No More Learning

Britain was bound to his cause
by the favour felt for one who had been sent there by Claudius in
command of the Second legion, and had fought with great distinction in
the war. But the adherence of the province was to some extent opposed
by the other legions, in which many of the centurions and soldiers had
been promoted by Vitellius. They were used to their emperor and felt
some doubt about the change. This quarrel between the legions and 45
the constant rumours of civil war, encouraged the Britons to take
heart. Their chief instigator was one Venutius. He was of a ferocious
disposition and hated the name of Rome, but his strongest motive was a
private quarrel with Queen Cartimandua, a member of a powerful family,
who ruled the Brigantes. [116] Her authority had lately increased,
since she had betrayed King Caratacus into the hands of the Romans,
and was thus considered to have provided Claudius Caesar with material
for his triumph. [117] Thus she had grown rich, and with prosperity
came demoralization. She threw over Venutius, who was her husband, and
gave her hand and kingdom to his squire, Vellocatus. This crime soon
proved the ruin of her house. The people supported her husband: she
defended her lover with passionate ferocity. Venutius therefore
summoned assistance and, aided by the simultaneous revolt of the
Brigantes, brought Cartimandua into dire straits. She petitioned for
troops from Rome. Our auxiliaries, both horse and foot, then fought
several engagements with varying success, but eventually rescued the
queen. Thus the kingdom was left in the hands of Venutius and the war
in ours.
Almost simultaneously a disturbance broke out in Germany, where 46
the inefficiency of the generals, the disaffection of the troops, the
strength of the enemy, and the treachery of our allies all combined to
bring the Roman government into serious danger. The causes and history
of this protracted struggle--for such it proved--we must leave to a
later chapter. [118] Amongst the Dacians[119] also there was trouble.
They could never be trusted, and now that the army was moved from
Moesia they were no longer under the restraint of fear. At first they
remained quiet and awaited developments. But when they saw Italy in
the flames of war, and found the whole empire divided into hostile
camps, they fell upon the winter-quarters of the auxiliary infantry
and cavalry and began to occupy both banks of the Danube. They were on
the point of storming the Roman camp as well, when Mucianus, who knew
of the victory at Cremona, sent the Sixth legion[120] against them.
For the empire was in danger of a double foreign invasion, if the
Dacians and the Germans had broken in from opposite directions. But
here, as so often, Rome's good fortune saved her by bringing Mucianus
on the scene with the forces of the East just at the moment when we
had settled matters at Cremona. Fonteius Agrippa, who had for the last
year been pro-consul in Asia, was transferred to the government of
Moesia. His forces were strengthened by a draft from the defeated
Vitellian army, for in the interest of peace it seemed prudent to
distribute these troops over the provinces and to keep their hands
tied by a foreign war.

The other peoples soon made their voices heard. Pontus[121] had 47
suddenly risen in a general rebellion at the instigation of a foreign
menial, who was in command of what had once been the royal fleet. He
was one of Polemo's freedmen, by name Anicetus, who had formerly been
influential and resented the change which had converted the kingdom
into a province of the Roman empire. He accordingly enlisted the
maritime tribes of Pontus in Vitellius' service, attracting all the
neediest ruffians with promises of plunder. At the head of no mean
force he suddenly fell upon Trapezus,[122] an ancient and famous city,
founded by Greek settlers on the frontier of the Pontic kingdom.