orders that the Batavians should be drafted into his army, while the legion was to be marched over the Graian Alps[374] by a detour which would avoid Vienne.[375] Its inhabitants were another cause for alarm.[376] On the night on which the legion started they left fires burning all over Turin, and part of the town was burnt down.  This disaster, like so many others in the civil war, has been obliterated by the greater calamities which befell other cities.  No sooner were the Fourteenth across the Alps than the most mutinous spirits started off to march for Vienne, but they were stopped by the unanimous interference of the better men, and the legion was shipped across to Britain.

Vitellius’ next cause of anxiety was the Guards.  At first they 67 were quartered apart, and then, appeased by an honourable discharge,[377] they gave up their arms to their officers.  But when the news went round of the war with Vespasian, they enlisted again and formed the main strength of the Flavian party.

The First legion of marines was sent to Spain to cultivate docility in peace and quiet.  The Eleventh and the Seventh were sent back to their winter quarters.[378] The Thirteenth were set to work to build amphitheatres.  For Caecina at Cremona and Valens at Bononia were each preparing to give a gladiatorial show.  Vitellius never let his anxieties interfere with his pleasures.

The losing party being thus dispersed by peaceful means, disorder 68 broke out in the victorious camp.  It originated in sport, but the number of deaths increased the feeling against Vitellius.  He had invited Verginius to dine with him at Ticinum, and they had just sat down to table.  The conduct of officers is always determined by the behaviour of their generals; it depends on that whether they adopt the simple life or indulge their taste for riotous living;[379] this again determines whether the troops are smart or disorderly.  In Vitellius’ army disorder and drunkenness were universal:  it was more like a midnight orgy[380] than a properly disciplined camp.  So it happened that two of the soldiers, one belonging to the Fifth legion, the other to the Gallic auxiliaries, in a drunken frolic challenged each other to wrestle.  The legionary fell; and when the Gaul began to exult over him, the soldiers who had gathered round took sides, and the legionaries, breaking out against the auxiliaries with murderous intent, actually cut to pieces a couple of cohorts.  This commotion was only cured by another.  A cloud of dust and the glitter of arms appeared on the horizon.  Suddenly a cry arose that the Fourteenth had turned back and were marching on them.  However, it was their own rear-guard bringing up the stragglers.  This discovery quieted their alarm.  Meanwhile, coming across one of Verginius’ slaves, they charged him with intending to assassinate Vitellius, and rushed off to the banquet clamouring for Verginius’ head.  No one really doubted his innocence, not even Vitellius, who always quailed at a breath of suspicion.  Yet, though it was the death of an ex-consul, their own former general, which they demanded, it was with difficulty that they were quieted.  No one was a target for these outbreaks so often as Verginius.  He still retained the admiration and esteem of the men, but they hated him for disdaining their offer.[381]