong upon the Flavians already prepared and arrayed. I would not dare to aver the order of a column disjointed by wrath and darkness, although others have handed down that the Fourth Macedonica occupied their right wing, the Fifth and Fifteenth, with the detachments of the Ninth, Second, and Twentieth British legions, the center, and that the Sixteenth, the Twenty-second, and the Primani filled the left wing. The Rapaces and the Italici had mixed themselves among all the maniples; the cavalry and the auxiliaries chose their place for themselves.

proelium tota nocte varium, anceps, atrox, his, rursus illis exitiabile. nihil animus aut manus, ne oculi quidem provisu iuvabant. eadem utraque acie arma, crebris interrogationibus notum pugnae signum, permixta vexilla, ut quisque globus capta ex hostibus huc vel illuc raptabat.

the battle the whole night long was variable, doubtful, atrocious, deadly now to these, in turn to those. nothing—whether spirit or hand, not even the eyes with any prevision—gave help. the same arms on both battle-lines; the sign of the fight known only by frequent interrogations; standards intermingled, as each cluster was snatching what had been seized from the enemy and dragging it hither or thither.

urgebatur maxime septima legio, nuper a Galba conscripta. occisi sex primorum ordinum centuriones, abrepta quaedam signa: ipsam aquilam Atilius Verus primi pili centurio multa cum hostium strage et ad extremum moriens servaverat.

The seventh legion, recently conscripted by Galba, was being pressed most of all. Six centurions of the foremost ranks were slain, certain standards were snatched away: Atilius Verus, a primipilar centurion, had preserved the eagle itself, with much slaughter of the enemy, and at the last, dying.

[23] Sustinuit labentem aciem Antonius accitis praetorianis. qui ubi excepere pugnam, pellunt hostem, dein pelluntur. namque Vitelliani tormenta in aggerem viae contulerant ut tela vacuo atque aperto excuterentur, dispersa primo et arbustis sine hostium noxa inlisa.

[23] Antonius sustained the slipping battle-line by summoning the Praetorians. When they took up the fight, they drive the enemy, then are driven. For the Vitellians had concentrated their engines on the embankment of the road, so that missiles might be discharged into a clear and open space, at first scattered and, striking the vine-plantations, causing no harm to the enemy.

magnitudine eximia quintae decimae legionis ballista ingentibus saxis hostilem aciem proruebat. lateque cladem intulisset ni duo milites praeclarum facinus ausi, arreptis e strage scutis ignorati, vincla ac libramenta tormentorum abscidissent. statim confossi sunt eoque intercidere nomina: de facto haud ambigitur.

A ballista of the Fifteenth legion, of exceptional magnitude, was overthrowing the hostile battle-line with enormous stones; and it would have brought ruin far and wide, had not two soldiers, daring a preeminent deed, having snatched up shields from the carnage and, unrecognized, cut the bonds and counterweights of the engines. They were pierced at once, and thus their names perished; of the deed there is no doubt.

neutro inclinaverat fortuna donec adulta nocte luna surgens ostenderet acies falleretque. sed Flavianis aequior a tergo; hinc maiores equorum virorumque umbrae, et falso, ut in corpora, ictu tela hostium citra cadebant: Vitelliani adverso lumine conlucentes velut ex occulto iaculantibus incauti offerebantur.

Fortune had inclined to neither side until, with the night grown, the rising moon showed the battle-lines and deceived them. But it was more favorable to the Flavians from behind; hence the larger shadows of horses and men, and the enemy’s missiles, with a false aim as if at bodies, were falling short: the Vitellians, gleaming in the light full in their faces, unsuspecting, were being exposed as if to throwers from concealment.

[24] Igitur Antonius, ubi noscere suos noscique poterat, alios pudore et probris, multos laude et hortatu, omnis spe promissisque accendens, cur resumpsissent arma, Pannonicas legiones interrogabat: illos esse campos, in quibus abolere labem prioris ignominiae, ubi reciperare gloriam possent. tum ad Moesicos conversus principes auctoresque belli ciebat: frustra minis et verbis provocatos Vitellianos, si manus eorum oculosque non tolerent. haec, ut quosque accesserat; plura ad tertianos, veterum recentiumque admonens, ut sub M. Antonio Parthos, sub Corbulone Armenios, nuper Sarmatas pepulissent.

[24] Therefore Antonius, when he could recognize his own men and be recognized, kindled some with shame and reproaches, many with praise and exhortation, all with hope and promises, and he asked the Pannonian legions why they had resumed arms: that these were the fields on which they might abolish the stain of their former ignominy, where they might recuperate their glory. Then, turning to the Moesians, he was rousing the chiefs and authors of the war: that the Vitellians had been provoked in vain by threats and words, if they cannot endure their hands and their eyes. These things he said as he came to each group; more to the men of the Third, reminding them of old and recent deeds: how under Marcus Antonius they had driven back the Parthians, under Corbulo the Armenians, and lately the Sarmatians.

mox infensus praetorianis 'vos' inquit, 'nisi vincitis, pagani, quis alius imperator, quae castra alia excipient? illic signa armaque vestra sunt, et mors victis; nam ignominiam consumpsistis.' undique clamor, et orientem solem (ita in Syria mos est) tertiani salutavere.

soon, hostile to the Praetorians, he said: 'you—unless you win, civilians, what other emperor, what other camp will receive you? there are your standards and your arms, and death for the vanquished; for you have consumed your ignominy.' from all sides a shout, and the men of the Third saluted the rising sun (such in Syria is the custom).

[25] Vagus inde an consilio ducis subditus rumor, advenisse Mucianum, exercitus in vicem salutasse. gradum inferunt quasi recentibus auxiliis aucti, rariore iam Vitellianorum acie, ut quos nullo rectore suus quemque impetus vel pavor contraheret diduceretve. postquam impulsos sensit Antonius, denso agmine obturbabat.

[25] Then a rumor—whether wandering or planted by the general’s counsel—that Mucianus had arrived, that the armies had saluted one another in turn. They advance as if augmented by recent auxiliaries, with the Vitellians’ battle-line now thinner, since, with no leader, each man’s own impulse or panic was contracting him or drawing him apart. After Antonius perceived them driven, he was confounding them with a dense column.

laxati ordines abrumpuntur, nec restitui quivere impedientibus vehiculis tormentisque. per limitem viae sparguntur festinatione consectandi victores. eo notabilior caedes fuit, quia filius patrem interfecit.

The loosened ranks are broken, nor were they able to be restored, with the vehicles and engines of war hindering. They are scattered along the edge of the road by the haste of the victors to pursue. All the more notable was the slaughter, because a son killed his father.

rem nominaque auctore Vipstano Messala tradam. Iulius Mansuetus ex Hispania, Rapaci legioni additus, impubem filium domi liquerat. is mox adultus, inter septimanos a Galba conscriptus, oblatum forte patrem et vulnere stratum dum semianimem scrutatur, agnitus agnoscensque et exanguem amplexus, voce flebili precabatur placatos patris manis, neve se ut parricidam aversarentur: publicum id facinus; et unum militem quotam civilium armorum partem?

I will hand down the event and the names, with Vipstanus Messalla as author. Julius Mansuetus from Hispania, assigned to the Rapax legion, had left at home a son not yet of puberty. He, soon grown, enrolled among the Septimani by Galba, chanced upon his father, laid low by a wound; and as he examined the half‑alive man, recognizing and being recognized, and embracing the bloodless one, with a tearful voice he prayed to the appeased Manes of his father that they not turn away from him as a parricide: that crime is public; and what fraction of the civil arms is a single soldier?

simul attollere corpus, aperire humum, supremo erga parentem officio fungi. advertere proximi, deinde plures: hinc per omnem aciem miraculum et questus et saevissimi belli execratio. nec eo segnius propinquos adfinis fratres trucidant spoliant: factum esse scelus loquuntur faciuntque.

at the same time to lift the body, to open the earth, to discharge the last office toward his parent. those nearest take notice, then more; from this, through the whole battle-line, a marvel and lamentations and the execration of a most savage war. nor on that account any the slower do they butcher and despoil their kinsmen, affines, brothers: they say a crime has been done, and they do it.

[26] Vt Cremonam venere, novum immensumque opus occurrit. Othoniano bello Germanicus miles moenibus Cremonensium castra sua, castris vallum circumiecerat eaque munimenta rursus auxerat. quorum aspectu haesere victores, incertis ducibus quid iuberent.

[26] When they came to Cremona, a new and immense work presented itself. In the Othonian war the Germanic soldiery had thrown their camp around the walls of the Cremonans, and a rampart around the camp, and those defenses they had again enlarged. At the sight of these the victors hesitated, their leaders uncertain what to order.

incipere obpugnationem fesso per diem noctemque exercitu arduum et nullo iuxta subsidio anceps: sin Bedriacum redirent, intolerandus tam longi itineris labor, et victoria ad inritum revolvebatur: munire castra, id quoque propinquis hostibus formidolosum, ne dispersos et opus molientis subita eruptione turbarent. quae super cuncta terrebat ipsorum miles periculi quam morae patientior: quippe ingrata quae tuta, ex temeritate spes; omnisque caedes et vulnera et sanguis aviditate praedae pensabantur.

to begin an assault, with the army wearied through day and night, was arduous, and, with no aid near, hazardous; but if they should return to Bedriacum, the labor of so long a march would be intolerable, and the victory was rolling back to a nullity; to fortify the camp—this too, with the enemy close by, was formidable, lest by a sudden sally they throw into confusion men scattered and engaged upon the work. what, above all, was terrifying was their own soldiery, more patient of peril than of delay: for what was safe was ungrateful, hope sprang from temerity; and every slaughter and wounds and blood were weighed against by avidity for booty.

[27] Huc inclinavit Antonius cingique vallum corona iussit. primo sagittis saxisque eminus certabant, maiore Flavianorum pernicie, in quos tela desuper librabantur; mox vallum portasque legionibus attribuit, ut discretus labor fortis ignavosque distingueret atque ipsa contentione decoris accenderentur. proxima Bedriacensi viae tertiani septimanique sumpsere, dexteriora valli octava ac septima Claudiana; tertiadecimanos ad Brixianam portam impetus tulit.

[27] To this course Antonius inclined and ordered the rampart to be encircled with a corona. At first they contended at a distance with arrows and stones, with greater loss for the Flavian men, upon whom missiles were launched from above; soon he assigned the rampart and the gates to the legions, so that a discretized labor might distinguish the brave from the cowardly and that they might be inflamed by the very contention for decor. The positions nearest the Bedriacum road were taken by the men of the Third and Seventh; the right-hand parts of the rampart by the Eighth and the Seventh Claudia; the onset bore the Thirteenth toward the Brixian gate.

paulum inde morae, dum ex proximis agris ligones dolabras et alii falcis scalasque convectant: tum elatis super capita scutis densa testudine succedunt. Romanae utrimque artes: pondera saxorum Vitelliani provolvunt, disiectam fluitantemque testudinem lanceis contisque scrutantur, donec soluta compage scutorum exanguis aut laceros prosternerent multa cum strage. incesserat cunctatio, ni duces fesso militi et velut inritas exhortationes abnuenti Cremonam monstrassent.

A little delay then, while from the nearest fields they convey hoes, pick-axes, and others sickles and ladders: then, with shields lifted above their heads, they advance in a dense tortoise. Roman arts on both sides: the Vitellians roll down weights of stones, they probe the scattered and wavering tortoise with lances and pikes, until, the structure of the shields loosened, they would cast down men bloodless or torn to pieces, with much slaughter. Hesitation had set in, had not the leaders pointed out Cremona to the weary soldiery, refusing, as it were, their ineffectual exhortations.

[28] Hormine id ingenium, ut Messala tradit, an potior auctor sit C. Plinius, qui Antonium incusat, haud facile discreverim, nisi quod neque Antonius neque Hormus a fama vitaque sua quamvis pessimo flagitio degeneravere. non iam sanguis neque vulnera morabantur quin subruerent vallum quaterentque portas, innixi umeris et super iteratam testudinem scandentes prensarent hostium tela brachiaque. integri cum sauciis, semineces cum expirantibus volvuntur, varia pereuntium forma et omni imagine mortium.

[28] Whether this was Hormus’s disposition, as Messalla hands down, or whether C. Pliny, who accuses Antonius, is the better authority, I would hardly distinguish, except that neither Antonius nor Hormus have degenerated from their reputation and way of life, even by a most wicked disgrace. Blood now and wounds no longer delayed them from undermining the vallum and battering the gates; leaning upon shoulders and, climbing over the re-formed testudo, they were grasping the foemen’s spears and limbs. The unhurt with the wounded, the half-dead with the expiring, are rolled together—a manifold spectacle of the perishing and with every image of deaths.

[29] Acerrimum tertiae septimaeque legionum certamen; et dux Antonius cum delectis auxiliaribus eodem incubuerat. obstinatos inter se cum sustinere Vitelliani nequirent et superiacta tela testudine laberentur, ipsam postremo ballistam in subeuntis propulere, quae ut ad praesens disiecit obruitque quos inciderat, ita pinnas ac summa valli ruina sua traxit; simul iuncta turris ictibus saxorum cessit, qua septimani dum nituntur cuneis, tertianus securibus gladiisque portam perfregit. primum inrupisse C. Volusium tertiae legionis militem inter omnis auctores constat.

[29] The fiercest combat was that of the 3rd and 7th legions; and the leader Antonius with chosen auxiliaries had likewise pressed upon the same point. Since the Vitellians could not sustain opponents obstinate in close quarters, and, though covered by a testudo, were giving way beneath missiles hurled from above, at last they thrust the very ballista down upon those coming up; which, while for the moment it scattered and crushed those on whom it fell, by its own collapse dragged down the battlements and the top of the rampart. At the same time the joined tower yielded to the blows of stones; at which, while the men of the 7th were straining with wedges, a man of the 3rd with axes and swords broke the gate. It is agreed among all authorities that Gaius Volusius, a soldier of the 3rd legion, was the first to burst in.

is in vallum egressus, deturbatis qui restiterant, conspicuus manu ac voce capta castra conclamavit; ceteri trepidis iam Vitellianis seque e vallo praecipitantibus perrupere. completur caede quantum inter castra murosque vacui fuit.

He, having gone out upon the rampart, after driving down those who had resisted, conspicuous by hand and voice, shouted that the camp was captured; the rest, with the Vitellians now panic-stricken and hurling themselves headlong from the rampart, broke through. All the space that was empty between the camp and the walls was filled with slaughter.

[30] Ac rursus nova laborum facies: ardua urbis moenia, saxeae turres, ferrati portarum obices, vibrans tela miles, frequens obstrictusque Vitellianis partibus Cremonensis populus, magna pars Italiae stato in eosdem dies mercatu congregata, quod defensoribus auxilium ob multitudinem, obpugnantibus incitamentum ob praedam erat. rapi ignis Antonius inferrique amoenissimis extra urbem aedificiis iubet, si damno rerum suarum Cremonenses ad mutandam fidem traherentur. propinqua muris tecta et altitudinem moenium egressa fortissimo quoque militum complet; illi trabibus tegulisque et facibus propugnatores deturbant.

[30] And again a new face of labors: the steep walls of the city, stony towers, the iron-clad bars of the gates, the soldier brandishing missiles; the populace of Cremona crowded and bound to the Vitellian party; a great part of Italy gathered by a market-fair appointed on those same days, which was a help to the defenders by reason of their multitude, and to the assailants an incitement by reason of plunder. Antonius orders fire to be snatched up and carried into the most pleasant edifices outside the city, if by the loss of their goods the Cremonenses might be drawn to change their allegiance. He fills with the bravest of the soldiers the buildings close to the walls and those that had exceeded the altitude of the ramparts; they with beams, tiles, and torches dislodge the defenders.

[31] Iam legiones in testudinem glomerabantur, et alii tela saxaque incutiebant, cum languescere paulatim Vitellianorum animi. ut quis ordine anteibat, cedere fortunae, ne Cremona quoque excisa nulla ultra venia omnisque ira victoris non in vulgus inops, sed in tribunos centurionesque, ubi pretium caedis erat, reverteretur. gregarius miles futuri socors et ignobilitate tutior perstabat: vagi per vias, in domibus abditi pacem ne tum quidem orabant, cum bellum posuissent.

[31] Now the legions were massing into a testudo, and others were hurling missiles and stones, as the spirits of the Vitellians gradually grew faint. As each man, in his turn of the order, came forward, he yielded to Fortune, lest, with Cremona too laid waste, no further pardon remain, and all the victor’s wrath revert not upon the needy common crowd, but upon the tribunes and centurions, where there was a price for slaughter. The rank-and-file soldier, heedless of the future and safer through his ignobility (obscurity), persisted: wandering through the streets, hidden in houses, they did not even then sue for peace, though they had laid down the war.

primores castrorum nomen atque imagines Vitellii amoliuntur; catenas Caecinae (nam etiam tunc vinctus erat) exolvunt orantque ut causae suae deprecator adsistat. aspernantem tumentemque lacrimis fatigant, extremum malorum, tot fortissimi viri proditoris opem invocantes; mox velamenta et infulas pro muris ostentant. cum Antonius inhiberi tela iussisset, signa aquilasque extulere; maestum inermium agmen deiectis in terram oculis sequebatur.

the chiefs of the camp remove the name and images of Vitellius; they unloose the chains of Caecina (for even then he was still bound) and beg that he stand by as a deprecator for their cause. They wear him down, though he spurns them and is swollen with tears, invoking, as the last extremity of evils, the aid of a traitor—so many most valiant men; soon they display veils and fillets before the walls. When Antonius had ordered that weapons be checked, they bore forth the standards and eagles; a mournful column of the unarmed, with eyes cast down to the earth, followed.

circumstiterant victores et primo ingerebant probra, intentabant ictus: mox, ut praeberi ora contumeliis et posita omni ferocia cuncta victi patiebantur, subit recordatio illos esse qui nuper Bedriaci victoriae temperassent. sed ubi Caecina praetexta lictoribusque insignis, dimota turba, consul incessit, exarsere victores: superbiam saevitiamque (adeo invisa scelera sunt), etiam perfidiam obiectabant. obstitit Antonius datisque defensoribus ad Vespasianum dimisit.

The victors had surrounded them and at first were heaping insults, threatening blows; soon, as the conquered offered their faces to contumelies and, with all ferocity laid aside, endured everything, a recollection comes over them that these were the men who had lately tempered the victory of Bedriacum. But when Caecina, distinguished by the praetexta and by lictors, the crowd removed, advanced as consul, the victors flared up: they were charging him with arrogance and savagery (so hateful are such crimes), and even with perfidy. Antonius interposed, and, having assigned defenders, sent him to Vespasian.

[32] Plebs interim Cremonensium inter armatos conflictabatur; nec procul caede aberant, cum precibus ducum mitigatus est miles. et vocatos ad contionem Antonius adloquitur, magnifice victores, victos clementer, de Cremona in neutrum. exercitus praeter insitam praedandi cupidinem vetere odio ad excidium Cremonensium incubuit.

[32] Meanwhile the plebs of Cremona were being buffeted among the armed men; nor were they far from slaughter, when the soldiery was mitigated by the prayers of the leaders. And, when they had been called to an assembly, Antonius addresses them: magnificently as victors, with clemency toward the vanquished; as for Cremona, in neither direction. The army, besides its inborn lust for plunder, out of an old hatred pressed on to the destruction of the Cremonese.

iuvisse partis Vitellianas Othonis quoque bello credebantur; mox tertiadecimanos ad extruendum amphitheatrum relictos, ut sunt procacia urbanae plebis ingenia, petulantibus iurgiis inluserant. auxit invidiam editum illic a Caecina gladiatorum spectaculum eademque rursus belli sedes et praebiti in acie Vitellianis cibi, caesae quaedam feminae studio partium ad proelium progressae; tempus quoque mercatus ditem alioqui coloniam maiore opum specie complebat. ceteri duces in obscuro: Antonium fortuna famaque omnium oculis exposuerat.

They were believed to have aided the Vitellian party also in Otho’s war; soon they had made sport of the men of the Thirteenth, left behind to build an amphitheater, as is the sauciness of the urban plebs’ temperaments, with petulant quarrels. The gladiators’ spectacle given there by Caecina increased the envy, and the same place was again a seat of war, and rations were proffered on the battle-line to the Vitellians; certain women, having advanced into the battle from zeal for a party, were cut down; the market-season too was filling the otherwise wealthy colony with a greater show of resources. The other leaders were in the obscurity: Fortune and Fame had exposed Antonius to the eyes of all.

is balineas abluendo cruori propere petit. excepta vox est, cum teporem incusaret, statim futurum ut incalescerent: vernile dictum omnem invidiam in eum vertit, tamquam signum incendendae Cremonae dedisset, quae iam flagrabat.

He promptly sought the baths to wash off the gore. The remark was caught, when he faulted the tepidness, that they would straightway grow hot: the servile dictum turned all odium upon him, as though he had given the signal for Cremona to be set on fire, which already was blazing.

[33] Quadraginta armatorum milia inrupere, calonum lixarumque amplior numerus et in libidinem ac saevitiam corruptior. non dignitas, non aetas protegebat quo minus stupra caedibus, caedes stupris miscerentur. grandaevos senes, exacta aetate feminas, vilis ad praedam, in ludibrium trahebant: ubi adulta virgo aut quis forma conspicuus incidisset, vi manibusque rapientium divulsus ipsos postremo direptores in mutuam perniciem agebat.

[33] Forty thousand armed men burst in; a larger number of camp-servants and sutlers, and more corrupted into libido and savagery. Neither dignity nor age afforded protection, so that rapes were mingled with slaughters, and slaughters with rapes. Very aged old men, and women with their age spent—worth little for booty—they dragged into mockery; but whenever a grown maiden or someone conspicuous for beauty fell into their hands, torn by the force and hands of the snatchers, it at last drove the plunderers themselves into mutual ruin.

dum pecuniam vel gravia auro templorum dona sibi quisque trahunt, maiore aliorum vi truncabantur. quidam obvia aspernati verberibus tormentisque dominorum abdita scrutari, defossa eruere: faces in manibus, quas, ubi praedam egesserant, in vacuas domos et inania templa per lasciviam iaculabantur; utque exercitu vario linguis moribus, cui cives socii externi interessent, diversae cupidines et aliud cuique fas nec quicquam inlicitum. per quadriduum Cremona suffecit.

while each man was dragging to himself money or the heavy with gold gifts of the temples, they were being despoiled by the greater force of others. some, spurning what lay to hand, with beatings and tortures compelled the masters to search out their hidden places, to dig up what had been buried: torches in their hands, which, when they had carried out the plunder, they hurled in wantonness into empty houses and vacated temples; and since the army was diverse in tongues and customs, in which citizens, allies, and foreigners were concerned, desires were diverse and what was lawful was something different for each, and nothing illicit. for four days Cremona sufficed.

cum omnia sacra profanaque in igne considerent, solum Mefitis templum stetit ante moenia, loco seu numine defensum.

while all things sacred and profane were collapsing in the fire, only the temple of Mefitis stood before the walls, defended by the site or by the numen.

[34] Hic exitus Cremonae anno ducentesimo octogesimo sexto a primordio sui. condita erat Ti. Sempronio P. Cornelio consulibus, ingruente in Italiam Annibale, propugnaculum adversus Gallos trans Padum agentis et si qua alia vis per Alpis rueret. igitur numero colonorum, opportunitate fluminum, ubere agri, adnexu conubiisque gentium adolevit floruitque, bellis externis intacta, civilibus infelix.

[34] Here was the end of Cremona in the 286th year from its own beginnings. It had been founded, when Tiberius Sempronius and Publius Cornelius were consuls, with Hannibal pressing into Italy, as a bulwark against the Gauls living beyond the Po and against whatever other force might rush down through the Alps. Accordingly, by the number of colonists, by the convenience of the rivers, by the fertility of the field, and by the linkage and intermarriages of the peoples, it grew up and flourished, untouched by foreign wars, unfortunate in civil ones.

Antonius pudore flagitii, crebrescente invidia, edixit ne quis Cremonensem captivum detineret. inritamque praedam militibus effecerat consensus Italiae, emptionem talium mancipiorum aspernantis: occidi coepere; quod ubi enotuit, a propinquis adfinibusque occulte redemptabantur. mox rediit Cremonam reliquus populus: reposita fora templaque magnificentia municipum; et Vespasianus hortabatur.

Antonius, ashamed at the scandal, with ill-will growing, issued an edict that no one was to detain a Cremonese captive. And the consensus of Italy, spurning the purchase of such slaves, had made the soldiers’ booty void: they began to be killed; when this became known, they were secretly ransomed by kinsmen and in-laws. Soon the rest of the people returned to Cremona: the fora and temples were restored by the magnificence of the townsmen; and Vespasian kept exhorting them.

[35] Ceterum adsidere sepultae urbis ruinis noxia tabo humus haud diu permisit. ad tertium lapidem progressi vagos paventisque Vitellianos, sua quemque apud signa, componunt; et victae legiones, ne manente adhuc civili bello ambigue agerent, per Illyricum dispersae. in Britanniam inde et Hispanias nuntios famamque, in Galliam Iulium Calenum tribunum, in Germaniam Alpinium Montanum praefectum cohortis, quod hic Trevir, Calenus Aeduus, uterque Vitelliani fuerant, ostentui misere.

[35] However, the ground, noxious with putrescence, did not permit them to sit beside the ruins of the buried city for long. Having advanced to the third milestone, they marshal the wandering and terrified Vitellians, each man at his own standards; and the vanquished legions, lest while the civil war still endured they should act ambiguously, were dispersed through Illyricum. Thence they sent to Britain and the Spains messengers and rumor; to Gaul Julius Calenus, a tribune; to Germany Alpinus Montanus, a prefect of a cohort—since Montanus was a Trever and Calenus an Aeduan, both had been Vitellian—sent for display.

simul transitus Alpium praesidiis occupati, suspecta Germania, tamquam in auxilium Vitellii accingeretur.

at the same time the passes of the Alps were occupied with garrisons, and Germany was under suspicion, as though she were girding herself to the aid of Vitellius.

[36] At Vitellius profecto Caecina, cum Fabium Valentem paucis post diebus ad bellum impulisset, curis luxum obtendebat: non parare arma, non adloquio exercitioque militem firmare, non in ore vulgi agere, sed umbraculis hortorum abditus, ut ignava animalia, quibus si cibum suggeras, iacent torpentque, praeterita instantia futura pari oblivione dimiserat. atque illum in nemore Aricino desidem et marcentem proditio Lucilii Bassi ac defectio classis Ravennatis perculit; nec multo post de Caecina adfertur mixtus gaudio dolor et descivisse et ab exercitu vinctum. plus apud socordem animum laetitia quam cura valuit.

[36] But while Caecina had set out, and after he had driven Fabius Valens a few days later to war, Vitellius was masking his anxieties with luxury: not preparing arms, not strengthening the soldiery by address and exercise, not having a presence in the mouth of the crowd, but hidden in the shaded bowers of gardens, like slothful animals which, if you supply them food, lie and grow torpid, he had dismissed the past, the present, and the future with equal oblivion. And as he lounged and wilted in the grove of Aricia, the treachery of Lucilius Bassus and the defection of the Ravenna fleet struck him down; and not long after there was brought word about Caecina—grief mixed with joy—both that he had defected and that he had been bound by the army. Joy prevailed with his sluggish mind more than care.

multa cum exultatione in urbem revectus frequenti contione pietatem militum laudibus cumulat; Publilium Sabinum praetorii praefectum ob amicitiam Caecinae vinciri iubet, substituto in locum eius Alfeno Varo.

brought back into the city with much exultation, he, in a crowded assembly, heaps praises upon the piety of the soldiers; he orders Publilius Sabinus, the Praetorian Prefect, to be bound on account of his friendship with Caecina, Alfenus Varus being substituted in his place.

[37] Mox senatum composita in magnificentiam oratione adlocutus, exquisitis patrum adulationibus attollitur. initium atrocis in Caecinam sententiae a L. Vitellio factum; dein ceteri composita indignatione, quod consul rem publicam, dux imperatorem, tantis opibus tot honoribus cumulatus amicum prodidisset, velut pro Vitellio conquerentes, suum dolorem proferebant. nulla in oratione cuiusquam erga Flavianos duces obtrectatio: errorem imprudentiamque exercituum culpantes, Vespasiani nomen suspensi et vitabundi circumibant, nec defuit qui unum consulatus diem (is enim in locum Caecinae supererat) magno cum inrisu tribuentis accipientisque eblandiretur.

[37] Soon, having addressed the senate with a speech composed for magnificence, he is exalted by the senators’ exquisitely contrived adulations. The beginning of a savage sentence against Caecina was made by L. Vitellius; then the rest, with staged indignation—because the consul had betrayed the commonwealth, the leader his emperor, a friend heaped with such resources and so many honors—as if lamenting on Vitellius’s behalf, were bringing forth their own grievance. In no one’s speech was there any detraction toward the Flavian commanders: blaming the error and imprudence of the armies, they circled around the name of Vespasian with hesitation and evasiveness; nor was there lacking one who, with great derision, would fawn upon the giver and the receiver of a single day of the consulship (for that, in Caecina’s place, still remained over).

pridie kalendas Novembris Rosius Regulus iniit eiuravitque. adnotabant periti numquam antea non abrogato magistratu neque lege lata alium suffectum; nam consul uno die et ante fuerat Caninius Rebilus C. Caesare dictatore, cum belli civilis praemia festinarentur.

On the day before the Kalends of November, Rosius Regulus entered upon it and resigned it. The experts were noting that never before, with the magistracy not abrogated nor a statute passed, had another been appointed suffect; for even earlier there had been a consul for one day, Caninius Rebilus, with Gaius Caesar as dictator, when the rewards of the civil war were being hastened.

[38] Nota per eos dies Iunii Blaesi mors et famosa fuit, de qua sic accepimus. gravi corporis morbo aeger Vitellius Servilianis hortis turrim vicino sitam conlucere per noctem crebris luminibus animadvertit. sciscitanti causam apud Caecinam Tuscum epulari multos, praecipuum honore Iunium Blaesum nuntiatur; cetera in maius, de apparatu et solutis in lasciviam animis.

[38] In those days the death of Junius Blaesus was noted and notorious, concerning which thus we have received. Vitellius, sick with a grave disease of the body, noticed that in the Servilian Gardens a tower set nearby was shining through the night with frequent lights. When he inquired the cause, it was reported that many were feasting at the house of Caecina Tuscus; Junius Blaesus was singled out for special honor; the rest was exaggerated—about the apparatus and spirits loosened into lasciviousness.

nec defuere qui ipsum Tuscum et alios, sed criminosius Blaesum incusarent, quod aegro principe laetos dies ageret. ubi asperatum Vitellium et posse Blaesum perverti satis patuit iis qui principum offensas acriter speculantur, datae L. Vitellio delationis partes. ille infensus Blaeso aemulatione prava, quod eum omni dedecore maculosum egregia fama anteibat, cubiculum imperatoris reserat, filium eius sinu complexus et genibus accidens.

nor were there wanting those who accused Tuscus himself and others, but more criminally Blaesus, because, with the princeps sick, he was keeping joyful days. when it became sufficiently clear to those who keenly watch the offenses of princes that Vitellius was embittered and that Blaesus could be overthrown, the role of delation was assigned to L. Vitellius. he, hostile to Blaesus through perverse emulation, because the latter, with distinguished renown, outstripped him, he himself blotched with every disgrace, unbars the emperor’s bedchamber, embracing his son in his bosom and falling at his knees.

causam confusionis quaerenti, non se proprio metu nec sui anxium, sed pro fratre, pro liberis fratris preces lacrimasque attulisse. frustra Vespasianum timeri, quem tot Germanicae legiones, tot provinciae virtute ac fide, tantum denique terrarum ac maris immensis spatiis arceat: in urbe ac sinu cavendum hostem, Iunios Antoniosque avos iactantem, qui se stirpe imperatoria comem ac magnificum militibus ostentet. versas illuc omnium mentis, dum Vitellius amicorum inimicorumque neglegens fovet aemulum principis labores e convivio prospectantem.

to the one inquiring the cause of his dismay, he said that he had brought prayers and tears not from personal fear nor anxious for himself, but for his brother, for his brother’s children. Vespasian, he said, was feared in vain, whom so many German legions, so many provinces by their virtue and faith, and, finally, so great an extent of lands and sea with immense spaces, keep at bay: the enemy is to be guarded against in the city and in the bosom, a man boasting the Junii and Antonii for grandsires, who displays himself to the soldiers as of imperial stock, affable and magnificent. the minds of all are turned thither, while Vitellius, careless alike of friends and enemies, nurtures a rival of the princeps, surveying the labors of the principate from a banquet.

reddendam pro intempestiva laetitia maestam et funebrem noctem, qua sciat et sentiat vivere Vitellium et imperare et, si quid fato accidat, filium habere.

that, in return for untimely joy, a sad and funereal night must be rendered, whereby he may know and feel that Vitellius lives and rules and, if anything should befall by fate, has a son.

[39] Trepidanti inter scelus metumque, ne dilata Blaesi mors maturam perniciem, palam iussa atrocem invidiam ferret, placuit veneno grassari; addidit facinori fidem notabili gaudio, Blaesum visendo. quin et audita est saevissima Vitellii vox qua se (ipsa enim verba referam) pavisse oculos spectata inimici morte iactavit. Blaeso super claritatem natalium et elegantiam morum fidei obstinatio fuit.

[39] To a man trembling between crime and fear, lest a delayed death of Blaesus should bring swift destruction, while, if ordered openly, it would carry atrocious envy, it seemed good to go about it by poison; he added credence to the crime by a notable joy, by going to see Blaesus. Nay, even the most savage utterance of Vitellius was heard, in which (for I will report the very words) he boasted that he had fed his eyes on the seen death of an enemy. In Blaesus, beyond the brilliance of birth and the elegance of manners, there was an obstinacy of fidelity.

integris quoque rebus a Caecina et primoribus partium iam Vitellium aspernantibus ambitus abnuere perseveravit. sanctus, inturbidus, nullius repentini honoris, adeo non principatus adpetens, parum effugerat ne dignus crederetur.

Even with affairs still intact, as Caecina and the chiefs of the party were already spurning Vitellius, he persisted in declining ambition. Upright, untroubled, a seeker of no sudden honor, so far from aiming at the Principate, he had scarcely escaped being thought worthy of it.

[40] Fabius interim Valens multo ac molli concubinarum spadonumque agmine segnius quam ad bellum incedens, proditam a Lucilio Basso Ravennatem classem pernicibus nuntiis accepit. et si coeptum iter properasset, nutantem Caecinam praevenire aut ante discrimen pugnae adsequi legiones potuisset; nec deerant qui monerent ut cum fidissimis per occultos tramites vitata Ravenna Hostiliam Cremonamve pergeret. aliis placebat accitis ex urbe praetoriis cohortibus valida manu perrumpere: ipse inutili cunctatione agendi tempora consultando consumpsit; mox utrumque consilium aspernatus, quod inter ancipitia deterrimum est, dum media sequitur, nec ausus est satis nec providit.

[40] Meanwhile Fabius Valens, with a large and soft train of concubines and eunuchs, advancing more sluggishly than for war, received by swift couriers that the Ravenna fleet had been betrayed by Lucilius Bassus. And if he had hastened his begun journey, he could have forestalled the wavering Caecina or reached the legions before the crisis of battle; nor were there lacking those who advised that, with his most trustworthy men, by hidden byways, avoiding Ravenna, he should proceed to Hostilia or Cremona. Others approved, with praetorian cohorts summoned from the city, of breaking through with a strong hand: he himself, in useless hesitation, consumed the times for action by consulting; soon, spurning both plans, which among ambivalences is the worst thing, while he follows a middle course, he neither dared enough nor provided for it.

[41] Missis ad Vitellium litteris auxilium postulat. venere tres cohortes cum ala Britannica, neque ad fallendum aptus numerus neque ad penetrandum. sed Valens ne in tanto quidem discrimine infamia caruit, quo minus rapere inlicitas voluptates adulteriisque ac stupris polluere hospitum domus crederetur: aderant vis et pecunia et ruentis fortunae novissima libido.

[41] After sending letters to Vitellius, he requests assistance. Three cohorts came with the British cavalry wing, a number suited neither for deceiving nor for penetrating. But Valens, not even in so great a crisis, escaped infamy: he was believed to snatch illicit pleasures and to pollute the houses of his hosts with adulteries and debaucheries; force and money were at hand, and the final libido of a fortune rushing to ruin.

adventu demum peditum equitumque pravitas consilii patuit, quia nec vadere per hostis tam parva manu poterat, etiam si fidissima foret, nec integram fidem attulerant; pudor tamen et praesentis ducis reverentia morabatur, haud diuturna vincla apud pavidos periculorum et dedecoris securos. eo metu cohortis Ariminum praemittit, alam tueri terga iubet: ipse paucis, quos adversa non mutaverant, comitantibus flexit in Vmbriam atque inde Etruriam, ubi cognito pugnae Cremonensis eventu non ignavum et, si provenisset, atrox consilium iniit, ut arreptis navibus in quamcumque partem Narbonensis provinciae egressus Gallias et exercitus et Germaniae gentis novumque bellum cieret.

Only upon the arrival of the infantry and cavalry did the depravity of the plan become evident, because with so small a force he could not make his way through the enemy, even if it were most trustworthy, nor had they brought unimpaired loyalty; shame, however, and reverence for the present leader were delaying them—bonds not long-lasting among the timorous, careless alike of dangers and of disgrace. Because of that fear he sends the cohorts ahead to Ariminum, and orders the ala to guard the rear: he himself, with a few companions whom adversity had not changed, turned into Umbria and thence into Etruria, where, once he learned the outcome of the battle of Cremona, he formed a plan not ignoble and, had it succeeded, a fierce one: to seize ships and, having disembarked in whatever part of the province of Narbonensis, to stir up the Gauls, and the armies, and the nation of Germania, and a new war.

[42] Digresso Valente trepidos, qui Ariminum tenebant, Cornelius Fuscus, admoto exercitu et missis per proxima litorum Liburnicis, terra marique circumvenit: occupantur plana Vmbriae et qua Picenus ager Hadria adluitur, omnisque Italia inter Vespasianum ac Vitellium Appennini iugis dividebatur. Fabius Valens e sinu Pisano segnitia maris aut adversante vento portum Herculis Monoeci depellitur. haud procul inde agebat Marius Maturus Alpium maritimarum procurator, fidus Vitellio, cuius sacramentum cunctis circa hostilibus nondum exuerat.

[42] With Valens having departed, Cornelius Fuscus, the army brought up and Liburnian galleys sent along the nearest stretches of the coasts, hemmed in by land and sea the panic‑stricken who were holding Ariminum: the plains of Umbria were occupied, and where the Picene country is washed by the Adriatic, and all Italy was being divided between Vespasian and Vitellius by the ridges of the Apennines. Fabius Valens, out of the Pisan Gulf, by the sluggishness of the sea or an opposing wind, is driven to the harbor of Hercules Monoecus. Not far from there was posted Marius Maturus, procurator of the Maritime Alps, loyal to Vitellius, whose oath of allegiance, though all around were hostile, he had not yet cast off.

is Valentem comiter exceptum, ne Galliam Narbonensem temere ingrederetur, monendo terruit; simul ceterorum fides metu infracta.

he, having courteously received Valens, by admonition frightened him from entering Narbonese Gaul rashly; at the same time the loyalty of the rest was broken by fear.

[43] Namque circumiectas civitates procurator Valerius Paulinus, strenuus militiae et Vespasiano ante fortunam amicus, in verba eius adegerat; concitisque omnibus, qui exauctorati a Vitellio bellum sponte sumebant, Foroiuliensem coloniam, claustra maris, praesidio tuebatur, eo gravior auctor, quod Paulino patria Forum Iulii et honos apud praetorianos, quorum quondam tribunus fuerat, ipsique pagani favore municipali et futurae potentiae spe iuvare partis adnitebantur. quae ut paratu firma et aucta rumore apud varios Vitellianorum animos increbruere, Fabius Valens cum quattuor speculatoribus et tribus amicis, totidem centurionibus, ad navis regreditur; Maturo ceterisque remanere et in verba Vespasiani adigi volentibus fuit. ceterum ut mare tutius Valenti quam litora aut urbes, ita futuri ambiguus et magis quid vitaret quam cui fideret certus, adversa tempestate Stoechadas Massiliensium insulas adfertur.

[43] For the surrounding communities the procurator Valerius Paulinus, strenuous in soldiery and a friend to Vespasian before his good fortune, had compelled to swear his words; and, all who, discharged by Vitellius, were of their own accord taking up war having been stirred, he was guarding with a garrison the colony of Forum Iulii—the sea’s gates—so much the weightier an authority because Forum Iulii was Paulinus’s homeland and he had credit among the Praetorians, of whom he had once been a tribune; and the countryfolk themselves, with municipal favor and a hope of future potency, strove to help the party. When these arrangements, firm in preparation and, by rumor, amplified, spread among the various minds of the Vitellianists, Fabius Valens, with four speculators and three friends, and just so many centurions, returned to the ships; Maturus and the others chose to remain and to be brought under Vespasian’s oath. However, although the sea was safer for Valens than the shores or the cities, yet uncertain of the future and more sure what to avoid than whom to trust, in contrary weather he was borne to the Stoechades, the islands of the Massilians.

ibi eum missae a Paulino Liburnicae oppressere.

there him the Liburnian ships sent by Paulinus overpowered.

[44] Capto Valente cuncta ad victoris opes conversa, initio per Hispaniam a prima Adiutrice legione orto, quae memoria Othonis infensa Vitellio decimam quoque ac sextam traxit. nec Galliae cunctabantur. et Britanniam inditus erga Vespasianum favor, quod illic secundae legioni a Claudio praepositus et bello clarus egerat, non sine motu adiunxit ceterarum, in quibus plerique centuriones ac milites a Vitellio provecti expertum iam principem anxii mutabant.

[44] With Valens captured, everything turned to the resources of the victor, the movement at the outset arising through Spain from the First Adjutrix legion, which, in memory of Otho and hostile to Vitellius, drew over the 10th and also the 6th. Nor were the Gauls delaying. And Britain, by an inborn favor toward Vespasian—because there, having been put in charge of the Second legion by Claudius and renowned in war, he had served—joined in, not without a stirring among the rest, in which many centurions and soldiers, advanced by Vitellius, anxious, were changing out an emperor already tried.

[45] Ea discordia et crebris belli civilis rumoribus Britanni sustulere animos auctore Venutio, qui super insitam ferociam et Romani nominis odium propriis in Cartimanduam reginam stimulis accendebatur. Cartimandua Brigantibus imperitabat, pollens nobilitate; et auxerat potentiam, postquam capto per dolum rege Carataco instruxisse triumphum Claudii Caesaris videbatur. inde opes et rerum secundarum luxus: spreto Venutio (is fuit maritus) armigerum eius Vellocatum in matrimonium regnumque accepit.

[45] That discord and the frequent rumors of civil war lifted the spirits of the Britons, with Venutius as the author, who, beyond his inborn ferocity and hatred of the Roman name, was being inflamed against Queen Cartimandua by his own stimuli. Cartimandua commanded the Brigantes, powerful in nobility; and she had augmented her power, after, with King Caratacus captured by guile, she seemed to have arranged the triumph of Claudius Caesar. Thence came wealth and the luxury of prosperous circumstances: spurning Venutius (he was the husband), she received his armiger Vellocatus into marriage and into the kingship.

concussa statim flagitio domus: pro marito studia civitatis, pro adultero libido reginae et saevitia. igitur Venutius accitis auxiliis, simul ipsorum Brigantum defectione in extremum discrimen Cartimanduam adduxit. tum petita a Romanis praesidia.

The house was immediately shaken by the scandal: on the husband’s side the sympathies of the state; on the adulterer’s side the queen’s libido and savagery. Therefore Venutius, having called in auxiliaries, and at the same time through the defection of the Brigantes themselves, brought Cartimandua into utmost peril. Then garrisons were sought from the Romans.

et cohortes alaeque nostrae variis proeliis, exemere tamen periculo reginam; regnum Venutio, bellum nobis relictum.

and our cohorts and alae, in various battles, nevertheless removed the queen from peril; the kingdom to Venutius, the war was left to us.

[46] Turbata per eosdem dies Germania, et socordia ducum, seditione legionum, externa vi, perfidia sociali prope adflicta Romana res. id bellum cum causis et eventibus (etenim longius provectum est) mox memorabimus. mota et Dacorum gens numquam fida, tunc sine metu, abducto e Moesia exercitu.

[46] Germany was thrown into turmoil in those same days, and by the sloth of the commanders, the sedition of the legions, external force, and allied perfidy, the Roman commonwealth was nearly shattered. That war, with its causes and outcomes (for it was carried further), we shall soon recount. The nation of the Dacians, never faithful, was also set in motion—then without fear, the army having been drawn off from Moesia.

sed prima rerum quieti speculabantur: ubi flagrare Italiam bello, cuncta in vicem hostilia accepere, expugnatis cohortium alarumque hibernis utraque Danuvii ripa potiebantur. iamque castra legionum excindere parabant, ni Mucianus sextam legionem opposuisset, Cremonensis victoriae gnarus, ac ne externa moles utrimque ingrueret, si Dacus Germanusque diversi inrupissent. adfuit, ut saepe alias, fortuna populi Romani, quae Mucianum virisque Orientis illuc tulit, et quod Cremonae interim transegimus.

but at first they were watching for a lull in affairs; when they learned that Italy was ablaze with war, that everything in turn was hostile, with the winter-quarters of the cohorts and alae taken by storm, they held possession of both banks of the Danube. and now they were preparing to raze the camps of the legions, had not Mucianus opposed the Sixth Legion, aware of the victory at Cremona, and lest an external mass should bear down on both sides, if the Dacian and the German broke in from different directions. there was present, as often on other occasions, the fortune of the Roman people, which brought Mucianus and the forces of the Orient thither, and also the fact that in the meantime we had brought matters at Cremona to a conclusion.

Fonteius Agrippa ex Asia (pro consule eam provinciam annuo imperio tenuerat) Moesiae praepositus est, additis copiis e Vitelliano exercitu, quem spargi per provincias et externo bello inligari pars consilii pacisque erat.

Fonteius Agrippa, from Asia (he had held that province as proconsul with annual imperium), was placed over Moesia, with forces added from the Vitellian army, which it was part of the plan and of the peace to have scattered through the provinces and to be entangled in a foreign war.

[47] Nec ceterae nationes silebant. subita per Pontum arma barbarum mancipium, regiae quondam classis praefectus, moverat. is fuit Anicetus Polemonis libertus, praepotens olim, et postquam regnum in formam provinciae verterat, mutationis impatiens.

[47] Nor were the other nations silent. Sudden arms throughout Pontus had been set in motion by a barbarian slave, formerly prefect of the royal fleet. This was Anicetus, the freedman of Polemon, once very powerful, and after the kingdom had been turned into the form of a province, unable to endure the change.

igitur Vitellii nomine adscitis gentibus, quae Pontum accolunt, corrupto in spem rapinarum egentissimo quoque, haud temnendae manus ductor, Trapezuntem vetusta fama civitatem, a Graecis in extremo Ponticae orae conditam, subitus inrupit. caesa ibi cohors, regium auxilium olim; mox donati civitate Romana signa armaque in nostrum modum, desidiam licentiamque Graecorum retinebant. classi quoque faces intulit, vacuo mari eludens, quia lectissimas Liburnicarum omnemque militem Mucianus Byzantium adegerat: quin et barbari contemptim vagabantur, fabricatis repente navibus.

Therefore, in Vitellius’s name, after enrolling the tribes that border upon Pontus and corrupting every most needy man with the hope of rapine, a leader of a not-to-be-despised band, he suddenly burst into Trapezus, a city of ancient fame, founded by the Greeks at the extreme of the Pontic shore. There a cohort was cut down, once the royal auxiliary; later, when granted Roman citizenship, with standards and arms in our fashion, they retained the sloth and license of the Greeks. He also put torches to the fleet, sporting with an empty sea, because Mucianus had driven the choicest of the Liburnian galleys and all the soldiery to Byzantium: nay, even the barbarians were roaming in scorn, ships having been suddenly built.

camaras vocant, artis lateribus latam alvum sine vinculo aeris aut ferri conexam; et tumido mari, prout fluctus attollitur, summa navium tabulis augent, donec in modum tecti claudantur. sic inter undas volvuntur, pari utrimque prora et mutabili remigio, quando hinc vel illinc adpellere indiscretum et innoxium est.

they call them camaras: with narrow sides and a broad belly, joined together without any bond of bronze or iron; and when the sea is swollen, as the wave is lifted, they augment the tops of the ships with boards, until they are closed in the manner of a roof. thus they are rolled among the waves, with the prow equal on both ends and with changeable rowing, since to put in on this side or that is indifferent and harmless.

[48] Advertit ea res Vespasiani animum ut vexillarios e legionibus ducemque Virdium Geminum spectatae militiae deligeret. ille incompositum et praedae cupidine vagum hostem adortus coegit in navis; effectisque raptim Liburnicis adsequitur Anicetum in ostio fluminis Chobi, tutum sub Sedochezorum regis auxilio, quem pecunia donisque ad societatem perpulerat. ac primo rex minis armisque supplicem tueri: postquam merces proditionis aut bellum ostendebatur, fluxa, ut est barbaris, fide pactus Aniceti exitium perfugas tradidit, belloque servili finis impositus.

[48] That matter turned Vespasian’s mind to select vexillaries from the legions and a leader, Virdius Geminus, of proven soldiery. He, having attacked the enemy disordered and wandering in greed for plunder, drove them into their ships; and, Liburnian craft quickly equipped, he overtakes Anicetus at the mouth of the river Chobi, safe under the aid of King Sedochezorus, whom he had driven by money and gifts into partnership. And at first the king tried, with threats and arms, to protect the suppliant; after the price of treason or war was being displayed, with faith fickle—as is the way with barbarians—having bargained for Anicetus’ destruction he handed over the fugitives, and an end was put to the servile war.

Laetum ea victoria Vespasianum, cunctis super vota fluentibus, Cremonensis proelii nuntius in Aegypto adsequitur. eo properantius Alexandriam pergit, ut fractos Vitellii exercitus urbemque externae opis indigam fame urgeret. namque et Africam, eodem latere sitam, terra marique invadere parabat, clausis annonae subsidiis inopiam ac discordiam hosti facturus.

Vespasian, gladdened by that victory, with everything flowing beyond expectation, is overtaken in Egypt by the news of the battle of Cremona. All the more hastily he proceeds to Alexandria, in order to press with famine the shattered armies of Vitellius and the city indigent of external aid. For he was also preparing to invade Africa, situated on the same flank, by land and sea, intending—by closing off the subsidies of the annona—to make want and discord for the enemy.

[49] Dum hac totius orbis nutatione fortuna imperii transit, Primus Antonius nequaquam pari innocentia post Cremonam agebat, satis factum bello ratus et cetera ex facili, seu felicitas in tali ingenio avaritiam superbiam ceteraque occulta mala patefecit. ut captam Italiam persultare, ut suas legiones colere; omnibus dictis factisque viam sibi ad potentiam struere. utque licentia militem imbueret interfectorum centurionum ordines legionibus offerebat.

[49] While, with this rocking of the whole world, the fortune of the empire was passing over, Antonius Primus was behaving after Cremona by no means with equal innocence, thinking enough had been done by the war and that the rest would be easy, or else felicity in a nature of such a kind laid bare avarice, pride, and the other hidden evils: so as to caper as over a captured Italy, to court his own legions; by all his sayings and doings to construct a way for himself to power. And, in order to imbue the soldiery with license, he was offering to the legions the ranks of the slain centurions.

eo suffragio turbidissimus quisque delecti; nec miles in arbitrio ducum, sed duces militari violentia trahebantur. quae seditiosa et corrumpendae disciplinae mox in praedam vertebat, nihil adventantem Mucianum veritus, quod exitiosius erat quam Vespasianum sprevisse.

by that suffrage each most turbulent was selected; nor was the soldiery at the discretion of the commanders, but the commanders were dragged along by military violence. Which, seditious and for the corruption of discipline, soon was turning into prey, fearing nothing of Mucianus as he approached—a thing more ruinous than to have spurned Vespasian.

[50] Ceterum propinqua hieme et umentibus Pado campis expeditum agmen incedere. signa aquilaeque victricium legionum, milites vulneribus aut aetate graves, plerique etiam integri Veronae relicti: sufficere cohortes alaeque et e legionibus lecti profligato iam bello videbantur. undecima legio sese adiunxerat, initio cunctata, sed prosperis rebus anxia quod defuisset; sex milia Dalmatarum, recens dilectus, comitabantur; ducebat Pompeius Silvanus consularis: vis consiliorum penes Annium Bassum legionis legatum.

[50] However, with winter near and the fields of the Po wet, an unencumbered column advanced. The standards and eagles of the victorious legions, the soldiers burdened by wounds or by age, and very many even of the hale, were left at Verona: cohorts and the wings, and picked men from the legions, seemed sufficient, the war now prostrate. The Eleventh Legion had joined itself, having hesitated at the beginning, but, with affairs prosperous, anxious because it had been lacking; six thousand Dalmatians, a recent levy, were accompanying; Pompeius Silvanus, a consular, was leading: the force of counsels was in the hands of Annius Bassus, the legate of the legion.

is Silvanum socordem bello et dies rerum verbis terentem specie obsequii regebat ad omniaque quae agenda forent quieta cum industria aderat. ad has copias e classicis Ravennatibus, legionariam militiam poscentibus, optimus quisque adsciti: classem Dalmatae supplevere. exercitus ducesque ad Fanum Fortunae iter sistunt, de summa rerum cunctantes, quod motas ex urbe praetorias cohortis audierant et teneri praesidiis Appenninum rebantur; et ipsos in regione bello attrita inopia et seditiosae militum voces terrebant, clavarium (donativi nomen est) flagitantium.

He controlled Silvanus, sluggish in war and wasting the days of affairs with words, under a show of compliance, and he was at hand for all the things that had to be done, calm yet with industry. To these forces, from the fleet-men of Ravenna, who were demanding legionary service, the best of each were enrolled; the Dalmatians replenished the fleet. The army and the leaders halt their march at Fanum Fortunae, hesitating about the sum of affairs, because they had heard that praetorian cohorts had been moved from the city and supposed that the Apennine was held by garrisons; and they themselves, in a region worn down by war, were frightened by scarcity and by the seditious voices of the soldiers demanding clavarium (it is the name of a donative).

nec pecuniam aut frumentum providerant, et festinatio atque aviditas praepediebant, dum quae accipi poterant rapiuntur.

nor had they provided money or grain, and haste and avidity were hampering them, while the things that could be received were being snatched up.

[51] Celeberrimos auctores habeo tantam victoribus adversus fas nefasque inreverentiam fuisse ut gregarius eques occisum a se proxima acie fratrem professus praemium a ducibus petierit. nec illis aut honorare eam caedem ius hominum aut ulcisci ratio belli permittebat. distulerant tamquam maiora meritum quam quae statim exolverentur; nec quidquam ultra traditur.

[51] I have the most celebrated authorities that there was such irreverence in the victors against sacred right and wrong, that a rank-and-file horseman, having professed that in the most recent engagement he had slain his own brother, asked for a reward from the commanders. Nor did either the law of men permit them to honor that killing, or the rationale of war to avenge it. They had deferred it, as though he had deserved greater things than those which are disbursed immediately; and nothing further is handed down.

ceterum et prioribus civium bellis par scelus inciderat. nam proelio, quo apud Ianiculum adversus Cinnam pugnatum est, Pompeianus miles fratrem suum, dein cognito facinore se ipsum interfecit, ut Sisenna memorat: tanto acrior apud maiores, sicut virtutibus gloria, ita flagitiis paenitentia fuit. sed haec aliaque ex vetere memoria petita, quotiens res locusque exempla recti aut solacia mali poscet, haud absurde memorabimus.

But an equal crime had occurred also in earlier civil wars. For in the battle which was fought at the Janiculum against Cinna, a Pompeian soldier slew his own brother, then, the deed recognized, slew himself, as Sisenna relates: so much the keener among our ancestors was, just as for virtues, glory, so for disgraces, repentance. But these and other things fetched from ancient memory, whenever the circumstance and the place will require examples of rectitude or consolations amid misfortune, we will not inaptly recall.

[52] Antonio ducibusque partium praemitti equites omnemque Vmbriam explorari placuit, si qua Appennini iuga clementius adirentur: acciri aquilas signaque et quidquid Veronae militum foret, Padumque et mare commeatibus compleri. erant inter duces qui necterent moras: quippe nimius iam Antonius, et certiora ex Muciano sperabantur. namque Mucianus tam celeri victoria anxius et, ni praesens urbe potiretur, expertem se belli gloriaeque ratus, ad Primum et Varum media scriptitabat, instandum coeptis aut rursus cunctandi utilitates disserens atque ita compositus ut ex eventu rerum adversa abnueret vel prospera agnosceret.

[52] To Antonius and the leaders of the faction it was decided that cavalry be sent ahead and all Umbria be reconnoitered, if any ridges of the Apennines might be approached more gently: that the eagles and standards and whatever soldiers there were at Verona be summoned, and that the Po and the sea be filled with supplies. There were among the leaders those who wove delays: since Antonius was already overbearing, and more certain outcomes were hoped for from Mucianus. For Mucianus, anxious at so swift a victory and, if he were not present to seize the city, reckoning himself cut off from the war and its glory, kept writing “middle courses” to Primus and Varus, arguing that the undertakings must be pressed, or again expounding the advantages of delaying, and so composed as to disown what turned out ill or acknowledge what turned out well from the event of things.

Plotium Grypum, nuper a Vespasiano in senatorium ordinem adscitum ac legioni praepositum, ceterosque sibi fidos apertius monuit, hique omnes de festinatione Primi ac Vari sinistre et Muciano volentia rescripsere. quibus epistulis Vespasiano missis effecerat ut non pro spe Antonii consilia factaque eius aestimarentur.

He more openly admonished Plotius Grypus, recently enrolled by Vespasian into the senatorial order and placed in command of a legion, and the others loyal to himself; and all these wrote back unfavorably about the haste of Primus and Varus, in a manner agreeable to Mucianus. By these letters, sent to Vespasian, he had brought it about that the plans and deeds of Antonius were not assessed according to Antonius’s expectation.

[53] Aegre id pati Antonius et culpam in Mucianum conferre, cuius criminationibus eviluissent pericula sua; nec sermonibus temperabat, immodicus lingua et obsequii insolens. litteras ad Vespasianum composuit iactantius quam ad principem, nec sine occulta in Mucianum insectatione: se Pannonicas legiones in arma egisse; suis stimulis excitos Moesiae duces, sua constantia perruptas Alpis, occupatam Italiam, intersepta Germanorum Raetorumque auxilia. quod discordis dispersasque Vitellii legiones equestri procella, mox peditum vi per diem noctemque fudisset, id pulcherrimum et sui operis.

[53] Antonius endured this with difficulty and shifted the blame onto Mucianus, by whose criminations his own dangers had come to light; nor did he restrain his talk, immoderate of tongue and unaccustomed to obsequy. He composed letters to Vespasian more vauntingly than to a prince, and not without a covert insectation against Mucianus: that he had driven the Pannonian legions into arms; that by his stimuli the commanders of Moesia had been roused, by his constancy the Alps broken through, Italy occupied, the auxiliaries of the Germans and Raetians intercepted. That the discordant and scattered legions of Vitellius he had routed by a cavalry procella, and soon after by the force of the foot, through day and night—this was the most beautiful achievement, and his own handiwork.

casum Cremonae bello imputandum: maiore damno, plurium urbium excidiis veteres civium discordias rei publicae stetisse. non se nuntiis neque epistulis, sed manu et armis imperatori suo militare; neque officere gloriae eorum qui Daciam interim composuerint: illis Moesiae pacem, sibi salutem securitatemque Italiae cordi fuisse; suis exhortationibus Gallias Hispaniasque, validissimam terrarum partem, ad Vespasianum conversas. sed cecidisse in inritum labores si praemia periculorum soli adsequantur qui periculis non adfuerint.

the fall of Cremona must be imputed to war: with greater loss, by the razings of more cities, the old civil discords had stood the commonwealth at a price. not that he served his emperor with messengers or letters, but with hand and arms; nor to hinder the glory of those who meanwhile have composed Dacia: to them the peace of Moesia, to himself the safety and security of Italy had been at heart; by his exhortations the Gauls and the Spains, the most powerful part of the lands, had been converted to Vespasian. but the labors had fallen to no effect if the rewards of dangers are attained solely by those who were not present at the dangers.

nec fefellere ea Mucianum; inde graves simultates, quas Antonius simplicius, Mucianus callide eoque implacabilius nutriebat.

nor did these things escape Mucianus; thence grave enmities, which Antonius fostered more simply, Mucianus craftily and therefore the more implacably.

[54] At Vitellius fractis apud Cremonam rebus nuntios cladis occultans stulta dissimulatione remedia potius malorum quam mala differebat. quippe confitenti consultantique supererant spes viresque: cum e contrario laeta omnia fingeret, falsis ingravescebat. mirum apud ipsum de bello silentium; prohibiti per civitatem sermones, eoque plures ac, si liceret, vere narraturi, quia vetabantur, atrociora vulgaverant.

[54] But Vitellius, with affairs shattered at Cremona, concealing the messengers of the disaster, by foolish dissimulation was postponing rather the remedies of the ills than the ills. For to one confessing and consulting there still remained hopes and strength; whereas, by the contrary course, when he fabricated that all was joyful, he made matters heavier by falsehoods. A strange silence about the war in his very presence; conversations were prohibited throughout the city, and for that very reason they were the more numerous and—if it had been permitted—ready to tell the truth; because they were banned, they had broadcast more atrocious reports.

nec duces hostium augendae famae deerant, captos Vitellii exploratores circumductosque, ut robora victoris exercitus noscerent, remittendo; quos omnis Vitellius secreto percontatus interfici iussit. notabili constantia centurio Iulius Agrestis post multos sermones, quibus Vitellium ad virtutem frustra accendebat, perpulit ut ad viris hostium spectandas quaeque apud Cremonam acta forent ipse mitteretur. nec exploratione occulta fallere Antonium temptavit, sed mandata imperatoris suumque animum professus, ut cuncta viseret postulat.

nor were the enemy leaders lacking in augmenting their fame, by sending back Vitellius’s scouts, captured and led around so that they might learn the strengths of the victor’s army; and Vitellius, having questioned them all in secret, ordered them to be executed. With notable constancy the centurion Julius Agrestis, after many conversations in which he was vainly kindling Vitellius to virtue, prevailed that he himself be sent to inspect the enemy’s forces and whatever had been done at Cremona. Nor did he attempt to deceive Antonius by covert reconnaissance, but, professing the emperor’s mandates and his own intent, he demands to view everything.

missi qui locum proelii, Cremonae vestigia, captas legiones ostenderent. Agrestis ad Vitellium remeavit abnuentique vera esse quae adferret, atque ultro corruptum arguenti 'quando quidem' inquit 'magno documento opus est, nec alius iam tibi aut vitae aut mortis meae usus, dabo cui credas.' atque ita digressus voluntaria morte dicta firmavit. quidam iussu Vitellii interfectum, de fide constantiaque eadem tradidere.

men were sent to show the site of the battle, the vestiges at Cremona, the captured legions. Agrestis returned to Vitellius; and when he denied that the things he brought were true, and moreover accused him as corrupt, he said: 'Since indeed there is need of a great proof, and now there is no other use to you either of my life or of my death, I will give you someone to believe.' And so, having departed, he confirmed his words by a voluntary death. Some have handed down that he was killed by order of Vitellius, with the same account as to his faith and constancy.

[55] Vitellius ut e somno excitus Iulium Priscum et Alfenum Varum cum quattuordecim praetoriis cohortibus et omnibus equitum alis obsidere Appenninum iubet; secuta e classicis legio. tot milia armatorum, lecta equis virisque, si dux alius foret, inferendo quoque bello satis pollebant. ceterae cohortes ad tuendam urbem L. Vitellio fratri datae: ipse nihil e solito luxu remittens et diffidentia properus festinare comitia, quibus consules in multos annos destinabat; foedera sociis, Latium externis dilargiri; his tributa dimittere, alios immunitatibus iuvare; denique nulla in posterum cura lacerare imperium.

[55] Vitellius, as if roused from sleep, orders Julius Priscus and Alfenus Varus with fourteen praetorian cohorts and all the cavalry wings to occupy the Apennines; a legion from the fleet followed. So many thousands of armed men, chosen in horses and in men—if there had been another leader—would have been strong enough even for carrying the war in upon the enemy. The remaining cohorts were given to his brother Lucius Vitellius for the guarding of the city: he himself, relaxing nothing of his wonted luxury and, through diffidence, in haste, hurried on the comitia, by which he was appointing consuls for many years ahead; to lavish treaties upon allies, the Latin Right upon foreigners; to remit tributes for these, to aid others with immunities; in fine, to lacerate the empire with no care for the future.

sed vulgus ad magnitudinem beneficiorum hiabat, stultissimus quisque pecuniis mercabatur, apud sapientis cassa habebantur quae neque dari neque accipi salva re publica poterant. tandem flagitante exercitu, qui Mevaniam insederat, magno senatorum agmine, quorum multos ambitione, pluris formidine trahebat, in castra venit, incertus animi et infidis consiliis obnoxius.

but the mob gaped at the magnitude of the benefactions, and each most foolish was being bought with moneys; among the wise, those things were held as hollow which could neither be given nor received with the republic safe. at last, the army that had occupied Mevania clamoring for it, with a great throng of senators—many of whom he was dragging by ambition, more by fear—he came into the camp, uncertain in mind and subject to unfaithful counsels.

[56] Contionanti—prodigiosum dictu—tantum foedarum volucrum supervolitavit ut nube atra diem obtenderent. accessit dirum omen, profugus altaribus taurus disiecto sacrificii apparatu, longe, nec ut feriri hostias mos est, confossus. sed praecipuum ipse Vitellius ostentum erat, ignarus militiae, improvidus consilii, quis ordo agminis, quae cura explorandi, quantus urgendo trahendove bello modus, alios rogitans et ad omnis nuntios vultu quoque et incessu trepidus, dein temulentus.

[56] To him haranguing—prodigious to say—so great a host of foul birds flew overhead that with a black cloud they overcast the day. There was added a dire omen: a bull, a fugitive from the altars, the apparatus of the sacrifice thrown into disorder, was pierced at a distance, not as it is the custom for victims to be struck. But the chief portent was Vitellius himself—ignorant of soldiery, improvident of counsel—what the order of the column was, what the care of exploring, how great the measure in urging on or dragging out the war; questioning others, and at every report timorous in countenance and even in gait, then drunken.

postremo taedio castrorum et audita defectione Misenensis classis Romam revertit, recentissimum quodque vulnus pavens, summi discriminis incuriosus. nam cum transgredi Appenninum integro exercitus sui robore et fessos hieme atque inopia hostis adgredi in aperto foret, dum dispergit viris, acerrimum militem et usque in extrema obstinatum trucidandum capiendumque tradidit, peritissimis centurionum dissentientibus et, si consulerentur, vera dicturis. arcuere eos intimi amicorum Vitellii, ita formatis principis auribus ut aspera quae utilia, nec quidquam nisi iucundum et laesurum acciperet.

at last, out of tedium of the camp and on hearing of the defection of the Misenum fleet, he returned to Rome, fearing each most recent wound, heedless of the highest peril. For though it was open to him to cross the Apennine with the unimpaired strength of his army and to attack the enemy, wearied by winter and by want, in the open, while he scattered his forces he handed over his most keen soldiery, stubborn even to the last, to be butchered and captured—though the most experienced of the centurions dissented and, if they were consulted, would speak the truth. The intimates of Vitellius’s friends shut them out, the emperor’s ears being so formed that he would not receive harsh things, albeit useful, and would accept nothing except what was pleasant and harmful.

[57] Sed classem Misenensem (tantum civilibus discordiis etiam singulorum audacia valet) Claudius Faventinus centurio per ignominiam a Galba dimissus ad defectionem traxit, fictis Vespasiani epistulis pretium proditionis ostentans. praeerat classi Claudius Apollinaris, neque fidei constans neque strenuus in perfidia; et Apinius Tiro praetura functus ac tum forte Minturnis agens ducem se defectoribus obtulit. a quibus municipia coloniaeque impulsae, praecipuo Puteolanorum in Vespasianum studio, contra Capua Vitellio fida, municipalem aemulationem bellis civilibus miscebant.

[57] But the Misenum fleet (so great, in civil discords, is the efficacy of even an individual’s audacity) Claudius Faventinus, a centurion dismissed with ignominy by Galba, drew into defection, by forging letters of Vespasian and flaunting the price of treason. The fleet was commanded by Claudius Apollinaris, neither constant in loyalty nor vigorous in perfidy; and Apinius Tiro, who had held the praetorship and happened then by chance to be at Minturnae, offered himself as leader to the defectors. By these, the municipia and colonies were stirred up—the Puteolans with exceptional zeal for Vespasian; by contrast, Capua, faithful to Vitellius—so that municipal rivalry was being mixed into the civil wars.

Vitellius Claudium Iulianum (is nuper classem Misenensem molli imperio rexerat) permulcendis militum animis delegit; data in auxilium urbana cohors et gladiatores, quibus Iulianus praeerat. ut conlata utrimque castra, haud magna cunctatione Iuliano in partis Vespasiani transgresso, Tarracinam occupavere, moenibus situque magis quam ipsorum ingenio tutam.

Vitellius chose Claudius Julianus (he had lately governed the Misenum fleet with a soft command) for the soothing of the soldiers’ spirits; the urban cohort and the gladiators, whom Julianus commanded, were given as reinforcement. When the camps had been brought together on both sides, with no great hesitation, Julianus having crossed over to Vespasian’s party, they seized Tarracina, protected more by its walls and site than by their own ingenuity.

[58] Quae ubi Vitellio cognita, parte copiarum Narniae cum praefectis praetorii relicta L. Vitellium fratrem cum sex cohortibus et quingentis equitibus ingruenti per Campaniam bello opposuit. ipse aeger animi studiis militum et clamoribus populi arma poscentis refovebatur, dum vulgus ignavum et nihil ultra verba ausurum falsa specie exercitum et legiones appellat. hortantibus libertis (nam amicorum eius quanto quis clarior, minus fidus) vocari tribus iubet, dantis nomina sacramento adigit.

[58] When these things were learned by Vitellius, having left a part of the forces at Narnia with the prefects of the Praetorian Guard, he set his brother Lucius Vitellius with six cohorts and five hundred cavalry against the war pressing in through Campania. He himself, sick at heart, was revived by the zeal of the soldiers and by the shouts of the people demanding arms, while under a false show he calls the cowardly mob, which would dare nothing beyond words, an army and legions. With his freedmen urging him (for of his friends, the more distinguished anyone was, the less faithful), he orders the tribes to be summoned, and drives those giving their names to the military sacrament (oath).

superfluente multitudine curam dilectus in consules partitur; servorum numerum et pondus argenti senatoribus indicit. equites Romani obtulere operam pecuniasque, etiam libertinis idem munus ultro flagitantibus. ea simulatio officii a metu profecta verterat in favorem; ac plerique haud proinde Vitellium quam casum locumque principatus miserabantur.

With the multitude overflowing, he partitions the care of the levy among the consuls; he imposes upon the senators a number of slaves and a weight of silver. The Roman equestrians offered their service and monies, with even the freedmen of their own accord demanding the same munus. That simulation of duty, having proceeded from fear, had turned into favor; and the majority pitied not so much Vitellius as the fortune and the locus of the Principate.

nec deerat ipse vultu voce lacrimis misericordiam elicere, largus promissis, et quae natura trepidantium est, immodicus. quin et Caesarem se dici voluit, aspernatus antea, sed tunc superstitione nominis, et quia in metu consilia prudentium et vulgi rumor iuxta audiuntur. ceterum ut omnia inconsulti impetus coepta initiis valida spatio languescunt, dilabi paulatim senatores equitesque, primo cunctanter et ubi ipse non aderat, mox contemptim et sine discrimine donec Vitellius pudore inriti conatus quae non dabantur remisit.

nor did he himself fail to elicit mercy by face, voice, and tears, lavish in promises, and, as is the nature of the panic-stricken, immoderate. nay more, he even wished to be called Caesar—spurned before, but then out of a superstition of the name, and because in fear the counsels of the prudent and the rumor of the crowd are listened to equally. however, as all enterprises of unconsidered impulse, strong at the beginnings, languish with time, the senators and the equestrians gradually slipped away, at first hesitatingly and when he himself was not present, soon with contempt and without distinction, until Vitellius, from shame, relinquished his frustrated attempts and gave up pressing for what was not forthcoming.

[59] Vt terrorem Italiae possessa Mevania ac velut renatum ex integro bellum intulerat, ita haud dubium erga Flavianas partis studium tam pavidus Vitellii discessus addidit. erectus Samnis Paelignusque et Marsi aemulatione quod Campania praevenisset, ut in novo obsequio, ad cuncta belli munia acres erant. sed foeda hieme per transitum Appennini conflictatus exercitus, et vix quieto agmine nives eluctantibus patuit quantum discriminis adeundum foret, ni Vitellium retro fortuna vertisset, quae Flavianis ducibus non minus saepe quam ratio adfuit.

[59] Just as, with Mevania occupied and a war as it were reborn anew, terror had been brought upon Italy, so the so timorous withdrawal of Vitellius added an undoubted zeal toward the Flavian party. The Samnites, the Paelignians, and the Marsi, roused by emulation because Campania had anticipated them, were, as under a new allegiance, keen for all the duties of war. But in the foul winter the army was buffeted during the passage of the Apennines, and scarcely, as they forced their way through the snows with the column moving quietly, did it become plain how much peril would have to be undergone, if Fortune had not turned Vitellius back—a Fortune which stood by the Flavian leaders no less often than Reason.

obvium illic Petilium Cerialem habuere, agresti cultu et notitia locorum custodias Vitellii elapsum. propinqua adfinitas Ceriali cum Vespasiano, nec ipse inglorius militiae, eoque inter duces adsumptus est. Flavio quoque Sabino ac Domitiano patuisse effugium multi tradidere; et missi ab Antonio nuntii per varias fallendi artis penetrabant, locum ac praesidium monstrantes.

There they encountered Petilius Cerialis, in rustic garb and, by his knowledge of the places, having slipped past Vitellius’s guards. A close affinity linked Cerialis with Vespasian, nor was he himself inglorious in military service; and for that reason he was taken up among the leaders. Many also related that an escape lay open for Flavius Sabinus and for Domitian; and messengers sent by Antonius were penetrating by various arts of deceit, pointing out a place and an escort.

Sabinus inhabilem labori et audaciae valetudinem causabatur: Domitiano aderat animus, sed custodes a Vitellio additi, quamquam se socios fugae promitterent, tamquam insidiantes timebantur. atque ipse Vitellius respectu suarum necessitudinum nihil in Domitianum atrox parabat.

Sabinus alleged his ill health as unfit for labor and audacity; Domitian had the spirit, but the guards added by Vitellius, although they promised themselves as associates of flight, were feared as if laying ambush. And Vitellius himself, out of respect for his own kinship ties, was preparing nothing atrocious against Domitian.

[60] Duces partium ut Carsulas venere, paucos ad requiem dies sumunt, donec aquilae signaque legionum adsequerentur. et locus ipse castrorum placebat, late prospectans, tuto copiarum adgestu, florentissimis pone tergum municipiis; simul conloquia cum Vitellianis decem milium spatio distantibus et proditio sperabatur. aegre id pati miles et victoriam malle quam pacem; ne suas quidem legiones opperiebantur, ut praedae quam periculorum socias.

[60] When the leaders of the faction came to Carsulae, they took a few days for rest, until the eagles and standards of the legions should come up. And the very site for the camp pleased them, commanding a wide prospect, with the bringing-in of supplies safe, the most flourishing municipalities at their back; at the same time parleys with the Vitellians, at a distance of ten miles, and treachery were hoped for. The soldiery bore that ill and preferred victory to peace; they did not even wait for their own legions, regarding them as companions of booty rather than of perils.

vocatos ad contionem Antonius docuit esse adhuc Vitellio viris, ambiguas, si deliberarent, acris, si desperassent. initia bellorum civilium fortunae permittenda: victoriam consiliis et ratione perfici. iam Misenensem classem et pulcherrimam Campaniae oram descivisse, nec plus e toto terrarum orbe reliquum Vitellio quam quod inter Tarracinam Narniamque iaceat.

Antonius, having called them to an assembly, declared that Vitellius still had men—wavering if they deliberated, fierce if they despaired. The beginnings of civil wars must be committed to Fortune; victory is achieved by counsels and by reason. Already the Misenum fleet and the most beautiful shore of Campania had defected, and there remained to Vitellius from the whole orb of lands no more than what lies between Tarracina and Narnia.

satis gloriae proelio Cremonensi partum et exitio Cremonae nimium invidiae: ne concupiscerent Romam capere potius quam servare. maiora illis praemia et multo maximum decus, si incolumitatem senatui populoque Romano sine sanguine quaesissent. his ac talibus mitigati animi.

enough glory had been won by the Cremona battle and too much ill-will by the destruction of Cremona: let them not covet to seize Rome rather than to preserve it. greater rewards, and by far the greatest honor, were in store for them, if they should have sought the incolumity of the Senate and Roman People without blood. by these and suchlike words their spirits were softened.

[61] Nec multo post legiones venere. et terrore famaque aucti exercitus Vitellianae cohortes nutabant, nullo in bellum adhortante, multis ad transitionem, qui suas centurias turmasque tradere, donum victori et sibi in posterum gratiam, certabant. per eos cognitum est Interamnam proximis campis praesidio quadringentorum equitum teneri.

[61] And not much later the legions came. And, with terror and rumor augmenting the army, the Vitellian cohorts were wavering, no one exhorting to war, many to defection, who were vying to hand over their centuries and squadrons, a gift to the victor and for themselves favor in time to come. Through them it was learned that Interamna, in the neighboring plains, was held by a garrison of 400 horsemen.

missus extemplo Varus cum expedita manu paucos repugnantium interfecit; plures abiectis armis veniam petivere. quidam in castra refugi cuncta formidine implebant, augendo rumoribus virtutem copiasque hostium, quo amissi praesidii dedecus lenirent. nec ulla apud Vitellianos flagitii poena, et praemiis defectorum versa fides ac reliquum perfidiae certamen.

Varus, sent immediately with an expeditious detachment, killed a few of those resisting; more, having thrown down their arms, sought pardon. Some, having taken refuge back in the camp, filled everything with fear, enlarging by rumors the valor and forces of the enemy, so that they might soften the disgrace of the lost garrison. Nor was there any punishment among the Vitellians for the outrage, and by rewards for defectors loyalty was overturned, and what remained was a contest of perfidy.

crebra transfugia tribunorum centurionumque; nam gregarius miles induruerat pro Vitellio, donec Priscus et Alfenus desertis castris ad Vitellium regressi pudore proditionis cunctos exolverent.

frequent defections of tribunes and centurions; for the rank-and-file soldier had hardened in support of Vitellius, until Priscus and Alfenus, after deserting the camp and returning to Vitellius, released everyone from the shame of betrayal.

[62] Isdem diebus Fabius Valens Vrbini in custodia interficitur. caput eius Vitellianis cohortibus ostentatum ne quam ultra spem foverent; nam pervasisse in Germanias Valentem et veteres illic novosque exercitus ciere credebant: visa caede in desperationem versi. et Flavianus exercitus immane quantum <aucto> animo exitium Valentis ut finem belli accepit.

[62] In those same days Fabius Valens was killed in custody at Urbino. His head was displayed to the Vitellian cohorts, so that they might not foster any hope further; for they believed that Valens had made his way into the Germanies and was stirring up the old and new armies there. At the sight of the slaughter they were turned to desperation. And the Flavian army, to an immense degree with spirit <augmented>, received the destruction of Valens as the end of the war.

natus erat Valens Anagniae equestri familia. procax moribus neque absurdus ingenio famam urbanitatis per lasciviam petere. ludicro Iuvenalium sub Nerone velut ex necessitate, mox sponte mimos actitavit, scite magis quam probe.

Valens had been born at Anagnia, of an equestrian family. Impudent in manners and not lacking in ingenuity, he sought a reputation for urbanity through lasciviousness. In the Juvenalia entertainment under Nero, as if from necessity, soon of his own accord he kept performing mimes, cleverly rather than properly.

legatus legionis et fovit Verginium et infamavit; Fonteium Capitonem corruptum, seu quia corrumpere nequiverat, interfecit: Galbae proditor, Vitellio fidus et aliorum perfidia inlustratus.

legate of a legion, he both fostered Verginius and defamed him; he killed Fonteius Capito as corrupted, or because he had not been able to corrupt him: a traitor to Galba, faithful to Vitellius, and made illustrious by the perfidy of others.

[63] Abrupta undique spe Vitellianus miles transiturus in partis, id quoque non sine decore, sed sub signis vexillisque in subiectos Narniae campos descendere. Flavianus exercitus, ut ad proelium intentus armatusque, densis circa viam ordinibus adstiterat. accepti in medium Vitelliani, et circumdatos Primus Antonius clementer adloquitur: pars Narniae, pars Interamnae subsistere iussi.

[63] With hope cut off on all sides, the Vitellian soldiery, about to pass over to the party—this too not without decorum—descended under standards and vexilla into the fields lying below Narni. The Flavian army, intent for battle and under arms, had taken its stand in thick ranks around the road. The Vitellians, received into the midst and surrounded, Primus Antonius addresses with clemency: part were ordered to halt at Narni, part at Interamna.

relictae simul e victricibus legiones, neque quiescentibus graves et adversus contumaciam validae. non omisere per eos dies Primus ac Varus crebris nuntiis salutem et pecuniam et secreta Campaniae offerre Vitellio, si positis armis seque ac liberos suos Vespasiano permisisset. in eundem modum et Mucianus composuit epistulas; quibus plerumque fidere Vitellius ac de numero servorum, electione litorum loqui.

at the same time legions were left behind from the victors, not burdensome to those keeping quiet and strong against contumacy. Nor did Primus and Varus during those days cease, by frequent messages, to offer to Vitellius safety and money and the secluded retreats of Campania, if, with arms laid down, he would entrust himself and his children to Vespasian. In the same manner Mucianus too composed letters; in which Vitellius for the most part would put trust and talk about the number of slaves, the selection of shores.

tanta torpedo invaserat animum ut, si principem eum fuisse ceteri non meminissent, ipse oblivisceretur.

so great a torpor had invaded his mind that, if the others had not remembered that he had been emperor, he himself would have forgotten.

[64] At primores civitatis Flavium Sabinum praefectum urbis secretis sermonibus incitabant, victoriae famaeque partem capesseret: esse illi proprium militem cohortium urbanarum, nec defuturas vigilum cohortis, servitia ipsorum, fortunam partium, et omnia prona victoribus: ne Antonio Varoque de gloria concederet. paucas Vitellio cohortis et maestis undique nuntiis trepidas; populi mobilem animum et, si ducem se praebuisset, easdem illas adulationes pro Vespasiano fore; ipsum Vitellium ne prosperis quidem parem, adeo ruentibus debilitatum. gratiam patrati belli penes eum qui urbem occupasset: id Sabino convenire ut imperium fratri reservaret, id Vespasiano ut ceteri post Sabinum haberentur.

[64] But the foremost men of the state were inciting Flavius Sabinus, the prefect of the city, in secret conversations to seize a share of victory and fame: that he had as his own the soldiery of the urban cohorts, nor would the cohorts of the watch fail him, nor their slave-households, the fortune of the party, and all things leaning toward the victors; that he should not yield in glory to Antonius and Varus. Vitellius had few cohorts, and, with grim tidings from every side, they were alarmed; the people’s mind was mobile, and, if he should show himself a leader, those same adulations would be for Vespasian; Vitellius himself was not equal even to prosperous circumstances, so weakened was he by things collapsing. The credit for a war brought to completion rests with him who should occupy the city: this suited Sabinus, that he reserve the imperium for his brother; this suited Vespasian, that the rest be regarded after Sabinus.

[65] Haudquaquam erecto animo eas voces accipiebat, invalidus senecta; sed erant qui occultis suspicionibus incesserent, tamquam invidia et aemulatione fortunam fratris moraretur. namque Flavius Sabinus aetate prior privatis utriusque rebus auctoritate pecuniaque Vespasianum anteibat, et credebatur adfectam eius fidem parce iuvisse domo agrisque pignori acceptis; unde, quamquam manente in speciem concordia, offensarum operta metuebantur. melior interpretatio, mitem virum abhorrere a sanguine et caedibus, eoque crebris cum Vitellio sermonibus de pace ponendisque per condicionem armis agitare.

[65] By no means with an uplifted spirit did he receive those voices, enfeebled by old age; but there were those who assailed him with covert suspicions, as though through envy and emulation he were delaying his brother’s fortune. For Flavius Sabinus, elder in age, in the private affairs of both outstripped Vespasian in authority and money, and was believed to have aided his impaired credit sparingly, his house and fields being accepted as pledge; whence, although concord remained in appearance, hidden resentments were feared. A better interpretation was that the mild man abhorred blood and slaughters, and therefore, in frequent conversations with Vitellius, was negotiating about peace and about the laying down of arms by agreement.

saepe domi congressi, postremo in aede Apollinis, ut fama fuit, pepigere. verba vocesque duos testis habebant, Cluvium Rufum et Silium Italicum: vultus procul visentibus notabantur, Vitellii proiectus et degener, Sabinus non insultans et miseranti propior.

often meeting at home, at last, in the temple of Apollo, as rumor had it, they struck a pact. The words and utterances had two witnesses, Cluvius Rufus and Silius Italicus: their faces were noted by onlookers from afar—Vitellius’s abject and degenerate, Sabinus not exultant and nearer to pity.

[66] Quod si tam facile suorum mentis flexisset Vitellius, quam ipse cesserat, incruentam urbem Vespasiani exercitus intrasset. ceterum ut quisque Vitellio fidus, ita pacem et condiciones abnuebant, discrimen ac dedecus ostentantes et fidem in libidine victoris. nec tantam Vespasiano superbiam ut privatum Vitellium pateretur, ne victos quidem laturos: ita periculum ex misericordia.

[66] If only Vitellius had bent the minds of his own as easily as he himself had yielded, Vespasian’s army would have entered the city without bloodshed. But the more each man was loyal to Vitellius, the more they refused peace and terms, flaunting the danger and the disgrace, and loyalty at the whim of the victor. Nor was there in Vespasian such arrogance as to tolerate Vitellius as a private citizen, nor would even the vanquished bear it: thus peril out of compassion.

ipsum sane senem et prosperis adversisque satiatum, sed quod nomen, quem statum filio eius Germanico fore? nunc pecuniam et familiam et beatos Campaniae sinus promitti: set ubi imperium Vespasianus invaserit, non ipsi, non amicis eius, non denique exercitibus securitatem nisi extincto aemulo redituram. Fabium illis Valentem, captivum et casibus dubiis reservatum, praegravem fuisse, nedum Primus ac Fuscus et specimen partium Mucianus ullam in Vitellium nisi occidendi licentiam habeant.

himself indeed an old man and sated with prosperous and adverse things; but what name, what status would there be for his son Germanicus? now money and household and the blessed bays of Campania are being promised; but when Vespasian shall have seized the imperium, neither to himself, nor to his friends, nor, finally, to the armies will security return unless the rival be extinguished. Fabius Valens, a captive and reserved for dubious chances, had been burdensome enough to them—much less will Primus and Fuscus and Mucianus, the showpiece of the party, have any license toward Vitellius except that of killing.

non a Caesare Pompeium, non ab Augusto Antonium incolumis relictos, nisi forte Vespasianus altiores spiritus gerat, Vitellii cliens, cum Vitellius collega Claudio foret. quin, ut censuram patris, ut tris consulatus, ut tot egregiae domus honores deceret, desperatione saltem in audaciam accingeretur. perstare militem, superesse studia populi; denique nihil atrocius eventurum quam in quod sponte ruant.

Pompey was not left unharmed by Caesar, nor Antony by Augustus—unless perhaps Vespasian, a client of the Vitellii when Vitellius was colleague to Claudius, carries loftier spirits. Nay rather, that the censorship of his father, the three consulships, and so many honors of his distinguished house might be befitting, let him at least, by desperation, gird himself for audacity. The soldiery stands firm, the enthusiasms of the people remain; finally, nothing more atrocious will befall than that into which they are rushing of their own accord.

moriendum victis, moriendum deditis: id solum referre, novissimum spiritum per ludibrium et contumelias effundant an per virtutem.

the conquered must die, the surrendered must die: that alone matters—whether they pour out their last breath amid mockery and contumelies, or by valor.

[67] Surdae ad fortia consilia Vitellio aures: obruebatur animus miseratione curaque, ne pertinacibus armis minus placabilem victorem relinqueret coniugi ac liberis. erat illi et fessa aetate parens; quae tamen paucis ante diebus opportuna morte excidium domus praevenit, nihil principatu filii adsecuta nisi luctum et bonam famam. XV kalendas Ianuarias audita defectione legionis cohortiumque, quae se Narniae dediderant, pullo amictu Palatio degreditur, maesta circum familia; ferebatur lecticula parvulus filius velut in funebrem pompam: voces populi blandae et intempestivae, miles minaci silentio.

[67] Vitellius’s ears were deaf to courageous counsels: his spirit was overwhelmed by compassion and by the care lest, by stubborn arms, he leave to his wife and children a less placable victor. He had also a parent weary with age; who, however, a few days earlier, by a timely death forestalled the ruin of the house, having attained nothing from her son’s principate except grief and good repute. On December 18, when the defection of the legion and of the cohorts that had surrendered at Narnia was heard, he goes down from the Palatine in dark mourning garb, his household sad around him; his very small son was carried in a little litter as if in a funereal procession: the voices of the people were blandishing and out of season, the soldiers with menacing silence.

[68] Nec quisquam adeo rerum humanarum immemor quem non commoveret illa facies, Romanum principem et generis humani paulo ante dominum relicta fortunae suae sede per populum, per urbem exire de imperio. nihil tale viderant, nihil audierant. repentina vis dictatorem Caesarem oppresserat, occultae Gaium insidiae, nox et ignotum rus fugam Neronis absconderant, Piso et Galba tamquam in acie cecidere: in sua contione Vitellius, inter suos milites, prospectantibus etiam feminis, pauca et praesenti maestitiae congruentia locutus—cedere se pacis et rei publicae causa, retinerent tantum memoriam sui fratremque et coniugem et innoxiam liberorum aetatem miserarentur—, simul filium protendens, modo singulis modo universis commendans, postremo fletu praepediente adsistenti consuli (Caecilius Simplex erat) exolutum a latere pugionem, velut ius necis vitaeque civium, reddebat.

[68] Nor was there anyone so unmindful of human affairs whom that spectacle did not move: that the Roman emperor, and a little before the lord of the human race, leaving the seat of his fortune, should, through the people, through the city, go out from his imperium. Nothing like this had they seen, nothing had they heard. Sudden force had overwhelmed the dictator Caesar; hidden ambushes, Gaius; night and an unknown countryside had concealed Nero’s flight; Piso and Galba had fallen as if on the battle-line: in his own assembly Vitellius, among his own soldiers, with even women looking on, having spoken a few words congruent with his present sadness— that he was yielding for the sake of peace and the commonwealth, that they should only retain a memory of him and take pity on his brother and wife and the guiltless age of his children—, at the same time stretching forth his son, now commending him to individuals, now to all, finally, with tears hampering him, to the consul standing by (it was Caecilius Simplex) he returned the dagger unfastened from his side, as though the ius of the killing and the life of citizens.

aspernante consule, reclamantibus qui in contione adstiterant, ut in aede Concordiae positurus insignia imperii domumque fratris petiturus discessit. maior hic clamor obsistentium penatibus privatis, in Palatium vocantium. interclusum aliud iter, idque solum quo in sacram viam pergeret patebat: tum consilii inops in Palatium redit.

with the consul objecting, and those who had stood in the contio protesting, he departed, intending to place the insignia of empire in the temple of Concord and to make for his brother’s house. Here a greater clamor arose from those who opposed resort to private hearths, calling him into the Palatium. Another route was shut off, and only that by which he might proceed into the Sacred Way lay open: then, bereft of counsel, he returns to the Palatium.

[69] Praevenerat rumor eiurari ab eo imperium, scripseratque Flavius Sabinus cohortium tribunis ut militem cohiberent. igitur tamquam omnis res publica in Vespasiani sinum cecidisset, primores senatus et plerique equestris ordinis omnisque miles urbanus et vigiles domum Flavii Sabini complevere. illuc de studiis vulgi et minis Germanicarum cohortium adfertur.

[69] A rumor had anticipated that the imperium was being abjured by him, and Flavius Sabinus had written to the tribunes of the cohorts that they should restrain the soldier. Therefore, as though the whole commonwealth had fallen into Vespasian’s lap, the foremost of the senate and most of the equestrian order and all the urban soldiery and the Vigiles filled the house of Flavius Sabinus. Thither word is brought about the factions of the crowd and the threats of the German cohorts.

longius iam progressus erat quam ut regredi posset; et suo quisque metu, ne disiectos eoque minus validos Vitelliani consectarentur, cunctantem in arma impellebant: sed quod in eius modi rebus accidit, consilium ab omnibus datum est, periculum pauci sumpsere. circa lacum Fundani descendentibus qui Sabinum comitabantur armatis occurrunt promptissimi Vitellianorum. modicum ibi proelium improviso tumultu, sed prosperum Vitellianis fuit.

He had now progressed farther than that he could regress; and each, through his own fear, lest the Vitellians pursue them scattered and thereby the less valid, was impelling the hesitating man into arms: but, as happens in affairs of that sort, counsel was given by all, the peril was assumed by few. Around the Lake of Fondi, as those who were accompanying Sabinus were descending, the most forward of the Vitellians, armed, ran to meet them. There was a modest battle there amid unforeseen tumult, but it proved prosperous for the Vitellians.

Sabinus re trepida, quod tutissimum e praesentibus, arcem Capitolii insedit mixto milite et quibusdam senatorum equitumque, quorum nomina tradere haud promptum est, quoniam victore Vespasiano multi id meritum erga partis simulavere. subierunt obsidium etiam feminae, inter quas maxime insignis Verulana Gratilla, neque liberos neque propinquos sed bellum secuta. Vitellianus miles socordi custodia clausos circumdedit; eoque concubia nocte suos liberos Sabinus et Domitianum fratris filium in Capitolium accivit, misso per neglecta ad Flavianos duces nuntio qui circumsideri ipsos et, ni subveniretur, artas res nuntiaret.

Sabinus, the affair being alarmed, chose, as the safest among the present options, to occupy the citadel of the Capitol with mixed soldiery and with certain of the senators and equestrians—whose names it is not easy to hand down, since, with Vespasian the victor, many pretended that service toward the party. Even women underwent the siege, among whom Verulana Gratilla was most notable, who followed not children nor kinsfolk but the war. The Vitellian soldiery, with slothful guard, surrounded those shut within; and so, at nightfall, Sabinus summoned into the Capitol his own children and Domitian, his brother’s son, sending a messenger through the neglected (posts) to the Flavian leaders to announce that they themselves were being beset and that, unless help were brought, their circumstances were straitened.

noctem adeo quietam egit ut digredi sine noxa potuerit: quippe miles Vitellii adversus pericula ferox, laboribus et vigiliis parum intentus erat, et hibernus imber repente fusus oculos aurisque impediebat.

he spent so quiet a night that he was able to withdraw without harm: for Vitellius’s soldier, fierce against dangers, was too little intent upon labors and vigils, and a hibernal downpour, suddenly poured, was impeding eyes and ears.

[70] Luce prima Sabinus, antequam in vicem hostilia coeptarent, Cornelium Martialem e primipilaribus ad Vitellium misit cum mandatis et questu quod pacta turbarentur: simulationem prorsus et imaginem deponendi imperii fuisse ad decipiendos tot inlustris viros. cur enim e rostris fratris domum, imminentem foro et inritandis hominum oculis, quam Aventinum et penatis uxoris petisset? ita privato et omnem principatus speciem vitanti convenisse.

[70] At first light Sabinus, before hostile acts could be begun in turn, sent Cornelius Martialis, one of the primipilares, to Vitellius with instructions and a complaint that the pacts were being disturbed: that the supposed laying down of the imperium had been sheer simulation and a mere image, for the deceiving of so many illustrious men. For why, from the rostra, had he sought his brother’s house, overhanging the forum and provoking the eyes of men, rather than the Aventine and his wife’s Penates? Thus would it have suited a private man, one shunning every appearance of the principate.

contra Vitellium in Palatium, in ipsam imperii arcem regressum; inde armatum agmen emissum, stratam innocentium caedibus celeberrimam urbis partem, ne Capitolio quidem abstineri. togatum nempe se et unum e senatoribus: dum inter Vespasianum ac Vitellium proeliis legionum, captivitatibus urbium, deditionibus cohortium iudicatur, iam Hispaniis Germaniisque et Britannia desciscentibus, fratrem Vespasiani mansisse in fide, donec ultro ad condiciones vocaretur. pacem et concordiam victis utilia, victoribus tantum pulchra esse.

by contrast, Vitellius had gone back into the Palatine, into the very citadel of the imperium; from there an armed column was sent out, the most frequented quarter of the city was strewn with the slaughters of innocents, not even the Capitol being spared. He, for his part, was in the toga and one of the senators: while between Vespasian and Vitellius the judgment was being rendered by battles of legions, captivities of cities, surrenders of cohorts, with Spain, the Germanies, and Britain already defecting, the brother of Vespasian had remained in loyalty, until he was even invited of their own accord to terms. Peace and concord are advantageous to the vanquished, for the victors only fair to behold.

si conventionis paeniteat, non se, quem perfidia deceperit, ferro peteret, non filium Vespasiani vix puberem—quantum occisis uno sene et uno iuvene profici?—: iret obviam legionibus et de summa rerum illic certaret: cetera secundum eventum proelii cessura. trepidus ad haec Vitellius pauca purgandi sui causa respondit, culpam in militem conferens, cuius nimio ardori imparem esse modestiam suam; et monuit Martialem ut per secretam aedium partem occulte abiret, ne a militibus internuntius invisae pacis interficeretur: ipse neque iubendi neque vetandi potens non iam imperator sed tantum belli causa erat.

if he regretted the convention, he would not attack with the sword himself, whom perfidy had deceived, nor Vespasian’s son, scarcely pubescent—how much is gained by slaying one old man and one youth?—: let him go to meet the legions and there contend about the sum of affairs: the rest would yield according to the outcome of the battle. Alarmed at this, Vitellius replied a few words for the purpose of his own purgation, shifting the blame onto the soldier, to whose excessive ardor his modesty was unequal; and he warned Martial to depart secretly through the private part of the house, lest, as the inter-nuncio of a hated peace, he be killed by the soldiers: he himself, with power neither to command nor to forbid, was now no longer an emperor but only a cause of war.

[71] Vixdum regresso in Capitolium Martiale furens miles aderat, nullo duce, sibi quisque auctor. cito agmine forum et imminentia foro templa praetervecti erigunt aciem per adversum collem usque ad primas Capitolinae arcis fores. erant antiquitus porticus in latere clivi dextrae subeuntibus, in quarum tectum egressi saxis tegulisque Vitellianos obruebant.

[71] With Martialis scarcely returned to the Capitol, a frenzied soldiery was at hand, with no leader, each man his own instigator. With a swift column they swept past the Forum and the temples looming over the Forum, and they set their battle-line up the opposing hill as far as the first doors of the Capitoline citadel. There were of old porticoes on the right side of the slope for those going up, and, having gone out onto their roof, they were overwhelming the Vitellians with stones and roof-tiles.

neque illis manus nisi gladiis armatae, et arcessere tormenta aut missilia tela longum videbatur: faces in prominentem porticum iecere et sequebantur ignem ambustasque Capitolii fores penetrassent, ni Sabinus revulsas undique statuas, decora maiorum, in ipso aditu vice muri obiecisset. tum diversos Capitolii aditus invadunt iuxta lucum asyli et qua Tarpeia rupes centum gradibus aditur. improvisa utraque vis; propior atque acrior per asylum ingruebat.

nor were their hands armed except with swords, and to summon engines or missile weapons seemed a long business: they hurled torches into the projecting portico and were following up the fire, and they would have penetrated the scorched doors of the Capitol, had not Sabinus, tearing down on every side the statues, the adornments of the forefathers, thrown them in the very entrance in the stead of a wall. then they assault the different approaches of the Capitol, near the grove of the Asylum and where the Tarpeian rock is approached by a hundred steps. both attacks were unforeseen; the nearer and more vehement was charging through the Asylum.

nec sisti poterant scandentes per coniuncta aedificia, quae ut in multa pace in altum edita solum Capitolii aequabant. hic ambigitur, ignem tectis obpugnatores iniecerint, an obsessi, quae crebrior fama, dum nitentis ac progressos depellunt. inde lapsus ignis in porticus adpositas aedibus; mox sustinentes fastigium aquilae vetere ligno traxerunt flammam alueruntque.

Nor could those climbing be checked as they scaled through the conjoined buildings, which, as in a time of much peace, raised to a great height, equaled the ground-level of the Capitol. Here it is disputed whether the assailants cast fire upon the roofs, or the besieged—this is the more prevalent report—while they were driving off those who were clambering and had advanced. From there the fire slipped onto the porticoes set against the houses; soon the eagles supporting the pediment, with their old timber, drew the flame and fostered it.

sic Capitolium clausis foribus indefensum et indireptum conflagravit.

thus the Capitol, with its doors closed, undefended and unplundered, was consumed in a conflagration.

[72] Id facinus post conditam urbem luctuosissimum foedissimumque rei publicae populi Romani accidit, nullo externo hoste, propitiis, si per mores nostros liceret, deis, sedem Iovis Optimi Maximi auspicato a maioribus pignus imperii conditam, quam non Porsenna dedita urbe neque Galli capta temerare potuissent, furore principum excindi. arserat et ante Capitolium civili bello, sed fraude privata: nunc palam obsessum, palam incensum, quibus armorum causis? quo tantae cladis pretio stetit?

[72] That deed, after the city was founded, was the most mournful and most foul to the commonwealth of the Roman people, with no foreign enemy, with the gods propitious—if our morals allowed—namely the seat of Jupiter Best and Greatest, founded under auspices by our ancestors as a pledge of empire, which neither Porsenna, though the city was surrendered, nor the Gauls, though it was captured, could have profaned, only to be razed by the frenzy of the leading men. The Capitol had also burned before in civil war, but by private fraud: now, openly besieged, openly set aflame—on what causes of arms? At what price did so great a disaster stand?

pro patria bellavimus? voverat Tarquinius Priscus rex bello Sabino, ieceratque fundamenta spe magis futurae magnitudinis quam quo modicae adhuc populi Romani res sufficerent. mox Servius Tullius sociorum studio, dein Tarquinius Superbus capta Suessa Pometia hostium spoliis extruxere.

Did we fight for the fatherland? Tarquinius Priscus the king had vowed it in the Sabine war, and had laid the foundations with hope rather of future magnitudo than in a measure to which the as-yet modest resources of the Roman people could suffice. Soon Servius Tullius, by the zeal of the allies, then Tarquinius Superbus, with the spoils of the enemy from captured Suessa Pometia, built it up.

sed gloria operis libertati reservata: pulsis regibus Horatius Pulvillus iterum consul dedicavit ea magnificentia quam immensae postea populi Romani opes ornarent potius quam augerent. isdem rursus vestigiis situm est, postquam interiecto quadringentorum quindecim annorum spatio L. Scipione C. Norbano consulibus flagraverat. curam victor Sulla suscepit, neque tamen dedicavit: hoc solum felicitati eius negatum.

but the glory of the work was reserved for liberty: with the kings driven out, Horatius Pulvillus, consul for the second time, dedicated it with that magnificence which the immense resources of the Roman people later would adorn rather than augment. It was again placed on the same footprints, after, with an interval of 415 years interposed, it had flamed, under the consuls L. Scipio and C. Norbanus. The victor Sulla undertook the care, yet he did not dedicate it: this alone was denied to his felicity.

Lutatii Catuli nomen inter tanta Caesarum opera usque ad Vitellium mansit. ea tunc aedes cremabatur.

The name of Lutatius Catulus, amid such great works of the Caesars, endured down to Vitellius. That temple was at that time being burned.

[73] Sed plus pavoris obsessis quam obsessoribus intulit. quippe Vitellianus miles neque astu neque constantia inter dubia indigebat: ex diverso trepidi milites, dux segnis et velut captus animi non lingua, non auribus competere, neque alienis consiliis regi neque sua expedire, huc illuc clamoribus hostium circumagi, quae iusserat vetare, quae vetuerat iubere: mox, quod in perditis rebus accidit, omnes praecipere, nemo exequi; postremo abiectis armis fugam et fallendi artis circumspectabant. inrumpunt Vitelliani et cuncta sanguine ferro flammisque miscent.

[73] But he brought more fright to the besieged than to the besiegers. Indeed the Vitellian soldier was lacking neither in astuteness nor in constancy amid uncertainties; conversely the soldiers were skittish, the general sluggish and as if seized in mind, unequal both in tongue and in ears, neither to be ruled by others’ counsels nor to disentangle his own, driven here and there by the shouts of the foe, forbidding what he had ordered, ordering what he had forbidden: soon, as happens in desperate situations, everyone prescribing, no one executing; finally, with weapons cast aside, they were looking around for flight and for the arts of evasion. The Vitellians burst in and commingle everything with blood, steel, and flames.

pauci militarium virorum, inter quos maxime insignes Cornelius Martialis, Aemilius Pacensis, Casperius Niger, Didius Scaeva, pugnam ausi obtruncantur. Flavium Sabinum inermem neque fugam coeptantem circumsistunt, et Quintium Atticum consulem, umbra honoris et suamet vanitate monstratum, quod edicta in populum pro Vespasiano magnifica, probrosa adversus Vitellium iecerat. ceteri per varios casus elapsi, quidam servili habitu, alii fide clientium contecti et inter sarcinas abditi.

A few military men, among whom most distinguished were Cornelius Martialis, Aemilius Pacensis, Casperius Niger, and Didius Scaeva, having dared battle, are cut down. They surround Flavius Sabinus, unarmed and not attempting flight, and Quintius Atticus the consul, pointed out by the shadow of honor and by his very own vanity, because he had hurled edicts to the populace—magnificent on behalf of Vespasian, opprobrious against Vitellius. The rest slipped away through various chances: some in servile garb, others covered by the faith of their clients, and hidden among the baggage.

fuere qui excepto Vitellianorum signo, quo inter se noscebantur, ultro rogitantes respondentesve audaciam pro latebra haberent.

There were some who, with the Vitellians’ sign—by which they recognized one another—removed, and by unbidden questioning and responding, took audacity for a hiding-place.

[74] Domitianus prima inruptione apud aedituum occultatus, sollertia liberti lineo amictu turbae sacricolarum immixtus ignoratusque, apud Cornelium Primum paternum clientem iuxta Velabrum delituit. ac potiente rerum patre, disiecto aeditui contubernio, modicum sacellum Iovi Conservatori aramque posuit casus suos in marmore expressam; mox imperium adeptus Iovi Custodi templum ingens seque in sinu dei sacravit. Sabinus et Atticus onerati catenis et ad Vitellium ducti nequaquam infesto sermone vultuque excipiuntur, frementibus qui ius caedis et praemia navatae operae petebant.

[74] Domitian, at the first irruption, having been concealed with a temple-warden, by the ingenuity of his freedman, with a linen cloak having been thrown on and mingled with the crowd of sacricolars, was unrecognized, and he hid with Cornelius Primus, a paternal client, near the Velabrum. And when his father became the possessor of affairs, the temple-warden’s contubernium having been demolished, he set up a modest little shrine to Jupiter the Conservator and an altar, his mishaps expressed in marble; soon, having attained the imperium, he dedicated to Jupiter the Custodian a huge temple and consecrated himself in the bosom of the god. Sabinus and Atticus, laden with chains and led to Vitellius, are received by no means with hostile speech or countenance, while those who were demanding the right of slaughter and the rewards of the service plied were roaring.

clamore a proximis orto sordida pars plebis supplicium Sabini exposcit, minas adulationesque miscet. stantem pro gradibus Palatii Vitellium et preces parantem pervicere ut absisteret: tum confossum laceratumque et absciso capite truncum corpus Sabini in Gemonias trahunt.

With a clamor having arisen from those nearby, the sordid part of the plebs demanded the execution of Sabinus, mingling threats and adulations. They prevailed upon Vitellius, standing before the steps of the Palace and preparing prayers, to desist: then, Sabinus having been stabbed and mangled and his head cut off, they drag his headless trunk to the Gemonian Steps.

[75] Hic exitus viri haud sane spernendi. quinque et triginta stipendia in re publica fecerat, domi militiaeque clarus. innocentiam iustitiamque eius non argueres; sermonis nimius erat: id unum septem annis quibus Moesiam, duodecim quibus praefecturam urbis obtinuit, calumniatus est rumor.

[75] Such was the end of a man by no means to be scorned. He had completed thirty-five tours of service in the commonwealth, renowned in civil and military life. You would not arraign his innocence and justice; he was excessive in speech: this one thing, for the 7 years in which he held Moesia and the 12 in which he held the prefecture of the city, ill report calumniated.

in fine vitae alii segnem, multi moderatum et civium sanguinis parcum credidere. quod inter omnis constiterit, ante principatum Vespasiani decus domus penes Sabinum erat. caedem eius laetam fuisse Muciano accepimus.

At the end of his life, some believed him sluggish; many, moderate and sparing of citizens’ blood. What has been agreed among all is that, before the principate of Vespasian, the honor of the house was in Sabinus’s keeping. We have learned that his murder was pleasing to Mucianus.

ferebant plerique etiam paci consultum dirempta aemulatione inter duos, quorum alter se fratrem imperatoris, alter consortem imperii cogitaret. sed Vitellius consulis supplicium poscenti populo restitit, placatus ac velut vicem reddens, quod interrogantibus quis Capitolium incendisset, se reum Atticus obtulerat eaque confessione, sive aptum tempori mendacium fuit, invidiam crimenque agnovisse et a partibus Vitellii amolitus videbatur.

Most people were reporting that provision had even been made for peace by the rivalry being sundered between the two, of whom the one was imagining himself the emperor’s brother, the other a consort of the imperium. But Vitellius resisted the people who were demanding the consul’s punishment, appeased and as if paying back in kind, because, to those asking who had set the Capitol on fire, Atticus had offered himself as the accused; and by that confession—whether it was a lie apt to the moment—he seemed to have acknowledged the odium and the crime and to have shifted them away from Vitellius’s party.

[76] Isdem diebus L. Vitellius positis apud Feroniam castris excidio Tarracinae imminebat, clausis illic gladiatoribus remigibusque, qui non egredi moenia neque periculum in aperto audebant. praeerat, ut supra memoravimus, Iulianus gladiatoribus, Apollinaris remigibus, lascivia socordiaque gladiatorum magis quam ducum similes. non vigilias agere, non intuta moenium firmare: noctu dieque fluxi et amoena litorum personantes, in ministerium luxus dispersis militibus, de bello tantum inter convivia loquebantur.

[76] In those same days Lucius Vitellius, with his camp pitched near Feronia, was threatening the destruction of Tarracina, the gladiators and oarsmen being shut up there, who did not dare to go out beyond the walls nor to risk danger in the open. In command, as we have mentioned above, Julianus was over the gladiators, Apollinaris over the oarsmen, resembling the lasciviousness and torpor of gladiators rather than of generals. They kept no watches, nor did they strengthen the unsafe parts of the walls: by night and by day they were lax and made the pleasant shores resound, the soldiers scattered into the service of luxury; of war they spoke only amidst their banquets.

paucos ante dies discesserat Apinius Tiro donisque ac pecuniis acerbe per municipia conquirendis plus invidiae quam virium partibus addebat.

A few days before, Apinius Tiro had departed, and by harshly collecting gifts and monies throughout the municipalities he was adding to the party more unpopularity than strength.

[77] Interim ad L. Vitellium servus Vergilii Capitonis perfugit pollicitusque, si praesidium acciperet, vacuam arcem traditurum, multa nocte cohortis expeditas summis montium iugis super caput hostium sistit: inde miles ad caedem magis quam ad pugnam decurrit. sternunt inermos aut arma capientis et quosdam somno excitos, cum tenebris, pavore, sonitu tubarum, clamore hostili turbarentur. pauci gladiatorum resistentes neque inulti cecidere: ceteri ad navis ruebant, ubi cuncta pari formidine implicabantur, permixtis paganis, quos nullo discrimine Vitelliani trucidabant.

[77] Meanwhile a slave of Vergilius Capito fled to L. Vitellius and promised that, if he received a garrison, he would hand over the citadel empty; in the deep of night he posted unencumbered cohorts on the loftiest ridges of the mountains above the enemy’s heads: from there the soldiery ran down to slaughter rather than to battle. They cut down the unarmed or those catching up arms, and certain men roused from sleep, as they were thrown into confusion by the darkness, by fear, by the blare of trumpets, by the hostile shouting. A few of the gladiators, resisting, fell not unavenged: the rest rushed to the ships, where everything was entangled in equal panic, civilians being mixed in, whom the Vitellians butchered without any distinction.

sex Liburnicae inter primum tumultum evasere, in quis praefectus classis Apollinaris; reliquae in litore captae, aut nimio ruentium onere pressas mare hausit. Iulianus ad L. Vitellium perductus et verberibus foedatus in ore eius iugulatur. fuere qui uxorem L. Vitellii Triariam incesserent, tamquam gladio militari cincta inter luctum cladisque expugnatae Tarracinae superbe saeveque egisset.

Six Liburnians escaped amid the first tumult, among them the prefect of the fleet, Apollinaris; the rest were captured on the shore, or the sea swallowed them, pressed down by the excessive burden of those rushing aboard. Julianus, brought to L. Vitellius and defiled with beatings, is slaughtered before his face. There were those who assailed the wife of L. Vitellius, Triaria, as though girded with a military sword, that she had conducted herself haughtily and savagely amid the mourning and the disasters of stormed Tarracina.

ipse lauream gestae prospere rei ad fratrem misit, percontatus statim regredi se an perdomandae Campaniae insistere iuberet. quod salutare non modo partibus Vespasiani, sed rei publicae fuit. nam si recens victoria miles et super insitam pervicaciam secundis ferox Romam contendisset, haud parva mole certatum nec sine exitio urbis foret.

he himself sent the laurel of the successfully accomplished affair to his brother, and immediately inquired whether he should return or be ordered to persist in the subduing of Campania. This was salutary not only to the party of Vespasian, but to the commonwealth. For if the soldiery, fresh from victory and, over and above their inborn pervicacity, made fierce by favorable successes, had pressed toward Rome, the struggle would have been of no small weight and not without the destruction of the city.

quippe L. Vitellio quamvis infami inerat industria, nec virtutibus, ut boni, sed quo modo pessimus quisque, vitiis valebat.

For in L. Vitellius, although infamous, there was industry; and he was strong not by virtues, as the good, but, in the manner of the worst sort, by vices.

[78] Dum haec in partibus Vitellii geruntur, digressus Narnia Vespasiani exercitus festos Saturni dies Ocriculi per otium agitabat. causa tam pravae morae ut Mucianum opperirentur. nec defuere qui Antonium suspicionibus arguerent tamquam dolo cunctantem post secretas Vitellii epistulas, quibus consulatum et nubilem filiam et dotalis opes pretium proditionis offerebat.

[78] While these things were being transacted on Vitellius’s side, having departed from Narnia, Vespasian’s army was spending the festal days of Saturn at Ocriculum at leisure. The cause of so perverse a delay was that they were waiting for Mucianus. Nor were there lacking those who charged Antonius on suspicions, as if he were lingering by guile after secret epistles of Vitellius, in which he was offering the consulship and a nubile daughter and dotal wealth as the price of treason.

alii ficta haec et in gratiam Muciani composita; quidam omnium id ducum consilium fuisse, ostentare potius urbi bellum quam inferre, quando validissimae cohortes a Vitellio descivissent, et abscisis omnibus praesidiis cessurus imperio videbatur: sed cuncta festinatione, deinde ignavia Sabini corrupta, qui sumptis temere armis munitissimam Capitolii arcem et ne magnis quidem exercitibus expugnabilem adversus tris cohortis tueri nequivisset. haud facile quis uni adsignaverit culpam quae omnium fuit. nam et Mucianus ambiguis epistulis victores morabatur, et Antonius praepostero obsequio, vel dum regerit invidiam, crimen meruit; ceterique duces dum peractum bellum putant, finem eius insignivere.

some said these things were fabricated and composed in favor of Mucianus; certain others that this had been the plan of all the leaders, to display war to the city rather than to bring it in, since the most powerful cohorts had defected from Vitellius, and, all supports cut off, he seemed about to yield the imperium: but everything was spoiled first by haste, then by the sloth/cowardice of Sabinus, who, arms rashly taken up, could not defend the most strongly fortified citadel of the Capitol—indeed not to be stormed even by great armies—against three cohorts. not easily would one assign to one man the blame which belonged to all. for both Mucianus, by ambiguous epistles, delayed the victors, and Antonius, by a preposterous obsequy, or, while he was checking envy, earned reproach; and the rest of the leaders, while they thought the war finished, signalized its close.

ne Petilius quidem Cerialis, cum mille equitibus praemissus, ut transversis itineribus per agrum Sabinum Salaria via urbem introiret, satis maturaverat, donec obsessi Capitolii fama cunctos simul exciret.

Not even Petilius Cerialis, sent ahead with a thousand cavalry, to enter the city by the Via Salaria by transverse routes through the Sabine countryside, had made sufficient speed, until the report of the besieged Capitol roused all at once.

[79] Antonius per Flaminiam ad Saxa rubra multo iam noctis serum auxilium venit. illic interfectum Sabinum, conflagrasse Capitolium, tremere urbem, maesta omnia accepit; plebem quoque et servitia pro Vitellio armari nuntiabatur. et Petilio Ceriali equestre proelium adversum fuerat; namque incautum et tamquam ad victos ruentem Vitelliani, interiectus equiti pedes, excepere.

[79] Antonius, along the Flaminian Way, came to Saxa Rubra with succor late, much of the night already gone. There he learned that Sabinus had been slain, that the Capitol had gone up in conflagration, that the city was trembling, that everything was mournful; it was also reported that the plebs and the slave-bands were being armed for Vitellius. And for Petilius Cerialis a cavalry (equestrian) engagement had been adverse; for the Vitellians, with foot interposed among the horse, caught him off his guard and rushing as though upon the vanquished.

pugnatum haud procul urbe inter aedificia hortosque et anfractus viarum, quae gnara Vitellianis, incomperta hostibus metum fecerant. neque omnis eques concors, adiunctis quibusdam, qui nuper apud Narniam dediti fortunam partium speculabantur. capitur praefectus alae Iulius Flavianus; ceteri foeda fuga consternantur, non ultra Fidenas secutis victoribus.

The fighting was carried on not far from the city among the buildings and gardens and the windings of the roads, which, being familiar to the Vitellians and unascertained by the enemies, had produced fear. Nor was all the cavalry concordant, with certain men having been adjoined, who, having lately surrendered at Narnia, were watching the fortune of the parties. The prefect of the ala, Julius Flavianus, is captured; the rest are thrown into consternation by a foul flight, the victors not having pursued beyond Fidenae.

[80] Eo successu studia populi aucta; vulgus urbanum arma cepit. paucis scuta militaria, plures raptis quod cuique obvium telis signum pugnae exposcunt. agit grates Vitellius et ad tuendam urbem prorumpere iubet.

[80] With that success the zeal of the people was increased; the urban rabble took up arms. A few had military shields; more, having snatched whatever weapons happened to meet each, demand the signal for battle. Vitellius gives thanks and orders them to burst forth to defend the city.

mox vocato senatu deliguntur legati ad exercitus ut praetexto rei publicae concordiam pacemque suaderent. varia legatorum sors fuit. qui Petilio Ceriali occurrerant extremum discrimen adiere, aspernante milite condiciones pacis.

Soon, the senate having been convened, legates were chosen to the armies, to urge, under the pretext of the commonwealth, concord and peace. The lot of the legates was various. Those who had encountered Petilius Cerialis came into extreme peril, the soldiery spurning the conditions of peace.

vulneratur praetor Arulenus Rusticus: auxit invidiam super violatum legati praetorisque nomen propria dignatio viri. pulsantur comites, occiditur proximus lictor, dimovere turbam ausus: et ni dato a duce praesidio defensi forent, sacrum etiam inter exteras gentis legatorum ius ante ipsa patriae moenia civilis rabies usque in exitium temerasset. aequioribus animis accepti sunt qui ad Antonium venerant, non quia modestior miles, sed duci plus auctoritatis.

The praetor Arulenus Rusticus is wounded: the personal distinction of the man added to the odium, over and above the violated title of legate and praetor. His companions are beaten, the nearest lictor is killed, for having dared to clear away the crowd: and if they had not been protected by a guard granted by the leader, civic madness would have, even to destruction, profaned the sacred right of legates, respected even among foreign peoples, before the very walls of the fatherland. Those who had come to Antonius were received with calmer spirits, not because the soldiery was more modest, but because the leader had more authority.

[81] Miscuerat se legatis Musonius Rufus equestris ordinis, studium philosophiae et placita Stoicorum aemulatus; coeptabatque permixtus manipulis, bona pacis ac belli discrimina disserens, armatos monere. id plerisque ludibrio, pluribus taedio: nec deerant qui propellerent proculcarentque, ni admonitu modestissimi cuiusque et aliis minitantibus omisisset intempestivam sapientiam. obviae fuere et virgines Vestales cum epistulis Vitellii ad Antonium scriptis: eximi supremo certamini unum diem postulabat: si moram interiecissent, facilius omnia conventura.

[81] Musonius Rufus of the equestrian order had mixed himself with the envoys, emulating a zeal for philosophy and the placita of the Stoics; and, mingled among the maniples, he began, discoursing on the goods of peace and the discrimina of war, to admonish armed men. To many this was a laughingstock, to more a weariness; nor were there lacking those who would have shoved and trampled him, had he not, at the admonition of the most modest and with others threatening, abandoned his untimely wisdom. The Vestal Virgins too met them, with epistles of Vitellius written to Antonius: he was requesting that one day be taken off from the supreme contest; if they had interposed a delay, everything would have come together more easily.

virgines cum honore dimissae; Vitellio rescriptum Sabini caede et incendio Capitolii dirempta belli commercia.

the virgins were dismissed with honor; a reply was sent to Vitellius that, by the slaughter of Sabinus and the conflagration of the Capitol, the intercourse of war had been severed.

[82] Temptavit tamen Antonius vocatas ad contionem legiones mitigare, ut castris iuxta pontem Mulvium positis postera die urbem ingrederentur. ratio cunctandi, ne asperatus proelio miles non populo, non senatui, ne templis quidem ac delubris deorum consuleret. sed omnem prolationem ut inimicam victoriae suspectabant; simul fulgentia per collis vexilla, quamquam imbellis populus sequeretur, speciem hostilis exercitus fecerant.

[82] Nevertheless Antonius attempted to mollify the legions summoned to an assembly, to the end that, with a camp pitched next to the Mulvian Bridge, they might enter the city on the following day. The rationale for delaying was lest the soldiery, incensed by battle, should have regard neither for the people nor the senate, nor even for the temples and shrines of the gods. But they suspected every postponement as hostile to victory; at the same time the standards, gleaming over the hills—although an unwarlike populace was following—had made the appearance of a hostile army.

tripertito agmine pars, ut adstiterat, Flaminia via, pars iuxta ripam Tiberis incessit; tertium agmen per Salariam Collinae portae propinquabat. plebs invectis equitibus fusa; miles Vitellianus trinis et ipse praesidiis occurrit. proelia ante urbem multa et varia, sed Flavianis consilio ducum praestantibus saepius prospera.

In a threefold column, one part, as it had taken position, on the Flaminian Way, another marched along the bank of the Tiber; the third column was approaching the Colline Gate by the Salarian Way. The plebs was scattered by the inrush of cavalry; the Vitellian soldiery likewise met them with triple detachments. Many and various battles before the city, but, with the Flavians’ generals’ counsel excelling, more often favorable.

ii tantum conflictati sunt qui in partem sinistram urbis ad Sallustianos hortos per angusta et lubrica viarum flexerant. superstantes maceriis hortorum Vitelliani ad serum usque diem saxis pilisque subeuntis arcebant, donec ab equitibus, qui porta Collina inruperant, circumvenirentur. concurrere et in campo Martio infestae acies.

Only those were hard-pressed who had turned to the left side of the city toward the Sallustian Gardens through the narrow and slippery windings of the streets. The Vitellians, standing above on the garden walls, kept off those advancing with stones and pila until late in the day, until they were surrounded by the cavalry who had broken in through the Colline Gate. Hostile battle-lines also clashed on the Campus Martius.

pro Flavianis fortuna et parta totiens victoria: Vitelliani desperatione sola ruebant, et quamquam pulsi, rursus in urbe congregabantur.

on the Flavian side were fortune and a victory so often won: the Vitellians, by desperation alone, were rushing headlong, and although repulsed, they were again congregating in the city.

[83] Aderat pugnantibus spectator populus, utque in ludicro certamine, hos, rursus illos clamore et plausu fovebat. quotiens pars altera inclinasset, abditos in tabernis aut si quam in domum perfugerant, erui iugularique expostulantes parte maiore praedae potiebantur: nam milite ad sanguinem et caedis obverso spolia in vulgus cedebant. saeva ac deformis urbe tota facies: alibi proelia et vulnera, alibi balineae popinaeque; simul cruor et strues corporum, iuxta scorta et scortis similes; quantum in luxurioso otio libidinum, quidquid in acerbissima captivitate scelerum, prorsus ut eandem civitatem et furere crederes et lascivire.

[83] The people were present as spectators for the fighters, and, as in a game-contest, now these, now those they favored with clamor and applause. Whenever one side had inclined, they, demanding that men hidden in shops or whichever house they had fled into be dragged out and throat-cut, obtained the larger share of the booty: for with the soldier’s face turned toward blood and slaughter, the spoils went to the vulgus. A savage and deformed aspect over the whole city: elsewhere battles and wounds, elsewhere bathhouses and cookshops; at once gore and heaps of bodies, next to harlots and those harlot-like; as many lusts as in luxurious leisure, whatever crimes in the most bitter captivity, altogether so that you would believe the same city both to be raging and to be wantoning.

conflixerant <et> ante armati exercitus in urbe, bis Lucio Sulla, semel Cinna victoribus, nec tunc minus crudelitatis: nunc inhumana securitas et ne minimo quidem temporis voluptates intermissae: velut festis diebus id quoque gaudium accederet, exultabant, fruebantur, nulla partium cura, malis publicis laeti.

Armed armies too had clashed before within the city—twice with Lucius Sulla, once with Cinna the victors—and not then with less cruelty; now there was an inhuman security, and their pleasures were not intermitted even for the least moment of time: as if on festal days this joy also were being added, they exulted, they enjoyed themselves, with no concern for factions, glad at the public evils.

[84] Plurimum molis in obpugnatione castrorum fuit, quae acerrimus quisque ut novissimam spem retinebant. eo intentius victores, praecipuo veterum cohortium studio, cuncta validissimarum urbium excidiis reperta simul admovent, testudinem tormenta aggeres facesque, quidquid tot proeliis laboris ac periculi hausissent, opere illo consummari clamitantes. urbem senatui ac populo Romano, templa dis reddita: proprium esse militis decus in castris: illam patriam, illos penatis.

[84] The greatest burden was in the assault on the camp, which every fiercest man held as his latest hope. Therefore the victors, the more intently, with the special zeal of the veteran cohorts, at once bring up everything found for the destruction of the strongest cities—the tortoise, engines, ramps, and torches—shouting that whatever toil and peril they had imbibed in so many battles was being consummated in that work: that the city had been restored to the Senate and People of Rome, the temples to the gods; that a soldier’s proper glory is in the camp: that that is his fatherland, those his Penates.

ni statim recipiantur, noctem in armis agendam. contra Vitelliani, quamquam numero fatoque dispares, inquietare victoriam, morari pacem, domos arasque cruore foedare suprema victis solacia amplectebantur. multi semianimes super turris et propugnacula moenium expiravere: convulsis portis reliquus globus obtulit se victoribus, et cecidere omnes contrariis vulneribus, versi in hostem: ea cura etiam morientibus decori exitus fuit.

if they were not immediately received, the night would have to be spent under arms. on the other hand the Vitellians, although unequal in number and in destiny, embraced as the last solaces of the vanquished: to disquiet the victory, to delay peace, to defile homes and altars with blood. many, half-alive, breathed their last upon the towers and the battlements of the walls: the gates wrenched off, the remaining mass offered themselves to the victors, and they all fell with opposite-facing wounds, turned toward the enemy: such was the concern, even in the dying, for a decorous end.

Vitellius capta urbe per aversam Palatii partem Aventinum in domum uxoris sellula defertur, ut si diem latebra vitavisset, Tarracinam ad cohortis fratremque perfugeret. dein mobilitate ingenii et, quae natura pavoris est, cum omnia metuenti praesentia maxime displicerent, in Palatium regreditur vastum desertumque, dilapsis etiam infimis servitiorum aut occursum eius declinantibus. terret solitudo et tacentes loci; temptat clausa, inhorrescit vacuis; fessusque misero errore et pudenda latebra semet occultans ab Iulio Placido tribuno cohortis protrahitur.

Vitellius, the city having been captured, is carried in a little sedan-chair through the back part of the Palace to the Aventine, into his wife’s house, so that, if he had avoided the day by a hiding-place, he might flee for refuge to Tarracina to the cohorts and his brother. Then, by the mobility of his nature and—as is the nature of panic—since to one who fears the present things are most displeasing, he returns to the Palace, vast and deserted, even the lowest of the household having slipped away or declining an encounter with him. Solitude and the silent places terrify; he tries shut doors, he shudders at empty rooms; and, wearied by his wretched wandering and hiding himself in a shameful lair, he is dragged out by Julius Placidus, tribune of a cohort.

vinctae pone tergum manus; laniata veste, foedum spectaculum, ducebatur, multis increpantibus, nullo inlacrimante: deformitas exitus misericordiam abstulerat. obvius e Germanicis militibus Vitellium infesto ictu per iram, vel quo maturius ludibrio eximeret, an tribunum adpetierit, in incerto fuit: aurem tribuni amputavit ac statim confossus est.

his hands bound behind his back; with his garment lacerated, a foul spectacle, he was being led, many reproaching, none weeping: the deformity of his exit had taken away mercy. A man from the Germanic soldiers who met them—whether he aimed a hostile stroke at Vitellius in anger, or that he might the sooner remove him from mockery, or whether he attacked the tribune—was uncertain: he cut off the tribune’s ear and was immediately run through.

[85] Vitellium infestis mucronibus coactum modo erigere os et offerre contumeliis, nunc cadentis statuas suas, plerumque rostra aut Galbae occisi locum contueri, postremo ad Gemonias, ubi corpus Flavii Sabini iacuerat, propulere. una vox non degeneris animi excepta, cum tribuno insultanti se tamen imperatorem eius fuisse respondit; ac deinde ingestis vulneribus concidit. et vulgus eadem pravitate insectabatur interfectum qua foverat viventem.

[85] They forced Vitellius at hostile sword-points now to lift his face and offer it to contumelies, now to gaze at his own statues as they were falling, very often to look upon the rostra or the place where Galba was slain; finally they drove him to the Gemonian Steps, where the body of Flavius Sabinus had lain. One utterance of a spirit not degenerate was recorded, when to the tribune insulting him he replied that he had nevertheless been his emperor; and then, with wounds heaped on, he collapsed. And the rabble with the same depravity assailed him when slain with which it had cherished him when living.

[86] Patrem illi . . . Luceriam. septimum et quinquagensimum aetatis annum explebat, consulatum, sacerdotia, nomen locumque inter primores nulla sua industria, sed cuncta patris claritudine adeptus. principatum ei detulere qui ipsum non noverant: studia exercitus raro cuiquam bonis artibus quaesita perinde adfuere quam huic per ignaviam.

[86] His father . . . Luceria. He was completing the fifty-seventh year of his age, having obtained the consulship, priesthoods, a name and a place among the foremost, by no industry of his own, but all by the brilliance of his father. The principate was conferred on him by those who did not know him; the partisanship of the army, rarely procured for anyone by good arts, stood by him in equal measure through indolence.

inerat tamen simplicitas ac liberalitas, quae, ni adsit modus, in exitium vertuntur. amicitias dum magnitudine munerum, non constantia morum contineri putat, meruit magis quam habuit. rei publicae haud dubie intererat Vitellium vinci, sed imputare perfidiam non possunt qui Vitellium Vespasiano prodidere, cum a Galba descivissent.

there was in him, however, simplicity and liberality, which, if measure be not present, are turned into ruin. while he supposed friendships to be maintained by the magnitude of gifts, not by constancy of morals, he merited more than he possessed. it was, without doubt, to the interest of the republic that vitellius be conquered; but they cannot have perfidy imputed to them who betrayed vitellius to vespasian, since they had seceded from galba.

Praecipiti in occasum die ob pavorem magistratuum senatorumque, qui dilapsi ex urbe aut per domos clientium semet occultabant, vocari senatus non potuit. Domitianum, postquam nihil hostile metuebatur, ad duces partium progressum et Caesarem consalutatum miles frequens utque erat in armis in paternos penatis deduxit.

With the day headlong into its setting, on account of the fear of the magistrates and senators—who had slipped away out of the city or were hiding themselves in the houses of their clients—the senate could not be summoned. Domitian, after nothing hostile was any longer feared, having gone forward to the leaders of the parties and having been hailed as Caesar, was led by a numerous soldiery, just as they were in arms, into the paternal Penates.