Meanwhile the tidings of the death of Vitellius,
spreading through
Gaul and
Germany, had caused a second war. Civilis had thrown
aside all disguise, and was now openly assailing the Roman power, while the
legions of Vitellius preferred even a foreign yoke to the rule of Vespasian.
Gaul had gathered fresh courage from the belief that
the fortunes of our armies had been everywhere disastrous; for a report
was rife that our winter
camps in
Mœsia and
Pannonia were hemmed in by the Sarmatians and Dacians.
Rumours equally false were circulated respecting
Britain. Above all, the conflagration of the Capitol had
made them believe that the end of the Roman Empire was at hand. The Gauls,
they remembered, had captured the city in former days, but, as the abode of
Jupiter was uninjured, the Empire had survived; whereas now the Druids
declared, with the prophetic utterances of an idle superstition, that this
fatal conflagration was a sign of the anger of heaven, and portended
universal empire for the Transalpine nations. A rumour had also gone forth
that the chiefs of
Gaul, whom Otho had sent against
Vitellius, had, before their departure, bound themselves by a compact not to
fail the cause of freedom, should the power of
Rome
be broken by a continuous succession of civil wars and internal
calamities.
