The command was now divided between Tutor and Classicus.  Tutor at the head of a strong force besieged Cologne and forced the inhabitants and all the soldiers on the Upper Rhine to take the same oath of allegiance.  At Mainz he killed the officers and drove away the camp-prefect, who had refused to swear.  Classicus ordered all the greatest scoundrels among the deserters to go to Vetera and offer pardon to the besieged if they would yield to circumstances:  otherwise there was no hope for them:  they should suffer famine and sword and every extremity.  The messengers further cited their own example.

Torn by a conflict of loyalty and hunger, the besieged vacillated 60 between honour and disgrace.  While they hesitated, all their sources of food, both usual and unusual, began to fail them.  They had eaten their mules and horses and all the other animals which, though foul and unclean, their straits had forced into use.  At last they took to grubbing up the shrubs and roots and the grass that grew between the stones, and became a very pattern of endurance in wretchedness, until at last they soiled their glory by a shameful end.  Envoys were sent to Civilis begging him to save their lives.  Even then he refused to receive their petition until they had sworn allegiance to All Gaul.  He then negotiated for the plunder of the camp and sent guards, some to secure the money, servants and baggage, and others to conduct the men themselves out of the camp with empty hands.  About five miles down the road their line was surprised by an ambush of Germans.  The bravest fell on the spot; many were cut down in flight; the rest got back to camp.  Civilis, indeed, complained that the Germans had criminally broken faith and rebuked them for it.  There is no evidence to show whether this was a pretence or whether he was really unable to restrain his savage troops.  The camp was plundered and burnt, and all who had survived the battle were devoured by the flames.

When Civilis first took up arms against Rome he made a vow, such 61 as is common with barbarians, to let his ruddled hair[399] grow wild; now that he had at last accomplished the destruction of the legions he had it cut.  It is said also that he put up some of the prisoners for his little son to shoot in sport with javelins and arrows.  However that may be, he did not himself swear allegiance to All Gaul, nor did he force any of the Batavi to do so.  He felt that he could rely on the strength of the Germans, and that if any quarrel arose with the Gauls about the empire, his fame would give him an advantage.  Munius Lupercus, one of the Roman commanding-officers, was sent among other presents to Veleda, a virgin of the Bructeran tribe who wielded a wide-spread authority.[400] It is an ancient custom in Germany to credit a number of women with prophetic powers, and with the growth of superstition these develop into goddesses.  At this moment Veleda’s influence was at its height, for she had prophesied the success of the Germans and the destruction of the Roman army.[401] However, Lupercus was killed on the journey.  A few of the centurions and officers who had been born in Gaul were detained as a security for good faith.  The winter camps of the legions and of the auxiliary infantry and cavalry were all dismantled and burnt, with the sole exception of those at Mainz and Vindonissa.[402]