The
German provinces immediately sent envoys with offers of help, while
Civilis endeavoured by diplomacy and by bribery to secure an alliance
with the Gauls. He sent back the auxiliary officers whom he had taken
prisoner, each to his own tribe, and offered the cohorts the choice of
either going home or remaining with him. Those who remained were given
an honourable position in his army: and those who went home received
presents out of the Roman spoil. At the same time Civilis talked to
them confidentially and reminded them of the miseries they had endured
for all these years, in which they had disguised their wretched
slavery under the name of peace. 'The Batavi,' he would say, 'were
excused from taxation, and yet they have taken arms against the common
tyrant. In the first engagement the Romans were routed and beaten.
What if Gaul throws off the yoke? What forces are there left in Italy?
It is with the blood of provincials that their provinces are won.
Don't think of the defeat of Vindex. Why, it was the Batavian cavalry
which trampled on the Aedui and Arverni,[285] and there were Belgic
auxiliaries in Verginius' force. The truth is that Gaul succumbed to
her own armies. But now we are all united in one party, fortified,
moreover, by the military discipline which prevails in Roman camps:
and we have on our side the veterans before whom Otho's legions lately
bit the dust. Let Syria and Asia play the slave: the East is used to
tyrants: but there are many still living in Gaul who were born before
the days of tribute.
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