1Before the lines met, when the Vitellians turned their backs, Celsus, aware of the trick, held back his men: the Vitellians, rising recklessly from cover, followed too far as Celsus gradually gave way, and plunged headlong into an ambush themselves; 1for the cohorts were on their flanks, the front of the legions faced them, and the cavalry by a sudden movement had encircled their rear. 1The signal for battle was not given at once to the infantry by Suetonius Paulinus: a delayer by nature, and a man who preferred cautious plans grounded in reason to successes won by chance, he was ordering the ditches to be filled, the plain to be cleared and the line to be extended, thinking that victory would begin soon enough once provision had been made against defeat.
1By that delay the Vitellians were given time to take refuge in vineyards entangled with interwoven vine-branches; 1and there was a small wood close by, from which they ventured out again and killed the boldest of the praetorian cavalry. 1King Epiphanes is wounded, vigorously rousing the fight for Otho.