1Meanwhile frequent letters from Otho to Vitellius, tainted with womanish flatteries, offered money and favour and whatever quiet retreat he might choose for a life of extravagance. 1Vitellius held out the same offers, at first rather mildly, with foolish and unbecoming pretence on both sides; soon, as though brawling, they taunted each other with debaucheries and scandals, neither of them falsely. 1Otho recalled the envoys whom Galba had sent, and sent others again, in the name of the senate, to both German armies, to the Italian legion and to the forces stationed at Lugdunum. 1The envoys stayed on with Vitellius, too readily to seem to have been detained; 1the praetorians whom Otho had attached to the envoys under a pretence of courtesy were sent back before they could mingle with the legions.
1Fabius Valens added letters in the name of the German army to the praetorian and city cohorts, boasting of the strength of the party and offering concord; 1he even reproached them for having turned over to Otho an empire handed to Vitellius so long before.