[86] But when the crowd parted, and Caecina
advanced in his consular robes, attended by his lictors in full state,
their indignation broke into flame. They charged him with insolence
and cruelty, and--so hateful is crime--they even flung his treachery
in his teeth.[87] Antonius restrained them and sent Caecina under
escort to Vespasian.
Meanwhile the citizens of Cremona suffered sorely from the 32
violence of the troops, and only the entreaties of their generals
could withhold them from a general massacre. Antonius summoned a mass
meeting and delivered a eulogy upon his victorious army, promising
mercy to the vanquished and speaking of Cremona in ambiguous terms.
Besides their natural passion for plunder, there was an old grudge
which urged them to sack Cremona. The town was believed to have given
assistance to the Vitellian cause before this in the war with
Otho;[88] and again, when the Thirteenth had been left behind to
build an amphitheatre,[89] the populace had shown its town-bred
impertinence by assailing them with insolent ridicule. Other causes
increased this bad feeling: it was here that Caecina had given his
show of gladiators:[89] the town had become for a second time the
theatre of the war: the citizens had conveyed food to the Vitellians
during the battle: some women had been killed, whose enthusiasm for
the cause had led them to take part in the fight. Besides all this,
the Fair had filled the rich city with an even greater display of
wealth than usual.
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