on between a Veronese village called
Hostilia[36] and the marshes of the river Tartaro. Here he was safe,
with the river in his rear and the marsh to guard his flanks. Had he
added loyalty to his other advantages, he might have employed the full
strength of the Vitellian forces to crush the enemy's two legions,
before they were reinforced by the Moesian army, or, at least, have
forced them to retire in ignominious flight and abandon Italy. But
Caecina used various pretexts for delay, and at the outset of the war
treacherously yielded all his advantages to the enemy. While it was
open to him to rout them by force of arms, he preferred to pester them
with letters and to wait until his intermediaries had settled the
terms of his treason. In the meantime, Aponius Saturninus arrived with
the Seventh Claudian legion,[37] commanded by the tribune[38]
Vipstanus Messala, a distinguished member of a famous family, and the
only man who brought any honesty to this war.[39] To these forces,
still only three legions and no match for the Vitellians, Caecina
addressed his letters. He criticized their rash attempt to sustain a
lost cause, and at the same time praised the courage of the German
army in the highest terms. His allusions to Vitellius were few and
casual, and he refrained from insulting Vespasian. In fact he used no
language calculated either to seduce or to terrorize the enemy. The
Flavian generals made no attempt to explain away their former defeat.
They proudly championed Vespasian, showing their loyalty to the cause,
their confidence in the army, and their hostile prejudice[40] against
Vitellius. To the tribunes and centurions they held out the hope of
retaining all the favours they had won from Vitellius, and they urged
Caecina himself in plain terms to desert. These letters were both
read before a meeting of the Flavian army, and served to increase
their confidence, for while Caecina wrote mildly and seemed afraid of
offending Vespasian, their own generals had answered contemptuously
and scoffed at Vitellius.

When the two other legions arrived, the Third[41] commanded by 10
Dillius Aponianus, and the Eighth by Numisius Lupus, Antonius decided
to entrench Verona and make a demonstration in force. It so happened
that the Galbian legion, who had been told off to work in the trenches
facing the enemy, catching sight of some of their allies' cavalry in
the distance, took them for the enemy, and fell into a groundle