Plutarch: Lives of the noble Grecians and Romans
out of Moesia and Pannonia, not inferior in numbers to the
troops that were already present. He thought it probable, too,
that the soldiers, who were then in heart before they were
joined, would not be less so when the forces were all come up.
Besides, the deferring battle could not be inconvenient to them
that were sufficiently provided with all necessaries; but the
others, being in an enemy's country, must needs be exceedingly
straitened in a little time. Marius Celsus was of Paulinus's
opinion; Annius Gallus, being absent and under the surgeon's
hands through a fall from his horse, was consulted by letter,
and advised Otho to stay for those legions that were marching
from Moesia. But after all he did not follow the advice; and
the opinion of those that declared for a battle prevailed.
There are several reasons given for this determination, but the
most apparent is this; that the praetorian soldiers, as they are
called, who serve as guards, not relishing the military
discipline which they now had begun a little more to experience,
and longing for their amusements and unwarlike life among the
shows of Rome, would not be commanded, but were eager for a
battle, imagining that upon the first onset they should carry
all before them. Otho also himself seems not to have shown the
proper fortitude in bearing up against the uncertainty, and, out
of effeminacy and want of use, had not patience for the
calculations of danger, and was so uneasy at the apprehension of
it, that he shut his eyes, and like one going to leap from a
precipice, left everything to fortune. This is the account
Secundus the rhetorician, who was his secretary, gave of the
matter. But others would tell you that there were many
movements in both armies for acting in concert; and if it were
possible for them to agree, then they should proceed to choose
one of their most experienced officers that were present; if
not, they should convene the senate, and invest it with the
power of election. And it is not improbable that, neither of
the emperors then bearing the title having really any
reputation, such purposes were really entertained among the
genuine, serviceable, and sober-minded part of the soldiers.
For what could be more odious and unreasonable than that the
evils which the Roman citizens had formerly thought it so
lamentable to inflict upon each other for the sake of a Sylla or
a Marius, a Caesar or a Pompey, should now be undergone anew,
for the object of letting the empire pay the expenses of the
gluttony and intemperance of Vitellius, or the looseness and
effeminacy of Otho? It is thought that Celsus, upon such
reflections, protracted the time in order to a possible
accommodation; and that Otho pushed on things to an extremity to
prevent it.
He himself returned to Brixillum, which was another false step,
both because he withdrew from the combatants all the motives of
respect and desire to gain his favor, which his presence would
have supplied, and because he weakened the army by detaching
some of his best and most faithful troops for his horse and foot
guards.
About the same time also happened a skirmish on the Po. As
Caecina was laying a bridge over it, Otho's men attacked him,
and tried to prevent it. And when they did not succeed, on
their putting into their boats torchwood with a quantity of
sulphur and pitch, the wind on the river suddenly caught their
material that they had prepared against the enemy, and blew it
into a light. First came smoke, and then a clear flame, and the
men, getting into great confusion and jumping overboard, upset
the boats, and put themselves ludicrously at the mercy of their
enemies. Also the Germans attacked Otho's gladiators upon a
small island in the river, routed them, and killed a good many.
All which made the soldiers at Bedriacum full of anger, and
eagerness to be led to battle. So Proculus led them out of
Bedriacum to a place fifty furlongs off, where he pitched his
camp so ignorantly and with such a ridiculous want of foresight,
that the soldiers suffered extremely for want of water, though
it was the spring time, and the plains all around were full of
running streams and rivers that never dried up. The next day he
proposed to attack the enemy, first making a march of not less
than a hundred furlongs; but to this Paulinus objected, saying
they ought to wait, and not immediately after a journey engage
men who would have been standing in their arms and arranging
themselves for battle at their leisure, whilst they were making
a long march with all their beasts of burden and their camp
followers to encumber them. As the generals were arguing about
this matter, a Numidian courier came from Otho with orders to
lose no time, but give battle. Accordingly they consented, and
moved. As soon as Caecina had notice, he was much surprised,
and quitted his post on the river to hasten to the camp. In the
meantime, the men had armed themselves mostly, and were
receiving the word from Valens; so while the legions took up
their position, they sent out the best of their horse in
advance.
Otho's foremost troops, upon some groundless rumor, took up the
notion that the commanders on the other side would come over;
and accordingly, upon their first approach, they saluted them
with the friendly title of fellow-soldiers. But the others
returned the compliment with anger and disdainful words; which
not only disheartened those that had given the salutation, but
excited suspicions of their fidelity amongst the others on their
side, who had not. This caused a confusion at the very first
onset. And nothing else that followed was done upon any plan;
the baggage-carriers, mingling up with the fighting men, created
great disorder and division, as well as the nature of the
ground; the ditches and pits in which were so many, that they
were forced to break their ranks to avoid and go round them, and
so to fight without order and in small parties. There were but
two legions, one of Vitellius's, called The Ravenous, and
another of Otho's, called The Assistant, that got out into the
open outspread level and engaged in proper form, fighting, one
main body against the other, for some length of time. Otho's
men were strong and bold, but had never been in battle before;
Vitellius's had seen many wars, but were old and past their
strength. So Otho's legion charged boldly, drove back their
opponents, and took the eagle, killing pretty nearly every man
in the first rank, till the others, full of rage and shame,
returned the charge, slew Orfidius, the commander of the legion,
and took several standards. Varus Alfenus, with his Batavians,
who are the natives of an island of the Rhine, and are esteemed
the best of the German horse, fell upon the gladiators, who had
a reputation both for valor and skill in fighting. Some few of
these did their duty, but the greatest part of them made towards
the river, and, falling in with some cohorts stationed there,
were cut off. But none behaved so ill as the praetorians, who,
without ever so much as meeting the enemy, ran away, broke
through their own body that stood, and put them into disorder.
Notwithstanding this, many of Otho's men routed those that were
opposed to them, broke right into them, and forced their way to
the camp through the very middle of their conquerors.
As for their commanders, neither Proculus nor Paulinus ventured
to reenter with the troops; they turned aside, and avoided the
soldiers, who had already charged the miscarriage upon their
officers. Annius Gallus received into the town and rallied the
scattered parties, and encouraged them with an assurance that
the battle was a drawn one and the victory had in many parts
been theirs. Marius Celsus, collecting the officers, urged the
public interest; Otho himself, if he were a brave man, would
not, after such an expense of Roman blood, attempt anything
further; especially since even Cato and Scipio, though the
liberty of Rome was then at stake, had been accused of being too
prodigal of so many brave men's lives as were lost in Africa,
rather than submit to Caesar after the battle of Pharsalia had
gone against them. For though all persons are equally subject
to the caprice of fortune, yet all good men have one advantage
she cannot deny, which is this, to act reasonably under
misfortunes.
This language was well accepted amongst the officers, who
sounded the private soldiers, and found them desirous of peace;
and Titianus also gave directions that envoys should be sent in
order to a treaty. And accordingly it was agreed that the
conference should be between Celsus and Gallus on one part, and
Valens with Caecina on the other. As the two first were upon
their journey, they met some centurions, who told them the
troops were already in motion, marching for Bedriacum, but that
they themselves were deputed by their generals to carry
proposals for an accommodation. Celsus and Gallus expressed
their approval, and requested them to turn back and carry them
to Caecina. However, Celsus, upon his approach, was in danger
from the vanguard, who happened to be some of the horse that had
suffered at the ambush. For as soon as they saw him, they
hallooed, and were coming down upon him; but the centurions came
forward to protect him, and the other officers crying out and
bidding them desist, Caecina came up to inform himself of the
tumult, which he quieted, and, giving a friendly greeting to
Celsus, took him in his company and proceeded towards Bedriacum.
Titianus, meantime, had repented of having sent the messengers;
and placed those of the soldiers who were more confident upon
the walls once again, bidding the others also go and support
them. But when Caecina rode up on his horse and held out his
hand, no one did or said to the contrary; those on the walls
greeted his men with salutations, others opened the gates and
went out, and mingled freely with those they met; and instead of
acts of hostility, there was nothing but mutual shaking of hands
and congratulations, everyone taking the oaths and submitting
to Vitellius.
This is the account which the most of those that were present at
the battle give of it, yet own that the disorder they were in,
and the absence of any unity of action would not give them leave
to be certain as to particulars. And when I myself traveled
afterwards over the field of battle, Mestrius Florus, a man of
consular degree, one of those who had been, not willingly, but
by command, in attendance on Otho at the time, pointed out to me
an ancient temple, and told me, that as he went that way after
the battle, he observed a heap of bodies piled up there to such
a height, that those on the top of it touched the pinnacles of
the roof. How it came to be so, he could neither discover
himself nor learn from any other person; as indeed, he said, in
civil wars it generally happens that greater numbers are killed
when an army is routed, quarter not being given, because
captives are of no advantage to the conquerors; but why the
carcasses should be heaped up after that manner is not easy to
determine.
Otho, at first, as it frequently happens, received some
uncertain rumors of the issue of the battle. But when some of
the wounded that returned from the field informed him rightly of
it, it is not, indeed, so much to be wondered at that his
friends should bid him not give all up as lost or let his
courage sink; but the feeling shown by the soldiers is something
that exceeds all belief. There was not one of them would either
go over to the conqueror or show any disposition to make terms
for himself, as if their leader's cause was desperate; on the
contrary, they crowded his gates, called out to him with the
title of emperor, and as soon as he appeared, cried out and