Tacitus: The Histories Part 17

It was not yet four months since Vitellius' victory, and yet his freedman Asiaticus was as bad as a Polyc.l.i.tus or a Patrobius,[442] or any of the favourites whose names were hated in earlier days. At this court no one strove to rise by honesty or capacity. There was only one road to power. By lavish banquets, costly profusion, and feats of gastronomy, you had to try and satisfy Vitellius' insatiable gluttony.

He himself, without thought for the morrow, was well content to enjoy the present. It is believed that he squandered nine hundred million sesterces[443] in these brief months. Truly it shows Rome's greatness and misfortune, that she endured Otho and Vitellius both in the same year, and suffered humiliation of every kind at the hands of men like Vinius and Fabius,[444] Icelus and Asiaticus, until at last they gave way to Mucia.n.u.s and Marcellus--a change of men but not of manners.

The first news of rebellion which reached Vitellius came from 96 Aponius Saturninus,[445] who, before himself going over to Vespasian's side, wrote to announce the desertion of the Third legion. But a sudden crisis makes a man nervous: Aponius did not tell the whole story. So the emperor's flattering friends began to explain it all away: what was the defection of a single legion, while the loyalty of the other armies remained unshaken? Vitellius himself used the same language to the soldiers. He accused the men, who had been recently discharged from the Guards,[446] of spreading false rumours, and kept a.s.suring them there was no fear of civil war. All mention of Vespasian was suppressed, and soldiers were sent round the city to frighten people into silence, which, of course, did more than anything else to make them talk.

Vitellius, nevertheless, sent for reinforcements from Germany, 97 Britain, and the Spanish provinces, though with a lack of urgency which was intended to conceal his straits. The provinces and their governors showed the same want of enthusiasm. Hordeonius Flaccus,[447]

who had suspicions of the Batavi, was distracted with a war of his own,[448] while Vettius Bola.n.u.s[449] never had Britain under complete control: nor was the loyally of either beyond doubt. The Spanish provinces, where there was at the time no consular governor,[450] were equally slow. The three officers in command of the legions held an equal authority, and if Vitellius' cause had prospered, would have each outbid the other for his favour: but they all shared the resolve to leave his misfortunes alone. In Africa the legion and auxiliaries enlisted by Clodius Macer, and subsequently disbanded by Galba,[451]

took service again at Vitellius' orders, and at the same time all the young men of the province eagerly enlisted. Vitellius had been an honest and popular pro-consul in Africa, while Vespasian had been distrusted and disliked. The provincials took this as an earnest of their reigns; but experience proved them wrong.

The military legate Valerius Festus[452] at first loyally seconded 98 the enthusiasm of the province. After a while he began to waver. In his official letters and edicts he still acknowledged Vitellius, while in secret communication with Vespasian and ready to support whichever party proved successful. In Raetia and the Gallic provinces some centurions and men carrying letters and edicts from Vespasian were taken prisoners and sent to Vitellius, who had them executed. But most of these envoys escaped capture either by their own ingenuity or the loyal help of friends. Thus, while Vitellius' plans were known, Vespasian's were for the most part still a secret. This was partly due to Vitellius' negligence, but also to the fact that the garrisons on the Pannonian Alps stopped all messengers. By sea, too, the Etesian[453] winds from the north-west favoured s.h.i.+ps sailing eastward, but hindered the voyage from the East.

Terrified at last by the imminence of invasion and the alarming 99 news that reached him from all quarters, Vitellius instructed Caecina and Valens to prepare for war. Caecina was sent on ahead, Valens, who was just recovering from a serious illness, being delayed by his weak state of health. Great, indeed, was the change in the appearance of the German army as it marched out of Rome. There was neither energy in their muscles nor fire in their hearts. Slowly the column straggled on, their horses spiritless, their arms neglected. The men grumbled at the sun, the dust, the weather, and were as ready to quarrel as they were unwilling to work. To these disadvantages were added Caecina's inveterate self-seeking and his newly-acquired indolence. An overdose of success had made him slack and self-indulgent, or, if he was plotting treachery, this may have been one of his devices for demoralizing the army. It has often been believed that it was Flavius Sabinus[454] who, using Rubrius Gallus as his agent, tampered with Caecina's loyalty by promising that, if he came over, Vespasian would ratify any conditions. It may have occurred also to Caecina to remember his quarrels and rivalry with Valens, and to consider that, as he did not stand first with Vitellius, he had better acquire credit and influence with the new emperor.

After taking an affectionate and respectful farewell of Vitellius, 100 Caecina dispatched a body of cavalry to occupy Cremona. He soon followed with the detachments of the First, Fourth, Fifteenth, and Sixteenth legions in the van. The centre was composed of the Fifth and Twenty-second, and in the rear of the column came the Twenty-first Rapax and the First Italian legion, with detachments from the three legions of Britain and a select force of auxiliaries. When Caecina had started, Valens wrote instructions to the legions belonging to his old command[455] to await him on the march, saying that he and Caecina had arranged this. Caecina, however, took advantage of being on the spot, and pretended that this plan had been altered so as to enable them to meet the first outbreak of the war with their full strength. So some legions were hurried forward to Cremona[456] and part of the force was directed upon Hostilia.[457] Caecina himself turned aside to Ravenna on the pretext of giving instructions to the fleet. Thence he proceeded to Patavium[458] to secure secrecy for his treacherous designs. For Lucilius Ba.s.sus, whom Vitellius, from a prefect of auxiliary cavalry had raised to the supreme command of the two fleets at Ravenna and Misenum, felt aggrieved at not being immediately given the praefecture of the Guards, and sought in dastardly treachery the remedy for his unjustifiable annoyance. It can never be known whether he influenced Caecina or whether one was as dishonest as the other.

There is seldom much to choose between rascals. The historians[459] 101 who compiled the records of this war in the days of the Flavian dynasty were led by flattery into adducing as the causes of the rebellion patriotism and the interests of peace. We cannot think them right. Apart from the innate disloyalty of the rebels and the loss of character after Galba's betrayal, they seem to have been led by jealousy and rivalry into sacrificing Vitellius himself for fear that they might lose the first place in his favour. Thus when Caecina joined his army,[460] he used every device to undermine the staunch fidelity of the centurions and soldiers to Vitellius. Ba.s.sus found the same task less difficult, for the fleet remembered that they had lately been in Otho's service, and were therefore already on the brink of rebellion.

FOOTNOTES:

[424] The narrative is here resumed from chap. 72.

[425] See chap. 68.

[426] The word 'c.o.c.kney' may perhaps be admitted here to express that which is characteristic of the metropolitan ma.s.ses. Similarly Petronius speaks of a man as 'a fountain of c.o.c.kney humour' (_urbanitatis vernaculae fontem_).

[427] They were cast for the part of Galba's avengers.

[428] Only detachments of these latter four were present, so they had not got their eagles.

[429] Under the empire there were six tribunes to each legion, and they took command on the march and on the field, acting under the orders of the _legatus legionis_. The ten centurions of the _pilani_ or front rank each commanded his cohort.

[430] See note 107.

[431] The end was so near.

[432] At Cremera, near Veii, the Fabii died like heroes, 477 B.C., and on the Allia the Gauls won their victory over Rome, 390 B.C. The day was called Alliensis, and no work was to be done on it (Livy, vi. 1).

[433] See chap. 71. At this time the emperor had in theory only the right of nominating candidates for the consuls.h.i.+ps, but it was obviously unnecessary for him to do more. The alliteration in this sentence is Tacitus'.

[434] See iv. 4 f.

[435] Thrasea, Helvidius' father-in-law, was an honoured member of the Stoic opposition who had been executed by Nero A.D. 66. Here Vitellius is posing as an ordinary senator. If he had opposed so distinguished a man as Thrasea, why should not Helvidius oppose him? Thrasea's end gives the remark a slightly sinister tone.

[436] See note 346.

[437] A patron apparently could claim support from his freedmen if he was in want, as these restored exiles certainly were, since their property had been confiscated and was irrecoverable. In exile they had of course lost their rights.

[438] This probably includes bathing as well as drinking.

[439] Since Tiberius there had been only nine, and Vespasian restored that number.

[440] See i. 6.

[441] Probably September 24. He was 54.

[442] Cp. i. 37, 49.

[443] About nine million pounds. Not to be taken too literally.

[444] Valens.

[445] Governor of Moesia (see chap. 85).

[446] See chap. 67.

[447] He had been left to guard the Rhine.

[448] See chap. 57. The revolt of Civilis was soon to break out.

[449] See chap. 65.

[450] Cluvius Rufus was governing the Tarragona division from Rome (chap. 65). Lusitania was under a praetorian legate.

Baetica was a senatorial province with no troops.

[451] See i. 7 and 11.

[452] He had succeeded Clodius Macer in command of the Third Augusta, and in virtue of that command governed Numidia (see i. 7).

[453] These 'annual' winds blew steadily and gently from July 20 for a month.

[454] Vespasian's brother.

[455] In Lower Germany.

[456] Only two legions went to Cremona (see iii. 14).

[457] Ostiglia.

[458] Padua.

[459] e.g. Cluvius Rufus (cp. i. 8), the elder Pliny (cp. iii. 28), and Vipsta.n.u.s Messala (cp. iii, 9, 25, 28).

[460] i.e. at Hostilia, coming back from Padua.

Oxford: Horace Hart, Printer to the University