Meanwhile, Otho and Vitellius were held up to praise or
blame, insult providing the more fruitful stimulus.
blame, insult providing the more fruitful stimulus.
Tacitus
It is an ineradicable human
trait to turn critical eyes on new-found fortune, and to insist upon
moderation most of all in those who used to be our equals. Crossing
the Po, Caecina tried to undermine the loyalty of the Othonians by
negotiations and promises. They retaliated with the same weapons, and
when they had finished bandying empty and fine-sounding phrases about
Peace and Union, Caecina devoted all his attention and plans to an
assault on Placentia in terrific force. He knew that his future
reputation rested on the issue of his first engagements. [257]
But the first day's work savoured more of impatience than of a 21
veteran army's methods. The men ventured under the walls without cover
or precaution, drunk and overfed. Meanwhile the amphitheatre, a fine
building outside the walls, was burnt down. It was set on fire either
by the attacking force hurling torches and heated shot and
fire-brands, or by the besieged in returning their fire. The common
people of the town harboured a suspicion that fuel for the fire had
been surreptitiously introduced from one of the neighbouring colonies,
and that the motive was jealousy, since no building in Italy could
hold so many people. However it happened, they thought little of it,
while worse disasters threatened: safety assured, they bewailed it as
the worst calamity they could have suffered. To return, however, to
Caecina: he was repulsed with heavy losses, and the night was spent in
preparations. The Vitellians provided mantlets, fascines, and
penthouses,[258] to protect the assailants while undermining the
walls: the Othonians procured stakes and huge masses of stone or lead
or brass, to break through the enemy's formation and crush them to
pieces. Both parties were actuated by feelings of pride and ambition.
Various encouragements were used, one side praising the strength of
the legions and the German army, the other the reputation of the
Guards and the City Garrison. The Vitellians decried their enemy as
lazy effeminates demoralized by the circus and the theatre: to which
they replied that the Vitellians were a pack of foreigners and
barbarians.
Meanwhile, Otho and Vitellius were held up to praise or
blame, insult providing the more fruitful stimulus.
Hardly had day dawned before the walls of Placentia bristled with 22
defenders, and the fields glittered with the soldiers' armour. The
Vitellian legions[259] advancing in close order with their auxiliaries
in scattered bands assailed the higher portions of the walls with
stones and arrows: where the walls were in disrepair or crumbling from
age they came close up to them. The Othonians above, poising and
aiming their weapons with surer effect, rained them down on the
Germans, who came rashly charging under the walls with the wild songs
and scanty dress of their country, brandishing their shields over
their heads. Meanwhile, the legionaries under cover of their mantlets
and fascines set to work to undermine the walls, build up a mound, and
assail the gates, while Otho's Guards rolled on to them with terrific
crashes huge millstones, which they had arranged for this purpose
along the walls. Of those beneath, some were crushed by the stones;
others, wounded by darts, were left mangled and bleeding to death.
Panic redoubled the slaughter, and the rain of missiles came all the
fiercer from the walls. At last they sacrificed the honour of their
party and beat a retreat. Caecina, ashamed of his rash attempt at
assault, was afraid of looking ridiculous and useless if he sat still
in the same camp. So he crossed the Po and made for Cremona. As he
was retiring, Turullius Cerialis with a large force of marines, and
Julius Briganticus[260] with a few cavalry, came over to his side. The
latter, a Batavian born, had held a cavalry command: the former was a
senior centurion, who was known to Caecina, as he had served in that
capacity in Germany.
Spurinna, learning the enemy's route, informed Annius Gallus[261] 23
by letter of all that had happened, the defence of Placentia and
Caecina's plans. Gallus was leading the First legion to the relief of
Placentia, for he doubted the ability of the weak force of Guards to
resist a long siege and the full strength of the German army. Hearing
that Caecina was defeated and making for Cremona, he halted at
Bedriacum, though he found it hard to restrain the ardour of his
troops, whose zeal for battle nearly broke into mutiny. The village of
Bedriacum lies between Verona and Cremona,[262] and two Roman
disasters have now given it a sinister notoriety.
trait to turn critical eyes on new-found fortune, and to insist upon
moderation most of all in those who used to be our equals. Crossing
the Po, Caecina tried to undermine the loyalty of the Othonians by
negotiations and promises. They retaliated with the same weapons, and
when they had finished bandying empty and fine-sounding phrases about
Peace and Union, Caecina devoted all his attention and plans to an
assault on Placentia in terrific force. He knew that his future
reputation rested on the issue of his first engagements. [257]
But the first day's work savoured more of impatience than of a 21
veteran army's methods. The men ventured under the walls without cover
or precaution, drunk and overfed. Meanwhile the amphitheatre, a fine
building outside the walls, was burnt down. It was set on fire either
by the attacking force hurling torches and heated shot and
fire-brands, or by the besieged in returning their fire. The common
people of the town harboured a suspicion that fuel for the fire had
been surreptitiously introduced from one of the neighbouring colonies,
and that the motive was jealousy, since no building in Italy could
hold so many people. However it happened, they thought little of it,
while worse disasters threatened: safety assured, they bewailed it as
the worst calamity they could have suffered. To return, however, to
Caecina: he was repulsed with heavy losses, and the night was spent in
preparations. The Vitellians provided mantlets, fascines, and
penthouses,[258] to protect the assailants while undermining the
walls: the Othonians procured stakes and huge masses of stone or lead
or brass, to break through the enemy's formation and crush them to
pieces. Both parties were actuated by feelings of pride and ambition.
Various encouragements were used, one side praising the strength of
the legions and the German army, the other the reputation of the
Guards and the City Garrison. The Vitellians decried their enemy as
lazy effeminates demoralized by the circus and the theatre: to which
they replied that the Vitellians were a pack of foreigners and
barbarians.
Meanwhile, Otho and Vitellius were held up to praise or
blame, insult providing the more fruitful stimulus.
Hardly had day dawned before the walls of Placentia bristled with 22
defenders, and the fields glittered with the soldiers' armour. The
Vitellian legions[259] advancing in close order with their auxiliaries
in scattered bands assailed the higher portions of the walls with
stones and arrows: where the walls were in disrepair or crumbling from
age they came close up to them. The Othonians above, poising and
aiming their weapons with surer effect, rained them down on the
Germans, who came rashly charging under the walls with the wild songs
and scanty dress of their country, brandishing their shields over
their heads. Meanwhile, the legionaries under cover of their mantlets
and fascines set to work to undermine the walls, build up a mound, and
assail the gates, while Otho's Guards rolled on to them with terrific
crashes huge millstones, which they had arranged for this purpose
along the walls. Of those beneath, some were crushed by the stones;
others, wounded by darts, were left mangled and bleeding to death.
Panic redoubled the slaughter, and the rain of missiles came all the
fiercer from the walls. At last they sacrificed the honour of their
party and beat a retreat. Caecina, ashamed of his rash attempt at
assault, was afraid of looking ridiculous and useless if he sat still
in the same camp. So he crossed the Po and made for Cremona. As he
was retiring, Turullius Cerialis with a large force of marines, and
Julius Briganticus[260] with a few cavalry, came over to his side. The
latter, a Batavian born, had held a cavalry command: the former was a
senior centurion, who was known to Caecina, as he had served in that
capacity in Germany.
Spurinna, learning the enemy's route, informed Annius Gallus[261] 23
by letter of all that had happened, the defence of Placentia and
Caecina's plans. Gallus was leading the First legion to the relief of
Placentia, for he doubted the ability of the weak force of Guards to
resist a long siege and the full strength of the German army. Hearing
that Caecina was defeated and making for Cremona, he halted at
Bedriacum, though he found it hard to restrain the ardour of his
troops, whose zeal for battle nearly broke into mutiny. The village of
Bedriacum lies between Verona and Cremona,[262] and two Roman
disasters have now given it a sinister notoriety.
