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Browsing named entities in Cornelius Tacitus, The History (ed. Alfred John Church, William Jackson Brodribb). You can also browse the collection for France (France) or search for France (France) in all documents.
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Cornelius Tacitus, The History (ed. Alfred John Church, William Jackson Brodribb), BOOK
I, chapter 2 (search)
I am entering on the history of a period rich in disasters, frightened in its wars, torn by civil strife, and even in peace full of horrors. Four emperors perished by the sword. There were three civil wars; there were more with foreign
enemies; there were often wars that had both characters at once. There was
success in the East, and disaster in the West. There were disturbances in
Illyricum; Gaul wavered in
its allegiance; Britain was thoroughly subdued and
immediately abandoned; the tribes of the Suevi and the Sarmatæ rose in
concert against us; the Dacians had the glory of inflicting as well as
suffering defeat; the armies of Parthia were all but
set in motion by the cheat of a counterfeit Nero. Now too Italy was prostrated by disasters either entirely novel,
or that recurred only after a long succession of ages; cities in Campania's
richest plains were swallowed up and overwhelmed; Rome was wasted by conflagrations, its oldest temples
consumed, and the Capitol itself
Cornelius Tacitus, The History (ed. Alfred John Church, William Jackson Brodribb), BOOK
I, chapter 8 (search)
Such, as far as one can speak of so vast a multitude, was the state of
feeling at Rome. Among the provinces, Spain was under the government of Cluvius Rufus, an
eloquent man, who had all the accomplishments of civil life, but who was
without experience in war. Gaul, besides remembering
Vindex, was bound to Galba by the recently conceded privileges of
citizenship, and by the diminution of its future tribute. Those Gallic
states, however, which were nearest to the armies of Germany, had not been treated with the same respect, and
had even in some cases been deprived of their territory; and these were
reckoning the gains of others and their own losses with equal indignation.
The armies of Germany were at once alarmed and
angry, a most dangerous temper when allied with such strength; while elated
by their recent victory, they feared because they might seem to have
supported an unsuccessful party. They had been slow to re-
volt
from Nero, and Verginius had not immediately dec
Cornelius Tacitus, The History (ed. Alfred John Church, William Jackson Brodribb), BOOK
I, chapter 51 (search)
Cornelius Tacitus, The History (ed. Alfred John Church, William Jackson Brodribb), BOOK
I, chapter 61 (search)
After the army of
Britain had joined him, Vitellius, who had now a
prodigious force and vast resources, determined that there should be two
generals and two lines of march for the contemplated war. Fabius Valens was
ordered to win over, if possible, or, if they refused his overtures, to
ravage the provinces of Gaul and to invade Italy by way of the Cottian
Alps; Cæcina to take the nearer route, and to march down from
the
Penine range. To Valens were entrusted the picked troops of the army of
Lower Germany with the eagle of the 5th legion and
the auxiliary infantry and cavalry, to the number of 40,000 armed men;
Cæcina commanded 30,000 from Upper Germany,
the strength of his force being one legion, the 21st. Both had also some
German auxiliaries, and from this source Vitellius, who was to follow with
his whole military strength, completed his own force
Cornelius Tacitus, The History (ed. Alfred John Church, William Jackson Brodribb), BOOK
I, chapter 62 (search)
Wonderful was the contrast between the army and the
Emperor. The army was all eagerness; they cried out war, while Gaul yet wavered, and Spain
hesitated. "The winter," they said, "the delays of a cowardly inaction must
not stop us. We must invade Italy, we must seize the
capital; in civil strife, where action is more needed than deliberation,
nothing is safer than haste." Vitellius, on the contrary, was sunk in sloth,
and anticipated the enjoyment of supreme power in indolent luxury and
prodigal festivities. By mid-day he was half-intoxicated, and heavy with
food; yet the ardour and vigour of the soldiers themselves dis-
PLANS TO INVADE ITALY
charged all the duties of a general as well
as if the Emperor had been present to stimulate the energetic by hope and
the indolent by fear. Ready to march and eager for action, they loudly
demanded the signal for starting; the title of Germanicus was at once
bestowed on Vitellius, that of Cæsar he refused to accept, even after
his vi
Cornelius Tacitus, The History (ed. Alfred John Church, William Jackson Brodribb), BOOK
I, chapter 63 (search)
The territory of the
Treveri they entered with all the security naturally felt among allies. But
at Divodurum, a town of the Mediomatrici, though
they had been received with the most courteous hospitality, a sudden panic
mastered them. In a moment they took up arms to massacre an innocent people,
not for the sake of plunder, or fired by the lust of spoil, but in a wild
frenzy arising from causes so vague that it was very difficult to apply a
remedy. Soothed at length by the entreaties of their general, they refrained
from utterly destroying the town; yet as many as four thousand human beings
were slaughtered. Such an alarm was spread through Gaul, that as the army advanced, whole states, headed by
their magistrates and with prayers on their lips, came forth to meet it,
while the women and children lay prostrate along the roads, and all else
that might appease an enemy's fury was offered, though war there was none,
to secure the boon of peace.
Cornelius Tacitus, The History (ed. Alfred John Church, William Jackson Brodribb), BOOK
I, chapter 64 (search)
Valens
received the tidings of the murder of Galba and the accession of Otho while
he was in the country of the Leuci. The feelings of the soldiers were not
seriously affected either with joy or alarm; they were intent on war. Gaul however ceased to hesitate; Otho and Vitellius it
hated equally, Vitellius it also feared. The next territory was that of the
Lingones, who were loyal to Vitellius. The troops were kindly received, and
they vied with each other in good behaviour. This happy state of things,
however, was of short
duration owing to the violence of the
auxiliary infantry, which had detached itself, as before related, from the
14th legion, and had been incorporated by Valens with his army. First came
angry words, then a brawl between the Batavi and the legionaries, which as
the partialities of the soldiers espoused one or another of the parties was
almost kindled into a battle, and would have been so, had not Valens by
punishing a few, reminded the Batavi of the au
Cornelius Tacitus, The History (ed. Alfred John Church, William Jackson Brodribb), BOOK
I, chapter 65 (search)
Cornelius Tacitus, The History (ed. Alfred John Church, William Jackson Brodribb), BOOK
I, chapter 70 (search)
Cornelius Tacitus, The History (ed. Alfred John Church, William Jackson Brodribb), BOOK
II, chapter 62 (search)
No further severities were exercised on the persons
of the opposite faction, or with property in any case; the wills of those
who had fallen fighting for Otho were held to be valid, and with those who
died intestate, the law was carried out. Assuredly, could Vitellius have
bridled his luxurious tastes, no one need have dreaded his rapacity. He had
a scandalous and insatiable passion for feasts; the provocatives of gluttony
were conveyed to him from the capital and from Italy, till the roads from both seas resounded with
traffic; the leading men of the various states were ruined by having to
furnish his entertainments, and the states themselves reduced to beggary;
the soldiers fast degenerated from their old activity and valour, through
habitual indulgence and contempt of their leader. He sent on before him
EXCESSES OF VITELLIUS
to the capital an edict,
by which he postponed his acceptance of the title of Augustus and refused
that of Cæsar, though he relinquished nothing o