The History of Rome: Rise and Fall of the Empire. John Bagnell Bury
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false promises. But he reassured them of his good faith in some measure by reading copies of the letters which he had sent to Gaul, Britain, and Spain for assistance. Auxiliary troops from Gaul were already arriving, and the army advanced by Colonia to Novaesium, where they picked up the XVIth legion, and proceeded to Gelduba (Gelb), a little lower down the river. Here the leaders Vocula and Gallus, to whom the conduct of the warfare was entrusted, made a camp and practiced the soldiers in the operations of war. Apparently the demoralization of the troops was such that the officers did not feel prepared to risk an action at Vetera, until the discipline was confirmed. The temper of the soldiers is shown by an incident at Gelduba. A corn-ship had ran into the shallows of the river, and Germans on the light bank were trying to capture it. Gallus sent a cohort to prevent them, but the Romans were defeated. The soldiers accused their officer of treachery, dragged him out of his tent, beat him, and kept him bound until the arrival of Vocula, who was absent on an excursion against the Cugerni, a tribe which dwelled north of the Ubii. Vocula executed the ringleaders.
Civilis did not confine his operations to Vetera. He sent troops beyond the river Mosa, to stir up the Menapii, Morini, and other tribes of north-eastern Gaul. Another band ravaged the lands of the Treveri and Ubii. The Ubii were made the mark of special hatred, because under their new name ofAgrippinenses they seemed to have renounced their German origin; and their cohorts were defeated at Marcodurum (Düren). A third band threatened Moguntiacum. Such was the fate of affairs at the end of October (69 A.D.) when the news of the great defeat of Vitellius at Cremona arrived. The Gallic auxiliaries immediately declared for Vespasian; at Novaesium and Gelduba the legions took the military oath to the new Emperor, but without enthusiasm.
It was now necessary for Civilis to declare himself, and show whether the sole object of his revolt was the elevation of Vespasian. His mask could no longer deceive anyone; it was clear that the deliverance of the Germans of Northern Gaul from the Roman yoke was the aim of the war. He sent a force, including the light veteran Batavian cohorts, against the army at Gelduba. In their rapid march from Vetera they seized Asciburgium (Asberg), and swooped down upon the Roman camp so suddenly that Vocula had no time to spread out his line. He paced the legions in the centre, and the auxiliaries surrounded them in irregular order. The battle almost proved a defeat for the Romans. The cavalry advanced, but turned and fled before the firm an ay of the Germans, and brought confusion into the rank of the cohorts, who were then easily cut down by the foe. The auxiliary Nervii deserted, and the legions were being discomfited, when the tide of battle was turned by an unexpected reinforcement. Cohorts of the Vascones of the Pyrenees— supposed to be the forefathers of the Basques— enrolled by Galba, when he was governor of Tarraconensis, happened to arrive at this moment, and attacked the enemy in the rear. The Germans, believing that forces had arrived from Novaesium or Moguntiacum, were disconcerted and utterly routed. After this victory Vocula at length advanced to the relief of Vetera, which was suffering severely from want of supplies, and succeeded in entering the place after a hard fight with the besiegers. The beasts of burden and the camp-followers were sent to Novaesium, to bring provisions by land, as the enemy commanded the river. The first supply was conveyed safely, but on the second occasion Civilis attacked the cohorts which escorted the train of wagons, and compelled them to retreat to Gelduba. Vocula, having added to his own army a thousand chosen men of the legions of Vetera, marched to Gelduba, and, as the cohorts refused to return to Vetera, proceeded to Novaesium, the headquarters of Flaccus.
Here a mutiny broke out. A donative for the soldiers had arrived from Vitellius, and Flaccus distributed it in the name of Vespasian. The soldiers, excited by the carouses which followed, revived their anger against Flaccus, dragged him out of his tent and slew him. Vocula would have experienced the same fate had he not escaped from the camp in disguise. The army proclaimed Vitellius Emperor, although he was already dead (these events seem to have taken place in the last days of December). But the legions of Upper Germany soon dissociated their cause from that of the others. Along with legion I., they placed themselves under the command of Vocula, renewed their allegiance to Vespasian, and marched up the Rhine to deliver Moguntiacum, which was threatened by the Chatti, the Usipi, and the Mattiaci. But on their arrival the enemy was already departing. Vocula remained during the rest of the winter at Moguntiacum. Civilis renewed the blockade of Vetera, and occupied the camp of Gelduba, which the Romans had abandoned.
SECT. II. — SECOND STAGE OF THE REVOLT — THE IMPERIUM GALLIARUM
On the news of the death of Vitellius, the mask of Civilis was finally thrown off, and he acknowledged that he was fighting against the Roman people. The destruction of the Capitol by fire produced a profound impression upon the superstitious minds of the Gauls, who believed that it betokened the approaching end of the Roman Empire. The remnant of the Druids interpreted it as a sign of heavenly wrath, and prophesied that the nations north of the Alps were soon to become the lords of the world. A conspiracy had been organized by Julius Classicus, a distinguished nobleman of the Treveri, and prefect of a squadron of cavalry which had fought under Valens against Otho. He renewed the design of forming a Gallic kingdom, which had been tried in vain by Sacrovir, and perhaps contemplated more recently by Vindex. His chief associates were his countryman Julius Tutor, and Julius Sabinus, a Lingon, who pretended to be descended from a bastard of Julius Caesar. The conspirators met in Colonia, and maintained secret communications with Civilis. Their first object was to get rid of Vocula, and they accomplished it by a similar deceit to that which Arminius practiced on Varus. They induced Vocula to leave Moguntiacum, and descend the Rhine to relieve Vetera, which was hard pressed. On the march from Novaesium to Vetera, the troops of Classicus and Tutor rode forward on the pretext of reconnoitering, and entrenched themselves at a distance. Vocula was unable to persuade them to return, and could not enforce obedience. He was compelled to fall back on Novaesium : the Gauls encamped at a distance of two miles. Vetera could not hold out much longer, and when it fell, the whole army of the Germans would be free to attack Novaesium. Under these circumstances, the legions determined to desert the cause of Rome and declare for the imperium Galliarum, which was being proclaimed by Classicus. Vocula appealed in vain to their better feelings, and when he found they were determined to join the standards of Classicus and Civilis, he decided that nothing was left for himself but to die. Before he had time to make arrangements for a voluntary death, he was slain by an emissary of Classicus—a legionary soldier who had deserted. The other legati, Gallus and Numisius, were thrown in chains.
Then Classicus, assuming the insignia of a Roman Emperor, entered the camp of Novaesium. Bold though he was, he found no words to express or defend his assumption of such a dignity; he merely read out the oath of allegiance. The Roman soldiers swore fidelity to the “Empire of the Gauls”. The dream of Sacrovir and Vindex was at last accomplished, if only for a moment. Classicus and Tutor divided between them the work of reducing the two Rhine provinces under the new empire which was thus inaugurated. Tutor undertook to secure the adhesion of the IVth and XXIInd legions at Moguntiacum. The officers were slain and the soldiers took the same oath as their comrades at Novaesium. Classicus himself proceeded to Vetera, where the wretched garrison, reduced to the last extremities of hunger, were supporting life on the herbs that grew among the stones. They sent envoys to the Batavian chief, asking to be permitted to leave the place alive, and their prayers were granted when they took the oath of loyalty to the new empire. But five miles from Vetera they were treacherously attacked by the escort of Germans whom Civilis had ordered to accompany them, and many were slain. Vetera was dismantled and burned, and in like manner all the other winter stations of the legions, including Bonna and Novaesium, were destroyed except Moguntiacum and Vindonissa. The latter place was at such a distance that it was quite unaffected by the rebellion. The XVIth legion and the auxiliaries which had surrendered at Novaesium and the Ist legion from Bonna were commanded to repair to Augusta Treverorum—which Classicus and Tutor doubtless intended to make the capital of the new empire—within a given time. On their march thither they had to endure the mocking of the inhabitants through whose country they passed, and one squadron of cavalry, the ala Picentina, unable to endure the shame of the position, left the procession, and went to Moguntiacum. On their way they fell in with the murderer of Vocula, and dealt with him as he deserved.
Munius Lupercus, who had commanded the garrison of Vetera during the long blockade, was sent among other gifts to Veleda, a German prophetess who played a part in this rebellion, and exercised