1Just about the first of December of the previous year Aulus Vitellius had entered Lower Germany and visited the winter quarters of the legions with care: ranks were restored to many, disgrace remitted, marks of censure lightened; 1more from a wish for popularity, some from judgement, among them his honest reversal of the meanness and avarice of Fonteius Capito in taking away or assigning military rank. 1Nor was everything taken by the measure of a consular legate, but in an exaggerated light. 1And while to strict men Vitellius seemed abject, so his supporters called it affability and kindness that he gave away his own without limit or judgement and lavished what was others'; 1at the same time, in their eagerness for an emperor, they interpreted his very vices as virtues.
1In both armies there were many men who were well behaved and quiet, and as many who were wicked and energetic. 1But of boundless ambition and remarkable rashness were the legionary legates Alienus Caecina and Fabius Valens; 1of these Valens, hostile to Galba, as though Galba had shown no gratitude for his exposure of Verginius' hesitation and his crushing of Capito's plans, kept urging Vitellius on, pointing to the soldiers' ardour: he himself was celebrated everywhere, and there would be no obstruction from Hordeonius Flaccus; 1Britain would join them, the German auxiliaries would follow: the provinces were of doubtful loyalty, the old man's power precarious and soon to pass: let him only open his arms and run to meet Fortune as she came.
1Verginius had rightly hesitated, being of an equestrian family with an unknown father, unequal to the empire had he accepted it, safe if he refused it: for Vitellius, his father's three consulships, his censorship and his partnership with Caesar had long since conferred an emperor's rank and taken away a private citizen's safety. 1His sluggish nature was shaken by these words, so that he desired rather than hoped.