ably another
member of their party.

[253] He refers to Augustus' regularization of the principate.

[254] Fifty-nine.

[255] The administration of this office was changed several
times in the first century of the empire. Here we have a
reversion to Augustus' second plan. Trajan restored Augustus'
original plan--also adopted by Nero--of appointing special
Treasury officials from the ex-praetors.

[256] His offence lay in assigning to the emperor a merely
secondary position.

[257] His ill-timed advocacy of Stoicism is mentioned iii. 81.

[258] Described in the _Annals_, xvi. 32.

[259] The description of this is postponed to chap. 40. Celer
was convicted.

[260] C. Piso had conspired against Nero, A.D. 65.

[261] They had both abandoned their camp at Narnia (cp. iii. 61).

[262] Cp. ii. 57.

[263] i.e. he was crucified.

THE REVOLT OF CIVILIS AND THE BATAVI

The growing rumour of a reverse in Germany[264] had not as yet 12
caused any alarm in Rome. People alluded to the loss of armies, the
capture of the legions' winter quarters, the defection of the Gallic
provinces as matters of indifference. I must now go back and explain
the origin of this war, and of the widespread rebellion of foreign and
allied tribes which now broke into flame.

The Batavi were once a tribe of the Chatti,[265] living on the further
bank of the Rhine. But an outbreak of civil war had driven them across
the river, where they settled in a still unoccupied district on the
frontier of Gaul and also in the neighbouring island, enclosed on one
side by the ocean and on the other three sides by the Rhine.[266]
There they fared better than most tribes who ally themselves to a
stronger power. Their resources are still intact, and they have only
to contribute men and arms for the imperial army.[267] After a long
training in the German wars, they still further increased their
reputation in Britain, where their troops had been sent, commanded
according to an ancient custom by some of the noblest chiefs. There
still remained behind in their own country a picked troop of horsemen
with a peculiar knack of swimming, which enabled them to make a
practice[268] of crossing the Rhine with unbroken ranks without losing
control of their horses or their weapons.

Of their chieftains two outshone the rest. These were Julius