Book III

At Poetovio, the Flavian commanders discuss strategy: whether to block the Alpine passes and await full strength, or take offensive action immediately. Those favoring delay cite German legion strength and recent Flavian defeats.

Antonius argues decisively that prompt action will defeat Vitellius by striking while enemy troops are weakened and dispersed, before they can train for war or receive reinforcements from Germany, Britain, and Gaul.

Antonius's passionate delivery, directed to common soldiers as well as officers, combined with his established reputation for decisive commitment, overcomes the caution of other generals and wins enthusiastic support from the troops.

Cornelius Fuscus supports Antonius aggressively against Vitellius, while Tampius Flavianus, inclined toward delay and suspected of kinship with Vitellius, becomes unpopular with soldiers who doubt his loyalty.

To secure their offensive, the Flavians dispatch forces to hold mountain passes, enlist Sarmatian and Suebi allies, and leave garrisons to prevent foreign invasions while Antonius advances into Italy.

Leading a picked force of auxiliaries and cavalry, Antonius rapidly occupies towns in northern Italy including Aquileia, Opitergium, Patavium, and Ateste, gaining early victories and capturing enemy supplies.

The Seventh Galbian and Thirteenth Gemina legions arrive at Patavium, and Antonius adopts pro-Galba policies to boost morale, replacing Galba's fallen statues to revive his memory and strengthen support.

The Flavians choose Verona as their operational base because the open country suits their cavalry strength and occupying it denies the enemy a fortified town while blocking Alpine passes to German reinforcements.

Vespasian had ordered a halt at Aquileia and instructed Antonius to await Mucianus, believing that controlling Egypt's grain supply could starve Vitellius into submission without bloodshed, but distance prevented enforcement.

Despite occupying a strong position, Caecina deliberately delays engaging the Flavians, instead using letters to negotiate terms of treason while waiting for his intermediaries to settle the betrayal.

While Caecina writes mildly and carefully avoids offending Vespasian, Antonius and his generals respond with bold confidence, insulting Vitellius and urging Caecina's officers to desert, thus gaining psychological advantage.

Alarmed soldiers, mistaking allies for enemies, seize weapons and turn on Tampius Flavianus with baseless accusations, nearly murdering him until Antonius threatens suicide to restore order.

A false letter claiming Saturninus wrote to Vitellius sparks another mutiny, forcing both consular governors to flee and leaving Antonius in supreme command of both armies.

The fleet at Ravenna, manned by sailors from Vespasian-controlled provinces and persuaded by Admiral Lucilius Bassus, revolts and swears allegiance to the Flavians, forcing Vitellius's army into crisis.

Caecina carefully orchestrates a moment when the camp is deserted, summons senior officers, exaggerates Vitellius's weakness, has accomplices give the cue, and makes all troops swear for Vespasian.

When returning soldiers see Vespasian's name on standards and Vitellius's portraits torn down, they react with outrage, demanding battle instead of surrender, and replace the portraits and arrest Caecina.

Seeing the Vitellian army divided between Caecina's position and legions at Cremona, and fearing they will reunite, Antonius decides to force immediate battle before reinforcements from Fabius Valens arrive.

In two days, Antonius moves his entire force to Bedriacum, then sends cavalry and auxiliaries to forage near Cremona while positioning his legions to fortify camp.

Arrius Varus, seeking glory, charges the Vitellian vanguard without orders, inflicts light casualties, but is routed when enemy reinforcements arrive, spreading panic among Flavian ranks.

Antonius quickly repositions cavalry on the flanks to channel the fleeing Vitellians into a prepared position, then uses terrain and the narrow road to contain the enemy advance and turn defeat into victory.

Four miles away, the Rapax and Italian legions march out under cover of initial cavalry success but neither open ranks to receive retreating troops nor press the attack when fortune turns, missing critical moment.

Soldiers demand immediate attack on Cremona for plunder, but Antonius uses reasoning about darkness, unknown terrain, and lack of siege equipment to convince them to wait for daylight and proper preparation.

Captured stragglers reveal that six Vitellian legions and the Hostilia garrison have marched thirty miles toward the Flavians, ending the soldiers' mutiny and forcing immediate defensive positioning.

Antonius carefully deploys five legions along the Postumian road, protected by ditches and terrain, with cavalry and auxiliaries positioned on flanks and rear, including Suebi allies in the front line.

Lacking Caecina (arrested) and Fabius Valens (en route from Rome), the Vitellians charge at full strength despite it being nearly 9 pm, hoping to overwhelm the Flavians in darkness and disorder.

In darkness, men cannot see the ground, both sides are armed alike, standards become confused as they change hands repeatedly, and the Seventh Galbian legion suffers especially, losing multiple standards and nearly their eagle.

A massed Vitellian artillery engine, particularly one belonging to the Fifteenth legion, causes massive casualties among the Flavians until two unnamed soldiers heroically cut the suspension ropes and fall mortally wounded.

As the moon rises behind the Flavian line, it magnifies their soldiers' shadows, causing Vitellian missiles to be misdirected and fall short, while the Flavians see the Vitellians clearly backlit.

Appealing to each legion's pride and history, Antonius reminds Pannonian troops of past glory, Moesian troops of their role in starting the war, and taunts the Guards with comparison to an emperor and camp.

Following Syrian custom, the Third legion salutes the rising sun, which creates or is suggested to be a rumor that Mucianus has arrived, giving Flavian troops false hope of reinforcement.

Lacking a commander to marshal them, the Vitellian ranks grow ragged, filling and thinning with fear and courage alternately, until Antonius presses with massed columns and shatters them completely.

A Spanish legionnaire from the Rapax legion unknowingly kills his own father from the Seventh legion, discovers the kinship, and desperately performs last rites, sparking reflection on civil war's horrors throughout the army.

The victors reach Cremona to find it surrounded by formidable entrenched camps and ramparts constructed during the war with Otho, presenting a difficult choice between storming it, retreating, or entrencing nearby.

Concluding that the soldiers' determination to fight outweighs the fatigue of continuous combat, Antonius directs each legion to assault different points of the rampart to inspire rivalry and test courage.

Historical sources dispute whether Hormus or Antonius gave the signal for fire, but after the rampart breached, the soldiers showed no restraint and destroyed everything before them.

A Vitellian war engine crushes down on attacking troops but simultaneously demolishes part of the rampart; the Third legion hews down the gate and Caius Volusius leads the breakthrough.

The Flavians assault the city walls and buildings using fire, bravest troops placed in captured buildings to dislodge defenders with beams and tiles, gradually breaking Vitellian resistance.

As Flavian assault continues, Vitellian officers despair of survival, release Caecina from irons seeking his aid, hang veils as surrender signs, and emerge disarmed while Caecina's appearance provokes outrage.

Despite Antonius's attempts at mercy, soldiers sack Cremona driven by old grudges, belief the town aided Vitellius before, and the wealth concentrated there from the Fair, leaving the city devastated.

Forty thousand soldiers and an even larger crowd of servants and camp followers ravage Cremona for four days without restraint, searching for hidden treasure and showing no mercy regardless of age or status.

Cremona, founded 286 years earlier as a bulwark against Gauls, becomes the victim of civil war; Antonius later prevents enslavement of survivors, and Vespasian sponsors rebuilding of temples and squares.

The soil around Cremona is so fouled with blood that the Flavians cannot remain there and advance along the road, then muster the defeated Vitellians and garrison Alpine passes.

After Caecina departs Rome, Vitellius drowns himself in luxury, ignoring military preparations, and reacts with mixed feelings to bad news, returning to Rome in triumph when he hears Caecina was arrested.

At a crowded senate meeting, Vitellius receives elaborate compliments, Lucius Vitellius proposes harsh punishment for Caecina, and senators debate but carefully avoid criticism of Flavian leaders.

When Vitellius lies ill, Lucius uses rumors of Caecina Tuscus's dinner party and Blaesus's revelry to convince the emperor that Blaesus is a dangerous rival, leading to his murder by poison.

Unlike his swift duty would require, Valens travels with a lengthy train of women and eunuchs, receives news of Bassus's fleet defection, and hesitates over strategic decisions, allowing opportunity to slip away.

Three cohorts of Guards and a cavalry regiment from Britain arrive to help Valens, but they are too few to break through enemy lines and too many to move unobserved, proving strategically useless.

Fearing trouble from disloyal troops, Valens sends Guards to Ariminum and himself flees to Umbria and Etruria, planning to seize ships, cross to Narbonnese Gaul, and rouse foreign tribes and provinces.

Valens's flight causes the troops at Ariminum to lose heart; Cornelius Fuscus advances and invests the town by land and sea, allowing Flavians to divide Italy at the Apennines.

Attempting to flee by ship, Valens is either becalmed or driven by unfavorable wind, lands at Monaco where a loyal governor welcomes him but urges caution, then sails toward Narbonnese Gaul but is overtaken.

Spain's legions, loyal to Otho's memory and opposing Vitellius, are joined by Gaul; Britain supports Vespasian due to his past command and military success there, though some legions remain uncertain.

Venutius, hating Rome and spurned by Queen Cartimandua who marries his squire Vellocatus, mounts a rebellion with the Brigantes' support, forcing Roman auxiliaries to rescue Cartimandua and fight for control.

General inefficiency, troop disaffection, strong enemies, and treacherous allies combine to threaten Rome in Germany; the details of this prolonged struggle will be treated later.

With the Moesian garrison removed, the Dacians, who cannot be trusted, invade both banks of the Danube and nearly storm the Roman camp until Mucianus sends the Sixth legion to repel them.

Anicetus, a freedman of the former king resentful of Roman provincial rule, seizes the Pontic fleet, allies with native tribes, attacks Trapezus, and establishes maritime dominance after Mucianus moves his fleet.

Vespasian sends Virdius Geminus with legionary detachments to defeat the dispersed Pontic rebels, track Anicetus to a river mouth, and through a local king's betrayal capture and eliminate the rebellion.

Vespasian accelerates toward Alexandria to cut Rome's grain supply and force surrender through famine, while also preparing to invade adjacent Africa by land and sea.

After Cremona, Antonius feels the war is settled and abandons restraint, harrying Italy like conquered territory, allowing soldiers to appoint centurions and courting power through his troops.

Antonius fails to fear Mucianus's approach, a mistake more fatal than despising Vespasian, as Mucianus's cunning proves more dangerous than Vespasian's authority.

With winter approaching and the Po flooding, Antonius advances with auxiliary forces and legionary detachments, joined voluntarily by the Eleventh legion and Dalmatian troops, but faces supply shortages and soldier mutiny.

A trooper demands reward for killing his brother in battle; authorities cannot punish him but also cannot reward such murder, revealing how civil war erodes normal morality.

Fearing that guards move from Rome and the Apennines might be held, with supplies scarce and men mutinous demanding payment, Antonius decides to send cavalry ahead, call up main legions, and fill supply lines.

Mucianus, feeling victory has come too soon and fearing Antonius will monopolize glory, sends ambiguous directives sometimes urging speed, sometimes delay, while sending clear orders to other generals criticizing Antonius.

Antonius, learning that Mucianus has undermined his achievements, writes Vespasian a bitter, insubordinate letter claiming sole credit for victory and accusing Mucianus of slighting his exploits.

By forbidding discussion of the war and denying facts, Vitellius only postpones precautions and increases rumors; Flavian generals deliberately circulate information by sending captured spies around camps and releasing them.

A centurion persistently urges Vitellius to face facts and finally inspects enemy positions honestly, but finding Vitellius disbelieves his report and suggests bribery, commits suicide rather than live dishonored.

Awakened to the crisis, Vitellius sends Julius Priscus and Alfenus Varus with fourteen guard cohorts and cavalry to hold the Apennines, follows with marine legion, and maintains his luxuries while nervously preparing.

Dark omens appear—a cloud of ill-omened birds and a sacrificial bull escaping—while Vitellius reveals ignorance of soldiering, lack of foresight, and tendency to drunkenness, paralyzed by each new report.

Despite having opportunity to cross the Apennines with full force to attack the weakened Flavians, Vitellius splits his forces and sends his best troops to be captured or killed, ignoring experienced centurions' counsel.

Claudius Faventinus, a centurion dismissed by Galba, forges a letter from Vespasian and foments rebellion at Misenum; with Admiral Apollinaris wavering, Apinius Tiro takes leadership and wins colonies to the Flavian cause.

Vitellius chooses Claudius Julianus, the previous lax commander, to lead troops against the rebels with one cohort and gladiators, but Julianus soon joins the Flavian side and occupies Tarracina.

Alarmed by news from Campania, Vitellius demands fixed numbers of slaves and silver from senators, money and service from knights, and raises general conscription, but gradually loses support as fear changes to pity.

In rough December weather, Antonius's army fights through snow in the Apennines, realizing how dangerous it would have been if Vitellius had remained positioned to attack them, and encountering Petilius Cerialis.

Several sources report Antonius sent messengers to arrange escapes for Sabinus and Domitian, but Sabinus pleads poor health and Domitian fears a trap, though Vitellius was actually protective of the emperor's relatives.

At Carsulae, the Flavian generals take rest days in favorable terrain with secure supplies, hope to negotiate treason with Vitellians, but soldiers chafe for victory over peace.

Antonius addresses soldiers counseling reflection over impulse, explaining that while first steps may be left to chance, final victory requires careful strategy and that saving Rome brings more honor than plunder.

Vitellian guards waver as they hear of the Flavian army's size; many seek to desert and earn favor by delivering their companies to the enemy; a garrison at Interamna is easily overcome.

Fabius Valens is executed in prison at Urbinum and his head displayed to the Vitellian Guards to dispel their false belief that he was mustering forces in Germany, driving them to despair.

Valens was of loose morality with intellectual gifts, appeared in Nero's degrading performances, supported and then defamed Verginius, murdered Fonteius Capito, betrayed Galba, and remained loyal to Vitellius as foil to others' treachery.

With all hope crushed, the Vitellians march down with standards and colors between Flavian lines at Narnia, where Antonius receives them kindly, leaves garrisons to watch but not molest them.

Antonius, Varus, and Mucianus repeatedly offer Vitellius his life, money, and safe refuge in Campania in exchange for surrender, but Vitellius sinks into mental torpor, nearly forgetting his imperial status.

Rome's leaders appeal to Sabinus to take glory from Antonius by seizing the city with his command of the garrison and police before the Flavian armies arrive.

Age enfeebles Sabinus, and his gentle nature shrinks from bloodshed; some suspect jealousy of his brother's success, while charitable observers credit his preference for negotiated peace over massacre.

Sabinus and Vitellius meet at the Temple of Apollo and reportedly reach a settlement, with only two witnesses—Cluvius Rufus and Silius Italicus—observing Vitellius appear abject while Sabinus shows pity.

Vitellius's loyal friends reject peace, fearing that Vespasian can never permit Vitellius to live as a rival claimant, and warn that despair should steel courage since death is certain either way.

Vitellius is obsessed with fear that resistance will make the conqueror merciless toward his wife and children, his old mother having recently died fortunately, so he surrenders courage to pity and anxiety.

On December 17, Vitellius puts on mourning upon hearing of desertions at Narnia, leaves the palace surrounded by his sorrowful household, and passes through streets renouncing the throne while commending his son to the people.

No previous emperor had resigned before the assembly of his own people; Caesar was suddenly killed, Caligula secretly assassinated, Nero fled at night, Piso and Galba died in battle, but Vitellius formally surrenders the throne.

After offering his sword to the consul and intending to deposit regalia at the Temple of Concord, a popular uproar blocks his way and forces him to return to the palace instead.

Rumors of abdication spreading, Sabinus receives senators and knights at his house, but when Vitellian guards attack near Fundane reservoir, he chooses to occupy the Capitol with his troops and allies.

Sabinus holds the Capitol, sends for his children and nephew Domitian at night through an unguarded route, and dispatches a courier to tell Flavian generals of the siege, but passes an unmolested night.

Sabinus sends Cornelius Martialis to accuse Vitellius of faking abdication—returning to the palace and launching armed forces that killed innocents and attacked the Capitol—and calls on him to surrender the throne.

Vitellius replies admitting he is too weak to control the troops' impatience and warns Martialis to escape by secret passage lest soldiers kill him as a peace ambassador.

Without a general to lead them, Vitellian soldiers storm the Capitol, shower it with stones and tiles, burn surrounding colonnades, and advance up the slope using contiguous houses to reach Capitol level.

Whether set by assailants or besieged, fire spreads from colonnades to temple structures, ancient wooden eagles feeding the flames, and the Capitol is reduced to ruin with its doors shut and undefended.

Since Rome's foundation, no greater disaster had befallen the city; foreign invasion had been resisted, but Rome's own civil war brought the temple of Jupiter to ruin through mad folly of rival emperors.

King Tarquinius Priscus vowed the temple in the Sabine war; Servius Tullius and Tarquinius Superbus continued it; Horatius Pulvillus dedicated it; after burning in 83 B.C. it was restored by Sulla, later by emperors, with Lutatius Catulus's name remaining until now.

The besieged panic while Vitellians show steadiness; Sabinus appears paralyzed, giving contradictory orders; soldiers throw away weapons seeking escape or hiding until Vitellians burst in with fire and sword.

Cornelius Martialis, Aemilius Pacensis, Casperius Niger, and Didius Scaeva are among the most notable defenders cut to pieces; some escape by disguising as slaves or hiding with dependants.

When Vitellians burst in, Domitian takes refuge with the sacristan, escapes in a linen dress among Isis worshippers, and hides near the Velabrum with a father's dependant.

Sabinus and consul Quintius Atticus are captured, loaded with chains, and brought to Vitellius, who receives them without disfavor, disappointing those seeking execution.

When a crowd demands Sabinus's execution with threats and flatteries, Vitellius attempts to plead for him but is forced to desist; Sabinus is stabbed, his head cut off, body dragged to the Ladder of Sighs.

Sabinus served thirty-five years as civilian and soldier with integrity and fairness; though talkative about himself, his main fault was lack of enterprise in final years, but many called him moderate and merciful.

Vitellius withstands demands for Atticus's execution because he forgave him and felt indebted; Atticus had claimed responsibility for the Capitol fire, thus exonerating the Vitellian party.

Lucius Vitellius, positioned at Temple of Feronia, attacks Tarracina where Julianus and Apollinaris command poorly motivated gladiators and sailors; he scales the hills at night and massacres them without distinction.

In darkness and panic, Vitellians massacre helpless soldiers, and Julianus is flogged and killed; six ships escape but the rest are captured or sunk by frantic crowds.

Lucius sends a laurel wreath to his brother and asks whether to continue reducing Campania, and this delay—allowing fresh troops to recover before marching on Rome—prevents the city's destruction.

The Flavian army rests during the Saturnalian holiday at Ocriculum, possibly delaying treacherously to allow Vitellius to abdicate peacefully, though multiple reasons explain the halt including Mucianus's ambiguous instructions.

Petilius Cerialis is sent forward with cavalry to reconnoiter through Sabine country and enter by Salarian road but fails to move fast enough before news of Capitol siege arrives.

Reaching Red Rocks at deep night, Antonius learns that Sabinus is killed, Capitol burned, and the city is in panic; Petilius Cerialis has been defeated in a cavalry engagement near the city.

Cerialis pushes forward recklessly believing the enemy defeated, but Vitellians catch him unawares with horse and foot in terrain they know, while some of his cavalry waver having recently surrendered.

Emboldened by the cavalry success, the Roman mob takes up arms with whatever weapons they can find and demands to march; Vitellius thanks them, sends them forth, and summons senate to appoint peace envoys.

Those approaching Petilius Cerialis are rejected with violence; praetor Arulenus Rusticus is wounded, companions flogged, and the lictors' sacred protection violated until the general intervenes.

A Stoic philosopher attached to the envoys mingles with soldiers offering philosophical advice on peace's benefits and war's perils, but is mocked and bored soldiers, barely escaping harm.

The Vestal Virgins come in procession with Vitellius's letter requesting one day's delay to allow settlement of everything, but Antonius replies that murder of Sabinus and burning of Capitol broke off negotiations.

Antonius summons legions to meeting, proposes pitching camp at Mulvian Bridge and entering city next day, fearing that troops engaged in skirmish will show no respect for civilians, temples, or gods.

The Flavian attack proceeds in three columns along Flaminian road, Tiber bank, and Salarian road toward Colline Gate, with cavalry scattering the mob; Vitellians defend in three divisions with varying success.

The populace watches the fighting like spectators at a gladiatorial contest, cheering both sides alternately, dragging soldiers from hiding to earn plunder for themselves.

The Flavians employ every siege technique—tortoise formations, artillery, earthworks, firebrands—to take the strongly-held Guards' camp, which the Vitellians defend as their last stronghold and source of pride.

When the city falls, Vitellius attempts to escape to his wife's house on the Aventine, hoping to reach brother at Tarracina, but returns to the deserted palace, terrified of solitude, and hides.

Julius Placidus, a Guards officer, drags the disheveled Vitellius from hiding with his hands tied behind his back; soldiers abuse him publicly and a German soldier cuts the officer's ear.

Soldiers force Vitellius to hold his head high and watch his statues being pulled down, view the Rostra where Galba died, and endure continuous insults and jeering.

When an officer heaps reproaches on him, Vitellius responds with noble brevity: 'And yet I was once your emperor,' before falling under shower of wounds.

Vitellius, age 57, owed his consulship and high position entirely to his father's eminence; he lacked initiative but won soldier enthusiasm through slothful cowardice; his candor and generosity without moderation proved disastrous.

With senators fled or hiding, Domitian emerges from refuge and is immediately hailed as Caesar by soldiers, who escort him in full armor to his father's house.