Part 33 (1/2)

[359] i.e. those who were either over fifty or had served in the Guards sixteen or in a legion twenty years.

[360] See iii. 74.

[361] See chap. 38.

[362] Africa was peculiar in that the pro-consul, who governed it for the senate, commanded an army. All the other provinces demanding military protection were under imperial control.

Caligula, without withdrawing the province from the senate, in some degree regularized the anomaly by transferring this command to a 'legate' of his own, technically inferior to the civil governor.

[363] Whereas the pro-consul's appointment was for one year only, the emperor's legate retained his post at the emperor's pleasure, and was usually given several years.

[364] Cp. ii. 98.

[365] See i. 70.

[366] See chap. 11.

[367] i.e. he hoped that Piso would accept the story with alacrity and thus commit himself.

[368] Cp. i. 7.

[369] Under Domitian he became one of the most notorious and dreaded of informers. His name doubtless recurred in the lost books of the Histories. But the only other extant mention of him by Tacitus is in the life of Agricola (chap. 45).

[370] On the coast between Carthage and Thapsus.

[371] Tripoli and Lebda.

[372] Further inland; probably the modern Fezzan.

[373] Vespasian was still at Alexandria.

[374] Cp. ii. 82, note 410.

[375] Cp. ii. 4 and Book V.

[376] It had been Vespasian's original plan to starve Rome out by holding the granaries of Egypt and Africa. See iii. 48.

[377] Cp. iii. 71.

[378] Probably from Etruria, where certain families were credited with the requisite knowledge and skill. Claudius had established a College of Soothsayers in Rome. They ranked lower than the Augurs.

[379] At Ostia.

[380] Their names would suggest prosperity and success, e.g.

Salvius, Victor, Valerius, and they would carry branches of oak, laurel, myrtle, or beech.

[381] This too was 'lucky' and a common ritualistic requirement.

[382] The 'holy water' must come from certain streams of special sanct.i.ty, such as the Tiber or its tributary, the Almo. The water would be sprinkled from the 'lucky' branches.

[383] To the G.o.d Mars.

THE LOSS OF GERMANY

Meanwhile,[384] the news of Vitellius' death had spread through 54 Gaul and Germany and redoubled the vigour of the war. Civilis now dropped all pretence and hurled himself upon the Roman Empire. The Vitellian legions felt that even foreign slavery was preferable to owning Vespasian's sovereignty. The Gauls too had taken heart. A rumour had been spread that our winter camps in Moesia and Pannonia were being blockaded by Sarmatians and Dacians:[385] similar stories were fabricated about Britain: the Gauls began to think that the fortune of the Roman arms was the same all the world over. But above all, the burning of the Capitol led them to believe that the empire was coming to an end. 'Once in old days the Gauls had captured Rome, but her empire had stood firm since Jupiter's high-place was left unscathed. But now, so the Druids[386] with superst.i.tious folly kept dinning into their ears, this fatal fire was a sign of Heaven's anger, and meant that the Transalpine tribes were destined now to rule the world.' It was also persistently rumoured that the Gallic chieftains, whom Otho had sent to work against Vitellius,[387] had agreed, before they parted, that if Rome sank under its internal troubles in an unbroken sequence of civil wars, they would not fail the cause of the Gallic freedom.