No More Learning

[413] Borrowing this platitude from Cicero, who got it from
the Greek.

[414] i. e. the legions in Moesia, Pannonia, and Dalmatia (cp.
note 3).

[415] Cp. note 286.

[416] XIII Gemina and VII Galbiana (see below).

[417] See i. 79.

[418] The Balkan range.

[419] He was concerned in the forgery of a will: see _Ann. _
xiv. 40, where he is called 'a man of ready daring'.

[420] These were imperial provinces, each governed by a
_legatus Caesaris_ and a _procurator_, the former a military,
the latter a financial officer.
[421] Reading _quaestus cupidine_ (Grotius). The reading of
the Medicean manuscript is _quietis cupidine_. But Fuscus, as
the sequel shows, had little taste for a quiet life. It is
more likely that his motives were mercenary, since both law
and custom still imposed some restrictions upon a senator's
participation in 'business'. In the _Annals_ (xvi. 17) Tacitus
says that Annaeus Mela abstained from seeking public office,
because he 'hoped to find a shorter road to wealth' by
entering, as Fuscus did, the imperial civil service. The
statement that Fuscus loved danger better than money does not
imply any rooted antipathy to the latter.

[422] i. e. in Pannonia.

[423] Cp. chaps. 66 and 67.


VITELLIUS IN ROME

While[424] Vespasian and his generals were showing such activity 87
in the provinces, Vitellius grew more contemptible and indolent every
day. Halting at every town or country house that offered any
attractions, he made his way to Rome with a heavy marching column of
sixty thousand troops, demoralized by loose discipline, and an even
greater number of menials as well as those camp-followers who are more
troublesome than any slaves. Besides these he had the vast retinue of
his generals and friends, which not even the strictest discipline
could have kept under control.