a ford; Tutor was routed.  This disaster was a crushing blow to the Treviri.  The rank and file dropped their weapons and took to the fields, while some of their chieftains, hoping it might be thought that they had been the first to lay down arms, took refuge among tribes who had never repudiated the Roman alliance.  The legions which had been moved, as we saw above,[428] from Novaesium and Bonn to Trier, now administered to themselves the oath of allegiance to Vespasian.  This happened in Valentinus’ absence.  When he arrived in furious excitement, ready to spread universal ruin and confusion, the legions withdrew into the friendly territory of the Mediomatrici.[429] Valentinus and Tutor then led the Treviri forcibly back into the field, but first they killed the two Roman officers, Herennius and Numisius.[430] By diminishing the hope of pardon they tried to cement their bond of crime.

Such was the position when Petilius Cerialis reached Mainz.  His 71 arrival roused high hopes.  He was himself thirsting for battle, and being always better at despising his enemy than at taking precautions, he fired his men by delivering a spirited harangue, promising that directly there was a chance of getting into touch with the enemy he would engage without delay.  He dismissed the Gallic recruits to their homes with a message that the legions were enough for his task:  the allies could resume their peaceful occupations, feeling assured that the war was practically ended, now that Roman troops had taken it in hand.  This action rendered the Gauls all the more tractable.  They made less difficulty about the war-tax, now that they had got their men back again, while his disdain only sharpened their sense of duty.  On the other side, when Civilis and Classicus heard of Tutor’s defeat, the destruction of the Treviri, and the universal success of the Roman arms, they fell into a panic, hastily mobilized their own scattered forces, and kept sending messages to Valentinus not to risk a decisive battle.  This only hastened Cerialis’ movements.  He sent guides to the legions stationed in the country of the Mediomatrici to lead them by the shortest route on the enemy’s rear.  Then, assembling all the troops to be found in Mainz[431] together with his own force, he marched in three days to Rigodulum.[432] Here, on a spot protected by the mountains on one side and the Moselle on the other, Valentinus had already taken his stand with a large force of Treviri.  His camp had been strengthened with trenches and stone barricades, but these fortifications had no terrors for the Roman general.  He ordered the infantry to force the position in front, while the cavalry were to ascend the hill.  Valentinus’ hurriedly assembled forces filled him with contempt, for he knew that whatever advantage their position might give them, the superior morale of his men would outweigh it.  A short delay was necessary while the cavalry climbed the hill, exposed to the enemy’s fire.  But when the fight began, the Treviri tumbled headlong down the hill like a house falling.  Some of our cavalry, who had ridden round by an easier gradient, captured several Belgic chieftains, including their general, Valentinus.