Part 8 (1/2)

Many were the stories of these occurrences, which in primitive ages are observed even in time of peace, though now we only hear of them in time of panic. But the greatest damage at the moment, and the greatest alarm for the future, was caused by a sudden rising of the Tiber.

Immensely swollen, it carried away the bridge on piles,[183] and, its current being stemmed by the heavy ruins, it flooded not only the flat, low-lying portions of the city, but also districts that seemed safe from inundation. Many people were swept away in the streets, still more were overtaken by the flood in shops or in their beds at home. The result was a famine, since food was scarce,[184] and the poor were deprived of their means of livelihood. Blocks of flats, the foundations of which had rotted in the standing water, collapsed when the river sank. No sooner had the panic caused by the flood subsided than it was found that, whereas Otho was preparing an expedition, its route over the Martian Plain and up the Flaminian Road was blocked.

Though probably caused by chance, or the course of Nature, this mishap was turned into a miraculous omen of impending disaster.

FOOTNOTES:

[152] Chap. 45.

[153] Cp. note 46.

[154] A much-frequented watering-place on the borders of Latium and Campania. The hot baths were considered good for hysteria.

[155] Cp. chap. 7.

[156] Dio and Suetonius both say that Otho offered to share the empire with Vitellius, and the latter adds that he proposed for the hand of Vitellius' daughter. Tacitus here follows Plutarch.

[157] Chap. 19.

[158] As a matter of fact, only twelve days before. It was on the 2nd or 3rd of January that the troops of Lower and Upper Germany proclaimed Vitellius. Galba fell to Otho on January 15.

[159] L. Salvius Otho t.i.tia.n.u.s, Otho's elder brother.

[160] There were two legions in Dalmatia, two in Pannonia, three in Moesia, and two in Spain (see Summary, note 3).

[161] Cp. chap. 8.

[162] This included Savoy, Dauphine, part of Provence or Languedoc.

[163] Legs. V Macedonica, X Fretensis, XV Apollinaris.

[164] IV Scythica, VI Ferrata, XII Fulminata, and III Gallica.

[165] Since Claudius the great imperial bureaux, the posts of private secretary, patronage-secretary, financial secretary, &c., had all been held by freedmen. Cp. chap. 58.

[166] Otho and t.i.tia.n.u.s would naturally have held it for four months.

[167] Vopiscus presumably came from Vienne, which had espoused the cause first of Vindex, then of Galba. Cp. chap. 65.

[168] Not to be confused with Vespasian's brother.

[169] Grandfather of the Emperor Antoninus Pius.

[170] Name uncertain in MS.

[171] i.e. to be accused of 'treason' was in these days to win public sympathy, even though the defendant were guilty of offences under other more useful statutes.

[172] Seville and Merida.

[173] As the rest of this sentence refers to Spain and Portugal it has been proposed to read for _Lingones Lusones_, a Celtiberian tribe round the sources of the Tagus. The Lingones were devoted to the cause of Vitellius. (See chap.

53, &c.)