1There was a remarkable contrast between the army and its emperor: the soldiers pressed, demanded arms, while the Gauls were in panic, while the Spains were hesitating: neither winter nor the delays of a cowardly peace stood in their way: Italy must be invaded, the city seized; 1nothing was safer in civil strife than speed, where action was needed more than deliberation. 1Vitellius was torpid, and enjoyed the fortune of the principate in advance with idle luxury and lavish banquets, drunk at midday and heavy with gorging, while all the same the ardour and vigour of the soldiers of their own accord fulfilled the duties of a general, as though the emperor were present and adding hope or fear to the energetic or the slack.
1Drawn up and eager, they demand the signal to set out. 1The name Germanicus was given to Vitellius at once: he forbade himself to be called Caesar even when victorious. 1A happy omen came to Fabius Valens and the army he was leading to war: on the very day of departure an eagle flew ahead with gentle motion, keeping pace as the column advanced, as though guiding the way, and for a long distance such was the shouting of the rejoicing soldiers, such the calm of the unafraid bird, that it was taken as an undoubted omen of a great and successful enterprise.