No More Learning

[372] Further inland; probably the modern Fezzan.

[373] Vespasian was still at Alexandria.

[374] Cp. ii. 82, note 410.

[375] Cp. ii. 4 and Book V.

[376] It had been Vespasian's original plan to starve Rome out
by holding the granaries of Egypt and Africa. See iii. 48.

[377] Cp. iii. 71.

[378] Probably from Etruria, where certain families were
credited with the requisite knowledge and skill.
Claudius had
established a College of Soothsayers in Rome. They ranked
lower than the Augurs.

[379] At Ostia.

[380] Their names would suggest prosperity and success, e. g.
Salvius, Victor, Valerius, and they would carry branches of
oak, laurel, myrtle, or beech.

[381] This too was 'lucky' and a common ritualistic
requirement.

[382] The 'holy water' must come from certain streams of
special sanctity, such as the Tiber or its tributary, the
Almo. The water would be sprinkled from the 'lucky' branches.

[383] To the god Mars.


THE LOSS OF GERMANY

Meanwhile,[384] the news of Vitellius' death had spread through 54
Gaul and Germany and redoubled the vigour of the war. Civilis now
dropped all pretence and hurled himself upon the Roman Empire. The
Vitellian legions felt that even foreign slavery was preferable to
owning Vespasian's sovereignty. The Gauls too had taken heart. A
rumour had been spread that our winter camps in Moesia and Pannonia
were being blockaded by Sarmatians and Dacians:[385] similar stories
were fabricated about Britain: the Gauls began to think that the
fortune of the Roman arms was the same all the world over. But above
all, the burning of the Capitol led them to believe that the empire
was coming to an end.