The fame of this naval victory kept Corsica and Sardinia and the 16 adjacent islands faithful to Otho’s cause.  However, Decumus Pacarius, the procurator,[246] nearly ruined Corsica by an act of indiscretion, which in a war of such dimensions could not possibly have affected the issue, and only ended in his own destruction.  He hated Otho and determined to aid Vitellius with all the forces of Corsica; a useless assistance, even if it had been forthcoming.  He summoned the chief men of the island and disclosed his project.  Claudius Pyrrhicus, who commanded the Liburnian cruisers[247] stationed there, and a Roman knight named Quintius Certus ventured to oppose him.  He ordered their execution.  This overawed the others who were present.  So they swore allegiance to Vitellius, as did also the general mass of ignorant people, who blindly shared a fear they did not feel.  However, when Pacarius began to enlist them and to harass his undisciplined men with military duties, their loathing for the unwonted labour set them thinking of their weakness.  ‘They lived in an island:  Vitellius’ legions were in Germany, a long way off:  Otho’s fleet had already sacked and plundered districts that had even horse and foot to protect them.’  The revulsion was sudden, but did not issue in overt resistance.  They chose a suitable moment for their treachery.  Waiting till Pacarius’ visitors[248] were gone, they murdered him, stripped and helpless, in his bath, and killed his comrades too.  The heads they bore themselves to Otho, like enemies’ scalps.  Neither did Otho reward nor Vitellius punish them.  In the general confusion their deed was overshadowed by more heinous crimes.

We have already described[249] how ‘Silius’ Horse’ had admitted the 17 war into the heart of Italy.  No one there either supported Otho or preferred Vitellius.  But prolonged peace had broken their spirits to utter servility.  They were an easy prey to the first comer and cared little who was the better man.  All the fields and cities between the Alps and the Po, the most fertile district in Italy, were held by the Vitellian forces, the cohorts sent forward by Caecina[249] having already arrived.  One of the Pannonian cohorts had been captured at Cremona:  a hundred cavalry and a thousand marines had been cut off between Placentia and Ticinum.[250] After this success the river and its steep banks were no barrier to the Vitellian troops:  indeed the Batavians and other Germans found the Po a positive temptation.  Crossing suddenly opposite Placentia, they captured a handful of scouts and created such a panic that the others in terror spread the false report that Caecina’s whole army was upon them.