Meanwhile there was an outbreak
among the Chauci, begun by some veterans of the mutinous legions on garrison
duty. They were quelled for a time by the instant execution of two soldiers.
Such was the order of Mennius,
the camp-prefect, more as a salutary warning than as a
legal act. Then, when the commotion increased, he fled and having been
discovered, as his hiding place was now unsafe, he borrowed a resource from
audacity. "It was not," he told them, "the camp-prefect, it was Germanicus,
their general, it was Tiberius, their emperor, whom they were insulting." At
the same moment, overawing all resistance, he seized the standard, faced
round towards the river-bank, and exclaiming that whoever left the ranks, he
would hold as a deserter, he led them back into their winter-quarters,
disaffected indeed, but cowed.