1Meanwhile Vitellius, unaware of his victory, was bringing up the remaining forces of the German army as if for a war still undecided. 1A few veteran soldiers were left in the winter quarters, and levies were hurried through the Gallic provinces, so that the names of the legions left behind might be filled up. 1The guarding of the Rhine bank was entrusted to Hordeonius Flaccus; 1he himself added to his own forces eight thousand picked men from the army in Britain. 1And when he had advanced a few days' march, he learned of the success at Bedriacum and that the war had collapsed with Otho's death: calling an assembly, he heaped praise on the courage of the soldiers.
1When the army demanded that he present his freedman Asiaticus with the rank of knight, he checked the shameful flattery; 1then, through the fickleness of his character, what he had refused in public he granted in the privacy of a banquet, and honoured Asiaticus with the gold rings, a foul slave who sought advancement by wicked arts.