[235] Pacensis, however, was made a prisoner by his mutinous
troops: Novellus had no authority: Clemens' command rested on
popularity, and he was as greedy of battle as he was criminally blind
to insubordination. No one could have imagined they were in Italy, on
the soil of their native land. As though on foreign shores and among
an enemy's towns, they burnt, ravaged, plundered, with results all the
more horrible since no precautions had been taken against danger. The
fields were full, the houses open. The inhabitants came to meet them
with their wives and children, and were lured by the security of
peace into all the horrors of war. The Governor of the Maritime
Alps[236] at that time was Marius Maturus. He summoned the
inhabitants, whose fighting strength was ample, and proposed to resist
at the frontier the Othonians' invasion of the province. But at the
first engagement the mountaineers were cut down and dispersed. They
had assembled in random haste; they knew nothing of military service
or discipline, nothing of the glory of victory or the disgrace of
flight.
Enraged by this engagement, Otho's troops visited their 13
indignation on the town of Albintimilium.[237] The battle had brought
them no booty, for the peasants were poor and their armour worthless,
and being swift of foot, with a good knowledge of the country, they
had escaped capture. However, the soldiers sated their greed at the
expense of the innocent town.
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