] According to the rumours quoted in chap. 46 they were
already at Aquileia, near Venice, but Suetonius, whose father
was at this time a tribune in the Thirteenth, says that they
heard of Otho's death before arriving at Aquileia.

[287] Brescello.

[288] No one knew for certain who was in command. We are told
in chap. 39 that he left Titianus in nominal command, though
the real authority lay with Proculus.

[289] Macer's, see chap. 23.

[290] See note 247.

[291] i.e. of Macer's gladiators on one bank and the
detachment employed by Caecina for bridge-building, &c., on
the other. The main armies were Otho's at Bedriacum and
Vitellius' at Cremona.

[292] i.e. from the Germans who were trying to board or sink them.

[293] See i. 77.

[294] Plutarch, in his Life of Otho, after quoting the view of
the emperor's secretary, Secundus, that Otho was over-strained
and desperate, goes on to give the explanation of 'others'.
This agrees exactly with the story given here. Plutarch and
Tacitus are apparently quoting from the same authority,
unknown to us, perhaps Cluvius Rufus.

[295] e.g. the brothers Gracchus, Saturninus, and Drusus.

[296] e.g. Appius Claudius and L. Opimius, of whom Plutarch
says that in suppressing C. Gracchus he used his consular
authority like that of a dictator.

[297] At Brixellum.

[298] About seven miles below Cremona. The Medicean MS. has
Adua, but as the mouth of the Adua is seven miles west of
Cremona and Bedriacum twenty-two miles east of Cremona, the
figures given do not suit. For Tacitus says that they marched
first four miles and then sixteen. Mr. Henderson proposes to
solve the difficulty by reading _quartum decimum_ for
_quartum_ in chap. 39. But his reasons are purely _a priori_.
If the confluence was that of the _Arda_ with the Po, Tacitus'
_quartum_ is still unsatisfactory, but the distances given in
Plutarch's Life of Otho would suit the facts. He makes the
first march a little over six miles. From the camp then
pitched to the mouth of the Arda would be by road about
sixteen miles. Thus Tacitus' first figure may be a slight
underestimate and his second figu