No More Learning

[179] The meaning of the title _praefectus legionis_ is
doubtful. It seems most likely to mean the same as _praefectus
castrorum_, an officer who superintended the camp and
sometimes acted as second-in-command (cp. ii. 89). The post
was one to which senior centurions could rise. At this period
they were not attached to a legion, but to a camp, where more
than one legion might be quartered. That makes the phrase here
used curious. The legion is that of the marines now stationed
in Rome (cp. chaps. 6 and 9). They appear to have joined the
mutinous Seventeenth cohort when they reached the city.

[180] About £40.

[181] The insignia of a tribunus were a tunic with a broad or
narrow stripe (accordingly as they were of senatorial or
equestrian rank), and a gold ring. A centurion carried a staff
made of a vine-branch, for disciplinary purposes.

[182] One of the three chapels in the temple of Jupiter on the
Capitoline.
[183] The pons Sublicius which led from the Velabrum to
Janiculum. It was the bridge which Horatius Cocles defended,
and a certain sanctity attached to it.

[184] Plutarch mentions that the quarter which suffered most
was that which contained the retail provision-shops.


OTHO'S PLANS

Otho had held a purification of the city[185] and meditated his 87
plans for the war. Recognizing that the Pennine and Cottian Alps and
all the other passes into Gaul were held by Vitellius, he decided to
invade Narbonese Gaul by sea. His fleet was now a strong and reliable
arm, devoted to his cause. For he had formed the full strength of a
legion out of the survivors of the Mulvian Bridge massacre,[186] whom
Galba's cruelty had kept in prison, and to all the marines he had
held out hopes of honourable service. [187] To the fleet he attached
the cohorts of the City Garrison and a large force of Guards. These
were the flower of the army and its chief strength, well able to
advise their own generals and to take good care of them. The command
of the expedition was entrusted to Antonius Novellus and Suedius
Clemens, both senior centurions,[188] and to Aemilius Pacensis, to
whom Otho had restored his commission,[189] of which Galba had
deprived him. In charge of the fleet he still retained the freedman
Moschus[190] to keep an eye on his betters. In command of the cavalry
and infantry he placed Suetonius Paulinus, Marius Celsus, and Annius
Gallus, but the man in whom he put most faith was the Prefect of the
Guards, Licinius Proculus. This officer had shown himself efficient in
garrison service, but was without any experience of warfare. He
maligned the characteristic virtues of his colleagues, Paulinus' power
of influence, Celsus' energy, Gallus' ripe judgement, and being a
knave and no fool, he easily got the better of men who were both
honest and loyal.

It was about this time that Cornelius Dolabella[191] was banished 88
to the colony of Aquinum,[192] though not kept in close or
dishonourable confinement. There was no charge against him: the stigma
upon him was his ancient name and kinship[193] to Galba.