No More Learning

The Treviran cavalry rashly charged the enemy, and meeting Otho's
guards in front were simultaneously assailed in the flank by the
peasants, flinging stones. This they could do well enough; and,
drafted among the regulars, they all, bold and timid alike, showed the
same courage in the hour of victory. Panic struck the defeated
Vitellians when the fleet began to harass their rear. They were now
surrounded, and would have been entirely destroyed had not darkness
arrested the victors and sheltered their flight. But though beaten 15
the Vitellians were not cowed. Calling up reinforcements, they
suddenly attacked while the unsuspecting enemy were taking their ease
after the victory. They killed the pickets, broke into the camp and
terrified the sailors. In time the panic subsided. The Othonians
seized a hill, defended their position, and eventually assumed the
offensive. The slaughter was frightful. The officers commanding the
Tungri, after a long defence of their position, fell beneath a shower
of weapons. The victory also cost the Othonians heavy loss, for the
enemy's cavalry rallied and cut off all who rashly ventured too far in
pursuit. So they agreed to a sort of armistice. As a safeguard against
sudden raids either by the fleet on the one side or the cavalry on the
other, the Vitellians retired to Antipolis,[244] a town of the
Narbonese province, and the Othonians to Albingaunum[245] in the
interior of Liguria.

The fame of this naval victory kept Corsica and Sardinia and the 16
adjacent islands faithful to Otho's cause.
However, Decumus Pacarius,
the procurator,[246] nearly ruined Corsica by an act of indiscretion,
which in a war of such dimensions could not possibly have affected the
issue, and only ended in his own destruction. He hated Otho and
determined to aid Vitellius with all the forces of Corsica; a useless
assistance, even if it had been forthcoming. He summoned the chief men
of the island and disclosed his project. Claudius Pyrrhicus, who
commanded the Liburnian cruisers[247] stationed there, and a Roman
knight named Quintius Certus ventured to oppose him. He ordered their
execution. This overawed the others who were present. So they swore
allegiance to Vitellius, as did also the general mass of ignorant
people, who blindly shared a fear they did not feel. However, when
Pacarius began to enlist them and to harass his undisciplined men with
military duties, their loathing for the unwonted labour set them
thinking of their weakness. 'They lived in an island: Vitellius'
legions were in Germany, a long way off: Otho's fleet had already
sacked and plundered districts that had even horse and foot to protect
them. ' The revulsion was sudden, but did not issue in overt
resistance. They chose a suitable moment for their treachery. Waiting
till Pacarius' visitors[248] were gone, they murdered him, stripped
and helpless, in his bath, and killed his comrades too. The heads they
bore themselves to Otho, like enemies' scalps. Neither did Otho reward
nor Vitellius punish them. In the general confusion their deed was
overshadowed by more heinous crimes.

We have already described[249] how 'Silius' Horse' had admitted the 17
war into the heart of Italy.