1Indeed he had broken up the defeated party with moderation: among the victors a mutiny broke out, from a beginning that would have been laughable had not the number of the slain increased the odium against Vitellius. 1Vitellius had taken his place at dinner at Ticinum, with Verginius invited to the banquet. 1Legates and tribunes follow the habits of their commanders, either emulating their strictness or delighting in banquets begun before the proper hour; 1accordingly the soldier is either alert or behaves without restraint. 1In Vitellius' quarters everything was disorderly and drunken, closer to all-night revels and Bacchanalian orgies than to discipline and a camp. 1So when two soldiers, one of the Fifth Legion, the other from the Gallic auxiliaries, had been provoked in horseplay into a wrestling match, and after the legionary had fallen, with the Gaul jeering and those who had gathered to watch split into partisan factions, the legionaries burst out to destroy the auxiliaries, and two cohorts were slaughtered.
1The cure for one uproar was another uproar. 1Dust and arms were seen in the distance: suddenly the shout went up that the Fourteenth Legion had turned back from its march and was coming to do battle; 1but they were the rearguard of the column: once they were recognised, they removed the anxiety. 1Meanwhile a slave of Verginius, who happened to cross their path, is accused of being Vitellius' assassin: and the soldiers began rushing to the banquet, demanding the death of Verginius. 1Not even Vitellius, though fearful at every suspicion, doubted his innocence: yet those who were demanding the destruction of a consular, once their own general, were restrained only with difficulty.
1Nor was anyone assailed more often than Verginius by every mutiny: admiration for the man and his reputation endured, but they hated him as men who had been spurned.