Soon after this, Vestricius Spurinna, on Otho’s orders, brought up a reinforcement of the Guards, leaving behind a small garrison at Placentia, and before long, Otho sent the consul-elect, Flavius Sabinus,[293] to take command of Macer’s force.  This change pleased the soldiers, but the frequent mutinies made the generals unwilling to assume such a perilous command.

In some of my authorities[294] I find a statement that either a 37 growing fear of war or dislike of the two emperors, whose discreditable misconduct grew daily more notorious, led the armies to hesitate whether they should not give up the struggle and either themselves combine to choose an emperor or refer the choice to the senate.  This, it is suggested, was the motive of Otho’s generals in advising delay, and Paulinus in particular had high hopes, since he was the senior ex-consul, and a distinguished general who had earned a brilliant reputation by his operations in Britain.  For my own part, while I am ready to admit that a few people may have tacitly wished for peace instead of civil war, or for a good and virtuous emperor instead of two who were the worst of criminals, yet I imagine that Paulinus was much too wise to hope that in a time of universal corruption the people would show such moderation.  Those who had sacrificed peace in a passion for war were not likely to stop the war from any affection for peace.  Nor was it possible that armies whose language and characteristics differed so widely should ever come to such an agreement.  As for the officers; nearly all of them were extravagant, bankrupt, and guilty of some crime:  they had not a good enough conscience to put up with any emperor who was not as vicious as themselves and under an obligation for their services.

The old ingrained human passion for power matured and burst into 38 prominence with the growth of the empire.  With straiter resources equality was easily preserved.  But when once we had brought the world to our feet and exterminated every rival state or king, we were left free to covet power without fear of interruption.  It was then that strife first broke out between patricians and plebeians:  at one time arose seditious tribunes,[295] at another tyrannous consuls:[296] in the Forum at Rome were sown the first seeds of civil war.  Before long, Marius, rising from the lowest ranks of the people, and Sulla, the most cruel of all the nobles, crushed our liberty by force of arms and substituted a despotism.  Then came Pompey, whose aims, though less patent, were no better than theirs.  From that time onwards the one end sought was supreme power in the state.  Even at Pharsalia and Philippi the citizen armies did not lay down their arms.  How then can we suppose that the troops of Otho and Vitellius would have willingly stopped the war?  The same anger of heaven, the same human passions, the same criminal motives drove them into discord.  True these wars were each settled by a single battle, but that was due to the generals’ cowardice.  However, my reflections on the ancient and the modern character have carried me too far:  I must now resume the thread of our narrative.