Tacitus: HISTORIAE

[1] Interfecto Vitellio bellum magis desierat quam pax coeperat. armati per urbem victores implacabili odio victos consectabantur: plenae caedibus viae, cruenta fora templaque, passim trucidatis, ut quemque fors obtulerat. ac mox augescente licentia scrutari ac protrahere abditos; si quem procerum habitu et iuventa conspexerant, obtruncare nullo militum aut populi discrimine.

[1] With Vitellius slain, the war had rather ceased than peace begun. Armed victors throughout the city pursued the vanquished with implacable hatred: the streets were full of slaughters, the fora and temples blood-stained, men butchered everywhere, as chance had offered each. And soon, as license increased, they searched out and dragged forth those in hiding; if they had caught sight of anyone with the bearing and youth of the nobles, they cut him down, with no distinction of soldier or commoner.

quae saevitia recentibus odiis sanguine explebatur, dein verterat in avaritiam. nihil usquam secretum aut clausum sinebant, Vitellianos occultari simulantes. initium id perfringendarum domuum, vel si resisteretur, causa caedis; nec deerat egentissimus quisque e plebe et pessimi servitiorum prodere ultro ditis dominos, alii ab amicis monstrabantur.

Such savagery, filled up with blood by recent hatreds, then turned to avarice. They allowed nothing anywhere to be secret or shut, pretending that Vitellians were being concealed. That was the beginning of house‑breaking, or, if there was resistance, a cause for slaughter; nor was there lacking the most destitute of the plebs and the worst of the slave‑gangs to betray of their own accord their wealthy masters; others were pointed out by friends.

ubique lamenta, conclamationes et fortuna captae urbis, adeo ut Othoniani Vitellianique militis invidiosa antea petulantia desideraretur. duces partium accendendo civili bello acres, temperandae victoriae impares, quippe inter turbas et discordias pessimo cuique plurima vis, pax et quies bonis artibus indigent.

Everywhere laments, conclamations, and the fortune of a captured city, to such a degree that the previously invidious petulance of the Othonian and Vitellian soldier was missed. The leaders of the parties, keen in kindling civil war, were unequal to tempering victory; for amid turmoils and discords the worst men have the most force, while peace and quiet are in need of good arts.

[2] Nomen sedemque Caesaris Domitianus acceperat, nondum ad curas intentus, sed stupris et adulteriis filium principis agebat. praefectura praetorii penes Arrium Varum, summa potentiae in Primo Antonio. is pecuniam familiamque e principis domo quasi Cremonensem praedam rapere: ceteri modestia vel ignobilitate ut in bello obscuri, ita praemiorum expertes.

[2] Domitian had received the name and seat of Caesar, not yet intent upon cares, but by debaucheries and adulteries he was playing the son of the emperor. The prefecture of the praetorium was in the hands of Arrius Varus, the highest power with Antonius Primus. He was seizing money and the household from the emperor’s house as if it were Cremonese booty: the rest, through modesty or ignobility, just as they were obscure in the war, so were without rewards.

civitas pavida et servitio parata occupari redeuntem Tarracina L. Vitellium cum cohortibus extinguique reliqua belli postulabat: praemissi Ariciam equites, agmen legionum intra Bovillas stetit. nec cunctatus est Vitellius seque et cohortis arbitrio victoris permittere, et miles infelicia arma haud minus ira quam metu abiecit. longus deditorum ordo saeptus armatis per urbem incessit, nemo supplici vultu, sed tristes et truces et adversum plausus ac lasciviam insultantis vulgi immobiles.

the citizenry, fearful and prepared for servitude, demanded that Lucius Vitellius be seized as he was returning to Terracina with his cohorts and that the remnants of the war be extinguished: cavalry were sent ahead to Aricia, the column of the legions halted within Bovillae. Nor did Vitellius hesitate to commit himself and the cohorts to the arbitrament of the victor, and the soldiers cast down their ill-fated arms no less from anger than from fear. A long order of the surrendered, hedged about by armed men, marched through the city—no one with a suppliant countenance, but gloomy and truculent, and, in the face of the applause and the lascivious petulance of the taunting crowd, unmoving.

paucos erumpere ausos circumiecti pressere; ceteri in custodiam conditi, nihil quisquam locutus indignum, et quamquam inter adversa, salva virtutis fama. dein L. Vitellius interficitur, par vitiis fratris, in principatu eius vigilantior, nec perinde prosperis socius quam adversis abstractus.

those surrounding pressed down the few who dared to burst out; the rest were consigned to custody, no one uttered anything unworthy, and, although amid adversities, the fame of their virtue was kept safe. then L. Vitellius is slain, equal to his brother in vices, more vigilant during his principate, and not so much a partner in his prosperities as carried off by his adversities.

[3] Isdem diebus Lucilius Bassus cum expedito equite ad componendam Campaniam mittitur, discordibus municipiorum animis magis inter semet quam contumacia adversus principem. viso milite quies et minoribus coloniis impunitas: Capuae legio tertia hiemandi causa locatur et domus inlustres adflictae, cum contra Tarracinenses nulla ope iuvarentur. tanto proclivius est iniuriae quam beneficio vicem exolvere, quia gratia oneri, ultio in quaestu habetur.

[3] In those same days Lucilius Bassus was sent with mobile cavalry to compose Campania, the minds of the municipia being at variance more among themselves than in contumacy against the emperor. At the sight of the soldiery, there was quiet, and for the smaller colonies, impunity: at Capua the Third Legion was quartered for the purpose of wintering, and illustrious houses were afflicted, while contrariwise the Tarracinenses were aided by no help. So much easier is it to repay an injury than a benefit, because gratitude is accounted a burden, revenge a gain.

solacio fuit servus Vergilii Capitonis, quem proditorem Tarracinensium diximus, patibulo adfixus in isdem anulis quos acceptos a Vitellio gestabat. at Romae senatus cuncta principibus solita Vespasiano decernit, laetus et spei certus, quippe sumpta per Gallias Hispaniasque civilia arma, motis ad bellum Germaniis, mox Illyrico, postquam Aegyptum Iudaeam Syriamque et omnis provincias exercitusque lustraverant, velut expiato terrarum orbe cepisse finem videbantur: addidere alacritatem Vespasiani litterae tamquam manente bello scriptae. ea prima specie forma; ceterum ut princeps loquebatur, civilia de se, et rei publicae egregia.

A solace was the slave of Vergilius Capito, whom we have said was the betrayer of the Tarracinenses, affixed to the gibbet on the very rings which, received from Vitellius, he was wearing. But at Rome the senate decreed to Vespasian all things customary to princes, cheerful and assured in hope, since civil arms had been taken up through the Gauls and the Spains, the Germanies set in motion to war, soon Illyricum; after Egypt, Judaea and Syria and all the provinces and armies had been traversed, the orb of lands, as it were expiated, seemed to have begun to take an end: Vespasian’s letters, written as though the war were still continuing, added briskness. Such was the first appearance and form; yet he spoke as a prince, civil things about himself, and for the commonwealth outstanding.

nec senatus obsequium deerat: ipsi consulatus cum Tito filio, praetura Domitiano et consulare imperium decernuntur.

Nor was the senate’s obsequiousness lacking: to himself the consulship with his son Titus, and to Domitian the praetorship and consular imperium are decreed.

[4] Miserat et Mucianus epistulas ad senatum, quae materiam sermonibus praebuere. si privatus esset, cur publice loqueretur? potuisse eadem paucos post dies loco sententiae dici.

[4] Mucianus had also sent epistles to the Senate, which furnished material for talk. If he were a private man, why was he speaking publicly? The same things could have been said, a few days later, as an opinion in his place.

ipsa quoque insectatio in Vitellium sera et sine libertate: id vero erga rem publicam superbum, erga principem contumeliosum, quod in manu sua fuisse imperium donatumque Vespasiano iactabat. ceterum invidia in occulto, adulatio in aperto erant: multo cum honore verborum Muciano triumphalia de bello civium data, sed in Sarmatas expeditio fingebatur. adduntur Primo Antonio consularia, Cornelio Fusco et Arrio Varo praetoria insignia.

Even the persecution against Vitellius was late and without liberty: that, indeed, was overweening toward the commonwealth, insulting toward the emperor, in that he boasted the imperium had been in his own hand and had been bestowed upon Vespasian. But envy was in the hidden, flattery in the open: with much honor of words triumphal insignia were given to Mucianus for the civil war, but an expedition against the Sarmatians was being feigned. There are added to Antonius Primus the consular insignia, to Cornelius Fuscus and Arrius Varus the praetorian insignia.

mox deos respexere; restitui Capitolium placuit. eaque omnia Valerius Asiaticus consul designatus censuit: ceteri vultu manuque, pauci, quibus conspicua dignitas aut ingenium adulatione exercitum, compositis orationibus adsentiebantur. ubi ad Helvidium Priscum praetorem designatum ventum, prompsit sententiam ut honorificam in bonum principem, * * * falsa aberant, et studiis senatus attollebatur.

Soon they turned their regard to the gods; it was resolved that the Capitol be restored. And all these things Valerius Asiaticus, consul-designate, proposed; the rest, with look and hand, and a few—men whose conspicuous dignity or wit, trained in adulation, assented with composed orations. When it came to Helvidius Priscus, praetor-designate, he brought forth an opinion, as honorable toward a good princeps, * * * the false elements were absent, and he was being uplifted by the zeal of the senate.

isque praecipuus illi dies magnae offensae initium et magnae gloriae fuit.

and that exceptional day was for him the beginning of great offense and of great glory.

[5] Res poscere videtur, quoniam iterum in mentionem incidimus viri saepius memorandi, ut vitam studiaque eius, et quali fortuna sit usus, paucis repetam. Helvidius Priscus [regione Italiae Carecina] e municipio Cluviis, patre, qui ordinem primi pili duxisset, ingenium inlustre altioribus studiis iuvenis admodum dedit, non, ut plerique, ut nomine magnifico segne otium velaret, sed quo firmior adversus fortuita rem publicam capesseret. doctores sapientiae secutus est, qui sola bona quae honesta, mala tantum quae turpia, potentiam nobilitatem ceteraque extra animum neque bonis neque malis adnumerant.

[5] The matter seems to demand, since we have again fallen into mention of a man to be oft remembered, that I in a few words recount his life and pursuits, and what sort of fortune he has enjoyed. Helvidius Priscus [from the Carecine region of Italy], from the municipium of Cluviae, with a father who had borne the rank of the primus pilus, being endowed with an illustrious talent, as a very young man gave himself to higher studies, not, as the majority, to veil with a magnificent name a sluggish idleness, but in order that, the more steadfast against fortuitous things, he might take up the commonwealth. He followed teachers of wisdom, who count as the only goods those things which are honorable, and as evils only those which are base; power, nobility, and the other things outside the mind they reckon neither among goods nor among evils.

quaestorius adhuc a Paeto Thrasea gener delectus e moribus soceri nihil aeque ac libertatem hausit, civis, senator, maritus, gener, amicus, cunctis vitae officiis aequabilis, opum contemptor, recti pervicax, constans adversus metus.

still a quaestorian, chosen as a son-in-law by Paetus Thrasea, from the morals of his father-in-law he imbibed nothing so much as liberty, a citizen, senator, husband, son-in-law, friend, even-tempered in all the duties of life, a contemner of wealth, pertinacious for the right, steadfast against fear.

[6] Erant quibus adpetentior famae videretur, quando etiam sapientibus cupido gloriae novissima exuitur. ruina soceri in exilium pulsus, ut Galbae principatu rediit, Marcellum Eprium, delatorem Thraseae, accusare adgreditur. ea ultio, incertum maior an iustior, senatum in studia diduxerat: nam si caderet Marcellus, agmen reorum sternebatur.

[6] There were those to whom he seemed more appetent of fame, since even in the wise the desire for glory is stripped off last. Driven into exile by his father-in-law’s ruin, when he returned under Galba’s principate, he set about to accuse Eprius Marcellus, the delator of Thrasea. That vengeance, uncertain whether greater or more just, had split the senate into factions: for if Marcellus were to fall, a line of the accused would be laid low.

primo minax certamen et egregiis utriusque orationibus testatum; mox dubia voluntate Galbae, multis senatorum deprecantibus, omisit Priscus, variis, ut sunt hominum ingenia, sermonibus moderationem laudantium aut constantiam requirentium. Ceterum eo senatus die quo de imperio Vespasiani censebant, placuerat mitti ad principem legatos. hinc inter Helvidium et Eprium acre iurgium: Priscus eligi nominatim a magistratibus iuratis, Marcellus urnam postulabat, quae consulis designati sententia fuerat.

at first a menacing contest, and attested by the distinguished speeches of each; soon, with Galba’s will wavering, as many of the senators were pleading, Priscus gave it up, while, with varied conversations—as the natures of men are—some were praising moderation, others were demanding constancy. Moreover, on that day of the senate on which they were voting about the imperium of Vespasian, it had been resolved that envoys be sent to the princeps. Hence between Helvidius and Eprius there was a sharp quarrel: Priscus was for being chosen by name by the sworn magistrates, Marcellus was demanding the urn (ballot), which had been the opinion of the consul-designate.

[7] Sed Marcelli studium proprius rubor excitabat ne aliis electis posthabitus crederetur. paulatimque per altercationem ad continuas et infestas orationes provecti sunt, quaerente Helvidio quid ita Marcellus iudicium magistratuum pavesceret: esse illi pecuniam et eloquentiam, quis multos anteiret, ni memoria flagitiorum urgeretur. sorte et urna mores non discerni: suffragia et existimationem senatus reperta ut in cuiusque vitam famamque penetrarent.

[7] But Marcellus’s zeal was stirred by his own blush, lest, with others chosen, he be believed to have been set after. And little by little, through altercation, they were carried on to continuous and hostile orations, Helvidius asking why thus Marcellus was quailing at the judgment of the magistrates: that he had money and eloquence, by which he outstripped many, were he not pressed by the memory of scandals. By lot and urn character is not discerned: suffrages and the estimation of the senate were devised so that they might penetrate into each one’s life and reputation.

pertinere ad utilitatem rei publicae, pertinere ad Vespasiani honorem, occurrere illi quos innocentissimos senatus habeat, qui honestis sermonibus auris imperatoris imbuant. fuisse Vespasiano amicitiam cum Thrasea, Sorano, Sentio; quorum accusatores etiam si puniri non oporteat, ostentari non debere. hoc senatus iudicio velut admoneri principem quos probet, quos reformidet.

to pertain to the utility of the republic, to pertain to Vespasian’s honor, that those whom the senate holds most innocent should go to meet him, to imbue the emperor’s ears with honorable discourses. that Vespasian had amity with Thrasea, Soranus, Sentio; whose accusers, even if they ought not to be punished, ought not to be displayed. by this judgment of the senate the princeps is, as it were, admonished whom he should approve, whom he should dread.

nullum maius boni imperii instrumentum quam bonos amicos esse. satis Marcello quod Neronem in exitium tot innocentium impulerit: frueretur praemiis et impunitate, Vespasianum melioribus relinqueret.

no greater instrument of good imperial rule than to have good friends. enough for Marcellus that he drove Nero into the destruction of so many innocents: let him enjoy his rewards and impunity, and let him leave Vespasian to better men.

[8] Marcellus non suam sententiam impugnari, sed consulem designatum censuisse dicebat, secundum vetera exempla quae sortem legationibus posuissent, ne ambitioni aut inimicitiis locus foret. nihil evenisse cur antiquitus instituta exolescerent aut principis honor in cuiusquam contumeliam verteretur; sufficere omnis obsequio. id magis vitandum ne pervicacia quorundam inritaretur animus novo principatu suspensus et vultus quoque ac sermones omnium circumspectans.

[8] Marcellus said that it was not his own opinion that was being attacked, but that the consul designate had so judged, in accordance with ancient precedents which had set the lot for embassies, lest there be room for ambition or enmities. Nothing had occurred why the institutions of old should grow obsolete or the honor of the prince be turned into anyone’s contumely; obedience from all was sufficient. This was rather to be avoided, lest by the stubbornness of certain persons the temper, suspended under a new principate and scrutinizing even the looks and utterances of all, be provoked.

se meminisse temporum quibus natus sit, quam civitatis formam patres avique instituerint; ulteriora mirari, praesentia sequi; bonos imperatores voto expetere, qualiscumque tolerare. non magis sua oratione Thraseam quam iudicio senatus adflictum; saevitiam Neronis per eius modi imagines inlusisse, nec minus sibi anxiam talem amicitiam quam aliis exilium. denique constantia fortitudine Catonibus et Brutis aequaretur Helvidius: se unum esse ex illo senatu, qui simul servierit.

that he remembered the times in which he was born, what form of the commonwealth the fathers and grandfathers had instituted; to marvel at things more remote, to follow the present; to seek good emperors by vow, to tolerate whatever kind. that Thrasea was overthrown not so much by his oration as by the judgment of the senate; that the savagery of Nero had sported through images of that sort, and that such a friendship was to himself no less anxious than exile to others. finally, that in constancy and fortitude Helvidius was equaled to the Catones and the Bruti: that he was one out of that senate which together had served in bondage.

suadere etiam Prisco ne supra principem scanderet, ne Vespasianum senem triumphalem, iuvenum liberorum patrem, praeceptis coerceret. quo modo pessimis imperatoribus sine fine dominationem, ita quamvis egregiis modum libertatis placere. haec magnis utrimque contentionibus iactata diversis studiis accipiebantur.

they also urged Priscus not to climb above the princeps, not to restrain Vespasian, an aged triumphator, the father of young freeborn sons, by precepts. In the same way as to the worst emperors domination without end is pleasing, so even for the most excellent a measure of liberty is pleasing. These points, flung to and fro amid great contentions on both sides, were received with diverse partisanships.

vicit pars quae sortiri legatos malebat, etiam mediis patrum adnitentibus retinere morem; et splendidissimus quisque eodem inclinabat metu invidiae, si ipsi eligerentur.

The party which preferred to allot the legates prevailed, even as the moderates among the senators strove to retain the custom; and each most distinguished man inclined the same way from fear of envy, if they themselves should be chosen.

[9] Secutum aliud certamen. praetores aerarii (nam tum a praetoribus tractabatur aerarium) publicam paupertatem questi modum impensis postulaverant. eam curam consul designatus ob magnitudinem oneris et remedii difficultatem principi reservabat: Helvidius arbitrio senatus agendum censuit.

[9] Another contest followed. The praetors of the treasury (for at that time the treasury was handled by praetors), having complained of public poverty, had demanded a limit to expenditures. The consul-designate, on account of the magnitude of the burden and the difficulty of the remedy, was reserving that care to the princeps: Helvidius judged that it ought to be handled by the judgment of the senate.

cum perrogarent sententias consules, Vulcacius Tertullinus tribunus plebis intercessit ne quid super tanta re principe absente statueretur. censuerat Helvidius ut Capitolium publice restitueretur, adiuvaret Vespasianus. eam sententiam modestissimus quisque silentio, deinde oblivio transmisit: fuere qui et meminissent.

when the consuls were calling for opinions, Vulcacius Tertullinus, tribune of the plebs, interceded, that nothing be decreed concerning so great a matter with the princeps absent. Helvidius had proposed that the Capitol be restored publicly (at public expense), and that Vespasian should aid. that opinion each of the most modest passed over in silence, then into oblivion: there were those who also remembered.

[10] Tum invectus est Musonius Rufus in P. Celerem, a quo Baream Soranum falso testimonio circumventum arguebat. ea cognitione renovari odia accusationum videbantur. sed vilis et nocens reus protegi non poterat: quippe Sorani sancta memoria; Celer professus sapientiam, dein testis in Baream, proditor corruptorque amicitiae cuius se magistrum ferebat.

[10] Then Musonius Rufus inveighed against P. Celer, whom he was accusing of having ensnared Barea Soranus by false testimony. By that investigation the hatreds of prosecutions seemed to be renewed. But a vile and guilty defendant could not be protected: for Soranus had a sacred memory; Celer, professing wisdom, then a witness against Barea, was a betrayer and corrupter of the friendship of which he put himself forward as the master.

proximus dies causae destinatur; nec tam Musonius aut Publius quam Priscus et Marcellus ceterique, motis ad ultionem animis, expectabantur.

the next day was appointed for the cause; and not so much Musonius or Publius as Priscus and Marcellus and the others, their minds moved to vengeance, were expected.

[11] Tali rerum statu, cum discordia inter patres, ira apud victos, nulla in victoribus auctoritas, non leges, non princeps in civitate essent, Mucianus urbem ingressus cuncta simul in se traxit. fracta Primi Antonii Varique Arrii potentia, male dissimulata in eos Muciani iracundia, quamvis vultu tegeretur. sed civitas rimandis offensis sagax verterat se transtuleratque: ille unus ambiri, coli.

[11] In such a state of affairs—discord among the Fathers, wrath among the vanquished, no authority among the victors, no laws, no princeps in the commonwealth—Mucianus, having entered the city, drew everything at once to himself. The power of Antonius Primus and Arrius Varus was broken; Mucianus’s anger against them was ill-disguised, though it was veiled in his countenance. But the citizen body, shrewd at prying into affronts, had turned and transferred itself: he alone was to be courted, cultivated.

nec deerat ipse, stipatus armatis domos hortosque permutans, apparatu incessu excubiis vim principis amplecti, nomen remittere. plurimum terroris intulit caedes Calpurnii Galeriani. is fuit filius Gai Pisonis, nihil ausus: sed nomen insigne et decora ipsius iuventa rumore vulgi celebrabantur, erantque in civitate adhuc turbida et novis sermonibus laeta qui principatus inanem ei famam circumdarent.

nor was he himself lacking, surrounded by armed men, exchanging houses and gardens, by display, by gait, by guards to embrace the force of the principate, to remit the name. Very great terror was brought in by the slaughter of Calpurnius Galerianus. He was the son of Gaius Piso, having dared nothing; but his distinguished name and the graces of his own youth were celebrated by the rumor of the crowd, and there were in a city still turbulent and glad of fresh talk those who would wrap him with the empty fame of the principate.

iussu Muciani custodia militari cinctus, ne in ipsa urbe conspectior mors foret, ad quadragensimum ab urbe lapidem Appia via fuso per venas sanguine extinguitur. Iulius Priscus praetoriarum sub Vitellio cohortium praefectus se ipse interfecit, pudore magis quam necessitate. Alfenus Varus ignaviae infamiaeque suae superfuit.

By Mucianus’s order, surrounded by a military guard, lest his death be more conspicuous in the city itself, at the fortieth milestone from the city on the Appian Way he was extinguished, the blood poured out through his veins. Julius Priscus, prefect of the cohorts of the praetorians under Vitellius, killed himself, more from shame than necessity. Alfenus Varus outlived his ignavia and infamy.

Asiaticus (is enim libertus) malam potentiam servili supplicio expiavit.

Asiaticus (for he was a freedman) expiated his evil power by a servile punishment.

[12] Isdem diebus crebrescentem cladis Germanicae famam nequaquam maesta civitas excipiebat; caesos exercitus, capta legionum hiberna, descivisse Gallias non ut mala loquebantur. id bellum quibus causis ortum, quanto externarum sociarumque gentium motu flagraverit, altius expediam. Batavi, donec trans Rhenum agebant, pars Chattorum, seditione domestica pulsi extrema Gallicae orae vacua cultoribus simulque insulam iuxta sitam occupavere, quam mare Oceanus a fronte, Rhenus amnis tergum ac latera circumluit.

[12] In those same days the city by no means received the growing report of the Germanic calamity in a mournful mood; they spoke of the armies cut down, the winter-quarters of the legions captured, the Gauls having defected, not as evils. That war—by what causes it arose, with how great a commotion of foreign and allied nations it blazed—I will unfold more deeply. The Batavi, so long as they lived beyond the Rhine, were a part of the Chatti; driven out by domestic sedition, they seized the far end of the Gallic shore empty of cultivators, and likewise the island lying next to it, which the Ocean sea washes on the front, and the river Rhine bathes around the back and sides.

nec opibus (rarum in societate validiorum) attritis viros tantum armaque imperio ministrant, diu Germanicis bellis exerciti, mox aucta per Britanniam gloria, transmissis illuc cohortibus, quas vetere instituto nobilissimi popularium regebant. erat et domi delectus eques, praecipuo nandi studio, arma equosque retinens integris turmis Rhenum perrumpere . . .

nor, their resources not worn down (a rare thing in alliance with the more powerful), they supply to the Empire only men and arms, long exercised in Germanic wars, soon with their glory augmented through Britain, cohorts having been sent across thither, which by ancient institution the most noble of their compatriots commanded. there was also at home a picked cavalry, with a special zeal for swimming, retaining arms and horses, to break through the Rhine in intact squadrons . . .

[13] Iulius Paulus et Iulius Civilis regia stirpe multo ceteros anteibant. Paulum Fonteius Capito falso rebellionis crimine interfecit; iniectae Civili catenae, missusque ad Neronem et a Galba absolutus sub Vitellio rursus discrimen adiit, flagitante supplicium eius exercitu: inde causae irarum spesque ex malis nostris. sed Civilis ultra quam barbaris solitum ingenio sollers et Sertorium se aut Annibalem ferens simili oris dehonestamento, ne ut hosti obviam iretur, si a populo Romano palam descivisset, Vespasiani amicitiam studiumque partium praetendit, missis sane ad eum Primi Antonii litteris, quibus avertere accita Vitellio auxilia et tumultus Germanici specie retentare legiones iubebatur.

[13] Julius Paulus and Julius Civilis, of royal stock, far outstripped the rest. Paulus Fonteius Capito killed on a false charge of rebellion; chains were thrown upon Civilis, and he was sent to Nero and, acquitted by Galba, under Vitellius he again approached peril, the army clamoring for his punishment: from that came causes of angers and a hope based on our misfortunes. But Civilis, clever in intellect beyond what is usual for barbarians, and styling himself a Sertorius or a Hannibal, with a similar disfigurement of the face, so that he might not be met as an enemy if he had openly defected from the Roman people, put forward the friendship of Vespasian and zeal for his party, indeed letters having been sent to him by Antonius Primus, in which he was ordered to divert the auxiliaries summoned by Vitellius and, under the appearance of a German tumult, to hold back the legions.

eadem Hordeonius Flaccus praesens monuerat, inclinato in Vespasianum animo et rei publicae cura, cui excidium adventabat, si redintegratum bellum et tot armatorum milia Italiam inrupissent.

Hordeonius Flaccus, present, had warned the same things, his mind inclined toward Vespasian and with a concern for the commonwealth, to which destruction was drawing near, if the war were renewed and so many thousands of armed men should break into Italy.

[14] Igitur Civilis desciscendi certus, occultato interim altiore consilio, cetera ex eventu iudicaturus, novare res hoc modo coepit. iussu Vitellii Batavorum iuventus ad dilectum vocabatur, quem suapte natura gravem onerabant ministri avaritia ac luxu, senes aut invalidos conquirendo, quos pretio dimitterent: rursus impubes et forma conspicui (et est plerisque procera pueritia) ad stuprum trahebantur. hinc invidia, et compositae seditionis auctores perpulere ut dilectum abnuerent.

[14] Therefore Civilis, certain of defection, with the deeper counsel meanwhile concealed, intending to judge the rest from the event, began to innovate affairs in this way. By Vitellius’s order the youth of the Batavi were summoned to a levy, which, heavy by its own nature, the ministers burdened with avarice and luxury, by collecting old men or the unfit, whom they dismissed for a price: conversely, the beardless and those conspicuous for beauty (and for most there is a tall boyhood) were dragged to debauchery. Hence odium; and the authors of a concerted sedition drove them to refuse the levy.

Civilis primores gentis et promptissimos vulgi specie epularum sacrum in nemus vocatos, ubi nocte ac laetitia incaluisse videt, a laude gloriaque gentis orsus iniurias et raptus et cetera servitii mala enumerat: neque enim societatem, ut olim, sed tamquam mancipia haberi: quando legatum, gravi quidem comitatu et superbo, cum imperio venire? tradi se praefectis centurionibusque: quos ubi spoliis et sanguine expleverint, mutari, exquirique novos sinus et varia praedandi vocabula. instare dilectum quo liberi a parentibus, fratres a fratribus velut supremum dividantur.

Civilis, having called the foremost of the tribe and the most prompt of the common folk into a sacred grove under the pretext of banqueting, when he sees that with night and rejoicing they had grown warm, beginning from the praise and glory of the tribe, enumerates the injuries and rapines and the other evils of servitude: for they are not regarded as in a partnership, as once, but as if chattels; the legate comes with a weighty and haughty retinue, with imperium; they are handed over to prefects and centurions—who, when they have been filled with spoils and blood, are replaced, and new bosoms are sought out and varied vocabularies for plundering. The levy presses on, whereby children from parents, brothers from brothers, are divided as if for the last time.

numquam magis adflictam rem Romanam nec aliud in hibernis quam praedam et senes: attollerent tantum oculos et inania legionum nomina ne pavescerent. at sibi robur peditum equitumque, consanguineos Germanos, Gallias idem cupientis. ne Romanis quidem ingratum id bellum, cuius ambiguam fortunam Vespasiano imputaturos: victoriae rationem non reddi.

never more afflicted was the Roman state, nor in the winter-quarters anything other than plunder and old men: let them only lift up their eyes and not be cowed by the empty names of legions. but on his side were the strength of infantry and cavalry, kindred Germans, the Gauls wanting the same. not even to the Romans would that war be ungrateful, since they would impute its ambiguous fortune to Vespasian: for victory renders no account.

[15] Magno cum adsensu auditus barbaro ritu et patriis execrationibus universos adigit. missi ad Canninefatis qui consilia sociarent. ea gens partem insulae colit, origine lingua virtute par Batavis; numero superantur.

[15] Heard with great assent, by barbarian rite and by native execrations he compels all. Envoys were sent to the Canninefates to unite counsels. That tribe inhabits part of the island, equal to the Batavi in origin, language, and valor; in numbers they are surpassed.

mox occultis nuntiis pellexit Britannica auxilia, Batavorum cohortis missas in Germaniam, ut supra rettulimus, ac tum Mogontiaci agentis. erat in Canninefatibus stolidae audaciae Brinno, claritate natalium insigni; pater eius multa hostilia ausus Gaianarum expeditionum ludibrium impune spreverat. igitur ipso rebellis familiae nomine placuit impositusque scuto more gentis et sustinentium umeris vibratus dux deligitur.

soon by secret messengers he enticed the British auxiliaries, the cohorts of the Batavi, sent into Germany, as we have related above, and at that time stationed at Mogontiacum. There was among the Canninefates a Brinno of stolid audacity, distinguished by the renown of his birth; his father, having dared many hostile acts, had with impunity spurned the mockery of Gaius’s expeditions. Therefore, by the very name of his rebellious house he found favor, and, set upon a shield after the custom of the nation and brandished on the shoulders of those who bore him, he is chosen leader.

statimque accitis Frisiis (transrhenana gens est) duarum cohortium hiberna proximo +occupata+ Oceano inrumpit. nec providerant impetum hostium milites, nec, si providissent, satis virium ad arcendum erat: capta igitur ac direpta castra. dein vagos et pacis modo effusos lixas negotiatoresque Romanos invadunt.

And immediately, with the Frisians summoned (a trans-Rhenan tribe), he bursts into the winter-quarters of two cohorts lying next to the Ocean. The soldiers had not foreseen the onrush of the enemy, nor, if they had foreseen it, was there strength enough to ward it off: accordingly the camp was seized and sacked. Then they fall upon the camp-followers and Roman negotiators/merchants, wandering and spread out in the fashion of peace.

simul excidiis castellorum imminebant, quae a praefectis cohortium incensa sunt, quia defendi nequibant. signa vexillaque et quod militum in superiorem insulae partem congregantur, duce Aquilio primipilari, nomen magis exercitus quam robur: quippe viribus cohortium abductis Vitellius e proximis Nerviorum Germanorumque pagis segnem numerum armis oneraverat.

at the same time they were threatening the razing of the forts, which were set on fire by the prefects of the cohorts, because they could not be defended. the standards and banners, and whatever soldiers there were, are gathered into the upper part of the island, under the leadership of Aquilius, a primipilar; more the name of an army than its strength: for, the forces of the cohorts having been withdrawn, Vitellius had burdened with arms a sluggish headcount from the neighboring districts of the Nervii and the Germans.

[16] Civilis dolo grassandum ratus incusavit ultro praefectos quod castella deseruissent: se cum cohorte, cui praeerat, Canninefatem tumultum compressurum, illi sua quisque hiberna repeterent. subesse fraudem consilio et dispersas cohortis facilius opprimi, nec Brinnonem ducem eius belli, sed Civilem esse patuit, erumpentibus paulatim indiciis, quae Germani, laeta bello gens, non diu occultaverant. ubi insidiae parum cessere, ad vim transgressus Canninefatis, Frisios, Batavos propriis cuneis componit: derecta ex diverso acies haud procul a flumine Rheno et obversis in hostem navibus, quas incensis castellis illuc adpulerant.

[16] Thinking that he must proceed by guile, Civilis, going on the offensive, accused the prefects for having abandoned the forts: he, with the cohort he commanded, would suppress the tumult of the Canninefates; they should each return to their own winter quarters. That fraud underlay the plan and that the scattered cohorts could be more easily overwhelmed, and that the leader of that war was not Brinno but Civilis, became evident, as indications gradually broke out—indications which the Germans, a people gladdened by war, had not long concealed. When his ambushes succeeded too little, shifting over to open force, he arrays the Canninefates, the Frisians, the Batavians in their own wedge-formations: a battle line was drawn up opposite, not far from the river Rhine, and with the ships turned to face the enemy, which, the forts having been burned, they had brought there.

nec diu certato Tungrorum cohors signa ad Civilem transtulit, perculsique milites improvisa proditione a sociis hostibusque caedebantur. eadem etiam <in> navibus perfidia: pars remigum e Batavis tamquam imperitia officia nautarum propugnatorumque impediebant; mox contra tendere et puppis hostili ripae obicere: ad postremum gubernatores centurionesque, nisi eadem volentis, trucidant, donec universa quattuor et viginti navium classis transfugeret aut caperetur.

nor, the contest not long prolonged, did the cohort of the Tungri transfer its standards to Civilis, and the soldiers, struck by the unforeseen treachery, were being cut down by allies and enemies alike. the same perfidy also <in> the ships: a part of the oarsmen from the Batavi, under the guise of inexperience, impeded the duties of sailors and fighting-men; soon they headed the opposite way and turned the sterns toward the hostile bank: at last they butcher the helmsmen and the centurions, unless they were willing the same, until the entire fleet of twenty-four ships either defected or was captured.

[17] Clara ea victoria in praesens, in posterum usui; armaque et navis, quibus indigebant, adepti magna per Germanias Galliasque fama libertatis auctores celebrabantur. Germaniae statim misere legatos auxilia offerentis: Galliarum societatem Civilis arte donisque adfectabat, captos cohortium praefectos suas in civitates remittendo, cohortibus, abire an manere mallent, data potestate. manentibus honorata militia, digredientibus spolia Romanorum offerebantur: simul secretis sermonibus admonebat malorum, quae tot annis perpessi miseram servitutem falso pacem vocarent.

[17] That victory was illustrious for the present, useful for the future; and having obtained the arms and the ships of which they were in need, they were celebrated with great fame throughout the Germanies and the Gauls as authors of liberty. The Germanies at once sent envoys offering auxiliaries: the alliance of the Gauls Civilis was courting by craft and gifts, by sending back the captured prefects of cohorts to their own civitates, power being given to the cohorts to choose whether they preferred to depart or to remain. For those remaining, honored military service; for those withdrawing, the spoils of the Romans were offered: at the same time, in secret conversations, he reminded them of the evils which, having endured for so many years, they falsely called “peace,” though it was wretched servitude.

Batavos, quamquam tributorum expertis, arma contra communis dominos cepisse; prima acie fusum victumque Romanum. quid si Galliae iugum exuant? quantum in Italia reliquum?

The Batavians, although exempt from tributes, have taken up arms against the common masters; in the first engagement the Roman was routed and vanquished. What if the Gauls cast off the yoke? How much remains in Italy?

provinciarum sanguine provincias vinci. ne Vindicis aciem cogitarent: Batavo equite protritos Aeduos Arvernosque; fuisse inter Verginii auxilia Belgas, vereque reputantibus Galliam suismet viribus concidisse. nunc easdem omnium partis, addito si quid militaris disciplinae in castris Romanorum viguerit; esse secum veteranas cohortis, quibus nuper Othonis legiones procubuerint.

to have provinces conquered with the blood of provinces. let them not be thinking of Vindex’s battle-line: the Aedui and the Arverni were crushed by Batavian cavalry; among Verginius’s auxiliaries were the Belgae, and, reckoning truly, Gaul collapsed by her own forces. now those same parties are on their side, with the addition of whatever of military discipline has flourished in the Roman camps; veteran cohorts are with them, before whom the legions of Otho lately fell prostrate.

servirent Syria Asiaque et suetus regibus Oriens: multos adhuc in Gallia vivere ante tributa genitos. nuper certe caeso Quintilio Varo pulsam e Germania servitutem, nec Vitellium principem sed Caesarem Augustum bello provocatum. libertatem natura etiam mutis animalibus datam, virtutem proprium hominum bonum; deos fortioribus adesse: proinde arriperent vacui occupatos, integri fessos.

let Syria and Asia serve, and the Orient accustomed to kings: many still in Gaul live, born before tribute. Lately indeed, with Quintilius Varus slain, servitude was driven out of Germany, and it was not Vitellius the emperor but Caesar Augustus who was provoked to war. Liberty has been given by nature even to mute animals, virtue is the proper good of human beings; the gods are present to the stronger: accordingly let the unencumbered seize the encumbered, the fresh the weary.

dum alii Vespasianum, alii Vitellium foveant, patere locum adversus utrumque.

while some favor Vespasian, others Vitellius, the field lies open against both.

[18] sic in Gallias Germaniasque intentus, si destinata provenissent, validissimarum ditissimarumque nationum regno imminebat. At Flaccus Hordeonius primos Civilis conatus per dissimulationem aluit: ubi expugnata castra, deletas cohortis, pulsum Batavorum insula Romanum nomen trepidi nuntii adferebant, Munium Lupercum legatum (is duarum legionum hibernis praeerat) egredi adversus hostem iubet. Lupercus legionarios e praesentibus, Vbios e proximis, Trevirorum equites haud longe agentis raptim transmisit, addita Batavorum ala, quae iam pridem corrupta fidem simulabat, ut proditis in ipsa acie Romanis maiore pretio fugeret.

[18] thus, intent upon the Gauls and the Germanies, if his designs had turned out, he was looming over the sovereignty of the strongest and richest nations. But Hordeonius Flaccus fostered the first attempts of Civilis by dissimulation: when alarmed messengers were bringing word that the camp had been stormed, the cohorts annihilated, the Roman name driven from the Batavian island, he orders Munius Lupercus, the legate (he was in command of the winter-quarters of two legions), to go out against the enemy. Lupercus hastily sent over legionaries from those on hand, Ubii from the nearest places, and the cavalry of the Treveri who were operating not far away, with the Batavian ala added, which, long since corrupted, was feigning loyalty, in order that, with the Romans betrayed on the very battle-line, it might flee for a higher price.

Civilis captarum cohortium signis circumdatus, ut suo militi recens gloria ante oculos et hostes memoria cladis terrerentur, matrem suam sororesque, simul omnium coniuges parvosque liberos consistere a tergo iubet, hortamenta victoriae vel pulsis pudorem. ut virorum cantu, feminarum ululatu sonuit acies, nequaquam par a legionibus cohortibusque redditur clamor. nudaverat sinistrum cornu Batavorum ala transfugiens statimque in nos versa.

Civilis, surrounded by the standards of the captured cohorts, in order that his own soldiery might have recent glory before their eyes and the enemies be terrified by the memory of the slaughter, orders his mother and sisters, together with the wives of all and their little children, to take their stand to the rear—hortaments of victory, or, if routed, of shame. As the battle line resounded with the chant of the men and the ululation of the women, a cry by no means equal is returned by the legions and cohorts. The Batavian ala, defecting, had stripped bare the left wing and immediately was turned against us.

sed legionarius miles, quamquam rebus trepidis, arma ordinesque retinebat. Vbiorum Trevirorumque auxilia foeda fuga dispersa totis campis palantur: illuc incubuere Germani, et fuit interim effugium legionibus in castra, quibus Veterum nomen est. praefectus alae Batavorum Claudius Labeo, oppidano certamine aemulus Civili, ne interfectus invidiam apud popularis vel, si retineretur, semina discordiae praeberet, in Frisios avehitur.

but the legionary soldiery, although in alarming circumstances, kept their arms and ranks. The auxiliaries of the Ubii and Treveri, dispersed in foul flight, were straggling over all the plains: the Germans bore down there, and meanwhile there was an escape for the legions into the camp whose name is Vetera. Claudius Labeo, prefect of the Batavian ala, a rival to Civilis in a civic feud, lest, if slain, he provoke ill-will among his compatriots, or, if kept, supply seeds of discord, was carried off to the Frisii.

[19] Isdem diebus Batavorum et Canninefatium cohortis, cum iussu Vitellii in urbem pergerent, missus a Civile nuntius adsequitur. intumuere statim superbia ferociaque et pretium itineris donativum, duplex stipendium, augeri equitum numerum, promissa sane a Vitellio, postulabant, non ut adsequerentur, sed causam seditioni. et Flaccus multa concedendo nihil aliud effecerat quam ut acrius exposcerent quae sciebant negaturum.

[19] In the same days the cohorts of the Batavi and of the Canninefates, as they were proceeding into the city by order of Vitellius, are overtaken by a messenger sent by Civilis. They at once swelled with pride and ferocity, and were demanding, as the price of the march, a donative, double stipend, the number of cavalry to be augmented—things indeed promised by Vitellius—not in order to obtain them, but as a cause for sedition. And Flaccus, by conceding many things, had effected nothing else than that they more keenly exacted the things which they knew he would deny.

spreto Flacco inferiorem Germaniam petivere ut Civili iungerentur. Hordeonius adhibitis tribunis centurionibusque consultavit num obsequium abnuentis vi coerceret; mox insita ignavia et trepidis ministris, quos ambiguus auxiliorum animus et subito dilectu suppletae legiones angebant, statuit continere intra castra militem: dein paenitentia et arguentibus ipsis qui suaserant, tamquam secuturus scripsit Herennio Gallo legionis primae legato, qui Bonnam obtinebat, ut arceret transitu Batavos: se cum exercitu tergis eorum haesurum. et opprimi poterant si hinc Hordeonius, inde Gallus, motis utrimque copiis, medios clausissent.

Flaccus having been spurned, they sought Lower Germany to be joined to Civilis. Hordeonius, summoning the tribunes and centurions, consulted whether he should by force coerce those refusing obedience; soon, owing to his inborn sloth and to panic‑stricken subordinates, whom the wavering spirit of the auxiliaries and the legions made up by a sudden levy were vexing, he decided to confine the soldiery within the camp. Then, repenting and with those very men who had advised it now accusing, as if he were going to follow up, he wrote to Herennius Gallus, legate of the First Legion, who held Bonna, to bar the Batavians from a crossing: that he himself with the army would fasten upon their backs. And they could have been crushed if on this side Hordeonius, on that side Gallus, with forces set in motion on both flanks, had enclosed them in the middle.

Flaccus omisit inceptum aliisque litteris Gallum monuit ne terreret abeuntis: unde suspicio sponte legatorum excitari bellum cunctaque quae acciderant aut metuebantur non inertia militis neque hostium vi, sed fraude ducum evenire.

Flaccus abandoned the undertaking and by other letters warned Gallus not to terrify those departing: whence a suspicion that war was being stirred up by the legates’ own accord, and that everything which had happened or was feared was coming about not by the inertia of the soldiery nor by the force of the enemy, but by the fraud of the commanders.

[20] Batavi cum castris Bonnensibus propinquarent, praemisere qui Herennio Gallo mandata cohortium exponeret. nullum sibi bellum adversus Romanos, pro quibus totiens bellassent: longa atque inrita militia fessis patriae atque otii cupidinem esse. si nemo obsisteret, innoxium iter fore: sin arma occurrant, ferro viam inventuros.

[20] When the Batavi were approaching the Bonn camps, they sent ahead men to set forth to Herenn(i)us Gallus the mandates of the cohorts. They had no war against the Romans, for whom they had so often waged war; long and fruitless military service bred in the weary a desire for fatherland and leisure. If no one should oppose, their march would be innocuous; but if arms should meet them, they would find a way by iron.

cunctantem legatum milites perpulerant fortunam proelii experiretur. tria milia legionariorum et tumultuariae Belgarum cohortes, simul paganorum lixarumque ignava sed procax ante periculum manus omnibus portis prorumpunt ut Batavos numero imparis circumfundant. illi veteres militiae in cuneos congregantur, densi undique et frontem tergaque ac latus tuti; sic tenuem nostrorum aciem perfringunt.

The soldiers had forced the hesitating legate to try the fortune of battle. Three thousand legionaries and the tumultuary cohorts of the Belgae, together with the band of pagani (countryfolk) and lixae (sutlers), cowardly but impudent before danger, burst out from all the gates to surround the Batavi, inferior in numbers. They, veterans in soldiery, gather into wedges, packed on every side and with front, rear, and flank secure; thus they break through the thin battle-line of our men.

cedentibus Belgis pellitur legio, et vallum portasque trepidi petebant. ibi plurimum cladis: cumulatae corporibus fossae, nec caede tantum et vulneribus, sed ruina et suis plerique telis interiere. victores colonia Agrippinensium vitata, nihil cetero in itinere hostile ausi, Bonnense proelium excusabant, tamquam petita pace, postquam negabatur, sibimet ipsi consuluissent.

with the Belgae yielding, the legion is driven back, and in trepidation they were making for the rampart and the gates. there was the greatest carnage: the ditches heaped with bodies, and very many perished not only by slaughter and wounds, but by collapse and by their own weapons. the victors, the colony of the Agrippinenses avoided, dared nothing hostile on the rest of the march; they excused the Bonn battle, on the grounds that, when peace sought was being denied, they had consulted their own interest.

[21] Civilis adventu veteranarum cohortium iusti iam exercitus ductor, sed consilii ambiguus et vim Romanam reputans, cunctos qui aderant in verba Vespasiani adigit mittitque legatos ad duas legiones, quae priore acie pulsae in Vetera castra concesserant, ut idem sacramentum acciperent. redditur responsum: neque proditoris neque hostium se consiliis uti; esse sibi Vitellium principem, pro quo fidem et arma usque ad supremum spiritum retenturos: proinde perfuga Batavus arbitrium rerum Romanarum ne ageret, sed meritas sceleris poenas expectaret. quae ubi relata Civili, incensus ira universam Batavorum gentem in arma rapit; iunguntur Bructeri Tencterique et excita nuntiis Germania ad praedam famamque.

[21] Civilis, at the advent of the veteran cohorts, already the leader of a now regular army, yet ambiguous in counsel and reckoning the Roman force, compels all who were present to swear into the words of Vespasian and sends envoys to the two legions which, routed in the prior battle line, had withdrawn into the camp at Vetera, that they might accept the same sacrament. A reply is returned: that they would employ the counsels neither of a traitor nor of enemies; that Vitellius was their emperor, for whom they would retain faith and arms up to the last breath: therefore let the Batavian deserter not act as arbiter of Roman affairs, but await the deserved penalties of his crime. When these things were reported to Civilis, inflamed with wrath he sweeps the whole nation of the Batavi into arms; the Bructeri and Tencteri are joined, and Germany, roused by messengers, [rushes] to plunder and fame.

[22] Adversus has concurrentis belli minas legati legionum Munius Lupercus et Numisius Rufus vallum murosque firmabant. subversa longae pacis opera, haud procul castris in modum municipii extructa, ne hostibus usui forent. sed parum provisum ut copiae in castra conveherentur; rapi permisere: ita paucis diebus per licentiam absumpta sunt quae adversus necessitates in longum suffecissent.

[22] Against these threats of a concurrent war, the legates of the legions, Munius Lupercus and Numisius Rufus, were strengthening the rampart and the walls. The works of long peace, constructed not far from the camp in the manner of a municipium, were subverted, lest they be of use to the enemy. But too little was provided, that supplies be conveyed into the camp; they allowed them to be snatched: thus in a few days, through license, those things were consumed which would have sufficed against necessities for a long time.

Civilis medium agmen cum robore Batavorum obtinens utramque Rheni ripam, quo truculentior visu foret, Germanorum catervis complet, adsultante per campos equite; simul naves in adversum amnem agebantur. hinc veteranarum cohortium signa, inde depromptae silvis lucisque ferarum imagines, ut cuique genti inire proelium mos est, mixta belli civilis externique facie obstupefecerant obsessos. et spem obpugnantium augebat amplitudo valli, quod duabus legionibus situm vix quinque milia armatorum Romanorum tuebantur; sed lixarum multitudo turbata pace illuc congregata et bello ministra aderat.

Civilis, holding the middle column with the strength of the Batavians, fills both banks of the Rhine, that he might be the more truculent to behold, with companies of Germans, while the cavalry makes assaults across the plains; at the same time ships were being driven upstream against the river. On the one side were the standards of the veteran cohorts, on the other the images of wild beasts fetched from woods and sacred groves, as it is the custom of each nation to enter battle, and the mingled face of civil and foreign war had stupefied the besieged. And the amplitude of the rampart increased the hope of the attackers, because, though laid out for two legions, scarcely five thousand armed Romans were guarding it; but a multitude of sutlers, peace being disturbed, had gathered thither and, as a minister to the war, was at hand.

[23] Pars castrorum in collem leniter exurgens, pars aequo adibatur. quippe illis hibernis obsideri premique Germanias Augustus crediderat, neque umquam id malorum ut obpugnatum ultro legiones nostras venirent; inde non loco neque munimentis labor additus: vis et arma satis placebant. Batavi Transrhenanique, quo discreta virtus manifestius spectaretur, sibi quaeque gens consistunt, eminus lacessentes.

[23] Part of the camp rose gently onto a hill, part was approachable on level ground. For Augustus had believed that the Germanies would be besieged and pressed by those winter-quarters, and never such an amount of ills as that men would come unprovoked to storm our legions; hence no toil was added in respect of position nor in muniments: force and arms seemed sufficient. The Batavi and those Beyond the Rhine, in order that their distinct valor might be seen more manifestly, each nation took its stand by itself, provoking from afar.

post ubi pleraque telorum turribus pinnisque moenium inrita haerebant et desuper saxis vulnerabantur, clamore atque impetu invasere vallum, adpositis plerique scalis, alii per testudinem suorum; scandebantque iam quidam, cum gladiis et armorum incussu praecipitati sudibus et pilis obruuntur, praeferoces initio et rebus secundis nimii. sed tum praedae cupidine adversa quoque tolerabant; machinas etiam, insolitum sibi, ausi. nec ulla ipsis sollertia: perfugae captivique docebant struere materias in modum pontis, mox subiectis rotis propellere, ut alii superstantes tamquam ex aggere proeliarentur, pars intus occulti muros subruerent.

afterwards, when most of the missiles were sticking ineffectual to the towers and battlements of the walls and they were being wounded from above by stones, with a shout and a rush they assaulted the rampart, most with ladders set up, others under a testudo of their comrades; and some were already scaling, when, by swords and the crash of armor, they are thrown headlong and overwhelmed with stakes and pila—over-fierce at the outset and, in favorable conditions, excessive. but then, by a lust for plunder, they were enduring even reverses; they even dared engines, a thing unusual to them. nor had they any skill themselves: deserters and captives were teaching them to heap materials in the manner of a bridge, then, wheels placed beneath, to drive it forward, so that some, standing atop, might fight as if from a rampart, while part, hidden within, might undermine the walls.

sed excussa ballistis saxa stravere informe opus. et cratis vineasque parantibus adactae tormentis ardentes hastae, ultroque ipsi obpugnatores ignibus petebantur, donec desperata vi verterent consilium ad moras, haud ignari paucorum dierum inesse alimenta et multum imbellis turbae; simul ex inopia proditio et fluxa servitiorum fides ac fortuita belli sperabantur.

but the stones discharged by the ballistae laid low the shapeless work. And as they were preparing hurdles and vineae, burning spears, driven by the engines, were shot in, and in turn the besiegers themselves were assailed with fires, until, despairing of force, they shifted their plan to delays, not unaware that provisions for only a few days were on hand and that there was a large throng of unwarlike folk; at the same time betrayal born of want, the fickle faith of the servile ranks, and the fortuitous chances of war were being hoped for.

[24] Flaccus interim cognito castrorum obsidio et missis per Gallias qui auxilia concirent, lectos e legionibus Dillio Voculae duoetvicensimae legionis legato tradit, ut quam maximis per ripam itineribus celeraret, ipse navibus <invadit> invalidus corpore, invisus militibus. neque enim ambigue fremebant: emissas a Mogontiaco Batavorum cohortis, dissimulatos Civilis conatus, adsciri in societatem Germanos. non Primi Antonii neque Muciani ope Vespasianum magis adolevisse.

[24] Flaccus, meanwhile, once the siege of the camp was known and messengers had been sent through the Gauls to stir up auxiliaries, handed over chosen men from the legions to Dillius Vocula, legate of the 22nd legion, that he might hasten with the greatest possible marches along the bank; he himself takes to the ships <invadit>, weak in body, hated by the soldiers. For they were not murmuring ambiguously: that the Batavian cohorts had been let go from Mogontiacum, that the attempts of Civilis had been dissembled, that the Germans were being called into partnership. That Vespasian’s growth had come not so much by the help of Primus Antonius nor of Mucianus.

aperta odia armaque palam depelli: fraudem et dolum obscura eoque inevitabilia. Civilem stare contra, struere aciem: Hordeonium e cubiculo et lectulo iubere quidquid hosti conducat. tot armatas fortissimorum virorum manus unius senis valetudine regi: quin potius interfecto traditore fortunam virtutemque suam malo omine exolverent.

that open hatreds and arms are driven off openly; fraud and guile are in the dark and therefore unavoidable. Civilis stands opposite, marshaling a battle-line; Hordeonius, from his bedchamber and couch, orders whatever is conducive to the enemy. So many armed bands of the bravest men are ruled by the valetudinarian condition of a single old man: why not rather, with the traitor slain, discharge their fortune and their valor from an ill omen?

his inter se vocibus instinctos flammavere insuper adlatae a Vespasiano litterae, quas Flaccus, quia occultari nequibant, pro contione recitavit, vinctosque qui attulerant ad Vitellium misit.

Spurred among themselves by these voices, they were further inflamed by letters brought from Vespasian, which Flaccus, because they could not be concealed, read out before the assembly, and he sent in chains those who had brought them to Vitellius.

[25] Sic mitigatis animis Bonnam, hiberna primae legionis, ventum. infensior illic miles culpam cladis in Hordeonium vertebat: eius iussu derectam adversus Batavos aciem, tamquam a Mogontiaco legiones sequerentur; eiusdem proditione caesos, nullis supervenientibus auxiliis: ignota haec ceteris exercitibus neque imperatori suo nuntiari, cum adcursu tot provinciarum extingui repens perfidia potuerit. Hordeonius exemplaris omnium litterarum, quibus per Gallias Britanniamque et Hispanias auxilia orabat, exercitui recitavit instituitque pessimum facinus, ut epistulae aquiliferis legionum traderentur, a quis ante militi quam ducibus legebantur.

[25] Thus, with spirits mitigated, they came to Bonna, the winter-quarters of the First Legion. The soldiery there, more hostile, was turning the blame of the catastrophe upon Hordeonius: at his order the battle-line had been set straight against the Batavians, as though the legions were following from Mogontiacum; by that same man’s treachery they had been slaughtered, with no auxiliaries supervening: these things were unknown to the other armies and were not being reported to their own emperor, whereas by the onrush of so many provinces the sudden perfidy could have been extinguished. Hordeonius read to the army exemplars of all the letters by which through the Gauls and Britain and the Spains he was begging for auxiliaries, and he instituted a most wicked deed, that the letters be handed over to the eagle-bearers of the legions, by whom they were read to the soldiery before to the commanders.

tum e seditiosis unum vinciri iubet, magis usurpandi iuris, quam quia unius culpa foret. motusque Bonna exercitus in coloniam Agrippinensem, adfluentibus auxiliis Gallorum, qui primo rem Romanam enixe iuvabant: mox valescentibus Germanis pleraeque civitates adversum nos arma <sumpsere> spe libertatis et, si exuissent servitium, cupidine imperitandi. gliscebat iracundia legionum, nec terrorem unius militis vincula indiderant: quin idem ille arguebat ultro conscientiam ducis, tamquam nuntius inter Civilem Flaccumque falso crimine testis veri opprimeretur.

Then he orders one of the seditious to be bound, more for the usurpation of authority than because the guilt was that of one. And the army, moved from Bonna to the colony of the Agrippinenses, with reinforcements of the Gauls flowing in, who at first strenuously aided the Roman cause: soon, as the Germans grew strong, most communities took up arms against us in the hope of liberty and, if they should cast off servitude, from a cupidity of commanding. The anger of the legions was swelling, nor had the chains of a single soldier implanted terror: nay, that very man was actually arraigning the commander’s conscience, on the ground that, as a messenger between Civilis and Flaccus, he was being crushed under a false charge, a witness of the truth being suppressed.

conscendit tribunal Vocula mira constantia, prensumque militem ac vociferantem duci ad supplicium iussit: et dum mali pavent, optimus quisque iussis paruere. exim consensu ducem Voculam poscentibus, Flaccus summam rerum ei permisit.

Vocula mounted the tribunal with marvelous constancy, and ordered that the seized-and-shouting soldier be led to punishment; and while the wicked quailed, all the best men obeyed the orders. Then, as by common consent they were demanding Vocula as leader, Flaccus entrusted to him the supreme control of affairs.

[26] Sed discordis animos multa efferabant: inopia stipendii frumentique et simul dilectum tributaque Galliae aspernantes, Rhenus incognita illi caelo siccitate vix navium patiens, arti commeatus, dispositae per omnem ripam stationes quae Germanos vado arcerent, eademque de causa minus frugum et plures qui consumerent. apud imperitos prodigii loco accipiebatur ipsa aquarum penuria, tamquam nos amnes quoque et vetera imperii munimenta desererent: quod in pace fors seu natura, tunc fatum et ira dei vocabatur. Ingressis Novaesium sexta decima legio coniungitur.

[26] But many things were inflaming the tempers of the discordant: lack of stipend and of grain, and at the same time their spurning of the levy and the tributes of Gaul; the Rhine, with a drought unknown to that climate, hardly passable for ships; supply-lines straitened; stations posted along the whole bank to keep the Germans from fording; and for the same reason fewer crops and more to consume them. Among the inexperienced the very scarcity of waters was taken as a prodigy, as though even the rivers and the ancient bulwarks of empire were deserting us: what in peace would be called chance or nature, then was named fate and the wrath of a god. When they entered Novaesium, the Sixteenth Legion joined them.

additus Voculae in partem curarum Herennius Gallus legatus; nec ausi ad hostem pergere * * (loco Gelduba nomen est) castra fecere. ibi struenda acie, muniendo vallandoque et ceteris belli meditamentis militem firmabant. utque praeda ad virtutem accenderetur, in proximos Cugernorum pagos, qui societatem Civilis acceperant, ductus a Vocula exercitus; pars cum Herennio Gallo permansit.

Added to Vocula in a share of the concerns was the legate Herennius Gallus; and not daring to proceed to the enemy, * * (the place has the name Gelduba) they made a camp. There, by preparing a battle array, by fortifying and ramparting, and with the other exercises of war, they were strengthening the soldiery. And, that valor might be kindled by booty, into the nearest cantons of the Cugerni, who had accepted the alliance of Civilis, the army was led by Vocula; a part remained with Herennius Gallus.

[27] Forte navem haud procul castris, frumento gravem, cum per vada haesisset, Germani in suam ripam trahebant. non tulit Gallus misitque subsidio cohortem: auctus et Germanorum numerus, paulatimque adgregantibus se auxiliis acie certatum. Germani multa cum strage nostrorum navem abripiunt.

[27] By chance a ship not far from the camp, heavy with grain, when it had stuck fast in the shallows, the Germans were dragging to their own bank. Gallus could not bear it and sent a cohort to give succor: the number of Germans also increased, and, as reinforcements gradually joined them, it was fought in battle array. The Germans, with great slaughter of our men, carry off the ship.

victi, quod tum in morem verterat, non suam ignaviam, sed perfidiam legati culpabant. protractum e tentorio, scissa veste, verberato corpore, quo pretio, quibus consciis prodidisset exercitum, dicere iubent. redit in Hordeonium invidia: illum auctorem sceleris, hunc ministrum vocant, donec exitium minitantibus exterritus proditionem et ipse Hordeonio obiecit; vinctusque adventu demum Voculae exolvitur.

the defeated, as had then turned into a custom, blamed not their own cowardice, but the perfidy of the legate. Dragged forth from his tent, with his garment torn and his body beaten, they order him to say at what price, and with what accomplices, he had betrayed the army. The odium shifts back onto Hordeonius: they call that man the author of the crime, this one its minister, until, terrified by threats of destruction, he too cast the treason upon Hordeonius; and, bound, he was only released upon the arrival of Vocula.

is postera die auctores seditionis morte adfecit: tanta illi exercitui diversitas inerat licentiae patientiaeque. haud dubie gregarius miles Vitellio fidus, splendidissimus quisque in Vespasianum proni: inde scelerum ac suppliciorum vices et mixtus obsequio furor, ut contineri non possent qui puniri poterant.

He, on the following day, afflicted the authors of the sedition with death: so great a diversity of license and patience was inherent in that army. Without doubt the rank-and-file soldier was faithful to Vitellius, while each of the most splendid inclined toward Vespasian: hence alternations of crimes and punishments and a fury mixed with obsequious compliance, so that those who could be punished could not be contained.

[28] At Civilem immensis auctibus universa Germania extollebat, societate nobilissimis obsidum firmata. ille, ut cuique proximum, vastari Vbios Trevirosque, et aliam manum Mosam amnem transire iubet, ut Menapios et Morinos et extrema Galliarum quateret. actae utrobique praedae, infestius in Vbiis, quod gens Germanicae originis eiurata patria [Romanorum nomen] Agrippinenses vocarentur.

[28] But all Germany was exalting Civilis with immense reinforcements, the alliance secured by hostages of the most noble rank. He orders, as each had what was nearest, that the Ubii and the Treveri be laid waste, and that another band cross the river Mosa, to harry the Menapii and the Morini and the farthest parts of the Gauls. Plunder was carried on on both sides, more hostilely among the Ubii, because, a people of Germanic origin with their fatherland abjured, they were called Agrippinenses by the [Roman name].

caesae cohortes eorum in vico Marcoduro incuriosius agentes, quia procul ripa aberant. nec quievere Vbii quo minus praedas e Germania peterent, primo impune, dein circumventi sunt, per omne id bellum meliore usi fide quam fortuna. contusis Vbiis gravior et successu rerum ferocior Civilis obsidium legionum urgebat, intentis custodiis ne quis occultus nuntius venientis auxilii penetraret.

Their cohorts were cut down in the vicus Marcodurum, acting too carelessly, because they were far from the riverbank. Nor did the Vbii cease from seeking plunder out of Germany—at first with impunity, then they were surrounded—throughout all that war using better good faith than fortune. With the Vbii bruised, Civilis, graver and fiercer by the success of affairs, pressed the siege of the legions, with the guards kept intent, lest any secret messenger of the coming aid penetrate.

machinas molemque operum Batavis delegat: Transrhenanos proelium poscentis ad scindendum vallum ire detrusosque redintegrare certamen iubet, superante multitudine et facili damno.

He assigns the machines and the mass of the works to the Batavians: he orders the Transrhenane men, who were demanding battle, to go to cut the rampart and, when driven back, to renew the contest, the multitude prevailing and the loss light.

[29] Nec finem labori nox attulit: congestis circum lignis accensisque, simul epulantes, ut quisque vino incaluerat, ad pugnam temeritate inani ferebantur. quippe ipsorum tela per tenebras vana: Romani conspicuam barbarorum aciem, et si quis audacia aut insignibus effulgens, ad ictum destinabant. intellectum id Civili et restincto igne misceri cuncta tenebris et armis iubet.

[29] Nor did night bring an end to the labor: with wood piled around and set alight, and at the same time feasting, as each had grown hot with wine, they were carried to the fight by empty temerity. For their missiles were vain through the darkness; the Romans were designating for the strike the conspicuous battle-line of the barbarians, and anyone who, by audacity or by insignia, shone forth. This was understood by Civilis, and, the fire quenched, he orders everything to be commingled in darkness and with arms.

tum vero strepitus dissoni, casus incerti, neque feriendi neque declinandi providentia: unde clamor acciderat, circumagere corpora, tendere artus; nihil prodesse virtus, fors cuncta turbare et ignavorum saepe telis fortissimi cadere. apud Germanos inconsulta ira: Romanus miles periculorum gnarus ferratas sudis, gravia saxa non forte iaciebat. ubi sonus molientium aut adpositae scalae hostem in manus dederant, propellere umbone, pilo sequi; multos in moenia egressos pugionibus fodere.

then indeed dissonant noises, uncertain mishaps, and no providence either for striking or for dodging: wherever a clamor had arisen, they wheeled their bodies about, stretched out their limbs; valor profited nothing, chance confounded all things, and the bravest often fell by the missiles of the slack. among the Germans there was unadvised ire; the Roman soldier, knowing dangers, did not cast iron-shod stakes and heavy stones at random. when the sound of men straining or ladders set in place had delivered the enemy into their hands, they drove them back with the shield-boss and followed up with the pilum; many who had gotten onto the walls they stabbed with their daggers.

sic exhausta nocte novam aciem dies aperuit.

thus, with the night exhausted, the day opened a new battle-line.

[30] Eduxerant Batavi turrim duplici tabulato, quam praetoriae portae (is aequissimus locus) propinquantem promoti contra validi asseres et incussae trabes perfregere multa superstantium pernicie. pugnatumque in perculsos subita et prospera eruptione; simul a legionariis peritia et arte praestantibus plura struebantur. praecipuum pavorem intulit suspensum et nutans machinamentum, quo repente demisso praeter suorum ora singuli pluresve hostium sublime rapti verso pondere intra castra effundebantur.

[30] The Batavians had brought up a tower with a double deck, which, as it approached the praetorian gate (that was the very level spot), stout planks set up opposite and beams driven in shattered, with much ruin of those standing upon it. And battle was waged against the panic-stricken by a sudden and prosperous sally; at the same time more things were being constructed by the legionaries, excelling in skill and art. Chief terror was brought by a suspended and nodding machination, by which, when suddenly let down past the faces of their own men, one or several of the enemy, snatched aloft, were, the weight being reversed, tipped out within the camp.

Civilis omissa expugnandi spe rursus per otium adsidebat, nuntiis et promissis fidem legionum convellens.

Civilis, the hope of expugnation abandoned, again sat down in leisure, convulsing the faith of the legions with messengers and promises.

[31] Haec in Germania ante Cremonense proelium gesta, cuius eventum litterae Primi Antonii docuere, addito Caecinae edicto; et praefectus cohortis e victis, Alpinius Montanus, fortunam partium praesens fatebatur. diversi hinc motus animorum: auxilia e Gallia, quis nec amor neque odium in partis, militia sine adfectu, hortantibus praefectis statim a Vitellio desciscunt: vetus miles cunctabatur. sed adigente Hordeonio Flacco, instantibus tribunis, dixit sacramentum, non vultu neque animo satis adfirmans: et cum cetera iuris iurandi verba conciperent, Vespasiani nomen haesitantes aut levi murmure et plerumque silentio transmittebant.

[31] These things in Germany were done before the battle of Cremona, whose outcome the letters of Antonius Primus made known, with Caecina’s edict added; and the prefect of a cohort from among the vanquished, Alpinius Montanus, being present, acknowledged the fortune of the side. From this came diverse motions of minds: the auxiliaries from Gaul, in whom there was neither love nor hatred toward the parties—soldiery without affect—at their prefects’ exhortation at once seceded from Vitellius; the old soldiery hesitated. But with Hordeonius Flaccus driving them and the tribunes pressing, they took the oath, not affirming it enough in countenance nor in spirit; and when they framed the remaining words of the oath, at Vespasian’s name they hesitated, or passed it over with a slight murmur and, for the most part, in silence.

[32] Lectae deinde pro contione epistulae Antonii ad Civilem suspiciones militum inritavere, tamquam ad socium partium scriptae et de Germanico exercitu hostiliter. mox adlatis Geldubam in castra nuntiis eadem dicta factaque, et missus cum mandatis Montanus ad Civilem ut absisteret bello neve externa armis falsis velaret: si Vespasianum iuvare adgressus foret, satis factum coeptis. ad ea Civilis primo callide: post ubi videt Montanum praeferocem ingenio paratumque in res novas, orsus a questu periculisque quae per quinque et viginti annos in castris Romanis exhausisset, 'egregium' inquit 'pretium laborum recepi, necem fratris et vincula mea et saevissimas huius exercitus voces, quibus ad supplicium petitus iure gentium poenas reposco.

[32] Then the letters of Antonius to Civilis, read before the assembly, irritated the suspicions of the soldiers, as if written to an ally of the faction and in a hostile fashion about the Germanic army. Soon, with messengers brought to the camp at Gelduba, the same things were said and done, and Montanus was sent with mandates to Civilis to desist from war and not to cloak foreign aims with counterfeit arms: if he had undertaken to aid Vespasian, enough had been done for the enterprise. To this Civilis at first replied cunningly; afterwards, when he sees Montanus very fierce in disposition and prepared for novelties, beginning with a complaint and the perils which for 25 years he had drained in Roman camps, “I have received an excellent price for my labors,” he says, “the slaughter of my brother and my own chains and the most savage cries of this army, at whose demand for execution, by the law of nations I claim vengeance.”

vos autem Treviri ceteraeque servientium animae, quod praemium effusi totiens sanguinis expectatis nisi ingratam militiam, immortalia tributa, virgas, securis et dominorum ingenia? en ego praefectus unius cohortis et Canninefates Batavique, exigua Galliarum portio, vana illa castrorum spatia excidimus vel saepta ferro fameque premimus. denique ausos aut libertas sequetur aut victi idem erimus.' sic accensum, sed molliora referre iussum dimittit: ille ut inritus legationis redit, cetera dissimulans, quae mox erupere.

But you, Treveri, and the rest—souls of the serving—what reward for blood so often poured out do you expect, except ungrateful soldiery, everlasting tributes, rods, axes, and the dispositions of masters? Behold I, a prefect of a single cohort, and the Canninefates and Batavians, a tiny portion of the Gauls, cut down those empty expanses of the camps, or, if they are fenced in, press them with iron and famine. Finally, for those who have dared, either liberty will follow, or, if conquered, we shall be the same. Thus, having fired him up, but ordering him to report gentler terms, he dismisses him: he returns, a frustrated envoy, concealing the rest, which soon burst forth.

[33] Civilis parte copiarum retenta veteranas cohortis et quod e Germanis maxime promptum adversus Voculam exercitumque eius mittit, Iulio Maximo et Claudio Victore, sororis suae filio, ducibus. rapiunt in transitu hiberna alae Asciburgii sita; adeoque improvisi castra involavere ut non adloqui, non pandere aciem Vocula potuerit: id solum ut in tumultu monuit, subsignano milite media firmare: auxilia passim circumfusa sunt. eques prorupit, exceptusque compositis hostium ordinibus terga in suos vertit.

[33] Civilis, having retained part of his forces, sends the veteran cohorts and whatever among the Germans was most prompt against Vocula and his army, with Julius Maximus and Claudius Victor, his sister’s son, as leaders. In passing they snatch up the winter quarters of an ala situated at Asciburgium; and so unforeseen did they swoop upon the camp that Vocula could neither address the men nor deploy the battle line: this alone, as in a tumult, did he warn—that the middle be made firm with the subsignane soldiery; the auxiliaries were poured everywhere around. The cavalry burst forth, and, being received by the enemy’s ranks in good order, turned their backs upon their own.

caedes inde, non proelium. et Nerviorum cohortes, metu seu perfidia, latera nostrorum nudavere: sic ad legiones perventum, quae amissis signis intra vallum sternebantur, cum repente novo auxilio fortuna pugnae mutatur. Vasconum lectae a Galba cohortes ac tum accitae, dum castris propinquant, audito proeliantium clamore intentos hostis a tergo invadunt latioremque quam pro numero terrorem faciunt, aliis a Novaesio, aliis a Mogontiaco universas copias advenisse credentibus.

Then slaughter, not battle. And the cohorts of the Nervii, whether from fear or treachery, laid bare the flanks of our men: thus it came to the legions, which, their standards lost, were being laid low within the rampart, when suddenly, by new aid, the fortune of the fight is changed. The picked cohorts of the Vascones, chosen by Galba and then summoned, while they drew near the camp, having heard the shout of those fighting, assail the enemy, intent as they were, from the rear, and create a terror wider than in proportion to their number, since some believed that the entire forces had arrived from Novaesium, others from Mogontiacum.

is error Romanis addit animos, et dum alienis viribus confidunt, suas recepere. fortissimus quisque e Batavis, quantum peditum erat, funduntur: eques evasit cum signis captivisque, quos prima acie corripuerant. caesorum eo die in partibus nostris maior numerus et imbellior, e Germanis ipsa robora.

This error adds spirit to the Romans, and while they confide in alien forces, they recovered their own. Every most valiant man of the Batavi, all the infantry there was, is routed; the cavalry escaped with the standards and the captives whom they had snatched in the front line. Of those cut down that day, on our side the number was greater and more unwarlike; from the Germans, the very strength.

[34] Dux uterque pari culpa meritus adversa prosperis defuere. nam Civilis si maioribus copiis instruxisset aciem, circumiri a tam paucis cohortibus nequisset castraque perrupta excidisset: Vocula nec adventum hostium exploravit, eoque simul egressus victusque; dein victoriae parum confisus, tritis frustra diebus castra in hostem movit, quem si statim impellere cursumque rerum sequi maturasset, solvere obsidium legionum eodem impetu potuit. temptaverat interim Civilis obsessorum animos, tamquam perditae apud Romanos res et suis victoria provenisset: circumferebantur signa vexillaque, ostentati etiam captivi.

[34] Each leader, having deserved equal blame, failed in adverse just as in prosperous circumstances. For if Civilis had arrayed his battle-line with larger forces, he could not have been outflanked by so few cohorts, and the camp, once forced, would have been taken; Vocula did not reconnoiter the approach of the enemy, and therefore, sallying out and being engaged at once, he was defeated; then, too little confident in his victory, after days worn away to no purpose, he moved the camp against the enemy, whom, if he had at once pressed and had hastened to follow the course of events, he could with the same impetus have loosened the siege of the legions. Meanwhile Civilis had tried the spirits of the besieged, on the pretense that affairs were ruined among the Romans and that victory had fallen to his own: standards and vexilla were carried around, and even captives were displayed.

ex quibus unus, egregium facinus ausus, clara voce gesta patefecit, confossus illico a Germanis: unde maior indici fides; simul vastatione incendiisque flagrantium villarum venire victorem exercitum intellegebatur. in conspectu castrorum constitui signa fossamque et vallum circumdari Vocula iubet: depositis impedimentis sarcinisque expediti certarent. hinc in ducem clamor pugnam poscentium; et minari adsueverant.

of whom one, having dared an exceptional exploit, with a clear voice laid open the deeds, and was run through on the spot by the Germans: whence greater credit to the informer; at the same time, from the devastation and the fires of blazing villas it was understood that a victorious army was coming. in sight of the camp Vocula orders the standards to be set up and a ditch and rampart to be thrown around: with the baggage and packs set down, they should fight unencumbered. hence against the leader a clamor of those demanding battle; and they had been accustomed to menace.

ne tempore quidem ad ordinandam aciem capto incompositi fessique proelium sumpsere; nam Civilis aderat, non minus vitiis hostium quam virtute suorum fretus. varia apud Romanos fortuna et seditiosissimus quisque ignavus: quidam recentis victoriae memores retinere locum, ferire hostem, seque et proximos hortari et redintegrata acie manus ad obsessos tendere ne tempori deessent. illi cuncta e muris cernentes omnibus portis prorumpunt.

Not even taking time to arrange the battle line, disordered and weary they engaged; for Civilis was at hand, relying no less on the vices of the enemy than on the virtue of his own. Among the Romans fortune was variable, and the most seditious were slothful: some, mindful of the recent victory, held their ground, struck the foe, exhorted themselves and their neighbors, and, the line redintegrated, directed their bands toward the besieged, lest they be lacking to the occasion. Those men, seeing everything from the walls, burst forth from all the gates.

ac forte Civilis lapsu equi prostratus, credita per utrumque exercitum fama vulneratum aut interfectum, immane quantum suis pavoris et hostibus alacritatis indidit: sed Vocula omissis fugientium tergis vallum turrisque castrorum augebat, tamquam rursus obsidium immineret, corrupta totiens victoria non falso suspectus bellum malle.

and by chance Civilis, thrown by the slip of his horse, a report believed through both armies that he had been wounded or killed, instilled to an immense degree fear in his own men and alacrity in the enemies; but Vocula, abandoning the pursuit of the fugitives, was enlarging the rampart and the towers of the camp, as though a siege were again impending, with victory so often corrupted, not falsely suspected of preferring war.

[35] Nihil aeque exercitus nostros quam egestas copiarum fatigabat. impedimenta legionum cum imbelli turba Novaesium missa ut inde terrestri itinere frumentum adveherent; nam flumine hostes potiebantur. primum agmen securum incessit, nondum satis firmo Civile.

[35] Nothing wearied our armies so equally as the destitution of supplies. the baggage-train of the legions, with an unwarlike crowd, was sent to Novaesium, so that from there by an overland route they might convey grain; for the enemies were in possession of the river. the first column advanced secure, Civilis not yet sufficiently firm.

qui ubi rursum missos Novaesium frumentatores datasque in praesidium cohortis velut multa pace ingredi accepit, rarum apud signa militem, arma in vehiculis, cunctos licentia vagos, compositus invadit, praemissis qui pontis et viarum angusta insiderent. pugnatum longo agmine et incerto Marte, donec proelium nox dirimeret. cohortes Geldubam perrexere, manentibus, ut fuerant, castris, quae relictorum illic militum praesidio tenebantur.

who, when he learned that the grain‑foragers sent again to Novaesium and the cohorts assigned as a garrison were proceeding as if in much peace—soldiers sparse at the standards, arms on the vehicles, all roaming in license—attacks in well‑ordered fashion, after first sending ahead men to occupy the narrows of bridges and roads. There was fighting in a long column and with Mars uncertain, until night sundered the battle. The cohorts went on to Gelduba, the camp remaining, as it had been, which was held by the garrison of soldiers left there.

non erat dubium quantum in regressu discriminis adeundum foret frumentatoribus onustis perculsisque. addit exercitui suo Vocula mille delectos e quinta et quinta decima legionibus apud Vetera obsessis, indomitum militem et ducibus infensum. plures quam iussum erat profecti palam in agmine fremebant, non se ultra famem, insidias legatorum toleraturos: at qui remanserant, desertos se abducta parte legionum querebantur.

There was no doubt how much peril would have to be faced on the return by the frumentators, laden and panic‑stricken. Vocula adds to his army a thousand chosen men from the 5th and 15th legions besieged at Vetera—soldiers indomitable and hostile to their leaders. More than had been ordered set out, and openly in the marching column they growled that they would no longer endure hunger and the insidious plots of the legates; but those who had remained behind complained that, with a portion of the legions drawn off, they were left deserted.

duplex hinc seditio, aliis revocantibus Voculam, aliis redire in castra abnuentibus.

from here a double sedition, some recalling Vocula, others refusing to return to the camp.

[36] Interim Civilis Vetera circumsedit: Vocula Geldubam atque inde Novaesium concessit, [Civilis capit Geldubam] mox haud procul Novaesio equestri proelio prospere certavit. sed miles secundis adversisque perinde in exitium ducum accendebatur; et adventu quintanorum quintadecimanorumque auctae legiones donativum exposcunt, comperto pecuniam a Vitellio missam. nec diu cunctatus Hordeonius nomine Vespasiani dedit, idque praecipuum fuit seditionis alimentum.

[36] Meanwhile Civilis besieged Vetera: Vocula withdrew to Gelduba and thence to Novesium, [Civilis takes Gelduba] soon, not far from Novesium, he fought successfully in a cavalry battle. But the soldiery, in successes and reverses alike, was inflamed toward the ruin of their leaders; and the legions, increased by the arrival of the men of the Fifth and Fifteenth, demand a donative, having learned that money had been sent by Vitellius. And Hordeonius, not delaying long, gave it in the name of Vespasian; and this was the chief nourishment of the sedition.

effusi in luxum et epulas et nocturnos coetus veterem in Hordeonium iram renovant, nec ullo legatorum tribunorumve obsistere auso (quippe omnem pudorem nox ademerat) protractum e cubili interficiunt. eadem in Voculam parabantur, nisi servili habitu per tenebras ignoratus evasisset.

Given over to luxury and banquets and nocturnal gatherings, they renewed their old anger against Hordeonius; and with none of the legates or tribunes daring to resist (for the night had taken away all shame), they dragged him from his bed and killed him. The same was being prepared against Vocula, had he not, in servile garb, through the darkness, escaped unrecognized.

[37] Vbi sedato impetu metus rediit, centuriones cum epistulis ad civitates Galliarum misere, auxilia ac stipendia oraturos: ipsi, ut est vulgus sine rectore praeceps pavidum socors, adventante Civile raptis temere armis ac statim omissis, in fugam vertuntur. res adversae discordiam peperere, iis qui e superiore exercitu erant causam suam dissociantibus; Vitellii tamen imagines in castris et per proximas Belgarum civitates repositae, cum iam Vitellius occidisset. dein mutati in paenitentiam primani quartanique et duoetvicensimani Voculam sequuntur, apud quem resumpto Vespasiani sacramento ad liberandum Mogontiaci obsidium ducebantur.

[37] When the onset subsided and fear returned, they sent centurions with letters to the communities of Gaul, to beg for auxiliaries and stipend; they themselves—as a crowd without a rector is headlong, timorous, and slothful—Civilis approaching, snatching up arms rashly and straightway dropping them, turned to flight. Adverse circumstances engendered discord, as those who were from the prior army dissociated their cause; nevertheless the images of Vitellius were restored in the camp and through the neighboring cities of the Belgae, although Vitellius had already been slain. Then, changed to penitence, the First, the Fourth, and the Twenty-Second followed Vocula, with whom, the sacrament (military oath) to Vespasian having been renewed, they were being led to relieve the siege at Mogontiacum.

discesserant obsessores, mixtus ex Chattis Vsipis Mattiacis exercitus, satietate praedae nec incruenti: in via dispersos et nescios miles noster invaserat. quin et loricam vallumque per finis suos Treviri struxere, magnisque in vicem cladibus cum Germanis certabant, donec egregia erga populum Romanum merita mox rebelles foedarent.

The besiegers had withdrawn, an army mixed from the Chatti, Usipi, and Mattiaci, sated with booty and not bloodless: on the road, as they were scattered and unaware, our soldier had assailed them. Indeed even the Treveri built a lorica and rampart along their own confines, and with great mutual disasters they were contending with the Germans, until their outstanding merits toward the Roman people were soon defiled by becoming rebels.

[38] Interea Vespasianus iterum ac Titus consulatum absentes inierunt, maesta et multiplici metu suspensa civitate, quae super instantia mala falsos pavores induerat, descivisse Africam res novas moliente L. Pisone. is <pro consule> provinciae nequaquam turbidus ingenio; sed quia naves saevitia hiemis prohibebantur, vulgus alimenta in dies mercari solitum, cui una ex re publica annonae cura, clausum litus, retineri commeatus, dum timet, credebat, augentibus famam Vitellianis, qui studium partium nondum posuerant, ne victoribus quidem ingrato rumore, quorum cupiditates externis quoque bellis inexplebilis nulla umquam civilis victoria satiavit.

[38] Meanwhile Vespasian and Titus entered upon the consulship a second time while absent, the state gloomy and suspended by manifold fear, which, over and above the present evils, had assumed false panics—that Africa had seceded, L. Piso engineering a revolution. He, <proconsul> of the province, was by no means turbulent in disposition; but because ships were hindered by the savagery of winter, the common crowd, accustomed to buy provisions day by day, to whom, of public affairs, the concern is solely for the grain-supply, believed, while it was afraid, that the shore was closed, that convoys were being held back, the Vitellians magnifying the report—who had not yet put aside their zeal for their party—with ill-disposed rumor even against the victors, whose desires, insatiable even in foreign wars, no civil victory ever satisfied.

[39] Kalendis Ianuariis in senatu, quem Iulius Frontinus praetor urbanus vocaverat, legatis exercitibusque ac regibus laudes gratesque decretae; Tettio Iuliano praetura, tamquam transgredientem in partis Vespasiani legionem deseruisset, ablata ut in Plotium Grypum transferretur; Hormo dignitas equestris data. et mox eiurante Frontino Caesar Domitianus praeturam cepit. eius nomen epistulis edictisque praeponebatur, vis penes Mucianum erat, nisi quod pleraque Domitianus instigantibus amicis aut propria libidine audebat.

[39] On the Kalends of January, in the senate, which Julius Frontinus, the urban praetor, had convened, praises and thanks were decreed to the legates, the armies, and the kings; the praetorship of Tettius Julianus was taken away, on the ground that, in crossing over into the party of Vespasian, he had deserted his legion, that it might be transferred to Plotius Grypus; to Hormus the equestrian dignity was given. And soon, Frontinus resigning, Caesar Domitian took the praetorship. His name was set before epistles and edicts; the power was in the hands of Mucianus, except that many things Domitian, with friends instigating or by his own desire, dared.

sed praecipuus Muciano metus e Primo Antonio Varoque Arrio, quos recentis clarosque rerum fama ac militum studiis etiam populus fovebat, quia in neminem ultra aciem saevierant. et ferebatur Antonius Scribonianum Crassum, egregiis maioribus et fraterna imagine fulgentem, ad capessendam rem publicam hortatus, haud defutura consciorum manu, ni Scribonianus abnuisset, ne paratis quidem corrumpi facilis, adeo metuens incerta. igitur Mucianus, quia propalam opprimi Antonius nequibat, multis in senatu laudibus cumulatum secretis promissis onerat, citeriorem Hispaniam ostentans discessu Cluvii Rufi vacuam; simul amicis eius tribunatus praefecturasque largitur.

but Mucianus’s chief fear was from Antonius Primus and Arrius Varus, whom, fresh and bright in the fame of their exploits and in the soldiers’ enthusiasms, the populace too was cherishing, because they had raged against no one beyond the battle-line. And it was being reported that Antonius had urged Scribonianus Crassus—resplendent with distinguished ancestors and with a brother’s image—to take up the republic, a band of accomplices not being about to be lacking, had not Scribonianus refused, a man not easy to be corrupted even by things already prepared, so much did he fear uncertainties. Therefore Mucianus, since Antonius could not be openly suppressed, after he had been heaped with many praises in the senate, loads him with secret promises, displaying Hither Spain as vacant through the departure of Cluvius Rufus; at the same time he bestows tribunates and praefectures upon his friends.

dein postquam inanem animum spe et cupidine impleverat, viris abolet dimissa in hiberna legione septima, cuius flagrantissimus in Antonium amor. et tertia legio, familiaris Arrio Varo miles, in Syriam remissa; pars exercitus in Germanias ducebatur. sic egesto quidquid turbidum redit urbi sua forma legesque et munia magistratuum.

then, after he had filled the empty spirit with hope and desire, he effaced the strength of the men, the Seventh Legion—whose love for Antonius was most ardent—having been dismissed into winter quarters; and the Third Legion, the soldiery familiar to Arrius Varus, was remitted to Syria; part of the army was being led into the Germanies. thus, with whatever was turbulent carried out, its own form returns to the city, and the laws and duties of the magistrates.

[40] Quo die senatum ingressus est Domitianus, de absentia patris fratrisque ac iuventa sua pauca et modica disseruit, decorus habitu; et ignotis adhuc moribus crebra oris confusio pro modestia accipiebatur. referente Caesare de restituendis Galbae honoribus, censuit Curtius Montanus ut Pisonis quoque memoria celebraretur. patres utrumque iussere: de Pisone inritum fuit.

[40] On the day Domitian entered the senate, he spoke briefly and moderately about the absence of his father and brother and about his own youth, comely in bearing; and with his character as yet unknown, the frequent confusion of his countenance was taken for modesty. When the Caesar was proposing the restoration of Galba’s honors, Curtius Montanus opined that the memory of Piso also should be celebrated. The senators ordered both; as to Piso, it proved null.

tum sorte ducti per quos redderentur bello rapta, quique aera legum vetustate delapsa noscerent figerentque, et fastos adulatione temporum foedatos exonerarent modumque publicis impensis facerent. redditur Tettio Iuliano praetura, postquam cognitus est ad Vespasianum confugisse: Grypo honor mansit. repeti inde cognitionem inter Musonium Rufum et Publium Celerem placuit, damnatusque Publius et Sorani manibus satis factum.

then by lot there were drawn those by whom the things seized in war might be restored, and who would identify and affix the bronze tablets of the laws that had fallen by age, and would unburden the Fasti, befouled by the adulation of the times, and would set a measure to public expenditures. the praetorship is returned to Tettius Julianus, after it was learned that he had taken refuge with Vespasian: to Grypus the honor remained. then it was decided that the inquiry between Musonius Rufus and Publius Celer be resumed, and Publius was condemned, and satisfaction was rendered to the Manes of Soranus.

insignis publica severitate dies ne privatim quidem laude caruit. iustum iudicium explesse Musonius videbatur, diversa fama Demetrio Cynicam sectam professo, quod manifestum reum ambitiosius quam honestius defendisset: ipsi Publio neque animus in periculis neque oratio suppeditavit. signo ultionis in accusatores dato, petit a Caesare Iunius Mauricus ut commentariorum principalium potestatem senatui faceret, per quos nosceret quem quisque accusandum poposcisset.

A day distinguished by public severity did not lack praise even in private. Musonius seemed to have fulfilled a just judgment, but a different report attended Demetrius, professing the Cynic sect, because he had defended a manifest criminal more ambitiously than honestly; for Publius himself neither spirit in dangers nor speech supplied. When a signal of vengeance against the accusers had been given, Junius Mauricus asked from Caesar that he grant the senate access to the imperial commentaries, through which it might learn whom each had demanded to be accused.

consulendum tali super re principem respondit.

he replied that on such a matter the emperor should be consulted.

[41] Senatus inchoantibus primoribus ius iurandum concepit quo certatim omnes magistratus, ceteri, ut sententiam rogabantur, deos testis advocabant, nihil ope sua factum quo cuiusquam salus laederetur, neque se praemium aut honorem ex calamitate civium cepisse, trepidis et verba iuris iurandi per varias artis mutantibus, quis flagitii conscientia inerat. probabant religionem patres, periurium arguebant; eaque velut censura in Sariolenum Voculam et Nonium Attianum et Cestium Severum acerrime incubuit, crebris apud Neronem delationibus famosos. Sariolenum et recens crimen urgebat, quod apud Vitellium molitus eadem foret: nec destitit senatus manus intentare Voculae, donec curia excederet.

[41] The senate, the leading men initiating, conceived an oath, by which in rivalry all the magistrates, the rest, as they were asked for their opinion, invoked the gods as witnesses, that nothing had been done by their own aid whereby anyone’s safety was injured, nor that they had taken reward or honor from the calamity of fellow-citizens—while the anxious, and those who by various arts were altering the words of the oath, in whom the consciousness of a shameful crime resided. The Fathers approved the scruple, they arraigned perjury; and this, as a kind of Censorship, pressed most sharply upon Sariolenus Vocula, Nonius Attianus, and Cestius Severus, notorious for frequent delations under Nero. A recent charge too bore upon Sariolenus, that under Vitellius he had contrived the same things; nor did the senate cease to threaten hands against Vocula, until he departed the Curia.

ad Paccium Africanum transgressi eum quoque proturbant, tamquam Neroni Scribonios fratres concordia opibusque insignis ad exitium monstravisset. Africanus neque fateri audebat neque abnuere poterat: in Vibium Crispum, cuius interrogationibus fatigabatur, ultro conversus, miscendo quae defendere nequibat, societate culpae invidiam declinavit.

having crossed over to Paccius Africanus, they drive him out as well, on the charge that he had pointed out to Nero the Scribonian brothers—remarkable for concord and for resources—for destruction. Africanus neither dared to confess nor could he deny; turning of his own accord against Vibius Crispus, by whose interrogations he was wearied, by mixing in things which he could not defend, he deflected ill-will by a partnership in guilt.

[42] Magnam eo die pietatis eloquentiaeque famam Vipstanus Messala adeptus est, nondum senatoria aetate, ausus pro fratre Aquilio Regulo deprecari. Regulum subversa Crassorum et Orfiti domus in summum odium extulerat: sponte [ex sc] accusationem subisse iuvenis admodum, nec depellendi periculi sed in spem potentiae videbatur; et Sulpicia Praetextata Crassi uxor quattuorque liberi, si cognosceret senatus, ultores aderant. igitur Messala non causam neque reum tueri, sed periculis fratris semet opponens flexerat quosdam.

[42] On that day Vipstanus Messala acquired great fame for piety and eloquence, not yet of senatorial age, having dared to intercede on behalf of his brother Aquilius Regulus. Regulus had been lifted into the utmost hatred by the overthrown house of the Crassi and of Orfitus: of his own accord, [by senatorial decree], the young man, very much a youth, had undertaken the accusation, and he seemed not for the dispelling of peril but in hope of potency; and Sulpicia Praetextata, the wife of Crassus, and four children, if the senate should take cognizance, were present as avengers. Therefore Messala, defending neither the cause nor the defendant, but setting himself against the perils of his brother, had bent some.

occurrit truci oratione Curtius Montanus, eo usque progressus ut post caedem Galbae datam interfectori Pisonis pecuniam a Regulo adpetitumque morsu Pisonis caput obiectaret. 'hoc certe' inquit 'Nero non coegit, nec dignitatem aut salutem illa saevitia redemisti. sane toleremus istorum defensiones qui perdere alios quam periclitari ipsi maluerunt: te securum reliquerat exul pater et divisa inter creditores bona, nondum honorum capax aetas, nihil quod ex te concupisceret Nero, nihil quod timeret.

Curtius Montanus confronted him with a truculent oration, going so far as to allege that, after the slaughter of Galba, money was given to the killer of Piso by Regulus, and that Piso’s head was assailed by a bite. “This at least,” he said, “Nero did not compel, nor did you redeem dignity or safety by that savagery. Granted, let us tolerate the defenses of those who preferred to destroy others rather than themselves run risk: your father, an exile, had left you secure, your goods divided among your creditors, your age not yet capable of honors, nothing that Nero might covet from you, nothing that he might fear.”

libidine sanguinis et hiatu praemiorum ignotum adhuc ingenium et nullis defensionibus expertum caede nobili imbuisti, cum ex funere rei publicae raptis consularibus spoliis, septuagiens sestertio saginatus et sacerdotio fulgens innoxios pueros, inlustris senes, conspicuas feminas eadem ruina prosterneres, cum segnitiam Neronis incusares, quod per singulas domos seque et delatores fatigaret: posse universum senatum una voce subverti. retinete, patres conscripti, et reservate hominem tam expediti consilii ut omnis aetas instructa sit, et quo modo senes nostri Marcellum, Crispum, iuvenes Regulum imitentur. invenit aemulos etiam infelix nequitia: quid si floreat vigeatque?

with a lust for blood and a gaping greed for rewards, you steeped a hitherto unknown talent, and one tried in no defenses, in high-born slaughter, when, from the funeral of the commonwealth, the consular spoils having been snatched, stuffed with 7,000,000 sesterces and glittering with a priesthood, you were casting down harmless boys, illustrious old men, conspicuous women in the same collapse, while you were blaming the sloth of Nero, that he wearied himself and the informers by going house by house: that the whole senate could be overturned by a single voice. hold back, Conscript Fathers, and reserve the man of such expeditious counsel, so that every age may be equipped, and so that our elders may imitate Marcellus and Crispus, our young men Regulus. even ill-starred wickedness finds rivals: what if it should blossom and thrive?

et quem adhuc quaestorium offendere non audemus, praetorium et consularem ausuri sumus? an Neronem extremum dominorum putatis? idem crediderant qui Tiberio, qui Gaio superstites fuerunt, cum interim intestabilior et saevior exortus est.

and the man of quaestorian rank whom up to now we do not dare to offend, are we going to venture against one of praetorian and consular rank? Or do you think Nero was the last of the masters? The same had been believed by those who survived Tiberius and Gaius, when in the meantime one more unspeakable and more savage arose.

non timemus Vespasianum; ea principis aetas, ea moderatio: sed diutius durant exempla quam mores. elanguimus, patres conscripti, nec iam ille senatus sumus qui occiso Nerone delatores et ministros more maiorum puniendos flagitabat. optimus est post malum principem dies primus.'

We do not fear Vespasian; such is the princeps’s age, such his moderation: but examples endure longer than morals. We have grown languid, conscript fathers, nor are we now that senate which, with Nero slain, demanded that informers and ministers be punished after the custom of our ancestors. The best day after a bad emperor is the first.'

[43] Tanto cum adsensu senatus auditus est Montanus ut spem caperet Helvidius posse etiam Marcellum prosterni. igitur a laude Cluvii Rufi orsus, qui perinde dives et eloquentia clarus nulli umquam sub Nerone periculum facessisset, crimine simul exemploque Eprium urgebat, ardentibus patrum animis. quod ubi sensit Marcellus, velut excedens curia 'imus' inquit, 'Prisce, et relinquimus tibi senatum tuum: regna praesente Caesare.' sequebatur Vibius Crispus, ambo infensi, vultu diverso, Marcellus minacibus oculis, Crispus renidens, donec adcursu amicorum retraherentur.

[43] Montanus was heard with such assent of the senate that Helvidius conceived hope that even Marcellus could be laid low. Therefore, beginning from the praise of Cluvius Rufus, who, equally rich and renowned for eloquence, had never under Nero caused peril to anyone, he pressed Eprius with both accusation and example, the spirits of the fathers ardent. When Marcellus sensed this, as if departing from the curia he said, 'we go, Priscus, and we leave to you your senate: reign with Caesar present.' Vibius Crispus was following—both hostile, with a different countenance—Marcellus with menacing eyes, Crispus beaming—until by the running-up of friends they were drawn back.

cum glisceret certamen, hinc multi bonique, inde pauci et validi pertinacibus odiis tenderent, consumptus per discordiam dies.

as the contest swelled, on this side many and good men, on that side few and strong, strained with stubborn hatreds, and the day was consumed through discord.

[44] Proximo senatu, inchoante Caesare de abolendo dolore iraque et priorum temporum necessitatibus, censuit Mucianus prolixe pro accusatoribus; simul eos qui coeptam, deinde omissam actionem repeterent, monuit sermone molli et tamquam rogaret. patres coeptatam libertatem, postquam obviam itum, omisere. Mucianus, ne sperni senatus iudicium et cunctis sub Nerone admissis data impunitas videretur, Octavium Sagittam et Antistium Sosianum senatorii ordinis egressos exilium in easdem insulas redegit.

[44] At the next meeting of the senate, with Caesar initiating a discourse about abolishing grief and ire and the necessities of prior times, Mucianus pronounced at length in favor of the accusers; at the same time he admonished, in gentle speech and as if he were pleading, those who were resuming an action begun and then dropped. The Fathers, the liberty they had begun, once it was met with opposition, abandoned. Mucianus, lest the judgment of the senate seem to be scorned and impunity to have been granted for all things committed under Nero, relegated Octavius Sagitta and Antistius Sosianus, who had departed from the senatorial order, back to exile on the same islands.

Octavius Pontiam Postuminam, stupro cognitam et nuptias suas abnuentem, impotens amoris interfecerat, Sosianus pravitate morum multis exitiosus. ambo gravi senatus consulto damnati pulsique, quamvis concesso aliis reditu, in eadem poena retenti sunt. nec ideo lenita erga Mucianum invidia: quippe Sosianus ac Sagitta viles, etiam si reverterentur: accusatorum ingenia et opes et exercita malis artibus potentia timebantur.

Octavius, impotent with love, had killed Pontia Postumina, whom he had known in stuprum and who refused his marriage; Sosianus, by the pravity of his morals, was destructive to many. Both, condemned and expelled by a grave senatorial decree, although return had been granted to others, were kept in the same punishment. Nor for that reason was the ill will toward Mucianus softened: for Sosianus and Sagitta were worthless, even if they should return: the talents and resources and power of the accusers, trained by evil arts, were feared.

[45] Reconciliavit paulisper studia patrum habita in senatu cognitio secundum veterem morem. Manlius Patruitus senator pulsatum se in colonia Seniensi coetu multitudinis et iussu magistratuum querebatur; nec finem iniuriae hic stetisse: planctum et lamenta et supremorum imaginem praesenti sibi circumdata cum contumeliis ac probris, quae in senatum universum iacerentur. vocati qui arguebantur, et cognita causa in convictos vindicatum, additumque senatus consultum quo Seniensium plebes modestiae admoneretur.

[45] It reconciled for a little while the sentiments of the Fathers that an inquiry was held in the Senate according to the ancient custom. Manlius Patruitus, a senator, complained that he had been beaten in the Sienese colony by a gathering of the multitude and by order of the magistrates; nor had the injury stopped there: breast-beating and laments and the image of last rites were enacted around him as he stood present, together with contumely and reproaches that were hurled against the Senate as a whole. Those who were accused were summoned, and, the case having been examined, punishment was exacted upon the convicted; and a senatorial decree was added by which the plebs of the Sienese was admonished to modesty.

isdem diebus Antonius Flamma <accusantibus> Cyrenensibus damnatur lege repetundarum et exilio ob saevitiam.

In the same days, Antonius Flamma, with the Cyrenians accusing, was condemned under the law on extortions and to exile for cruelty.

[46] Inter quae militaris seditio prope exarsit. praetorianam militiam repetebant a Vitellio dimissi, pro Vespasiano congregati; et lectus in eandem spem e legionibus miles promissa stipendia flagitabat. ne Vitelliani quidem sine multa caede pelli poterant: sed immensa pecunia tanta vis hominum retinenda erat.

[46] Meanwhile a military sedition almost flared up. Those dismissed by Vitellius were demanding back the praetorian service, having assembled for Vespasian; and a soldier selected from the legions into the same hope was clamoring for the promised stipends. Not even the Vitellians could be expelled without much slaughter: but only by immense money could so great a force of men be retained.

ingressus castra Mucianus, quo rectius stipendia singulorum spectaret, suis cum insignibus armisque victores constituit, modicis inter se spatiis discretos. tum Vitelliani, quos apud Bovillas in deditionem acceptos memoravimus, ceterique per urbem et urbi vicina conquisiti producuntur prope intecto corpore. eos Mucianus diduci et Germanicum Britannicumque militem, ac si qui aliorum exercituum, separatim adsistere iubet.

Mucianus, having entered the camp, so that he might more correctly inspect the stipends of individuals, stationed the victors with their own insignia and arms, separated from one another by moderate intervals. Then the Vitellians, whom we have recorded as received into surrender at Bovillae, and the rest rounded up throughout the city and the places near the city, are brought forward with their bodies almost uncovered. He orders them to be drawn apart, and that the German and the British soldier, and, if there were any, those of other armies, stand separately by.

illos primus statim aspectus obstupefecerat, cum ex diverso velut aciem telis et armis trucem, semet clausos nudosque et inluvie deformis aspicerent: ut vero huc illuc distrahi coepere, metus per omnis et praecipua Germanici militis formido, tamquam ea separatione ad caedem destinaretur. prensare commanipularium pectora, cervicibus innecti, suprema oscula petere, ne desererentur soli neu pari causa disparem fortunam paterentur; modo Mucianum, modo absentem principem, postremum caelum ac deos obtestari, donec Mucianus cunctos eiusdem sacramenti, eiusdem imperatoris milites appellans, falso timori obviam iret; namque et victor exercitus clamore lacrimas eorum iuvabat. isque finis illa die.

their very first sight straightway had stupefied them, when, from the opposite side, as if a battle-line grim with missiles and arms, they beheld themselves shut in, naked, and disfigured with filth; but when indeed they began to be dragged apart here and there, fear went through all, and there was an especial dread among the Germanic soldier, as though by that separation he were destined for slaughter. They grasped the breasts of their fellow-manipulars, twined themselves about their necks, sought final kisses, that they not be deserted alone nor, with an equal cause, suffer unequal fortune; now appealing to Mucianus, now to the absent princeps, lastly calling heaven and the gods to witness, until Mucianus, addressing all as soldiers of the same oath, soldiers of the same imperator, went to meet their groundless fear; for even the victorious army with its shouting was aiding their tears. And that was the end on that day.

paucis post diebus adloquentem Domitianum firmati iam excepere: spernunt oblatos agros, militiam et stipendia orant. preces erant, sed quibus contra dici non posset; igitur in praetorium accepti. dein quibus aetas et iusta stipendia, dimissi cum honore, alii ob culpam, sed carptim ac singuli, quo tutissimo remedio consensus multitudinis extenuatur.

A few days later they, now made steadfast, received Domitian as he was addressing them: they spurn the fields offered, and they beg for military service and stipends. These were entreaties, but such as could not be gainsaid; therefore they were admitted into the praetorium. Then those for whom age and the due stipends (terms of service) had been fulfilled were dismissed with honor, others on account of fault, but piecemeal and one by one, so that by the safest remedy the consensus of the multitude might be attenuated.

[47] Ceterum verane pauperie an uti videretur, actum in senatu ut sescentiens sestertium a privatis mutuum acciperetur, praepositusque ei curae Pompeius Silvanus. nec multo post necessitas abiit sive omissa simulatio. abrogati inde legem ferente Domitiano consulatus quos Vitellius dederat, funusque censorium Flavio Sabino ductum, magna documenta instabilis fortunae summaque et ima miscentis.

[47] But whether from true poverty or in order that it might seem so, it was transacted in the senate that sixty million sesterces be taken as a loan from private persons, and Pompeius Silvanus was put in charge of that care. Not long after, the necessity departed—or the pretense was dropped. Then, with Domitian proposing the law, the consulships which Vitellius had granted were abrogated, and a censorial funeral was conducted for Flavius Sabinus—great proofs of unstable Fortune, who mixes the highest and the lowest.

[48] Sub idem tempus L. Piso pro consule interficitur. ea de caede quam verissime expediam, si pauca supra repetiero ab initio causisque talium facinorum non absurda. legio in Africa auxiliaque tutandis imperii finibus sub divo Augusto Tiberioque principibus proconsuli parebant.

[48] At the same time L. Piso, as proconsul, is slain. About that slaughter I will set forth as truthfully as possible, if I shall briefly go back a little to the beginning and to the not unreasonable causes of such crimes. The legion in Africa and the auxiliaries, for the guarding of the borders of the empire, under the deified Augustus and Tiberius as princes, obeyed the proconsul.

mox G. Caesar, turbidus animi ac Marcum Silanum obtinentem Africam metuens, ablatam proconsuli legionem misso in eam rem legato tradidit. aequatus inter duos beneficiorum numerus, et mixtis utriusque mandatis discordia quaesita auctaque pravo certamine. legatorum ius adolevit diuturnitate officii, vel quia minoribus maior aemulandi cura, proconsulum splendidissimus quisque securitati magis quam potentiae consulebant.

soon G. Caesar, turbid in mind and fearing Marcus Silanus, who was holding Africa, took the legion from the proconsul and, sending a legate for that purpose, entrusted it to him. the number of benefactions was equalized between the two, and, with the mandates of each mingled, discord was sought and augmented by a perverse contest. the right of the legates grew through the long duration of their office, either because subordinates have a greater zeal for emulating, and each of the most splendid of the proconsuls looked more to security than to power.

[49] Sed tum legionem in Africa regebat Valerius Festus, sumptuosae adulescentiae neque modica cupiens et adfinitate Vitellii anxius. is crebris sermonibus temptaveritne Pisonem ad res novas an temptanti restiterit, incertum, quoniam secreto eorum nemo adfuit, et occiso Pisone plerique ad gratiam interfectoris inclinavere. nec ambigitur provinciam et militem alienato erga Vespasianum animo fuisse; et quidam e Vitellianis urbe profugi ostentabant Pisoni nutantis Gallias, paratam Germaniam, pericula ipsius et in pace suspecto tutius bellum.

[49] But at that time the legion in Africa was commanded by Valerius Festus, a man of sumptuous adolescence, desiring nothing moderate, and anxious because of his affinity with Vitellius. Whether by frequent discourses he tried to tempt Piso toward revolutionary measures, or whether he resisted one who was tempting, is uncertain, since no one was present at their private conference; and when Piso was slain, the majority inclined to the favor of the killer. Nor is it doubted that the province and the soldiery were alienated in mind toward Vespasian; and certain men of the Vitellian party, fugitives from the city, were holding out to Piso the wavering Gauls, Germany prepared, his own dangers, and that for one suspected in peace, war is safer.

inter quae Claudius Sagitta, praefectus alae Petrianae, prospera navigatione praevenit Papirium centurionem a Muciano missum, adseveravitque mandata interficiendi Pisonis centurioni data: cecidisse Galerianum consobrinum eius generumque; unam in audacia spem salutis, sed duo itinera audendi, seu mallet statim arma, seu petita navibus Gallia ducem se Vitellianis exercitibus ostenderet. nihil ad ea moto Pisone, centurio a Muciano missus, ut portum Carthaginis attigit, magna voce laeta Pisoni omnia tamquam principi continuare, obvios et subitae rei miraculo attonitos ut eadem adstreperent hortari. vulgus credulum ruere in forum, praesentiam Pisonis exposcere; gaudio clamoribusque cuncta miscebant, indiligentia veri et adulandi libidine.

Meanwhile, Claudius Sagitta, prefect of the Petrian Ala, with a prosperous voyage anticipated Papirius the centurion sent by Mucianus, and he asserted that mandates for killing Piso had been given to the centurion: that Galerianus, his cousin and son‑in‑law, had fallen; that there was one hope of safety in audacity, but two paths for daring—whether he preferred arms at once, or, with Gaul sought by ships, he should show himself as leader to the Vitellian armies. Piso being moved by none of these, the centurion sent by Mucianus, as soon as he reached the harbor of Carthage, with a great voice proclaimed that all joyful things were continuing for Piso as though emperor, and urged those he met, astonished at the marvel of the sudden affair, to raise the same outcries. The credulous crowd rushed into the forum and demanded the presence of Piso; with joy and clamors they were throwing everything into confusion, through negligence of truth and a lust for adulation.

Piso indicio Sagittae vel insita modestia non in publicum egressus est neque se studiis vulgi permisit: centurionemque percontatus, postquam quaesitum sibi crimen caedemque comperit, animadverti in eum iussit, haud perinde spe vitae quam ira in percussorem, quod idem ex interfectoribus Clodii Macri cruentas legati sanguine manus ad caedem proconsulis rettulisset. anxio deinde edicto Carthaginiensibus increpitis, ne solita quidem munia usurpabat, clausus intra domum, ne qua motus novi causa vel forte oreretur.

Piso, by the information of Sagitta or by inborn modesty, did not go out into public nor did he allow himself to the enthusiasms of the crowd; and having questioned the centurion, after he learned that a charge had been sought against him and a killing, he ordered punishment to be inflicted on him—not so much in hope of life as in anger against the striker, because this same man, one of the slayers of Clodius Macer, had carried back hands bloodied with a legate’s blood to the murder of a proconsul. Then, after an anxious edict with the Carthaginians rebuked, he did not even exercise his accustomed duties, shut within his house, lest any cause of new disturbances should arise, even by chance.

[50] Sed ubi Festo consternatio vulgi, centurionis supplicium veraque et falsa more famae in maius innotuere, equites in necem Pisonis mittit. illi raptim vecti obscuro adhuc coeptae lucis domum proconsulis inrumpunt destrictis gladiis, et magna pars Pisonis ignari, quod Poenos auxiliaris Maurosque in eam caedem delegerat. haud procul cubiculo obvium forte servum quisnam et ubi esset Piso interrogavere.

[50] But when, to Festus, the consternation of the crowd, the centurion’s punishment, and things true and false, in the manner of rumor, exaggerated into the greater, had become known, he sends cavalrymen to the killing of Piso. They, borne swiftly, while the just-begun light was still dim, burst into the house of the proconsul with swords drawn, and a great part were ignorant of Piso, since for that slaughter he had chosen Punic Carthaginians and auxiliary Moors. Not far from the bedchamber they chanced upon a slave and asked who indeed he was and where Piso was.

servus egregio mendacio se Pisonem esse respondit ac statim obtruncatur. nec multo post Piso interficitur; namque aderat qui nosceret, Baebius Massa e procuratoribus Africae, iam tunc optimo cuique exitiosus et inter causas malorum quae mox tulimus saepius rediturus. Festus Adrumeto, ubi speculabundus substiterat, ad legionem contendit praefectumque castrorum Caetronium Pisanum vinciri iussit proprias ob simultates, sed Pisonis satellitem vocabat militesque et centuriones quosdam puniit, alios praemiis adfecit, neutrum ex merito, sed ut oppressisse bellum crederetur.

The slave, with an outstanding lie, replied that he was Piso and was immediately cut down. Nor much later is Piso killed; for there was at hand one who would recognize him—Baebius Massa, one of the procurators of Africa—already then deadly to every best man and, among the causes of the evils which we soon endured, one destined to return again and again. Festus at Adrumetum, where he had halted keeping watch, hastened to the legion and ordered the camp-prefect Caetronius Pisanus to be bound on account of his personal feuds, but he called him a henchman of Piso; and he punished certain soldiers and some centurions, others he endowed with rewards, neither according to merit, but so that it might be believed that he had crushed a war.

mox Oeensium Lepcitanorumque discordias componit, quae raptu frugum et pecorum inter agrestis modicis principiis, iam per arma atque acies exercebantur; nam populus Oeensis multitudine inferior Garamantas exciverat, gentem indomitam et inter accolas latrociniis fecundam. unde artae Lepcitanis res, lateque vastatis agris intra moenia trepidabant, donec interventu cohortium alarumque fusi Garamantes et recepta omnis praeda, nisi quam vagi per inaccessa mapalium ulterioribus vendiderant.

soon he settles the discords of the Oeans and the Lepcitanians, which, from the rapine of grain and herds among the rustics with modest beginnings, were now being prosecuted by arms and battle-lines; for the people of Oea, inferior in multitude, had called out the Garamantes, a nation untamed and, among their neighbors, prolific in brigandage. whence the condition of the Lepcitanians was straitened, and, their fields laid waste far and wide, they trembled within the walls, until, by the intervention of the cohorts and cavalry wings, the Garamantes were routed and all the booty recovered, save what roving men had sold, through the inaccessible tracts of the mapalia, to those farther inland.

[51] At Vespasiano post Cremonensem pugnam et prosperos undique nuntios cecidisse Vitellium multi cuiusque ordinis, pari audacia fortunaque hibernum mare adgressi, nuntiavere. aderant legati regis Vologaesi quadraginta milia Parthorum equitum offerentes. magnificum laetumque tantis sociorum auxiliis ambiri neque indigere: gratiae Vologaeso actae mandatumque ut legatos ad senatum mitteret et pacem esse sciret.

[51] But to Vespasian, after the battle of Cremona and favorable reports from every side, many men of every order, who with equal audacity and good fortune had ventured the wintry sea, reported that Vitellius had fallen. There were present envoys of King Vologaeses, offering forty thousand Parthian horsemen. It was magnificent and gladdening to be courted by such great auxiliaries of allies and not to need them: thanks were given to Vologaeses and a mandate that he send envoys to the Senate and know that there was peace.

Vespasianus in Italiam resque urbis intentus adversam de Domitiano famam accipit, tamquam terminos aetatis et concessa filio egrederetur: igitur validissimam exercitus partem Tito tradit ad reliqua Iudaici belli perpetranda.

Vespasian, intent upon Italy and the affairs of the city, receives an adverse report about Domitian, as though he were overstepping the boundaries of his age and the concessions granted to a son: therefore he hands over the most powerful part of the army to Titus for the accomplishing of the remaining tasks of the Judaic War.

[52] Titum, antequam digrederetur, multo apud patrem sermone orasse ferunt ne criminantium nuntiis temere accenderetur integrumque se ac placabilem filio praestaret. non legiones, non classis proinde firma imperii munimenta quam numerum liberorum; nam amicos tempore, fortuna, cupidinibus aliquando aut erroribus imminui, transferri, desinere: suum cuique sanguinem indiscretum, sed maxime principibus, quorum prosperis et alii fruantur, adversa ad iunctissimos pertineant. ne fratribus quidem mansuram concordiam, ni parens exemplum praebuisset.

[52] They report that Titus, before he departed, with much discourse besought his father not to be rashly inflamed by the messages of accusers, and to present himself to his son intact and placable. Not legions, not fleets, are bulwarks of empire so firm as the number of children; for friends are at times, by fortune, by desires or even by errors, diminished, transferred, made to cease: one’s own blood is for each man indissoluble, but most of all for princes, whose prosperities others too enjoy, while adversities reach their nearest kin. Not even among brothers would concord endure, unless the parent should furnish the example.

Vespasianus haud aeque Domitiano mitigatus quam Titi pietate gaudens, bono esse animo iubet belloque et armis rem publicam attollere: sibi pacem domumque curae fore. tum celerrimas navium frumento onustas saevo adhuc mari committit: quippe tanto discrimine urbs nutabat ut decem haud amplius dierum frumentum in horreis fuerit, cum a Vespasiano commeatus subvenere.

Vespasian, not as much mitigated toward Domitian as rejoicing in Titus’s piety, bids them be of good courage and to uplift the commonwealth by war and arms: for himself, peace and the home would be his care. Then he commits to a sea still savage the swiftest of the ships, laden with grain; for in so great a crisis the city was tottering, so that there was grain for no more than ten days in the granaries, when from Vespasian the supplies came to the rescue.

[53] Curam restituendi Capitolii in Lucium Vestinum confert, equestris ordinis virum, sed auctoritate famaque inter proceres. ab eo contracti haruspices monuere ut reliquiae prioris delubri in paludes aveherentur, templum isdem vestigiis sisteretur: nolle deos mutari veterem formam. XI kalendas Iulias serena luce spatium omne quod templo dicabatur evinctum vittis coronisque; ingressi milites, quis fausta nomina, felicibus ramis; dein virgines Vestales cum pueris puellisque patrimis matrimisque aqua e fontibus amnibusque hausta perluere.

[53] He entrusts the care of restoring the Capitol to Lucius Vestinus, a man of the equestrian order, but in authority and fame among the grandees. By him haruspices were assembled, who advised that the remains of the former shrine be carried off into the marshes, and that the temple be set upon the same footprints: the gods do not wish the ancient form to be changed. On the 11 Kalends of July, in clear light, the whole space that was being dedicated to the temple was bound with fillets and garlands; soldiers entered, those with auspicious names, with fortunate branches; then the Vestal Virgins, with boys and girls whose fathers and mothers were living, with water drawn from springs and rivers, performed a lustration.

tum Helvidius Priscus praetor, praeeunte Plautio Aeliano pontifice, lustrata suovetaurilibus area et super caespitem redditis extis, Iovem, Iunonem, Minervam praesidesque imperii deos precatus uti coepta prosperarent sedisque suas pietate hominum inchoatas divina ope attollerent, vittas, quis ligatus lapis innexique funes erant, contigit; simul ceteri magistratus et sacerdotes et senatus et eques et magna pars populi, studio laetitiaque conixi, saxum ingens traxere. passimque iniectae fundamentis argenti aurique stipes et metallorum primitiae, nullis fornacibus victae, sed ut gignuntur: praedixere haruspices ne temeraretur opus saxo aurove in aliud destinato. altitudo aedibus adiecta: id solum religio adnuere et prioris templi magnificentiae defuisse credebatur.

then Helvidius Priscus, praetor, with Plautius Aelianus the pontiff leading the way, the area having been purified by suovetaurilia and the entrails rendered upon the turf, prayed to Jupiter, Juno, Minerva, and the guardian gods of the empire that they would prosper the undertakings and, by divine aid, would raise up their own seats, begun by the pietas of men; he touched the fillets, with which the stone had been bound and the ropes interlaced; at the same time the other magistrates and priests and the senate and the equestrian order and a great part of the people, straining with zeal and joy, hauled the huge stone. And everywhere offerings of silver and gold and the first-fruits of metals, conquered by no furnaces but as they are generated, were cast into the foundations: the haruspices foretold that the work must not be profaned by stone or gold destined for another use. Height was added to the building: religion gave assent to that alone, and it was believed to have been the one thing lacking to the magnificence of the prior temple.

[54] Audita interim per Gallias Germaniasque mors Vitellii duplicaverat bellum. nam Civilis omissa dissimulatione in populum Romanum ruere, Vitellianae legiones vel externum servitium quam imperatorem Vespasianum malle. Galli sustulerant animos, eandem ubique exercituum nostrorum fortunam rati, vulgato rumore a Sarmatis Dacisque Moesica ac Pannonica hiberna circumsederi; paria de Britannia fingebantur.

[54] Meanwhile, the death of Vitellius, heard through the Gauls and the Germanies, had doubled the war. For Civilis, dissimulation laid aside, was rushing upon the Roman people, and the Vitellian legions preferred even external servitude rather than Emperor Vespasian. The Gauls had lifted their spirits, reckoning the same fortune of our armies everywhere, the rumor having been spread that the Moesian and Pannonian winter-quarters were being ringed round by the Sarmatians and Dacians; equal tales were being fabricated about Britain.

sed nihil aeque quam incendium Capitolii, ut finem imperio adesse crederent, impulerat. captam olim a Gallis urbem, sed integra Iovis sede mansisse imperium: fatali nunc igne signum caelestis irae datum et possessionem rerum humanarum Transalpinis gentibus portendi superstitione vana Druidae canebant. incesseratque fama primores Galliarum ab Othone adversus Vitellium missos, antequam digrederentur, pepigisse ne deessent libertati, si populum Romanum continua civilium bellorum series et interna mala fregissent.

but nothing had impelled them so much as the burning of the Capitol to believe that an end to the imperium was at hand. the city, they said, had once been taken by the Gauls, yet with Jupiter’s seat intact the imperium had remained: now by a fated fire a sign of celestial wrath had been given, and that the possession of human affairs was being portended for the Transalpine peoples—the Druids chanted this with vain superstition. and a report had arisen that the leading men of Gaul, sent by Otho against Vitellius, before they departed, had stipulated not to be lacking to Liberty, if a continuous series of civil wars and internal evils had shattered the Roman people.

[55] Ante Flacci Hordeonii caedem nihil prorupit quo coniuratio intellegeretur: interfecto Hordeonio commeavere nuntii inter Civilem Classicumque praefectum alae Trevirorum. Classicus nobilitate opibusque ante alios: regium illi genus et pace belloque clara origo, ipse e maioribus suis hostis populi Romani quam socios iactabat. miscuere sese Iulius Tutor et Iulius Sabinus, hic Trevir, hic Lingonus, Tutor ripae Rheni a Vitellio praefectus; Sabinum super insitam vanitatem falsae stirpis gloria incendebat: proaviam suam divo Iulio per Gallias bellanti corpore atque adulterio placuisse.

[55] Before the killing of Hordeonius Flaccus nothing burst forth by which the conspiracy might be understood; once Hordeonius was slain, messengers came and went between Civilis and Classicus, prefect of the ala of the Treveri. Classicus stood before others in nobility and resources: royal was his lineage and an origin renowned in peace and in war; he himself, on the score of his ancestors, bragged himself an enemy of the Roman people rather than an ally. Julius Tutor and Julius Sabinus joined themselves, the former a Trever, the latter a Lingon; Tutor had been appointed by Vitellius over the bank of the Rhine; Sabinus, beyond his inborn vanity, was inflamed by the glory of a false stock: that his great-grandmother had pleased the deified Julius, as he campaigned through the Gauls, by her person and by adultery.

hi secretis sermonibus animos ceterorum scrutari, ubi quos idoneos rebantur conscientia obstrinxere, in colonia Agrippinensi in domum privatam conveniunt; nam publice civitas talibus inceptis abhorrebat; ac tamen interfuere quidam Vbiorum Tungrorumque. sed plurima vis penes Treviros ac Lingonas, nec tulere moras consultandi. certatim proclamant furere discordiis populum Romanum, caesas legiones, vastatam Italiam, capi cum maxime urbem, omnis exercitus suis quemque bellis distineri: si Alpes praesidiis firmentur, coalita libertate disceptaturas Gallias quem virium suarum terminum velint.

these men in secret conversations probed the minds of the others; when they had bound by conscience (that is, by complicity) those whom they thought suitable, they assemble in the Colonia Agrippinensis in a private house; for publicly the community shrank from such undertakings; and yet certain men of the Vbii and the Tungri were present. but the greatest weight was with the Treveri and the Lingones, nor did they endure delays of deliberating. they proclaim in rivalry that the Roman people is raving with discords, that legions have been cut down, Italy laid waste, the city in the very act of being taken, that all the armies are kept occupied each by its own wars: if the Alps are made firm with garrisons, the Gauls, their liberty coalesced, will adjudicate what limit of their own forces they wish.

[56] Haec dicta pariter probataque: de reliquiis Vitelliani exercitus dubitavere. plerique interficiendos censebant, turbidos, infidos, sanguine ducum pollutos: vicit ratio parcendi, ne sublata spe veniae pertinaciam accenderent: adliciendos potius in societatem. legatis tantum legionum interfectis, ceterum vulgus conscientia scelerum et spe impunitatis facile accessurum.

[56] These things were said and equally approved: about the remnants of the Vitellian army they were in doubt. most judged that they ought to be killed, turbulent, unfaithful, polluted with the blood of their commanders: the reasoning of sparing prevailed, lest, with the hope of pardon removed, they inflame obstinacy: rather, they should be enticed into alliance. with only the legates of the legions put to death, the rest of the common crowd, by the conscience of their crimes and the hope of impunity, would readily come over.

ea primi concilii forma missique per Gallias concitores belli; simulatum ipsis obsequium quo incautiorem Voculam opprimerent. nec defuere qui Voculae nuntiarent, sed vires ad coercendum deerant, infrequentibus infidisque legionibus. inter ambiguos milites et occultos hostis optimum e praesentibus ratus mutua dissimulatione et isdem quibus petebatur grassari, in coloniam Agrippinensem descendit.

This was the form of the first council, and inciters of war were sent through the Gauls; a feigned obsequy by them, to overwhelm Vocula the more incautious. Nor were there lacking those to report it to Vocula, but strength for coercing was lacking, the legions being scant and unfaithful. Amid wavering soldiers and hidden enemies, thinking the best among the present options to proceed with mutual dissimulation and to push on by the same means by which he was being assailed, he descended into the colony of Agrippina.

illuc Claudius Labeo, quem captum et [extra commentum] amendatum in Frisios diximus, corruptis custodibus perfugit; pollicitusque, si praesidium daretur, iturum in Batavos et potiorem civitatis partem ad societatem Romanam retracturum, accepta peditum equitumque modica manu nihil apud Batavos ausus quosdam Nerviorum Baetasiorumque in arma traxit, et furtim magis quam bello Canninefatis Marsacosque incursabat.

Thither Claudius Labeo, whom we have said was captured and, [outside the plan], sent away to the Frisians, escaped, his guards having been corrupted; and, having promised that, if a garrison were granted, he would go into the Batavians and draw back the stronger part of the community into Roman fellowship, after receiving a modest band of infantry and cavalry he dared nothing among the Batavians, but drew certain of the Nervii and Baetasii into arms, and, by stealth rather than by war, he was making incursions upon the Canninefates and the Marsaci.

[57] Vocula Gallorum fraude inlectus ad hostem contendit; nec procul Veteribus aberat, cum Classicus ac Tutor per speciem explorandi praegressi cum ducibus Germanorum pacta firmavere. tumque primum discreti a legionibus proprio vallo castra sua circumdant, obtestante Vocula non adeo turbatam civilibus armis rem Romanam ut Treviris etiam Lingonibusque despectui sit. superesse fidas provincias, victores exercitus, fortunam imperii et ultores deos.

[57] Vocula, enticed by the fraud of the Gauls, hastened toward the enemy; nor was he far from Vetera, when Classicus and Tutor, having gone on ahead under the appearance of reconnoitering, with the leaders of the Germans confirmed the pacts. Then for the first time, separated from the legions, they surround their own camp with a rampart of their own, Vocula adjuring that the Roman state was not so disturbed by civil arms as to be a thing of contempt even to the Treveri and the Lingones. There still remained faithful provinces, victorious armies, the Fortune of the empire, and avenging gods.

sic olim Sacrovirum et Aeduos, nuper Vindicem Galliasque singulis proeliis concidisse. eadem rursus numina, eadem fata ruptores foederum expectarent. melius divo Iulio divoque Augusto notos eorum animos: Galbam et infracta tributa hostilis spiritus induisse.

thus once Sacrovir and the Aedui, and lately Vindex and the Gauls, had been cut down in single battles. the same divinities, the same fates would await the breakers of treaties. their tempers were better known to the deified Julius and the deified Augustus: Galba and remitted tributes had put upon them a hostile spirit.

nunc hostis, quia molle servitium; cum spoliati exutique fuerint, amicos fore. haec ferociter locutus, postquam perstare in perfidia Classicum Tutoremque videt, verso itinere Novaesium concedit: Galli duum milium spatio distantibus campis consedere. illuc commeantium centurionum militumque emebantur animi, ut (flagitium incognitum) Romanus exercitus in externa verba iurarent pignusque tanti sceleris nece aut vinculis legatorum daretur.

now enemies, because the servitude is soft; when they have been despoiled and stripped, they will be friends. Having spoken these things ferociously, after he sees Classicus and Tutor persist in perfidy, he turned his route and withdrew to Novaesium: the Gauls encamped on plains at a distance of two miles. There the loyalties of the centurions and soldiers who were coming and going were being bought, so that (an unheard-of disgrace) the Roman army would swear to foreign watchwords, and as a pledge of so great a crime the death or chains of the legates would be given.

Vocula, quamquam plerique fugam suadebant, audendum ratus vocata contione in hunc modum disseruit:

Vocula, although the majority were advising flight, thinking that one must dare, with the assembly summoned, discoursed in this manner:

[58] 'Numquam apud vos verba feci aut pro vobis sollicitior aut pro me securior. nam mihi exitium parari libens audio mortemque in tot malis [hostium] ut finem miseriarum expecto: vestri me pudet miseretque, adversus quos non proelium et acies parantur; id enim fas armorum et ius hostium est: bellum cum populo Romano vestris se manibus gesturum Classicus sperat imperiumque et sacramentum Galliarum ostentat. adeo nos, si fortuna in praesens virtusque deseruit, etiam vetera exempla deficiunt, quotiens Romanae legiones perire praeoptaverint ne loco pellerentur?

[58] 'Never have I spoken among you either more solicitous for you or more secure as to myself. For I gladly hear that ruin is being prepared for me, and I await death amid so many evils [of the enemy] as an end of miseries: I am ashamed for you and pity you, against whom battle and battle-lines are not being arrayed; for that is the law of arms and the right of enemies: Classicus hopes to wage war with the Roman People by your hands and brandishes the imperium and the sacrament (military oath) of the Gauls. Are we indeed, if for the present fortune and courage have deserted us, so far gone that even ancient exempla fail us—how often have Roman legions preferred to perish rather than be driven from their position?

socii saepe nostri excindi urbis suas seque cum coniugibus ac liberis cremari pertulerunt, neque aliud pretium exitus quam fides famaque. tolerant cum maxime inopiam obsidiumque apud Vetera legiones nec terrore aut promissis demoventur: nobis super arma et viros et egregia castrorum munimenta frumentum et commeatus quamvis longo bello pares. pecunia nuper etiam donativo suffecit, quod sive a Vespasiano sive a Vitellio datum interpretari mavultis, ab imperatore certe Romano accepistis.

our allies have often borne that their cities be razed and that they themselves with their spouses and children be burned, nor any other price of the outcome than fidelity and fame. At this very time the legions at Vetera are enduring want and a blockade, nor are they moved away by terror or by promises: for us, over and above arms and men and the outstanding fortifications of the camp, there are grain and supplies equal to however long a war. Money lately even sufficed for a donative, which, whether you prefer to interpret as given by Vespasian or by Vitellius, you certainly received from a Roman emperor.

tot bellorum victores, apud Geldubam, apud Vetera, fuso totiens hoste, si pavetis aciem, indignum id quidem, sed est vallum murique et trahendi artes, donec e proximis provinciis auxilia exercitusque concurrant. sane ego displiceam: sunt alii legati, tribuni, centurio denique aut miles. ne hoc prodigium toto terrarum orbe vulgetur, vobis satellitibus Civilem et Classicum Italiam invasuros.

Victors of so many wars, at Gelduba, at Vetera, with the enemy so often routed, if you dread the battle-line, that indeed is unworthy; but there are the rampart and walls and the arts of protraction, until from the nearest provinces auxiliaries and armies converge. Granted, I may be displeasing: there are other legates, tribunes, a centurion, finally, or a soldier. Let not this prodigy be noised through the whole world, that Civilis and Classicus, with you as satellites, are going to invade Italy.

an, si ad moenia urbis Germani Gallique duxerint, arma patriae inferetis? horret animus tanti flagitii imagine. Tutorine Treviro agentur excubiae?

Or, if the Germans and Gauls lead to the walls of the city, will you bring arms against your fatherland? the mind shudders at the image of so great a flagitious deed. Will the watches be kept by Tutor the Treveran?

signum belli Batavus dabit, et Germanorum catervas supplebitis? quis deinde sceleris exitus, cum Romanae legiones contra derexerint? transfugae e transfugis et proditores e proditoribus inter recens et vetus sacramentum invisi deis errabitis?

Will the Batavian give the signal of war, and will you make up the bands of the Germans? What then is the outcome of the crime, when the Roman legions have drawn up against you? Deserters from deserters and traitors from traitors, will you wander, hateful to the gods, between the new and the old sacrament?

te, Iuppiter optime maxime, quem per octingentos viginti annos tot triumphis coluimus, te, Quirine Romanae parens urbis, precor venerorque ut, si vobis non fuit cordi me duce haec castra incorrupta et intemerata servari, at certe pollui foedarique a Tutore et Classico ne sinatis, militibus Romanis aut innocentiam detis aut maturam et sine noxa paenitentiam.'

you, Jupiter Best and Greatest, whom for eight hundred and twenty years we have cultivated with so many triumphs, you, Quirinus, parent of the Roman city, I pray and venerate, that, if it was not to your hearts that, with me as leader, this camp be kept incorrupt and undefiled, yet at least do not allow it to be polluted and befouled by Tutor and Classicus; grant to the Roman soldiers either innocence, or mature and blameless penitence.'

[59] Varie excepta oratio inter spem metumque ac pu dorem. digressum Voculam et de supremis agitantem liberti servique prohibuere foedissimam mortem sponte praevenire. et Classicus misso Aemilio Longino, desertore primae legionis, caedem eius maturavit; Herennium et Numisium legatos vinciri satis visum.

[59] The speech was received in varied ways, between hope, fear, and shame. Vocula, after departing and turning over thoughts of last things, his freedmen and slaves prevented from forestalling by his own will a most disgraceful death. And Classicus, by sending Aemilius Longinus, a deserter from the First Legion, hastened his killing; it seemed sufficient that the legates Herennius and Numisius be bound.

dein sumptis Romani imperii insignibus in castra venit. nec illi, quamquam ad omne facinus durato, verba ultra suppeditavere quam ut sacramentum recitaret: iuravere qui aderant pro imperio Galliarum. interfectorem Voculae altis ordinibus, ceteros, ut quisque flagitium navaverat, praemiis attollit.

then, the insignia of the Roman imperium having been taken up, he came into the camp. nor did words supply him, hardened though he was to every crime, beyond this: to recite the sacrament (oath); those who were present swore for the Empire of the Gauls. the slayer of Vocula he raises to the high ranks; the rest, in proportion as each had committed his outrage, he exalts with rewards.

Divisae inde inter Tutorem et Classicum curae. Tutor valida manu circumdatos Agrippinensis quantumque militum apud superiorem Rheni ripam in eadem verba adigit, occisis Mogontiaci tribunis, pulso castrorum praefecto, qui detractaverant: Classicus corruptissimum quemque e deditis pergere ad obsessos iubet, veniam ostentantis, si praesentia sequerentur: aliter nihil spei, famem ferrumque et extrema passuros. adiecere qui missi erant exemplum suum.

Thence the responsibilities were divided between Tutor and Classicus. Tutor, with a strong force, compelled the Agrippinenses, who were surrounded, and as many soldiers as were on the upper bank of the Rhine, to the same words—that is, to the same oath—after the tribunes at Mogontiacum had been killed and the prefect of the camp, who had balked, driven out. Classicus orders the most corrupt of the surrendered, each one, to go on to those under siege, flaunting pardon if they should follow the present conditions: otherwise, no hope—famine, steel, and the utmost extremities they would endure. Those who had been sent added their own example.

[60] Obsessos hinc fides, inde egestas inter decus ac flagitium distrahebant. cunctantibus solita insolitaque alimenta deerant, absumptis iumentis equisque et ceteris animalibus, quae profana foedaque in usum necessitas vertit. virgulta postremo et stirpis et internatas saxis herbas vellentes miseriarum patientiaeque documentum fuere, donec egregiam laudem fine turpi macularent, missis ad Civilem legatis vitam orantes.

[60] The besieged were being torn, on this side by loyalty, on that by want, between honor and disgrace. As they hesitated, both accustomed and unaccustomed aliments were lacking, the draught-animals and horses and the other animals having been consumed, which necessity turns to profane and foul use. At last, plucking brushwood and stumps and roots and herbs intergrown in the rocks, they were a proof of miseries and endurance, until they stained their outstanding renown with a foul end, sending envoys to Civilis and begging for life.

neque ante preces admissae quam in verba Galliarum iurarent: tum pactus praedam castrorum dat custodes qui pecuniam calones sarcinas retentarent et qui ipsos levis abeuntis prosequerentur. ad quintum ferme lapidem coorti Germani incautum agmen adgrediuntur. pugnacissimus quisque in vestigio, multi palantes occubuere: ceteri retro in castra perfugiunt, querente sane Civile et increpante Germanos tamquam fidem per scelus abrumperent.

nor were the entreaties admitted before they swore the oath in the words of the Gauls: then, having stipulated the plunder of the camp, he assigns guards to detain the money, the camp-servants, and the baggage, and others to pursue the men themselves as they departed light. at about the fifth milestone the Germans, having sprung up, attack the incautious column. the most pugnacious each fell on the spot, many stragglers fell: the rest fled back into the camp, Civilis to be sure complaining and upbraiding the Germans, as though they were breaking faith by crime.

simulata ea fuerint an retinere saevientis nequiverit, parum adfirmatur. direptis castris faces iniciunt, cunctosque qui proelio superfuerant incendium hausit.

whether those things were simulated or whether he was unable to restrain the raging men is hardly affirmed. the camp having been plundered, they cast in torches, and the conflagration engulfed all who had survived the battle.

[61] Civilis barbaro voto post coepta adversus Romanos arma propexum rutilatumque crinem patrata demum caede legionum deposuit; et ferebatur parvulo filio quosdam captivorum sagittis iaculisque puerilibus figendos obtulisse. ceterum neque se neque quemquam Batavum in verba Galliarum adegit, fisus Germanorum opibus et, si certandum adversus Gallos de possessione rerum foret, inclutus fama et potior. Munius Lupercus legatus legionis inter dona missus Veledae.

[61] Civilis, by a barbarous vow, after taking up arms against the Romans, had let down and ruddy-dyed his hair, and he laid it aside only when the slaughter of the legions had at last been accomplished; and it was reported that he had offered to his very small son certain of the captives to be pierced with arrows and with childish javelins. But he forced neither himself nor any Batavian into the oath of the Gauls, trusting in the resources of the Germans and, if there must be a contest against the Gauls for the possession of affairs, being illustrious in fame and the stronger. Munius Lupercus, the legate of a legion, was sent among the gifts to Veleda.

ea virgo nationis Bructerae late imperitabat, vetere apud Germanos more, quo plerasque feminarum fatidicas et augescente superstitione arbitrantur deas. tuncque Veledae auctoritas adolevit; nam prosperas Germanis res et excidium legionum praedixerat. sed Lupercus in itinere interfectus.

that maiden of the Bructeran nation ruled widely, by the ancient custom among the Germans, according to which they reckon very many women to be fatidic, and, as superstition augments, goddesses. And then Veleda’s authority grew; for she had foretold prosperous affairs for the Germans and the destruction of the legions. But Lupercus was slain on the journey.

pauci centurionum tribunorumque in Gallia geniti reservantur pignus societati. cohortium alarum legionum hiberna subversa cremataque, iis tantum relictis quae Mogontiaci ac Vindonissae sita sunt.

A few of the centurions and tribunes born in Gaul are reserved as a pledge for the alliance. The winter‑quarters of the cohorts, cavalry wings, and legions were overthrown and burned, with only those left which are situated at Mogontiacum and Vindonissa.

[62] Legio sexta decima cum auxiliis simul deditis a Novaesio in coloniam Trevirorum transgredi iubetur, praefinita die intra quam castris excederet. medium omne tempus per varias curas egere, ignavissimus quisque caesorum apud Vetera exemplo paventes, melior pars rubore et infamia: quale illud iter? quis dux viae?

[62] The Sixteenth Legion, with the auxiliaries likewise having surrendered, is ordered to cross from Novaesium into the colony of the Treveri, with a day prescribed within which it should quit the camp. All the intervening time they spent amid various anxieties, every most craven man trembling at the example of those cut down at Vetera, the better part from shame and infamy: what sort of march would that be? who would be the guide of the way?

et omnia in arbitrio eorum quos vitae necisque dominos fecissent. alii nulla dedecoris cura pecuniam aut carissima sibimet ipsi circumdare, quidam expedire arma telisque tamquam in aciem accingi. haec meditantibus advenit proficiscendi hora expectatione tristior.

and everything at the discretion of those whom they had made lords of life and death. Some, with no concern for disgrace, to wrap money or their dearest things about themselves; certain men to get arms ready and to gird themselves with weapons as if for the battle-line. As they were rehearsing these things, the hour of departure arrived, sadder than expectation.

quippe intra vallum deformitas haud perinde notabilis: detexit ignominiam campus et dies. revulsae imperatorum imagines, inhonora signa, fulgentibus hinc inde Gallorum vexillis; silens agmen et velut longae exequiae; dux Claudius Sanctus effosso oculo dirus ore, ingenio debilior. duplicatur flagitium, postquam desertis Bonnensibus castris altera se legio miscuerat.

Indeed within the rampart the deformity was not so noticeable: the open field and the day exposed the ignominy. The images of the emperors torn down, the standards dishonored, with Gallic vexilla gleaming here and there; a silent column and as if a long funeral; the leader Claudius Sanctus, with a gouged-out eye, dire of countenance, feebler in wit. The scandal is doubled, after the camp at Bonn had been deserted and another legion had joined them.

et vulgata captarum legionum fama cuncti qui paulo ante Romanorum nomen horrebant, procurrentes ex agris tectisque et undique effusi insolito spectaculo nimium fruebantur. non tulit ala Picentina gaudium insultantis vulgi, spretisque Sancti promissis aut minis Mogontiacum abeunt; ac forte obvio interfectore Voculae Longino, coniectis in eum telis initium exolvendae in posterum culpae fecere: legiones nihil mutato itinere ante moenia Trevirorum considunt.

And with the fame of the captured legions spread abroad, all who a little before had shuddered at the name of the Romans, running out from fields and roofs and poured forth from every side, were enjoying to excess the unusual spectacle. The Picentine Ala did not endure the joy of the taunting crowd, and, the promises or threats of Sanctus scorned, they go off to Mogontiacum; and by chance, meeting Longinus, the killer of Vocula, after hurling weapons at him they made a beginning of discharging their guilt for the future: the legions, with their route in no way changed, take up position before the walls of the Treveri.

[63] Civilis et Classicus rebus secundis sublati, an coloniam Agrippinensem diripiendam exercitibus suis permitterent dubitavere. saevitia ingenii et cupidine praedae ad excidium civitatis trahebantur: obstabat ratio belli et novum imperium inchoantibus utilis clementiae fama; Civilem etiam beneficii memoria flexit, quod filium eius primo rerum motu in colonia Agrippinensi deprehensum honorata custodia habuerant. sed Transrhenanis gentibus invisa civitas opulentia auctuque; neque alium finem belli rebantur quam si promisca ea sedes omnibus Germanis foret aut disiecta Vbios quoque dispersisset.

[63] Civilis and Classicus, lifted by favorable fortunes, hesitated whether to allow their armies to plunder the Agrippinensian colony. The savagery of their nature and the lust for booty drew them toward the destruction of the city; the strategy of war and, for men starting a new dominion, the repute of clemency, stood in the way; even the memory of a benefaction bent Civilis, in that his son, caught at the first outbreak of the disturbances in the Agrippinensian colony, had been kept in honorable custody. But to the trans-Rhenish tribes the city was hateful for its opulence and its growth; nor did they think there was any other end of the war unless that seat were made common to all the Germans, or, torn apart, it would scatter the Ubii as well.

[64] Igitur Tencteri, Rheno discreta gens, missis legatis mandata apud concilium Agrippinensium edi iubent, quae ferocissimus e legatis in hunc modum protulit: 'redisse vos in corpus nomenque Germaniae communibus deis et praecipuo deorum Marti grates agimus, vobisque gratulamur quod tandem liberi inter liberos eritis; nam ad hunc diem flumina ac terram et caelum quodam modo ipsum clauserant Romani ut conloquia congressusque nostros arcerent, vel, quod contumeliosius est viris ad arma natis, inermes ac prope nudi sub custode et pretio coiremus. sed ut amicitia societasque nostra in aeternum rata sint, postulamus a vobis muros coloniae, munimenta servitii, detrahatis (etiam fera animalia, si clausa teneas, virtutis obliviscuntur), Romanos omnis in finibus vestris trucidetis (haud facile libertas et domini miscentur): bona interfectorum in medium cedant, ne quis occulere quicquam aut segregare causam suam possit. liceat nobis vobisque utramque ripam colere, ut olim maioribus nostris: quo modo lucem diemque omnibus hominibus, ita omnis terras fortibus viris natura aperuit.

[64] Therefore the Tencteri, a people separated by the Rhine, having sent envoys, order their mandates to be published before the council of the Agrippinenses; which the fiercest of the envoys set forth in this manner: ‘that you have returned into the body and name of Germania, to the common gods and to Mars, chief of the gods, we give thanks, and we congratulate you that at last you will be free among the free; for to this day the Romans had shut up the rivers and the earth and, in a manner, the sky itself, so as to keep away our colloquies and congresses, or—what is more contumelious to men born to arms—that we should meet unarmed and almost naked under a guard and for a price. But that our friendship and alliance may be ratified for eternity, we demand of you that you remove the walls of the colony, the muniments of servitude (even wild animals, if you keep them enclosed, forget their virtue), that you slaughter all the Romans within your borders (freedom and masters are not easily commingled): let the goods of the slain pass into the common stock, lest anyone hide anything or be able to segregate his own cause. Let it be permitted for us and for you to cultivate both banks, as once to our ancestors: just as nature has opened the light and the day to all human beings, so has she opened all lands to brave men.’

instituta cultumque patrium resumite, abruptis voluptatibus, quibus Romani plus adversus subiectos quam armis valent. sincerus et integer et servitutis oblitus populus aut ex aequo agetis aut aliis imperitabitis.'

Resume your ancestral institutions and culture, cutting off the pleasures by which the Romans prevail more against the subjected than by arms. A pure and intact people, forgetful of servitude, you will either deal on equal terms or you will command others.'

[65] Agrippinenses sumpto consultandi spatio, quando neque subire condiciones metus futuri neque palam aspernari condicio praesens sinebat, in hunc modum respondent: 'quae prima libertatis facultas data est, avidius quam cautius sumpsimus, ut vobis ceterisque Germanis, consanguineis nostris, iungeremur. muros civitatis, congregantibus se cum maxime Romanorum exercitibus, augere nobis quam diruere tutius est. si qui ex Italia aut provinciis alienigenae in finibus nostris fuerant, eos bellum absumpsit vel in suas quisque sedis refugerunt.

[65] The Agrippinenses, after taking a space for consultation, since their present condition did not permit them either to submit to the terms out of fear for the future or to spurn them openly, answer in this manner: 'The first opportunity of liberty that was given we seized more avidly than cautiously, so that we might be joined to you and to the other Germans, our kinsmen. The walls of the city, with the Roman armies just now assembling, it is safer for us to augment than to demolish. If there were any aliens from Italy or the provinces within our borders, the war has consumed them, or each has taken refuge in his own seats.'

deductis olim et nobiscum per conubium sociatis quique mox provenerunt haec patria est; nec vos adeo iniquos existimamus ut interfici a nobis parentes fratres liberos nostros velitis. vectigal et onera commerciorum resolvimus: sint transitus incustoditi sed diurni et inermes, donec nova et recentia iura vetustate in consuetudinem vertuntur. arbitrum habebimus Civilem et Veledam, apud quos pacta sancientur.' sic lenitis Tencteris legati ad Civilem ac Veledam missi cum donis cuncta ex voluntate Agrippinensium perpetravere; sed coram adire adloquique Veledam negatum: arcebantur aspectu quo venerationis plus inesset.

'drawn long ago and settled, and joined with us through intermarriage, and those who soon after were born—this is their fatherland; nor do we deem you so unjust as to wish that our parents, brothers, and children be slain by us. We remit the tax and the burdens of commerce: let the crossings be unguarded, but by day and unarmed, until new and recent laws are by age turned into custom. We shall have Civilis and Veleda as arbiters, with whom the pacts will be sanctioned.' Thus, the Tencteri being softened, envoys sent to Civilis and Veleda with gifts accomplished everything according to the will of the Agrippinenses; but to approach and address Veleda in person was denied: they were kept from her sight, that there might be more of veneration in it.

ipsa edita in turre; delectus e propinquis consulta responsaque ut internuntius numinis portabat.

she herself was set up in a tower; a chosen one from among her kinsfolk carried the consultations and the responses as the inter-nuntius of the numen.

[66] Civilis societate Agrippinensium auctus proximas civitates adfectare aut adversantibus bellum inferre statuit. occupatisque Sunucis et iuventute eorum per cohortis composita, quo minus ultra pergeret, Claudius Labeo Baetasiorum Tungrorumque et Nerviorum tumultuaria manu restitit, fretus loco, quia pontem Mosae fluminis anteceperat. pugnabaturque in angustiis ambigue donec Germani transnatantes terga Labeonis invasere; simul Civilis, ausus an ex composito, intulit se agmini Tungrorum, et clara voce 'non ideo' inquit 'bellum sumpsimus, ut Batavi et Treviri gentibus imperent: procul haec a nobis adrogantia.

[66] Strengthened by the alliance of the Agrippinenses, Civilis decided to court the nearest communities or to bring war upon those who opposed. And with the Sunuci occupied and their youth organized into cohorts, Claudius Labeo, with a scratch force of the Baetasii, the Tungri, and the Nervii, stood in the way to keep him from advancing farther, relying on the position, because he had preempted the bridge of the river Meuse. And they fought in narrow ground with doubtful outcome until Germans, swimming across, assailed Labeo’s rear; at the same time Civilis, whether by boldness or by prior arrangement, threw himself into the column of the Tungri, and in a clear voice said, 'not for this reason,' he said, 'did we take up war, that the Batavi and the Treveri should rule over nations: far be this arrogance from us.'

accipite societatem: transgredior ad vos, seu me ducem seu militem mavultis.' movebatur vulgus condebantque gladios, cum Campanus ac Iuvenalis e primoribus Tungrorum universam ei gentem dedidere; Labeo antequam circumveniretur profugit. Civilis Baetasios quoque ac Nervios in fidem acceptos copiis suis adiunxit, ingens rerum, perculsis civitatum animis vel sponte inclinantibus.

"accept the alliance: I cross over to you, whether you prefer me as leader or as soldier." The common crowd was moved, and they sheathed their swords, when Campanus and Iuvenalis, from the foremost of the Tungri, surrendered the whole tribe to him; Labeo fled before he could be surrounded. Civilis also joined to his forces the Baetasii and the Nervii, received into his pledged faith—a huge change of affairs, with the spirits of the communities stricken or of their own accord inclining.

[67] Interea Iulius Sabinus proiectis foederis Romani monumentis Caesarem se salutari iubet magnamque et inconditam popularium turbam in Sequanos rapit, conterminam civitatem et nobis fidam; nec Sequani detractavere certamen. fortuna melioribus adfuit: fusi Lingones. Sabinus festinatum temere proelium pari formidine deseruit; utque famam exitii sui faceret, villam, in quam perfugerat, cremavit, illic voluntaria morte interisse creditus.

[67] Meanwhile Julius Sabinus, having cast aside the monuments of the Roman foedus, bids himself be saluted as Caesar, and sweeps a great and incondite mob of his compatriots into the Sequani, a conterminous civitas and faithful to us; nor did the Sequani decline the contest. Fortune stood by the better party: the Lingones were routed. Sabinus abandoned a hastened and rash battle in equal panic; and in order to manufacture a report of his own destruction, he burned the villa into which he had fled, being believed to have perished there by a voluntary death.

sed quibus artibus latebrisque vitam per novem mox annos traduxerit, simul amicorum eius constantiam et insigne Epponinae uxoris exemplum suo loco reddemus. Sequanorum prospera acie belli impetus stetit. resipiscere paulatim civitates fasque et foedera respicere, principibus Remis, qui per Gallias edixere ut missis legatis in commune consultarent, libertas an pax placeret.

But by what arts and hiding-places he thereafter prolonged his life for the next nine years, together with the constancy of his friends and the distinguished example of his wife Epponina, we shall render in its proper place. The successful battle-line of the Sequani checked the momentum of the war. The communities began gradually to come to their senses and to look back to right and to treaties, with the Remi as leaders, who throughout Gaul issued an edict that, envoys having been sent, they should deliberate in common whether liberty or peace was preferable.

[68] At Romae cuncta in deterius audita Mucianum angebant, ne quamquam egregii duces (iam enim Gallum Annium et Petilium Cerialem delegerat) summam belli parum tolerarent. nec relinquenda urbs sine rectore; et Domitiani indomitae libidines timebantur, suspectis, uti diximus, Primo Antonio Varoque Arrio. Varus praetorianis praepositus vim atque arma retinebat: eum Mucianus pulsum loco, ne sine solacio ageret, annonae praefecit.

[68] But at Rome, all reports, heard to the worse, were vexing Mucianus, lest, although the commanders were distinguished (for he had already chosen Gallus Annius and Petilius Cerialis), they should too little sustain the sum of the war. Nor was the city to be left without a rector; and Domitian’s indomitable lusts were feared, Primus Antonius and Arrius Varus, as we have said, being suspect. Varus, set over the Praetorians, was retaining force and arms: him Mucianus, driven from his post, that he might not act without consolation, appointed prefect of the grain-supply (annona).

utque Domitiani animum Varo haud alienum deleniret, Arrecinum Clementem, domui Vespasiani per adfinitatem innexum et gratissimum Domitiano, praetorianis praeposuit, patrem eius sub C. Caesare egregie functum ea cura dictitans, laetum militibus idem nomen, atque ipsum, quamquam senatorii ordinis, ad utraque munia sufficere. adsumuntur e civitate clarissimus quisque et alii per ambitionem. simul Domitianus Mucianusque accingebantur, dispari animo, ille spe ac iuventa properus, hic moras nectens quis flagrantem retineret, ne ferocia aetatis et pravis impulsoribus, si exercitum invasisset, paci belloque male consuleret.

and in order to soothe Domitian’s disposition, which was by no means alien toward Varus, he put Arrecinus Clemens—linked to Vespasian’s house by affinity and most welcome to Domitian—over the Praetorians, declaring that his father had discharged that charge excellently under Gaius Caesar, that the same name was gladsome to the soldiers, and that he himself, although of the senatorial order, was sufficient for both duties. The most distinguished men from the city were taken up, and others through ambition. At the same time Domitian and Mucianus were girding themselves, with a disparate spirit: the former, swift through hope and youth; the latter, knitting delays, that someone might restrain the blazing one, lest the ferocity of age and perverse instigators, if he should seize the army, should counsel ill for peace and war.

legiones victrices, octava, undecima, decima tertia Vitellianarum unaetvicensima, e recens conscriptis secunda Poeninis Cottianisque Alpibus, pars monte Graio traducuntur; quarta decima legio e Britannia, sexta ac prima ex Hispania accitae. Igitur venientis exercitus fama et suopte ingenio ad mitiora inclinantes Galliarum civitates in Remos convenere. Trevirorum legatio illic opperiebatur, acerrimo instinctore belli Iulio Valentino.

the victorious legions—the 8th, the 11th, the 13th, and, of the Vitellian legions, the 21st—and, among the newly conscripted, the 2nd, are led across the Pennine and Cottian Alps, part over the Graian mount; the 14th legion from Britain, the 6th and the 1st summoned from Spain. Therefore, the rumor of the coming army, and the communities of Gaul by their own disposition inclining to milder measures, convened among the Remi. An embassy of the Treveri was waiting there, with Julius Valentinus the most ardent instigator of war.

is meditata oratione cuncta magnis imperiis obiectari solita contumeliasque et invidiam in populum Romanum effudit, turbidus miscendis seditionibus et plerisque gratus vaecordi facundia.

He, with a premeditated oration, poured forth all the charges usually objected to great empires, and contumelies and envy against the Roman people—turbulent in mixing seditions, and pleasing to the majority by a witless eloquence.

[69] At Iulius Auspex e primoribus Remorum, vim Romanam pacisque bona dissertans et sumi bellum etiam ab ignavis, strenuissimi cuiusque periculo geri, iamque super caput legiones, sapientissimum quemque reverentia fideque, iuniores periculo ac metu continuit: et Valentini animum laudabant, consilium Auspicis sequebantur. constat obstitisse Treviris Lingonibusque apud Gallias, quod Vindicis motu cum Verginio steterant. deterruit plerosque provinciarum aemulatio: quod bello caput?

[69] But Iulius Auspex, from the foremost of the Remi, discoursing on Roman force and the goods of peace, and that war is undertaken even by the ignoble, but is conducted at the peril of every strenuous man, and that the legions were now over their head, restrained each wisest man by reverence and fidelity, the younger men by danger and fear: and they praised the spirit of Valentinus, they followed the counsel of Auspex. It is agreed that what stood in the way of the Treveri and the Lingones among the Gauls was that, at the movement of Vindex, they had stood with Verginius. Emulation deterred most of the provinces: what head for the war?

unde ius auspiciumque peteretur? quam, si cuncta provenissent, sedem imperio legerent? nondum victoria, iam discordia erat, aliis foedera, quibusdam opes virisque aut vetustatem originis per iurgia iactantibus: taedio futurorum praesentia placuere.

whence were right and auspice to be sought? what seat for empire would they choose, if all should turn out? Not yet victory, already discord: some bandying treaties, others in wranglings flaunting their resources and men, or the antiquity of their origin; out of tedium for the future, the present won favor.

scribuntur ad Treviros epistulae nomine Galliarum ut abstinerent armis, impetrabili venia et paratis deprecatoribus, si paeniteret: restitit idem Valentinus obstruxitque civitatis suae auris, haud perinde instruendo bello intentus quam frequens contionibus.

Letters were written to the Treveri in the name of the Gauls, that they should abstain from arms, with pardon attainable and intercessors prepared, if they should repent: that same Valentinus resisted and stopped the ears of his city, being not so much intent on equipping war as frequent at public assemblies.

[70] Igitur non Treviri neque Lingones ceteraeve rebellium civitates pro magnitudine suscepti discriminis agere; ne duces quidem in unum consulere, sed Civilis avia Belgarum circumibat, dum Claudium Labeonem capere aut exturbare nititur; Classicus segne plerumque otium trahens velut parto imperio fruebatur; ne Tutor quidem maturavit superiorem Germaniae ripam et ardua Alpium praesidiis claudere. atque interim unaetvicensima legio Vindonissa, Sextilius Felix cum auxiliariis cohortibus per Raetiam inrupere; accessit ala Singularium excita olim a Vitellio, deinde in partis Vespasiani transgressa. praeerat Iulius Briganticus sorore Civilis genitus, ut ferme acerrima proximorum odia sunt, invisus avunculo infensusque.

[70] Therefore neither the Treviri nor the Lingones nor the other communities of the rebels acted in proportion to the magnitude of the peril undertaken; nor did the commanders even consult as one, but Civilis was traversing the pathless places of the Belgae, while he strove to seize or expel Claudius Labeo; Classicus, dragging on for the most part a sluggish leisure, enjoyed himself as though an imperium had been won; nor did Tutor even make haste to close with garrisons the Upper German bank and the steep places of the Alps. And meanwhile the 21st legion from Vindonissa, and Sextilius Felix with the auxiliary cohorts, broke in through Raetia; there was added the ala of the Singulares, once raised by Vitellius, then passed over to the party of Vespasian. It was commanded by Julius Briganticus, born of the sister of Civilis, since commonly the hatreds of those nearest are the fiercest, hateful and hostile to his uncle.

Tutor Trevirorum copias, recenti Vangionum, Caeracatium, Tribocorum dilectu auctas, veterano pedite atque equite firmavit, corruptis spe aut metu subactis legionariis; qui primo cohortem praemissam a Sextilio Felice interficiunt, mox ubi duces exercitusque Romanus propinquabant, honesto transfugio rediere, secutis Tribocis Vangionibusque et Caeracatibus. Tutor Treviris comitantibus, vitato Mogontiaco, Bingium concessit, fidens loco, quia pontem Navae fluminis abruperat, sed incursu cohortium, quas Sextilius ducebat, et reperto vado proditus fususque. ea clade perculsi Treviri, et plebes omissis armis per agros palatur: quidam principum, ut primi posuisse bellum viderentur, in civitates quae societatem Romanam non exuerant, perfugere.

Tutor strengthened the forces of the Treviri, augmented by a recent levy of the Vangiones, Caeracates, and Triboci, with veteran infantry and cavalry, the legionaries corrupted by hope or subdued by fear; these at first cut to pieces the cohort sent ahead by Sextilius Felix, soon, when the Roman commanders and army were drawing near, returned with an honorable defection, the Triboci, Vangiones, and Caeracates following. Tutor, with the Treviri accompanying, avoiding Mogontiacum, withdrew to Bingium, confident in the position because he had broken the bridge of the river Nava; but by the onset of the cohorts which Sextilius led, and a ford having been found, he was betrayed and routed. Stricken by that disaster, the Treviri—and the plebs, their arms laid aside—wandered over the fields: certain of the chiefs, that they might seem the first to have laid down the war, fled for refuge into the communities which had not cast off the Roman alliance.

legiones a Novaesio Bonnaque in Treviros, ut supra memoravimus, traductae se ipsae in verba Vespasiani adigunt. haec Valentino absente gesta; qui ubi adventabat furens cunctaque rursus in turbas et exitium conversurus, legiones in Mediomatricos, sociam civitatem, abscessere: Valentinus ac Tutor in arma Treviros retrahunt, occisis Herennio ac Numisio legatis quo minore spe veniae cresceret vinculum sceleris.

the legions transferred from Novaesium and Bonn into the Treveri, as we have mentioned above, forced themselves to take the oath to Vespasian. these things were done while Valentinus was absent; and when he was approaching in a rage and about to turn everything again into tumult and destruction, the legions withdrew to the Mediomatrici, an allied civitas. Valentinus and Tutor draw the Treveri back into arms, Herennius and Numisius, the envoys, having been slain, in order that, with a lesser hope of pardon, the bond of crime might grow.

[71] Hic belli status erat cum Petilius Cerialis Mogontiacum venit. eius adventu erectae spes; ipse pugnae avidus et contemnendis quam cavendis hostibus melior, ferocia verborum militem incendebat, ubi primum congredi licuisset, nullam proelio moram facturus. dilectus per Galliam habitos in civitates remittit ac nuntiare iubet sufficere imperio legiones: socii ad munia pacis redirent securi velut confecto bello quod Romanae manus excepissent.

[71] Such was the state of the war when Petilius Cerialis came to Mogontiacum. At his arrival hopes were raised; he himself, eager for battle and better at scorning than at shunning enemies, inflamed the soldiers with the ferocity of his words, that, as soon as it was permitted to engage, he would make no delay for battle. The levies held throughout Gaul he sends back to their communities and orders them to announce that the legions sufficed for the imperium: the allies should return to the duties of peace, secure, as though the war were finished which Roman hands had taken up.

auxit ea res Gallorum obsequium: nam recepta iuventute facilius tributa toleravere, proniores ad officia quod spernebantur. at Civilis et Classicus ubi pulsum Tutorem, caesos Treviros, cuncta hostibus prospera accepere, trepidi ac properantes, dum dispersas suorum copias conducunt, crebris interim nuntiis Valentinum monuere ne summae rei periculum faceret. eo rapidius Cerialis, missis in Mediomatricos qui breviore itinere legiones in hostem verterent, contracto quod erat militum Mogontiaci quantumque secum transvexerat, tertiis castris Rigodulum venit, quem locum magna Trevirorum manu Valentinus insederat, montibus aut Mosella amne saeptum; et addiderat fossas obicesque saxorum.

That matter augmented the Gauls’ obsequiousness: for, their youth received back, they more easily tolerated the tributes, and were more prone to duties because they were being spurned. But Civilis and Classicus, when they learned that Tutor had been routed, the Treveri cut down, and everything prosperous for the enemies, anxious and in haste, while they were conducting together the dispersed forces of their men, meanwhile with frequent messages admonished Valentinus not to make a hazard of the main interest. Thereupon the more rapid was Cerialis, sending to the Mediomatrici those who by a shorter route might turn the legions upon the enemy; and having concentrated whatever troops there were at Mogontiacum and whatever he had transported with him, he came at the third encampment to Rigodulum, a place which Valentinus had occupied with a great band of Treveri, enclosed by mountains or by the Moselle river; and he had added ditches and barricades of stones.

nec deterruere ea munimenta Romanum ducem quo minus peditem perrumpere iuberet, equitum aciem in collem erigeret, spreto hoste, quem temere collectum haud ita loco iuvari ut non plus suis in virtute foret. paulum morae in adscensu, dum missilia hostium praevehuntur: ut ventum in manus, deturbati ruinae modo praecipitantur. et pars equitum aequioribus iugis circumvecta nobilissimos Belgarum, in quis ducem Valentinum, cepit.

Nor did those fortifications deter the Roman commander from ordering the infantry to break through, and from raising the cavalry battle-line onto the hill, the enemy being scorned, who, hastily assembled, were not so aided by the position as to outweigh the advantage his own men had in prowess. There is a little delay in the ascent, while the enemy’s missiles sweep past; when it comes to hand-to-hand, they are driven off and hurled headlong like a collapse. And a part of the cavalry, having ridden around by gentler ridges, captured the most noble of the Belgae, among whom the leader Valentinus.

[72] Cerialis postero die coloniam Trevirorum ingressus est, avido milite eruendae civitatis. hanc esse Classici, hanc Tutoris patriam; horum scelere clausas caesasque legiones. quid tantum Cremonam meruisse?

[72] Cerialis on the following day entered the colony of the Treveri, with the soldiery eager for the sacking of the city. “This is the fatherland of Classicus, this of Tutor; by the crime of these men legions had been shut in and cut down. What had Cremona done to deserve so much?”

quam e gremio Italiae raptam quia unius noctis moram victoribus attulerit. stare in confinio Germaniae integram sedem spoliis exercituum et ducum caedibus ovantem. redigeretur praeda in fiscum: ipsis sufficere ignis et rebellis coloniae ruinas, quibus tot castrorum excidia pensarentur.

which, torn from the bosom of Italy because it had brought the victors a delay of a single night. to stand on the frontier of Germany an untouched seat, exulting in the spoils of armies and the slaughters of commanders. let the plunder be brought into the fiscus: for themselves fire and the ruins of the rebellious colony sufficed, by which so many destructions of camps might be counterbalanced.

Cerialis metu infamiae, si licentia saevitiaque imbuere militem crederetur, pressit iras: et paruere, posito civium bello ad externa modestiores. convertit inde animos accitarum e Mediomatricis legionum miserabilis aspectus. stabant conscientia flagitii maestae, fixis in terram oculis: nulla inter coeuntis exercitus consalutatio; neque solantibus hortantibusve responsa dabant, abditi per tentoria et lucem ipsam vitantes.

Cerialis, from fear of infamy, if he should be believed to be imbuing the soldier with license and savagery, checked his wrath: and they obeyed, the civil war laid aside, more moderate toward external matters. Thereupon the pitiable sight of the legions summoned from the Mediomatrici turned their minds. They stood, sad in the consciousness of their crime, their eyes fixed on the ground: there was no mutual salutation among the assembling armies; nor did they give responses to those consoling or encouraging them, hidden away throughout the tents and shunning the very light.

nec proinde periculum aut metus quam pudor ac dedecus obstupefecerat, attonitis etiam victoribus, qui vocem precesque adhibere non ausi lacrimis ac silentio veniam poscebant, donec Cerialis mulceret animos, fato acta dictitans quae militum ducumque discordia vel fraude hostium evenissent. primum illum stipendiorum et sacramenti diem haberent: priorum facinorum neque imperatorem neque se meminisse. tunc recepti in eadem castra, et edictum per manipulos ne quis in certamine iurgiove seditionem aut cladem commilitoni obiectaret.

nor so much danger or fear as shame and disgrace had stupefied them, the victors too being thunderstruck, who, not daring to employ voice and prayers, were seeking pardon with tears and silence, until Cerialis soothed their spirits, repeatedly saying that the things which had happened were done by fate, such as had occurred through the discord of soldiers and leaders or through the fraud of enemies. let them hold that day to be the first of their stipends and of their oath: of earlier crimes neither the emperor nor he remembered. then they were received into the same camp, and an edict was issued through the maniples that no one in contest or quarrel should object against a fellow-soldier a sedition or a disaster.

[73] Mox Treviros ac Lingonas ad contionem vocatos ita adloquitur: 'neque ego umquam facundiam exercui, et populi Romani virtutem armis adfirmavi: sed quoniam apud vos verba plurimum valent bonaque ac mala non sua natura, sed vocibus seditiosorum aestimantur, statui pauca disserere quae profligato bello utilius sit vobis audisse quam nobis dixisse. terram vestram ceterorumque Gallorum ingressi sunt duces imperatoresque Romani nulla cupidine, sed maioribus vestris invocantibus, quos discordiae usque ad exitium fatigabant, et acciti auxilio Germani sociis pariter atque hostibus servitutem imposuerant. quot proeliis adversus Cimbros Teutonosque, quantis exercituum nostrorum laboribus quove eventu Germanica bella tractaverimus, satis clarum.

[73] Soon he thus addresses the Treveri and the Lingones, summoned to an assembly: 'Nor have I ever exercised eloquence, and I have affirmed the Roman people’s virtue by arms: but since among you words prevail most, and good and bad are assessed not by their own nature but by the voices of seditious men, I have resolved to discourse a few things which, the war having been prostrated, it will be more useful for you to have heard than for us to have said. Your land and that of the other Gauls was entered by Roman leaders and commanders with no cupidity, but with your ancestors invoking them, whom discords were wearing out even unto destruction, and the Germans, called in for aid, had imposed servitude upon allies as well as upon enemies. In how many battles against the Cimbri and the Teutones, with how great labors of our armies, and with what outcome we have conducted the Germanic wars, is clear enough.

nec ideo Rhenum insedimus ut Italiam tueremur, sed ne quis alius Ariovistus regno Galliarum potiretur. an vos cariores Civili Batavisque et transrhenanis gentibus creditis quam maioribus eorum patres avique vestri fuerunt? eadem semper causa Germanis transcendendi in Gallias, libido atque avaritia et mutandae sedis amor, ut relictis paludibus et solitudinibus suis fecundissimum hoc solum vosque ipsos possiderent: ceterum libertas et speciosa nomina praetexuntur; nec quisquam alienum servitium et dominationem sibi concupivit ut non eadem ista vocabula usurparet.'

nor for that reason did we sit down upon the Rhine so that we might guard Italy, but lest some other Ariovistus should get possession of the kingship of the Gauls. Or do you believe yourselves dearer to Civilis and to the Batavians and the trans-Rhenane peoples than your fathers and grandfathers were to their elders? The same cause is always for the Germans to cross over into the Gauls—lust and avarice and a love of changing their seat—so that, their marshes and solitudes left behind, they might possess this most fecund soil and your very selves: moreover “liberty” and specious names are put forward as a pretext; nor has anyone coveted for himself another’s servitude and domination without usurping those same words.'

[74] 'Regna bellaque per Gallias semper fuere donec in nostrum ius concederetis. nos, quamquam totiens lacessiti, iure victoriae id solum vobis addidimus, quo pacem tueremur; nam neque quies gentium sine armis neque arma sine stipendiis neque stipendia sine tributis haberi queunt: cetera in communi sita sunt. ipsi plerumque legionibus nostris praesidetis, ipsi has aliasque provincias regitis; nihil separatum clausumve.

[74] 'Kingdoms and wars throughout the Gauls have always existed until you yielded into our jurisdiction. We, although so often provoked, by the right of victory added to you only that by which we might safeguard peace; for neither can the quiet of the nations be had without arms, nor arms without stipends, nor stipends without tributes: the rest are set in common. You yourselves for the most part preside over our legions, you yourselves govern these and other provinces; nothing separate or closed off.'

et laudatorum principum usus ex aequo quamvis procul agentibus: saevi proximis ingruunt. quo modo sterilitatem aut nimios imbris et cetera naturae mala, ita luxum vel avaritiam dominantium tolerate. vitia erunt, donec homines, sed neque haec continua et meliorum interventu pensantur: nisi forte Tutore et Classico regnantibus moderatius imperium speratis, aut minoribus quam nunc tributis parabuntur exercitus quibus Germani Britannique arceantur.

and the advantage of lauded princes is equal even for those who dwell far away: the savage bear down upon those nearest. Just as you tolerate barrenness or excessive rains and the other ills of nature, so tolerate the luxury or avarice of those ruling. There will be vices, so long as there are men; but neither are these continual, and they are compensated by the intervention of better men—unless perhaps, with Tutor and Classicus reigning, you expect a more moderate imperium, or that with taxes lower than now armies will be prepared by which the Germans and the Britons may be warded off.

nam pulsis, quod di prohibeant, Romanis quid aliud quam bella omnium inter se gentium existent? octingentorum annorum fortuna disciplinaque compages haec coaluit, quae convelli sine exitio convellentium non potest: sed vobis maximum discrimen, penes quos aurum et opes, praecipuae bellorum causae. proinde pacem et urbem, quam victi victoresque eodem iure obtinemus, amate colite: moneant vos utriusque fortunae documenta ne contumaciam cum pernicie quam obsequium cum securitate malitis.' tali oratione graviora metuentis composuit erexitque.

for if the Romans were driven out—which may the gods forbid—what else would exist than wars of all the nations among themselves? By the fortune and discipline of 800 years this framework has coalesced, which cannot be torn apart without the destruction of those tearing it apart: but for you there is the greatest peril—you in whose power are gold and wealth, the principal causes of wars. Accordingly, love and cultivate peace and the City, which we conquered and conquerors alike hold under the same law: let the documents of both fortunes warn you not to prefer contumacy with perdition rather than compliance with security.' By such an oration he composed and raised up those who were fearing graver things.

[75] Tenebantur victore exercitu Treviri, cum Civilis et Classicus misere ad Cerialem epistulas, quarum haec sententia fuit: Vespasianum, quamquam nuntios occultarent, excessisse vita, urbem atque Italiam interno bello consumptam, Muciani ac Domitiani vana et sine viribus nomina: si Cerialis imperium Galliarum velit, ipsos finibus civitatium suarum contentos; si proelium mallet, ne id quidem abnuere. ad ea Cerialis Civili et Classico nihil: eum qui attulerat <et> ipsas epistulas ad Domitianum misit. Hostes divisis copiis advenere undique.

[75] The Treveri were held in check by the victorious army, when Civilis and Classicus sent letters to Cerialis, the purport of which was this: that Vespasian, although they were concealing the messengers, had departed from life; that the City and Italy were consumed by internal war; that Mucianus and Domitian were empty names and without forces. If Cerialis should wish the command of the Gauls, they themselves would be content with the boundaries of their own communities; if he preferred battle, they would not refuse that either. To these things Cerialis sent nothing to Civilis and Classicus: he sent the man who had brought it <and> the letters themselves to Domitian. The enemies, with their forces divided, arrived from all sides.

plerique culpabant Cerialem passum iungi quos discretos intercipere licuisset. Romanus exercitus castra fossa valloque circumdedit, quis temere antea intutis consederat.

very many were blaming Cerialis for having allowed to be joined those whom, while separated, it would have been possible to intercept. The Roman army surrounded the camp with a ditch and rampart, whereas previously they had rashly encamped without safeguards.

[76] Apud Germanos diversis sententiis certabatur. Civilis opperiendas Transrhenanorum gentis, quarum terrore fractae populi Romani vires obtererentur: Gallos quid aliud quam praedam victoribus? et tamen, quod roboris sit, Belgas secum palam aut voto stare.

[76] Among the Germans there was contestation with divergent opinions. Civilis [urged] that the Transrhenan tribes should be waited for, by whose terror the forces of the Roman people, once broken, would be crushed: the Gauls—what else than prey for the victors? and yet, whatever of strength there is, the Belgae stand with him, openly or by vow.

Tutor cunctatione crescere rem Romanam adfirmabat, coeuntibus undique exercitibus: transvectam e Britannia legionem, accitas ex Hispania, adventare ex Italia; nec subitum militem, sed veterem expertumque belli. nam Germanos, qui ab ipsis sperentur, non iuberi, non regi, sed cuncta ex libidine agere; pecuniamque ac dona, quis solis corrumpantur, maiora apud Romanos, et neminem adeo in arma pronum ut non idem pretium quietis quam periculi malit. quod si statim congrediantur, nullas esse Ceriali nisi e reliquiis Germanici exercitus legiones, foederibus Galliarum obstrictas.

Tutor maintained that by delay the Roman cause was growing, with armies coming together from all sides: a legion transported from Britain, some summoned out of Spain, others approaching from Italy; and not a sudden soldiery, but old veterans, expert in war. For the Germans, who are hoped for by them, are not commanded, not ruled, but do everything out of caprice; and money and gifts, by which alone they are corrupted, are greater among the Romans, and no one is so prone to arms that he does not prefer the same price for quiet as for danger. But if they were to engage at once, Cerialis would have no legions except those from the remnants of the German army, bound by the treaties of the Gauls.

idque ipsum quod inconditam nuper Valentini manum contra spem suam fuderint, alimentum illis ducique temeritatis: ausuros rursus venturosque in manus non imperiti adulescentuli, verba et contiones quam ferrum et arma meditantis, sed Civilis et Classici; quos ubi aspexerint, redituram in animos formidinem, fugam famemque ac totiens captis precariam vitam. neque Treviros aut Lingonas benevolentia contineri: resumpturos arma, ubi metus abscesserit. diremit consiliorum diversitatem adprobata Tutoris sententia Classicus, statimque exequuntur.

and that very fact that they recently routed Valentinus’s ill-ordered band against their expectation is a nourishment of temerity for them and for their leader: they will dare again and will come to hand-to-hand not with an unskilled adolescent, meditating words and harangues rather than iron and arms, but with Civilis and Classicus; and when they have looked upon them, fear will return into their minds, and flight and hunger, and for men so often captured a precarious life. nor are the Treveri or the Lingones held by benevolence: they will take up arms again when fear has withdrawn. Classicus, Tutor’s opinion having been approved, terminated the diversity of counsels, and they immediately execute it.

[77] Media acies Vbiis Lingonibusque data; dextro cornu cohortes Batavorum, sinistro Bructeri Tencterique. pars montibus, alii viam inter Mosellamque flumen tam improvisi adsiluere ut in cubiculo ac lectulo Cerialis (neque enim noctem in castris egerat) pugnari simul vincique suos audierit, increpans pavorem nuntiantium, donec universa clades in oculis fuit: perrupta legionum castra, fusi equites, medius Mosellae pons, qui ulteriora coloniae adnectit, ab hostibus insessus. Cerialis turbidis rebus intrepidus et fugientis manu retrahens, intecto corpore promptus inter tela, felici temeritate et fortissimi cuiusque adcursu reciperatum pontem electa manu firmavit.

[77] The middle battle-line was given to the Ubii and Lingones; on the right wing the cohorts of the Batavians, on the left the Bructeri and Tencteri. Some by the mountains, others upon the road and the Moselle river, burst in so unlooked-for that Cerialis, in his chamber and on his couch (for he had not spent the night in camp), heard that there was fighting and that his men were at once being defeated, while he rebuked the panic of the messengers, until the entire disaster was before his eyes: the camps of the legions broken through, the cavalry routed, the central bridge of the Moselle, which links the farther parts of the colony, occupied by the enemy. In these troubled matters Cerialis was unshaken, and with his own hand dragging back the fugitives, with body uncovered, ready amid the missiles; by fortunate temerity and by the running up of each bravest man he secured the retaken bridge with a chosen band.

mox in castra reversus palantis captarum apud Novaesium Bonnamque legionum manipulos et rarum apud signa militem ac prope circumventas aquilas videt. incensus ira 'non Flaccum' inquit, 'non Voculam deseritis: nulla hic proditio; neque aliud excusandum habeo quam quod vos Gallici foederis oblitos redisse in memoriam Romani sacramenti temere credidi. adnumerabor Numisiis et Herenniis, ut omnes legati vestri aut militum manibus aut hostium ceciderint.

soon, having returned to the camp, he sees straggling maniples of the legions captured at Novaesium and Bonn, and the soldiery thin about the standards, and the eagles nearly surrounded. inflamed with anger, 'not Flaccus,' he says, 'not Vocula are you deserting: there is no treason here; nor have I anything else to excuse except that I rashly believed that you, forgetful of the Gallic foederation, had returned into the memory of the Roman sacrament. I shall be counted among the Numisii and the Herennii, so that all your legates have fallen either by the hands of the soldiers or of the enemy.

ite, nuntiate Vespasiano vel, quod propius est, Civili et Classico, relictum a vobis in acie ducem: venient legiones quae neque me inultum neque vos impunitos patiantur.'

go, announce to Vespasian or, what is nearer, to Civilis and Classicus, that a leader has been left by you in the battle-line: legions will come which will allow neither me unavenged nor you unpunished.'

[78] Vera erant, et a tribunis praefectisque eadem ingerebantur. consistunt per cohortis et manipulos; neque enim poterat patescere acies effuso hoste et impedientibus tentoriis sarcinisque, cum intra vallum pugnaretur. Tutor et Classicus et Civilis suis quisque locis pugnam ciebant, Gallos pro libertate, Batavos pro gloria, Germanos ad praedam instigantes.

[78] They were true, and the same points were being pressed by the tribunes and prefects. They take their stand by cohorts and maniples; for the battle-line could not be opened out, with the enemy spilling in and with tents and baggage hindering, since the fighting was inside the rampart. Tutor and Classicus and Civilis, each in his own position, were rousing the fight—urging the Gauls to fight for liberty, the Batavians for glory, the Germans for plunder.

et cuncta pro hostibus erant, donec legio unaetvicensima patentiore quam ceterae spatio conglobata sustinuit ruentis, mox impulit. nec sine ope divina mutatis repente animis terga victores vertere. ipsi territos se cohortium aspectu ferebant, quae primo impetu disiectae summis rursus iugis congregabantur ac speciem novi auxilii fecerant.

And everything was in favor of the enemy, until the nineteenth legion, massed in a space more open than the rest, held the onrushing men and soon drove them back. Nor, not without divine aid, with their spirits suddenly changed, did the victors turn their backs. They themselves alleged that they had been terrified by the sight of the cohorts, which, scattered at the first onset, were again assembling on the topmost ridges and had made the appearance of new auxiliary aid.

sed obstitit vincentibus pravum inter ipsos certamen omisso hoste spolia consectandi. Cerialis ut incuria prope rem adflixit, ita constantia restituit; secutusque fortunam castra hostium eodem die capit excinditque.

But to the victors there stood in the way a perverse contest among themselves—abandoning the enemy to chase the spoils. Cerialis, just as by negligence he had nearly wrecked the affair, so by constancy he restored it; and, following his fortune, on the same day he captures and razes the enemy’s camp.

[79] Nec in longum quies militi data. orabant auxilium Agrippinenses offerebantque uxorem ac sororem Civilis et filiam Classici, relicta sibi pignora societatis. atque interim dispersos in domibus Germanos trucidaverant; unde metus et iustae preces invocantium, antequam hostes reparatis viribus ad spem vel ad ultionem accingerentur.

[79] Nor was long respite given to the soldiery. The Agrippinenses were begging for aid and were offering the wife and sister of Civilis and the daughter of Classicus, pledges of alliance left with them. And meanwhile they had slaughtered the Germans scattered in the houses; whence fear and the just entreaties of those calling for aid, before the enemies, their forces repaired, should gird themselves for hope or for vengeance.

namque et Civilis illuc intenderat, non invalidus, flagrantissima cohortium suarum integra, quae e Chaucis Frisiisque composita Tolbiaci in finibus Agrippinensium agebat: sed tristis nuntius avertit, deletam cohortem dolo Agrippinensium, qui largis epulis vinoque sopitos Germanos, clausis foribus, igne iniecto cremavere; simul Cerialis propero agmine subvenit. circumsteterat Civilem et alius metus, ne quarta decima legio adiuncta Britannica classe adflictaret Batavos, qua Oceano ambiuntur. sed legionem terrestri itinere Fabius Priscus legatus in Nervios Tungrosque duxit, eaeque civitates in deditionem acceptae: classem ultro Canninefates adgressi sunt maiorque pars navium depressa aut capta.

for Civilis too had aimed thither, not without strength, with the most blazing of his cohorts intact, which, composed from the Chauci and Frisians, was operating at Tolbiacum in the borders of the Agrippinenses: but a grim message turned him aside—that the cohort had been destroyed by the trickery of the Agrippinenses, who, with lavish banquets and wine, having lulled the Germans to sleep, with the doors shut, burned them when fire was thrown in; at the same time Cerialis came to the rescue with a hasty column. Another fear also had hemmed Civilis in, lest the Fourteenth Legion, with the British fleet joined to it, should batter the Batavi on the side where they are encircled by the Ocean. But Fabius Priscus the legate led the legion by a land route into the Nervii and Tungri, and those communities were received into surrender; the Canninefates, for their part, attacked the fleet, and the greater part of the ships was sunk or captured.

et Nerviorum multitudinem, sponte commotam ut pro Romanis bellum capesseret, idem Canninefates fudere. Classicus quoque adversus equites Novaesium a Ceriale praemissos secundum proelium fecit: quae modica sed crebra damna famam victoriae nuper partae lacerabant.

and the Canninefates likewise routed the multitude of the Nervii, moved of their own accord to take up war on behalf of the Romans. Classicus also fought a successful engagement against the cavalry sent forward to Novaesium by Cerialis: these moderate but frequent losses were tearing the repute of the victory lately gained.

[80] Isdem diebus Mucianus Vitellii filium interfici iubet, mansuram discordiam obtendens, ni semina belli restinxisset. neque Antonium Primum adsciri inter comites a Domitiano passus est, favore militum anxius et superbia viri aequalium quoque, adeo superiorum intolerantis. profectus ad Vespasianum Antonius ut non pro spe sua excipitur, ita neque averso imperatoris animo.

[80] In those same days Mucianus ordered the son of Vitellius to be put to death, alleging that discord would abide unless he had quenched the seeds of war. Nor did he allow Antonius Primus to be summoned among Domitian’s companions, anxious at the soldiers’ favor and at the man’s arrogance—intolerant not only of equals but even of superiors. Setting out to Vespasian, Antonius was received not according to his expectation, yet not with the emperor’s mind averse.

trahebatur in diversa, hinc meritis Antonii, cuius ductu confectum haud dubie bellum erat, inde Muciani epistulis: simul ceteri ut infestum tumidumque insectabantur, adiunctis prioris vitae criminibus. neque ipse deerat adrogantia vocare offensas, nimius commemorandis quae meruisset: alios ut imbellis, Caecinam ut captivum ac dediticium increpat. unde paulatim levior viliorque haberi, manente tamen in speciem amicitia.

He was being drawn in different directions, on the one hand by the merits of Antonius, under whose leadership the war had without doubt been brought to a close, on the other by the epistles of Mucianus: at the same time the rest hounded him as hostile and tumid, with charges from his prior life appended. Nor did he himself fail, by arrogance, to summon offenses, being excessive in commemorating what he had merited: he reproaches some as unwarlike, Caecina as a captive and a surrenderer. Whence, little by little, he came to be held slighter and more worthless, though friendship remained in appearance.

[81] Per eos mensis quibus Vespasianus Alexandriae statos aestivis flatibus dies et certa maris opperiebatur, multa miracula evenere, quis caelestis favor et quaedam in Vespasianum inclinatio numinum ostenderetur. e plebe Alexandrina quidam oculorum tabe notus genua eius advolvitur, remedium caecitatis exposcens gemitu, monitu Serapidis dei, quem dedita superstitionibus gens ante alios colit; precabaturque principem ut genas et oculorum orbis dignaretur respergere oris excremento. alius manum aeger eodem deo auctore ut pede ac vestigio Caesaris calcaretur orabat.

[81] Through those months during which Vespasian at Alexandria was awaiting the days fixed by the summer breezes and the sure sea, many miracles occurred, whereby celestial favor and a certain inclination of the divinities toward Vespasian were shown. From the Alexandrian plebs a certain man, known for a corruption of the eyes, clings to his knees, demanding with a groan a remedy for blindness, by the monition of the god Serapis, whom the people, devoted to superstitions, above others worship; and he was beseeching the princeps to deign to sprinkle his cheeks and the orbits of his eyes with the excrement of his mouth—spittle. Another, ailing in his hand, with the same god as author, was begging that he be trodden upon by Caesar’s foot and footprint.

Vespasianus primo inridere, aspernari; atque illis instantibus modo famam vanitatis metuere, modo obsecratione ipsorum et vocibus adulantium in spem induci: postremo aestimari a medicis iubet an talis caecitas ac debilitas ope humana superabiles forent. medici varie disserere: huic non exesam vim luminis et redituram si pellerentur obstantia; illi elapsos in pravum artus, si salubris vis adhibeatur, posse integrari. id fortasse cordi deis et divino ministerio principem electum; denique patrati remedii gloriam penes Caesarem, inriti ludibrium penes miseros fore.

Vespasian at first mocked and spurned it; and as they pressed him, at one moment he feared a reputation for vanity, at another he was led into hope by their supplication and the voices of adulators: at last he orders it to be assessed by the physicians whether such blindness and debility were surmountable by human aid. The physicians discourse variously: that for this man the force of light had not been eaten away and would return if the obstacles were driven off; that for that man the limbs that had slipped into a crooked posture, if a salubrious force were applied, could be reintegrated. This perhaps was dear to the gods, and the prince had been chosen for a divine ministry; finally, the glory of a remedy accomplished would be with Caesar, the mockery of a frustrated attempt would be with the wretches.

igitur Vespasianus cuncta fortunae suae patere ratus nec quicquam ultra incredibile, laeto ipse vultu, erecta quae adstabat multitudine, iussa exequitur. statim conversa ad usum manus, ac caeco reluxit dies. utrumque qui interfuere nunc quoque memorant, postquam nullum mendacio pretium.

Therefore Vespasian, thinking that all things lay open to his fortune and that nothing further was incredible, he himself with a glad countenance, the multitude standing by uplifted, executes the orders. Immediately the hand was restored to use, and to the blind man day shone again. Both events those who were present even now recount, now that there is no price for mendacity.

[82] Altior inde Vespasiano cupido adeundi sacram sedem ut super rebus imperii consuleret: arceri templo cunctos iubet. atque ingressus intentusque numini respexit pone tergum e primoribus Aegyptiorum nomine Basiliden, quem procul Alexandria plurium dierum itinere et aegro corpore detineri haud ignorabat. percontatur sacerdotes num illo die Basilides templum inisset, percontatur obvios num in urbe visus sit; denique missis equitibus explorat illo temporis momento octoginta milibus passuum afuisse: tunc divinam speciem et vim responsi ex nomine Basilidis interpretatus est.

[82] Thence a higher desire came upon Vespasian to approach the sacred seat, so that he might consult about the affairs of the imperium: he orders all to be kept from the temple. And, having entered and intent upon the divinity, he looked back behind him and saw, from the foremost of the Egyptians, a man by the name Basilides, whom he was by no means unaware to be detained far from Alexandria, at a journey of several days’ distance, and by an ailing body. He inquires of the priests whether on that day Basilides had entered the temple; he asks those he met whether he had been seen in the city; finally, with horsemen sent out, he ascertains that at that very moment of time he had been eighty miles away: then he interpreted the divine appearance and the force of the response from the name of Basilides.

[83] Origo dei nondum nostris auctoribus celebrata: Aegyptiorum antistites sic memorant, Ptolemaeo regi, qui Macedonum primus Aegypti opes firmavit, cum Alexandriae recens conditae moenia templaque et religiones adderet, oblatum per quietem decore eximio et maiore quam humana specie iuvenem, qui moneret ut fidissimis amicorum in Pontum missis effigiem suam acciret; laetum id regno magnamque et inclutam sedem fore quae excepisset: simul visum eundem iuvenem in caelum igne plurimo attolli. Ptolemaeus omine et miraculo excitus sacerdotibus Aegyptiorum, quibus mos talia intellegere, nocturnos visus aperit. atque illis Ponti et externorum parum gnaris, Timotheum Atheniensem e gente Eumolpidarum, quem ut antistitem caerimoniarum Eleusine exciverat, quaenam illa superstitio, quod numen, interrogat.

[83] The origin of the god has not yet been celebrated by our authors: the pontiffs of the Egyptians relate thus, that to King Ptolemy, who, the first of the Macedonians, established the resources of Egypt, when he was adding walls, temples, and religions to Alexandria, newly founded, there was presented in sleep a youth of exceptional comeliness and of an aspect greater than human, who advised that, with the most trustworthy of his friends sent into Pontus, he should summon his effigy; that this would be propitious for the realm, and that great and renowned would be the seat which received it: at the same time the same youth was seen to be lifted to heaven amid a very great blaze. Ptolemy, stirred by the omen and the marvel, discloses his nocturnal visions to the priests of the Egyptians, for whom it is the custom to interpret such things. And since they were little acquainted with Pontus and foreign matters, he questions Timotheus the Athenian, from the clan of the Eumolpidae, whom he had called forth as high-priest of the Eleusinian ceremonies at Eleusis, what that superstition (cult) was, what numen.

Timotheus quaesitis qui in Pontum meassent, cognoscit urbem illic Sinopen, nec procul templum vetere inter accolas fama Iovis Ditis: namque et muliebrem effigiem adsistere quam plerique Proserpinam vocent. sed Ptolemaeus, ut sunt ingenia regum, pronus ad formidinem, ubi securitas rediit, voluptatum quam religionum adpetens neglegere paulatim aliasque ad curas animum vertere, donec eadem species terribilior iam et instantior exitium ipsi regnoque denuntiaret ni iussa patrarentur. tum legatos et dona Scydrothemidi regi (is tunc Sinopensibus imperitabat) expediri iubet praecepitque navigaturis ut Pythicum Apollinem adeant.

Timotheus, having inquired who had gone into Pontus, learns that there is a city there, Sinope, and not far off a temple, by an old fame among the inhabitants, of Jupiter Dis; for a female effigy also stands beside it, which the majority call Proserpina. But Ptolemy, as the dispositions of kings are, prone to fear, when security returned, seeking pleasures rather than religions, began gradually to neglect it and to turn his mind to other cares, until the same apparition, now more terrible and more pressing, announced destruction to himself and to the kingdom unless the orders were accomplished. Then he orders envoys and gifts to be made ready for King Scydrothemis (he at that time was ruling the Sinopians), and he instructed those who were about to sail to approach Pythian Apollo.

illis mare secundum, sors oraculi haud ambigua: irent simulacrumque patris sui reveherent, sororis relinquerent.

for them the sea was favorable, the lot of the oracle not at all ambiguous: they should go and bring back the simulacrum of their father, and leave the sister behind.

[84] Vt Sinopen venere, munera preces mandata regis sui Scydrothemidi adlegant. qui <di>versus animi modo numen pavescere, modo minis adversantis populi terreri; saepe donis promissisque legatorum flectebatur. atque interim triennio exacto Ptolemaeus non studium, non preces omittere: dignitatem legatorum, numerum navium, auri pondus augebat.

[84] When they came to Sinope, they presented to Scydrothemis the gifts, the prayers, and the mandates of their king. He, divided in mind, would now dread the numen, now be terrified by the threats of the opposing populace; he was often swayed by the gifts and promises of the legates. And meanwhile, after 3 years had elapsed, Ptolemy omitted neither zeal nor prayers: he kept increasing the dignity of the legates, the number of ships, the weight of gold.

tum minax facies Scydrothemidi offertur ne destinata deo ultra moraretur: cunctantem varia pernicies morbique et manifesta caelestium ira graviorque in dies fatigabat. advocata contione iussa numinis, suos Ptolemaeique visus, ingruentia mala exponit: vulgus aversari regem, invidere Aegypto, sibi metuere templumque circumsedere. maior hinc fama tradidit deum ipsum adpulsas litori navis sponte conscendisse: mirum inde dictu, tertio die tantum maris emensi Alexandriam adpelluntur.

then a minatory apparition was offered to Scydrothemis, lest he delay any longer the things destined for the god: as he hesitated, various ruin and diseases, and the manifest ire of the celestials, ever heavier by the day, wearied him. With an assembly convoked, he sets forth the injunctions of the numen, his own and Ptolemy’s visions, and the impending evils: that the crowd was turning away from the king, envying Egypt, fearing for themselves, and besetting the temple. From this point a weightier tradition handed down that the god himself, once the ships had been brought to the shore, of his own accord boarded them: wondrous to say, on the third day, having traversed so great an expanse of sea, they put in at Alexandria.

templum pro magnitudine urbis extructum loco cui nomen Rhacotis; fuerat illic sacellum Serapidi atque Isidi antiquitus sacratum. haec de origine et advectu dei celeberrima. nec sum ignarus esse quosdam qui Seleucia urbe Syriae accitum regnante Ptolemaeo, quem tertia aetas tulit; alii auctorem eundem Ptolemaeum, sedem, ex qua transierit, Memphim perhibent, inclutam olim et veteris Aegypti columen.

a temple, proportionate to the magnitude of the city, was erected in a place whose name is Rhacotis; there had been there a little shrine to Serapis and to Isis, consecrated from antiquity. these are the most celebrated accounts concerning the origin and the conveyance of the god. nor am I unaware that there are some who say he was summoned from Seleucia, a city of Syria, when Ptolemy III was reigning; others assert the same Ptolemy as author, but that the seat from which he passed over was Memphis, once illustrious and the mainstay of old Egypt.

deum ipsum multi Aesculapium, quod medeatur aegris corporibus, quidam Osirin, antiquissimum illis gentibus numen, plerique Iovem ut rerum omnium potentem, plurimi Ditem patrem insignibus, quae in ipso manifesta, aut per ambages coniectant.

many consider the god himself to be Aesculapius, because he ministers to sick bodies; some, Osiris, the most ancient numen to those peoples; the majority, Jupiter as potent over all things; the very many, Dis Pater, from the insignia which in him are manifest, or they conjecture by circumlocutions.

[85] At Domitianus Mucianusque antequam Alpibus propinquarent, prosperos rerum in Treviris gestarum nuntios accepere. praecipua victoriae fides dux hostium Valentinus nequaquam abiecto animo, quos spiritus gessisset, vultu ferebat. auditus ideo tantum ut nosceretur ingenium eius, damnatusque inter ipsum supplicium exprobranti cuidam patriam eius captam accipere se solacium mortis respondit.

[85] But Domitian and Mucianus, before they drew near to the Alps, received favorable reports of the affairs conducted at Trier. The chief assurance of victory was the enemy commander Valentinus, with his spirit by no means cast down, showing in his face the high mettle he had borne. He was heard for this reason only, that his character might be known; and, once condemned, in the very midst of his punishment, to someone reproaching him that his country had been taken, he replied that he accepted this as a solace of death.

sed Mucianus quod diu occultaverat, ut recens exprompsit: quoniam benignitate deum fractae hostium vires forent, parum decore Domitianum confecto prope bello alienae gloriae interventurum. si status imperii aut salus Galliarum in discrimine verteretur, debuisse Caesarem in acie stare, Canninefatis Batavosque minoribus ducibus delegandos: ipse Luguduni vim fortunamque principatus e proximo ostentaret, nec parvis periculis immixtus et maioribus non defutururus par.

but Mucianus, what he had long concealed, now, as something fresh, brought out: since by the benignity of the gods the forces of the enemy had been broken, it would be with little decorum for Domitian, the war being all but finished, to intrude upon another’s glory. if the status of the imperium or the safety of the Gauls were to turn upon a crisis, the Caesar ought to stand in the battle-line, while the Canninefates and the Batavi were to be assigned to lesser leaders: he himself at Lugdunum should display from close at hand the force and the fortune of the principate, nor be mixed up in small dangers and not be wanting as a match for greater ones.

[86] Intellegebantur artes, sed pars obsequii in eo ne deprehenderentur: ita Lugudunum ventum. unde creditur Domitianus occultis ad Cerialem nuntiis fidem eius temptavisse an praesenti sibi exercitum imperiumque traditurus foret. qua cogitatione bellum adversus patrem agitaverit an opes virisque adversus fratrem, in incerto fuit: nam Cerialis salubri temperamento elusit ut vana pueriliter cupientem.

[86] The stratagems were understood, but a part of deference lay in not letting them be detected: thus Lugdunum was reached. From there it is believed that Domitian, by secret messages to Cerialis, tested his loyalty, whether he would hand over to himself in person the army and the command. Whether by that design he was agitating war against his father, or seeking resources and forces against his brother, was uncertain: for Cerialis, with a healthful moderation, foiled him as one childishly desiring vain things.

Domitianus sperni a senioribus iuventam suam cernens modica quoque et usurpata antea munia imperii omittebat, simplicitatis ac modestiae imagine in altitudinem conditus studiumque litterarum et amorem carminum simulans, quo velaret animum et fratris <se> aemulationi subduceret, cuius disparem mitioremque naturam contra interpretabatur.

Seeing his youth being spurned by the seniors, Domitian was omitting even the modest duties of imperial office previously usurped, buried in loftiness under the image of simplicity and modesty, feigning a zeal for letters and a love of poems, so that he might veil his mind and withdraw himself from his brother’s emulation, whose unlike and gentler nature he construed to the contrary.