68). On the death of Nero, he attached himself to Galba, who
appointed him to the command of a legion in upper Germany. Having been
prosecuted for embezzling public money, Caecina went over to Vitellius, who
sent him with a large army into Italy. Caecina crossed the Alps, but was
defeated near Cremona by Suetonius Paulinus, the chief general of Otho.
Subsequently, in conjunction with Fabius Valens, Caecina defeated Otho at
the decisive battle of Bedriacum (Betriacum). The incapacity of Vitellius
tempted Vespasian to take up arms against him. Caecina, who had been
entrusted with the repression of the revolt, turned traitor, and tried to
persuade his army to go over to Vespasian, but was thrown into chains by
the soldiers. After the overthrow of Vitellius, he was released, and taken
into favour by the new emperor. But he could not remain loyal to any one.
In 79 he was implicated in a conspiracy against Vespasian, and was put to
death by order of Titus. Caecina is described by Tacitus as a man of
handsome presence and boundless ambition, a gifted orator and a great
favourite with the soldiers.

Tacitus, _Histories_, i. 53, 61, 67-70, ii. 20-25, 41-44, iii. 13; Dio
Cassius lxv. 10-14, lxvi. 16; Plutarch, _Otho_, 7; Suetonius, _Titus_, 6;
Zonaras xi. 17.

CAEDMON, the earliest English Christian poet. His story, and even his very
name, are known to us only from Baeda (_Hist. Eccl._ iv. 24). He was,
according to Baeda (see BEDE), a herdsman, who received a divine call to
poetry by means of a dream. One night, having quitted a festive company
because, from want of skill, he could not comply with the demand made of
each guest in turn to sing to the harp, he sought his bed and fell asleep.
He dreamed that there appeared to him a stranger, who addressed him by his
name, and commanded him to sing of "the beginning of created things." He
pleaded inability, but the stranger insisted, and he was compelled to obey.
He found himself uttering "verses which he had never heard." Of Caedmon's
song Baeda gives a prose paraphrase, which may be literally rendered as
follows:--"Now must we praise the author of the heavenly kingdom, the
Creator's power and counsel, the deeds of the Father of glory: how He, the
eternal God, was the author of all marvels--He, who first gave to the sons
of men the heaven for a roof, and then, Almighty Guardian of mankind,
created the earth." Baeda explains that his version represents the sense
only, not the arrang