On entering Novaesium[306] they were joined by the Sixteenth legion.  Herennius Gallus[307] now shared with Vocula the responsibility of command.  As they could not venture out against the enemy, they encamped ... at a place called Gelduba,[308] where the soldiers were trained in deploying, in fortification and entrenchment, and in various other military manoeuvres.  To inspire their courage with the further incentive of plunder, Vocula led out part of the force against the neighbouring tribe of the Cugerni,[309] who had accepted Civilis’ offers of alliance.  The rest of the troops were left behind with 27 Herennius Gallus,[310] and it happened that a corn-ship with a full cargo, which had run aground close to the camp, was towed over by the Germans to their own bank.  This was more than Gallus could tolerate, so he sent a cohort to the rescue.  The number of the Germans soon increased:  both sides gradually gathered reinforcements and a regular battle was fought, with the result that the Germans towed off the ship, inflicting heavy losses.  The defeated troops followed what had now become their regular custom, and threw the blame not on their own inefficiency but on their commanding-officer’s bad faith.  They dragged him from his quarters, tore his uniform and flogged him, bidding him tell them how much he had got for betraying the army, and who were his accomplices.  Then their indignation recoiled on Hordeonius Flaccus:  he was the real criminal:  Gallus was only his tool.  At last their threats so terrified Gallus that he, too, charged Flaccus with treason.  He was put in irons until the arrival of Vocula, who at once set him free, and on the next day had the ringleaders of the riot executed.  The army showed, indeed, a strange contrast in its equal readiness to mutiny and to submit to punishment.  The common soldiers’ loyalty to Vitellius was beyond question,[311] while the higher ranks inclined towards Vespasian.  Thus we find a succession of outbreaks and penalties; an alternation of insubordination with obedience to discipline; for the troops could be punished though not controlled.

Meanwhile the whole of Germany was ready to worship Civilis, 28 sending him vast reinforcements and ratifying the alliance with hostages from their noblest families.  He gave orders that the country of the Ubii and Treviri was to be laid waste by their nearest neighbours, and sent another party across the Maas to harass the Menapii and Morini[312] and other frontier tribes of Gaul.  In both quarters they plundered freely, and were especially savage towards the Ubii, because they were a tribe of German origin who had renounced their fatherland and adopted the name of Agrippinenses.[313] A Ubian cohort was cut to pieces at the village of Marcodurum,[314] where they were off their guard, trusting to their distance from the Rhine.  The Ubii did not take this quietly, nor hesitate to seek reprisals from the Germans, which they did at first with impunity.  In the end,