1But Caecina, as if he had left his savagery and licence behind beyond the Alps, advanced through Italy with an orderly column. 1The towns and colonies took his dress as a sign of arrogance, because he addressed men in togas while wearing a many-coloured cloak and trousers. 1His wife Salonina too, though she rode conspicuously on a horse decked with purple, to no one's injury, they resented as if they had been wronged, for it is the nature inborn in mortals to scrutinise the recent good fortune of others with sharp eyes, and to demand moderation in fortune from none more than from those they have seen on an equal footing with themselves.
1Caecina, having crossed the Po and tested the loyalty of the Othonians by a parley and promises, and having been approached by them in the same way, when peace and concord had been bandied about as fine-sounding and empty words, turned his plans and efforts, amid great terror, to the assault on Placentia, knowing that as the beginnings of the war turned out, so would his reputation be for the rest.