one of the foremost senators and a relative of Vespasian
by marriage) and by Antonius Primus--for Mucianus had not yet overtaken
them--were by this time close at hand, and Vitellius fell into the depths
of terror. The oncoming leaders through the medium of certain messengers
and by placing their letters in coffins with dead bodies, in baskets full
of fruit, or the reed traps of bird-catchers, learned all that was being
done in the city and formed their plans accordingly. Now, when they saw
the blaze rising from the Capitol as from a beacon, they made haste. The
first of the two to approach the city with his cavalry was Cerialis, [and
he was defeated at the very entrance by being cut off with horsemen in a
narrow spot. However, he prevented any harm being done by his opponents.
For Vitellius, hoping that his proved superiority would afford him an
opportunity to make terms, restrained his soldiers]. And having convened
the senate he sent envoys chosen from that body together with the vestal
virgins to Cerialis as envoys.

[Sidenote:--19--] Since no one would listen to them and they came very
near losing their lives, the emissaries visited Primus, who was also at
last approaching; from him they secured an audience, but accomplished
nothing. For at this juncture his soldiers came angrily toward him and
overcame with ease the guard at the Tiber bridge. (When the latter took
their stand upon it and disputed their passage, the horsemen forded the
stream and fell upon them from the rear). After this various bodies of men
made assaults at various points and committed some of the most atrocious
deeds. All the behavior for which they censured Vitellius and his
followers, behavior which they pretended was the cause of the war between
them, they themselves repeated, slaying great numbers. Many of those
killed were struck with pieces of tiling from the roof or cut down in
alleyways while jostled about by a throng of adversaries. Thus as many as
fifty thousand human beings were destroyed during those days of carnage.

[Sidenote:--20--] So the city was being pillaged, and the men were some
fighting, some fleeing, some actually plundering and murdering by
themselves in order that they might be taken for the invaders and so
preserve their lives. Vitellius in dread put on a ragged, dirty, little
tunic and concealed himself in an obscure alcove where dogs were kept,
intending to run off during the night to Tarracina and join his brother.
B