The first news which gave Otho any degree of confidence was the 76 announcement from Illyricum that the legions of Dalmatia and Pannonia and Moesia[160] had sworn allegiance to him.  Similar news arrived from Spain, and Cluvius Rufus[161] was commended in a special decree, but it was found out immediately afterwards that Spain had gone over to Vitellius.  Even Aquitania soon fell away, although Julius Cordus had sworn in the province for Otho.  Loyalty and affection seemed dead:  men changed from one side to the other under the stress of fear or compulsion.  It was fear which gave Vitellius the Province of Narbonese Gaul,[162] for it is easy to go over when the big battalions are so near.  The distant provinces and the troops across the sea all remained at Otho’s disposal, but not from any enthusiasm for his cause; what weighed with them was the name of Rome and the title of the senate.  Besides, Otho had got the first hearing.  Vespasian swore in the Jewish army[163] for Otho, and Mucianus the legions in Syria;[164] Egypt too and all the provinces towards the East were held for him.  He also received the submission of Africa, where Carthage had taken the lead, without waiting for the sanction of the governor, Vipstanus Apronianus.  Crescens, one of Nero’s freedmen—­in evil days these creatures play a part in politics[165]—­had given the common people of the town a gala dinner in honour of the new emperor, with the result that the inhabitants hurried into various excesses.  The other African communities followed the example of Carthage.

The provinces and their armies being thus divided, Vitellius could 77 only win the throne by fighting.  Otho meanwhile was carrying on the government as if the time were one of profound peace.  Sometimes he consulted the country’s dignity, though more often the exigencies of the moment forced him into unseemly haste.  He held the consulship himself with his brother Titianus as colleague until the first of March.  For the next two months he appointed Verginius, as a sort of sop to the army in Germany.[166] As colleague he gave him Pompeius Vopiscus, ostensibly because he was an old friend of his own, but it was generally understood as a compliment to Vienne.[167] For the rest of the year the appointments which Nero or Galba had made were allowed to stand.  The brothers Caelius and Flavius Sabinus[168] were consuls for June and July, Arrius Antoninus[169] and Marius Celsus for August and September; even Vitellius after his victory did not cancel their appointment.  To the pontifical and augural colleges Otho either nominated old ex-magistrates, as the final crown of their career, or else, when young aristocrats returned from exile, he instated them by way of recompense in the pontifical posts which their fathers or grandfathers had held.  He restored Cadius Rufus, Pedius Blaesus, and Saevinus Proculus[170] to their seats in the senate.  They had been convicted during Claudius’ and Nero’s reigns of extortion in the provinces.  In pardoning them the name of their offence was changed, and their greed appeared as ‘treason’.  For so unpopular was the law of treason that it sapped the force of better statutes.[171]