1The nearest winter quarters were those of the First Legion, and the readiest of the legates was Fabius Valens. 1On the following day he entered the Colony of Agrippina with the cavalry of the legion and of the auxiliaries and hailed Vitellius as emperor. 1The legions of the same province followed with enormous rivalry; 1and the upper army, abandoning the fine-sounding names of the senate and the Roman people, went over to Vitellius on the third of January: you could tell that for the previous two days it had not been in the republic's hands. 1The people of Agrippina, the Treviri and the Lingones matched the ardour of the armies, offering auxiliaries, horses, arms and money, according as each was strong in body, wealth or talent.
1Nor was it only the leading men of the colonies or the camps, who had abundant present wealth and great hopes from victory once won, but the companies too and the common soldiers handed over their travelling money and their belts and medallions, the silver ornaments of their armour, in place of money, from impulse, enthusiasm and greed.