d of his coming to the throne. Mucianus gave orders that he
should be arrested by a body of soldiers, and to avoid a conspicuous
execution in the heart of the city, they marched him forty miles along
the Appian road, where they severed his veins and let him bleed to
death. Julius Priscus, who had commanded the Guards under Vitellius,
committed suicide, more from shame than of necessity. Alfenus Varus
survived the disgrace of his cowardice.[261] Asiaticus,[262] who was a
freedman, paid for his malign influence by dying the death of a
slave.[263]

FOOTNOTES:

[228] Because they were taken for members of Vitellius' German
auxiliary cohorts.

[229] Cp. iii. 86 sub fin.

[230] Cp. iii. 6.

[231] See iii. 76.

[232] These three towns are all on the Appian Way, Bovillae
ten miles from Rome, Aricia sixteen, Tarracina fifty-nine, on
the coast.

[233] Cp. iii. 12.

[234] Gallica.

[235] Capua had adhered to Vitellius. Tarracina had been held
for Vespasian (cp. iii. 57).

[236] See iii. 77.

[237] The insignia of equestrian rank (cp. i. 13).

[238] The chief of these were the powers of tribune,
pro-consul, and censor, and the title of Augustus (cp. i. 47,
ii. 55).

[239] Vindex had risen in Gaul; Galba in Spain; Vitellius in
Germany; Antonius Primus in the Danube provinces (Illyricum);
Vespasian and Mucianus in Judaea, Syria, and Egypt.

[240] This was necessary in the absence of Vespasian and Titus.

[241] See vol. i, note 339.

[242] A triumph could, of course, be held only for victories
over a foreign enemy. Here the pretext was the repulse of the
Dacians (iii. 46).

[243] Vitellius' son-in-law (cp. i. 59).

[244] In the text some words seem to be missing here, but the
general sense is clear.

[245] Cp. ii. 91.

[246] If Tacitus ever told the story of his banishment and
death, his version has been lost with the rest of his history
of Vespasian's reign.

[247] In Samnium.

[248] i.e. shirking the duties of public life.

[249] i.e. the Stoic.

[250] See ii. 91.

[251] Cp. ii. 53.

[252] Soranus, like Thrasea, was a Stoic who opposed the
government mainly on moral grounds. The story of their end is
told in the _Annals_, Book XVI. Sentius was presum