[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 sanctity, such as the Tiber or its tributary, the
          Almo.  The water would be sprinkled from the ‘lucky’ branches.

    [383] To the god 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 superstitious 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.