It would have been the best policy for the army of
Vitellius to rest at
Cremona, and, with strength
recruited by food and repose, to attack and crush the next day an enemy
exhausted by cold and hunger; but now, wanting a leader, and having no
settled plan, they came into collision about nine o'clock at night with the
Flavianist troops, who
FLAVIANISTS EAGER TO
PURSUE |
stood ready, and in order of battle. Respecting the
disposition of the Vitellianist army, disordered as it was by its fury and
by the darkness, I would not venture to speak positively. Some, however,
have related, that on the right wing was the 4th legion (the Macedonian);
that the 5th and 15th, with the veterans of three British legions (the 9th,
2nd, and 20th), formed the centre, while the left wing was made up of the
1st, the 16th, and the 22nd. Men of the legions Rapax and Italica were
mingled with all the companies. The cavalry and the auxiliaries chose their
position themselves. Throughout the night the battle raged in many forms,
indecisive and fierce, destructive, first to one side, then to the other.
Courage, strength, even the eye with its keenest sight, were of no avail.
Both armies fought with the same weapons; the watch-word, continually asked,
became known; the colours were confused together, as parties of combatants
snatched them from the enemy, and hurried them in this or that direction.
The 7th legion, recently levied by Galba, was the hardest pressed. Six
centurions of the first rank were killed, and some of the standards taken;
but the eagle was saved by Atilius Verus, the centurion of the first
company, who, after making a great slaughter among the enemy, at last
fell.
