57).
[211] Cp. chaps. 63 and 64.
THE SACK OF ROME AND THE END OF VITELLIUS
While things[212] went thus on Vitellius' side, the Flavian army 78
after leaving Narnia spent the days of the Saturnalian holiday[213]
quietly at Ocriculum.[214] The object of this disastrous delay was to
wait for Mucianus. Antonius has been suspected of delaying
treacherously after receiving a secret communication from Vitellius,
offering him as the price of treason the consulship, his young
daughter, and a rich dowry. Others hold that this story was invented
to gratify Mucianus. Many consider that the policy of all the Flavian
generals was rather to threaten the city than to attack it. They
realized that Vitellius had lost the best cohorts of his Guards, and
now that all his forces were cut off they expected he would abdicate.
But this prospect was spoilt first by Sabinus' precipitation and then
by his cowardice, for, after very rashly taking arms, he failed to
defend against three cohorts of Guards the strongly fortified castle
on the Capitol, which ought to have been impregnable even to a large
army. However, it is not easy to assign to any one man the blame which
they all share. Even Mucianus helped to delay the victors' advance by
the ambiguity of his dispatches, and Antonius was also to blame for
his untimely compliance with instructions--or else for trying to throw
the responsibility[215] on Mucianus. The other generals thought the
war was over, and thus rendered its final scene all the more
appalling.
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