Page:Plutarch's Lives (Clough, v.5, 1865).djvu/505

OTHO. 497 neither of the emperors then bearmg the title having really any reputation, such purposes were really enter- tained among the genuine, serviceable, and sober-minded part of the soldiers. For what could be more odious and unreasonable than that the evils which the Eoman citi- zens had formerly thought it so lamentable to inflict upon each other for the sake of a Sylla or a Marius, a Ca3sar or a Pompey, should now be undergone anew, for the object of letting the empire pay the expenses of the gluttony and intemperance of Vitellius, or the looseness and effeminacy of Otho ? It is thought that Celsus, upon such reflections, protracted the time in order to a possi- ble accommodation ; and that Otho pushed on things to an extremity to prevent it. He himself returned to Brixillum, which was another false step, both because he withdrew from the combatants all the motives of respect and desire to gain his favor, which his presence would have supplied, and because he weakened the army by detaching some of his best and most faithful troops for his horse and foot guards. About the same time also happened a skirmish on the Po. As Caecina was laying a bridge over it, Otho's men attacked him, and tried to prevent it. And when they did not succeed, on their putting into their boats toi'ch- wood with a quantity of sulphur and pitch, the wind on the river suddenly caught their material that they had prepared against the enemy, and blew it into a light First came smoke, and then a clear flame, and the men, getting into great confusion and jumping overboard, upset the boats, and put themselves ludicrously at the mercy of their enemies. Also the Germans attacked Otho's gla- diators upon a small island in the river, routed them, and killed a good many. All which made the soldiers at Bedriacum full of anger, and eagerness to be led to battle. So Proculus led them VOL. V. 32