1Alarmed messengers brought word to Fabius Valens that Otho's fleet was threatening the province of Narbonensis, which had sworn allegiance to Vitellius; 1envoys of the colonies were there, begging for help. 1He sent two cohorts of Tungri, four troops of cavalry and the whole squadron of the Treviri with Julius Classicus as its prefect; part of these was kept back in the colony of Forum Julii, so that, if all the forces were turned onto the land route, the fleet should not hasten in over an undefended sea. 1Twelve troops of cavalry and picked men from the cohorts went against the enemy, and to these were added a cohort of Ligurians, the long-standing garrison of the place, and five hundred Pannonians, not yet enrolled under the standards.
1There was no delay in joining battle; but the Othonian line was drawn up so that some of the marines, mixed with local civilians, rose up on the hills near the sea, the praetorian soldiers filled all the level ground between the hills and the shore, and on the sea itself the fleet, linked to them and ready for battle, was turned towards the land and stretched out with a threatening front: the Vitellians, who were weaker in infantry and whose strength lay in cavalry, place the Alpine troops on the nearest heights and the cohorts in close ranks behind the cavalry. 1The troops of the Treviri exposed themselves incautiously to the enemy, since the veteran soldiers received them in front, while on the flank a band of civilians too, well suited to throwing, pressed them with stones; scattered among the soldiers, brave and cowardly alike, they showed the same daring in victory.
1Terror was added to the shaken men when the fleet bore down on the rear of the fighters: so they were shut in on all sides, and all the forces would have been destroyed had not the darkness of night held back the victorious army and given cover to the fugitives.