The Fall of Vitellius

Vespasian gave his answers to the embassies and appointed men to the offices in each place justly and according to merit. Then he came to Antioch. Considering which way to turn, he judged affairs at Rome more urgent than a journey to Alexandria, since he saw that Alexandria was already secure, while Rome was being thrown into turmoil by Vitellius. So he sent Mucianus to Italy and gave him a large force of cavalry and infantry. But Mucianus was afraid to go by sea because it was the depth of winter, and he led the army by land through Cappadocia and Phrygia.

Meanwhile Antonius Primus, who happened to be governor in Moesia, took the Third Legion from those stationed there and hurried to give battle to Vitellius. Vitellius sent Caecina Alienus with a large force to meet him, for he had great confidence in the man because of his victory over Otho. Caecina marched out of Rome in haste and found Antonius near Cremona in Gaul, a city on the border of Italy. But when he saw there how numerous the enemy were and how well ordered, he did not dare to engage them. And since he reckoned that a retreat would be dangerous, he began to plan treachery. He gathered the centurions and tribunes under his command and urged them to go over to Antonius. He played down the strength of Vitellius and exalted the power of Vespasian. With the one, he told them, there was only the name of empire, with the other its power. It was better for them to anticipate necessity and make a favor of it, and since they were going to be beaten in battle, to forestall the danger by their own decision. Vespasian was able to win what remained even without them, but Vitellius could not keep what he had even with them. [a]

With many such words he persuaded them, and he deserted to Antonius with his army. But that same night the soldiers repented, and they grew afraid of the man who had sent them out, in case he should win after all. They drew their swords and rushed at Caecina to kill him, and they would have done it if the tribunes had not fallen at their feet and begged them not to. So they held back from killing him, but they bound the traitor and were ready to send him to Vitellius. When Primus heard of this, he at once roused his men and led them in arms against the deserters. They drew up in battle order and held out for a short while, but then they broke and fled toward Cremona. Primus took his cavalry, cut off their way into the city, surrounded and destroyed the great mass of them in front of the city, burst in with the rest, and let his soldiers plunder the town. Many foreign merchants died there, and many of the local people, and the whole army of Vitellius as well, thirty thousand two hundred men. Of the troops from Moesia Antonius lost four thousand five hundred. He set Caecina free and sent him to Vespasian to report what had happened. Caecina came, was welcomed by him, and covered the disgrace of his treachery with honors beyond his hopes. [b]

At Rome, too, Sabinus took courage when Antonius was reported to be near. He gathered the cohorts of the night watch and seized the Capitol by night. When day came, many men of distinction joined him, and Domitian, his brother’s son, on whom their hopes of power chiefly rested. Vitellius was less concerned about Primus, but he was furious with those who had revolted along with Sabinus. Thirsting for noble blood out of his inborn cruelty, he let loose on the Capitol the part of the army that had come with him to Rome. Many daring deeds were done, both by these troops and by those who fought from the temple. But at last the soldiers from Germany, who outnumbered the others, took the hill. Domitian, with many of the leading Romans, escaped as if by divine help, but the rest of the crowd were all cut down. Sabinus was brought before Vitellius and put to death, and the soldiers plundered the temple of its offerings and set it on fire. A day later Antonius marched into the city with his army. Vitellius’s troops met them, fought them in three parts of the city, and were all destroyed. Then Vitellius came out of the palace drunk, having gorged himself more lavishly than ever, as if at the last meal of his prodigal table. He was dragged through the crowd, abused with every kind of outrage, and butchered in the middle of Rome. He had held power eight months and five days, and if he had happened to live longer, I think the empire itself would not have been enough for his lust. Of the other dead, more than fifty thousand were counted. These things took place on the third of the month Apellaeus. On the next day Mucianus entered with his army and stopped Antonius’s men from killing, for they were still searching the houses and killing many of Vitellius’s soldiers and many of the common people as his partisans, their fury outrunning any careful distinction. He brought forward Domitian and presented him to the people as their ruler until his father arrived. The people, freed at last from their fears, acclaimed Vespasian as emperor, and celebrated at the same time his confirmation and the overthrow of Vitellius. [c]

When Vespasian had arrived at Alexandria, the good news from Rome reached him, and envoys came from the whole world, now his own, to rejoice with him. The city, though the greatest after Rome, proved too small for the crowd. Now that his rule was confirmed over the whole empire and the Roman state had been saved beyond all hope, Vespasian turned his thoughts to what remained of Judea. He himself was eager to set sail for Rome as soon as the winter was over, and he quickly settled affairs at Alexandria. But he sent his son Titus with a picked force to destroy Jerusalem. Titus marched on foot as far as Nicopolis, two and a half miles from Alexandria. There he put his army on board warships and sailed up the Nile through the Mendesian nome as far as the city of Thmuis. There he landed, went on by road, and spent the night at the small town of Tanis. His second stage was Heracleopolis, and his third Pelusium. He rested his army there for two days, and on the third he crossed the mouths of the Nile at Pelusium. He went one stage across the desert and camped by the temple of Zeus Casius, and the next day at Ostracine. This stage had no water; the local people use water brought in from elsewhere. After this he rested at Rhinocolura, and from there he went on to Raphia, his fourth stage. This city is where Syria begins. His fifth camp was at Gaza. After that he came to Ashkelon, from there to Jamnia, then to Joppa, and from Joppa to Caesarea, having decided to gather the rest of his forces there. [f]