Petilius Cerialis was sent forward with a thousand cavalry
to make his way by cross-roads through the Sabine country, and enter
the city by the Salarian road.[216] But even he failed to make
sufficient haste, and at last the news of the siege of the Capitol
brought them all at once to their senses.
Marching up the Flaminian road, it was already deep night when 79
Antonius reached 'The Red Rocks'.[217] His help had come too late.
There he heard that Sabinus had been killed, and the Capitol burnt;
the city was in panic; everything looked black; even the populace and
the slaves were arming for Vitellius. Petilius Cerialis, too, had been
defeated in a cavalry engagement. He had pushed on without caution,
thinking the enemy already beaten, and the Vitellians with a mixed
force of horse and foot had caught him unawares. The engagement had
taken place near the city among farm buildings and gardens and winding
lanes, with which the Vitellians were familiar, while the Flavians
were terrified by their ignorance. Besides, the troopers were not all
of one mind; some of them belonged to the force which had recently
surrendered at Narnia, and were waiting to see which side won. Julius
Flavianus, who commanded a regiment of cavalry, was taken prisoner.
The rest fell into a disgraceful panic and fled, but the pursuit was
not continued beyond Fidenae.
This success served to increase the popular excitement. The city 80
rabble now took arms.
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