Authors: Stephen Dando-Collins
Begrudgingly, Flaccus paid up, making it clear he was paying in the name of Vespasian, not Vitellius. The money was distributed to all the troops on the Rhine, and they celebrated by promptly getting drunk. One group of legionaries at Mogontiacum, inflamed by too much wine and months of discontent, went to old Flaccus’ quarters, dragged him from his bed, declared him a traitor, and plunged their swords into him. Having murdered the governor of the German provinces and commanding general on the Rhine, the troops at Mogontiacum completed their mutiny by overthrowing their officers and restoring the statues of Vitellius that Flaccus had ordered taken down.
Hearing about the revolution at Mogontiacum, Civilis quickly marched a rebel army overland, ignoring the garrisons at Novaesium, Cologne and Bonna, intent on taking Mogontiacum while its troops were in chaos. When the legionaries at Mogontiacum learned that the rebels were coming, they at first formed up in the field to do battle. But, as the rebels drew closer, the legionaries turned and ran. Some deserted their legions. The balance fled back to their fortress and closed the gates. Civilis surrounded the camp, and cut all escape routes.
When a messenger reached Vocula at Novaesium with the news that the troops at Mogontiacum had mutinied and murdered his superior Flaccus, although merely a legion commander he found himself senior Roman commander on the Rhine, with much of the region in rebel hands and Old Camp and Mogontiacum cut off.
On December 20, Vespasian’s army, under his irrepressible general Primus, fought its way into Rome, and Vitellius’ own troops murdered the emperor in his Palatium. The following day, the Senate officially proclaimed Vespasian, who was still in Egypt, the new emperor of Rome.
AD
70
XXVII. LOSING THE RHINE
Death, or desertion
On January 1, Vocula’s legionaries at Bonna and Novaesium swore a fresh oath of allegiance to Vespasian. With the civil war at an end, the new administration could focus on Civilis. Yet, far from being promptly extinguished, the flame of revolt was about to grow even larger and threaten to engulf all of Gaul.
Across Gaul, a rumor proliferated that the bases of the legions in Moesia and Pannonia were surrounded by Sarmatian and Dacian invaders. Another rumor had the legions in Britain in trouble against local tribes. And word spread that in Vitellius’ final days the sacred sanctuary of Jupiter on the Capitoline Mount had been destroyed by fire. Only the latter was true, but to many provincials this all seemed to signal that the end of the Roman Empire was at hand.
Inspired by the success of Civilis, and encouraged by these rumors, Julius Classicus, descendant of a noble Treveran family and prefect of the Treveran Horse, a unit in Vocula’s army, called a covert meeting in Cologne of representatives of four Belgic tribes. Supported by Julius Tutor, Classicus’ Treveran Horse deputy, and Tullius Valentinus, a leading noble of the Treveri, Classicus urged the tribes to rise while Rome was on her knees. The meeting broke up with messages being taken away to the other tribes of Gaul urging them to join a rising in the spring to throw off Roman control and join Civilis in creating “the Empire of Gaul.”
With the arrival of spring, Vocula marched his legions and auxiliaries out of Novaesium and headed down the Rhine to again relieve Old Camp. Leading Vocula’s advance was the cavalry under Classicus and Tutor, who, when they reached Old Camp, promptly joined Civilis. Stunned by this treachery, Vocula withdrew.
Classicus and his cavalry shadowed Vocula all the way back to Novaesium, setting up a camp 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) away. Hoping to talk sense into these auxiliaries, Vocula sent centurions and leading legionaries to their camp, where Classicus offered the emissaries massive bribes to change sides. A legionary from the 1st Germanica named Aemilius Longinus deserted then and there. Loyal centurions returning to Novaesium warned Vocula that many legionaries would seriously consider accepting Classicus’ offer and would convince others to do the same. Sensing the seditious mood in the Roman camp, Vocula’s staff urged him to slip away. Instead, the general called an assembly.
“Never, when I have addressed you,” Vocula began, looking around his assembled troops, “have I felt more anxious for your welfare, never more indifferent about my own.” He reminded them of the legions’ past glories, of the courage of the men besieged at Old Camp who had held out through the winter and could not be shaken by threats or promises. He implored his men not to use their arms against their own country. When he had finished, the men were silent. There was no applause, no cheers, no vote of support. [Ibid., 58]
As Vocula stepped down from the tribunal and walked back to his praetorium, he knew that he had failed. When he unsheathed his sword with the intent of taking his own life, his servants convinced him to put it away. A little later, Aemilius Longinus, the 1st Germanica Legion deserter, was brought to the general’s headquarters. He had a message from Julius Classicus, he said, which he must deliver in person and in private. He was ushered into the praetorium. When Vocula asked what the man had to say, Longinus drew his sword: this was Classicus’ message. Vocula was prepared for his death. Earlier, he had said, “Amid so many evils, I look forward to death as the end of my sufferings.” [Ibid.]
On learning that Vocula had been slain in his own tent, Classicus rode up to the fortress at the head of his cavalry. The gates opened, and the Novaesium legionaries of the 1st Germanica, 4th Macedonica, 16th Gallica and 18th legions all went over to the rebels, the waverers swept along with the fanatics. Legion commanders Herennius Gallus and Numisius Rufus were put in irons, and, from the camp tribunal, Classicus led the Roman troops in swearing allegiance to “the Empire of Gaul.”
Classicus soon joined Civilis at the siege line outside Old Camp, taking the most unprincipled men from the Novaesium legions with him. The rest of the legionaries were left at their camp, as Classicus’ deputy Tutor led a force to reinforce the rebels besieging Mogontiacum. When turncoat legionaries spoke with legionaries at Mogontiacum and told them that Vocula was dead and his legions had gone over to the rebels, the legionaries at Mogontiacum arrested their tribunes and joined the revolt. Tutor entered the fortress, and promptly put the arrested tribunes to death. He then made the legionaries, auxiliaries and civilian inhabitants of Mogontiacum swear allegiance to the new empire of Gaul.
From Mogontiacum, Tutor moved on to Cologne. Founded in 12
BC
by Marcus Agrippa, the city acquired colony status under Claudius in
AD
50. The last legion stationed there had been withdrawn twenty years before. The senators of Cologne signed a peace treaty with Tutor which allied them to the rebel cause and which, they hoped, saved their city. Tutor then made all at Cologne take the oath of allegiance to the Gallic Empire.
At the same time, the cohorts of the 1st Germanica Legion still ensconced at Bonna, finding themselves isolated, voluntarily went over to the rebels and swore allegiance to their cause. The 1st continued to occupy the Bonna camp, awaiting orders from Civilis. Before long, the southernmost Roman military base on the Rhine, at Vindonissa, modern Windisch, also came into rebel hands.
Roman general Lupercus and his 4,000 men at Old Camp were now Rome’s last loyal troops on the Rhine. They had exhausted their supplies once more, and after hearing they were alone in their resistance to the rebels, the men of Old Camp lost heart and sent emissaries to Civilis, seeking surrender terms. At first they would not agree to swearing off their allegiance to Rome, but as this was Civilis’ prime requirement they finally acquiesced, put Lupercus and other officers in chains, and opened the camp gates that had held Civilis at bay for a year.
As Civilis’ troops emptied Old Camp of its valuables, equipment and servants, the men of the 5th Alaudae and 15th Primigeneia legions marched out of the gates. Stripped of their weapons and armor, the weak legionaries shuffled down the road away from the camp accompanied by guards. Five miles (8 kilometers) from the camp, a mass of German tribesmen suddenly rose up from the roadside. The escort stood aside, and the Germans slaughtered the unarmed legionaries. The bravest Romans stood their ground and fought with their bare hands. Their short-lived resistance allowed 1,000 of their number to flee back to Old Camp.
At the camp, these legionaries accused Civilis of treachery, but he denied complicity and upbraided several German chieftains in front of the prisoners. The legionaries were then herded back into the plundered camp and the gates closed. Then, the camp was set alight. Anyone who tried to escape was put to the sword. So died all 4,000 men of the two legions who had resisted Civilis for so long.
Their commander, Lupercus, was kept alive, and taken across the Rhine to be delivered as a gift to Veleda, a virgin German priestess who had predicted the destruction of the legions. But the general did not reach Veleda’s tower beside the Lippe river. His bloodthirsty German guards killed him on the road. Roman tribunes and centurions born in southern Gaul were kept alive by Civilis, to be used as bargaining tools when dealing with Gallic tribes which had yet to come over to his cause. According to a later legend, Civilis had junior Roman officers trussed up then watched as his young son used them for target practice with his little bow and arrows.
Civilis had succeeded in capturing every Roman military base on the Rhine from the North Sea to modern Switzerland and either killing the men of the Roman garrisons or bringing them into his rebellion. He had fulfilled the vow he had taken the previous year; he had delivered his people from Roman domination.
AD
70
XXVIII. ROME’S RHINE RESPONSE
Cerialis’ offensive
Gallic rebel Julius Sabinus led his Lingone tribe from their home on the River Seine to attack the Sequani, a tribe living between the River Saône and the Jura Mountains. The Sequani, Rome’s allies, won decisively, and Lingone survivors fled to Civilis. Sabinus himself went into hiding. He and his entire family would later be executed by Vespasian. [Dio,
LXV
, 3; 16]
By early
AD
70, Mucianus, governor of Syria, had arrived at Rome, where he took charge on behalf of Vespasian, who was still in Egypt awaiting seasonal winds to bring him to Italy. With the war of succession concluded, Mucianus could focus on a counter-offensive on the Rhine. He selected seven legions and a number of auxiliary units then in Italy, Spain, and Britain for a campaign against Civilis, appointing two generals to lead the offensive.
Overall command went to Annius Gallus. A former consul, Gallus been one of Otho’s generals in the short war against Vitellius. Injured in a fall from his horse just prior to Otho’s death, Gallus had recovered sufficiently to accept this appointment. He would make slow, painful progress from Rome behind the legions, arriving in Germany well into the punitive campaign. The real weight of responsibility fell on the shoulders of younger, fitter Quintus Petilius Cerialis Rufus. Cerialis had married Vespasian’s cousin, so his loyalty was unquestionable. A praetor, he had considerable military experience, although his record to date was far from glittering. Ten years before, he had commanded the 9th Hispana Legion in Britain when Boudicca’s rebellion broke out, rashly losing 2,000 men to the rebels. More recently, sent with 1,000 cavalry to rescue Vespasian’s brother Sabinus from Vitellius’ clutches, Cerialis had failed to break into Rome or to prevent Sabinus from being murdered by Vitellius’ German Guard. Cerialis had much to prove as he rode from Rome to undertake his latest mission.
Tidings of this advance of Vespasian’s forces reached the delegates at a Gallic congress convened at Durocortum, today’s Reims, capital of the Remi tribe in northern France. Some saw this news as proof that Rome had inexhaustible resources. Conversely, revolutionary delegates welcomed the imminent arrival of
fresh legionary fodder for rebel blades, showing off coins minted by Civilis depicting the submission of the Rhine legions.
Many Gauls spoke at the congress, but just two carried the weight of the opposing arguments. Julius Aspex, a respected Remi leader, spoke for peace and reconciliation with Rome. Tullius Valentinus, Treveran noble and avid supporter of the rebellion, came from Augusta Treverorum (Trier) to speak on behalf of Civilis and the war party. When a vote was taken, while the pro-Gaul sentiments of Valentinus were praised, his recommended path to war was not adopted. Only those tribes which had originally risen with Civilis voted for war. Valentinus left the meeting knowing that the rebels were now on their own, that a Gallic empire uniting all the peoples of Gaul could only be achieved by force.
Camped outside the walls of Augusta Treverorum, the men of the turncoat 1st Germanica and 16th Gallica legions found that, with Valentinus away at the conference, they were under lax scrutiny and could discuss their future. All agreed they had committed a shameful act in going over to the rebels. Now, they swore allegiance to Vespasian, and at night, both units slipped away. Heading south, they were prepared to fight anyone who stood in their path.
They marched unchallenged. Civilis was occupied searching Belgium for Claudius Labeo, a Batavian who supported Rome and was stirring up trouble behind his back. Classicus was banqueting. Tutor was east of the Rhine levying more troops among German tribes. Following the Moselle river, the men of the 1st and 16th reached the safety of Divodurum (Metz), capital of the Mediomatrici tribe, which had continued to abide by its alliance with Rome all through the revolt. There, the exhausted men of the 1st and 16th legions were welcomed as friends.
When Valentinus returned to Augusta Treverorum his foul mood was exacerbated by the discovery that the two legions had gone. He took his anger out on the pair of Roman generals being kept in his city’s prison, Herennius Gallus and Numisius Rufus, immediately putting them to death. Now, Valentinus told his people, there was no turning back; there could be no pardon from Rome if the Treveri were to surrender now that two of her generals had died at their hands. The Treveri must fight on.