rders for it might raise a storm of
indignation. He decided to proceed by poison. The suspicion against
him he confirmed by going to see Blaesus and showing obvious
satisfaction. Moreover, he was heard to make the savage boast that he
had, to quote his own words, 'feasted his eyes on his enemy's
deathbed.'

Blaesus, besides his distinguished origin and refined character, was
steadfastly loyal. Even before the decline of Vitellius' cause he had
been canvassed by Caecina and other party leaders, who were turning
against the emperor, and had met them with a persistent refusal. He
was a man of quiet and blameless life, with no ambition for the
principate or, indeed, for any sudden distinction, but he could not
escape the danger of being considered worthy of it.

Meanwhile Fabius Valens, encumbered by a long train of harlots and 40
eunuchs, was conducting a leisurely advance, most unlike a march to
the front, when couriers arrived post-haste with the news that
Lucilius Bassus had surrendered the Ravenna fleet.[104] If he had
hurried forward on his march he might have been in time to save
Caecina's faltering loyalty, or to have joined the legions before the
critical engagement was fought. Many, indeed, advised him to avoid
Ravenna and to make his way by obscure by-roads to Hostilia or
Cremona. Others wanted him to send to Rome for the Guards and to break
through the enemy's lines with a strong force. Valens himself, with
helpless indecision, let the time for action go by while he took
advice; and then rejecting the advice he was offered, chose the middle
course, which is always the worst in a crisis, and thus failed both in
courage and in caution.

He wrote to Vitellius demanding reinforcements, and there arrived 41
three cohorts of Guards and a regiment of cavalry from Britain, too
many to slip through unobserved and too few to force a passage. But
even in such a crisis as this Valens' reputation was as unsavoury as
ever. He was still believed to use violence in the pursuit of illicit
pleasures, and to betray the confidence of his hosts by seducing their
wives and families. He had money and authority to help him, and the
feverish impatience of one whose star is on the wane. At last the
arrival of the reinforcements revealed the perversity of his strategy.
He had too few men to assume the offensive, even if they had been
unquestionably loyal, and their loyalty was under grave suspicion.
However, their sense of