[279] To belong to such a family of
rebels was in itself a recommendation. He was accordingly placed on a
shield, swung up on the shoulders of his friends, and thus elected
leader after the fashion of the tribe. Summoning to his aid the
Frisii[280]--a tribe from beyond the Rhine--he fell upon two cohorts
of auxiliaries whose camp lay close to the neighbouring shore.[281]
The attack was unexpected, and the troops, even if they had foreseen
it, were not strong enough to offer resistance: so the camp was taken
and looted. They then fell on the Roman camp-followers and traders,
who had gone off in all directions as if peace were assured. Finding
the forts now threatened with destruction, the Roman officers set fire
to them, as they had no means of defence. All the troops with their
standards and colours retired in a body to the upper end of the
island, led by Aquilius, a senior centurion. But they were an army in
name only, not in strength, for Vitellius had withdrawn all the
efficient soldiers and had replaced them by a useless mob, who had
been drawn from the neighbouring Nervian and German villages and were
only embarrassed by their armour.[282]
Civilis thought it best to proceed by guile, and actually ventured 16
to blame the Roman officers for abandoning the forts. He could, he
told them, with the cohort under his command, suppress the outbreak of
the Canninefates without their assistance: they could all go back to
their winter-quarters.
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