1The next day Vitellius, having heard the embassy of the senate, which he had ordered to wait for him there, crossed into the camp and went so far as to praise the soldiers' loyalty, while the auxiliaries muttered that so much impunity and arrogance had been granted to the legionaries. 1The cohorts of Batavians were sent back to Germany, lest they venture on something more savage, as the fates were preparing the beginning of a war at once civil and foreign. 1The Gallic auxiliaries were returned to their communities, a huge number, taken on right at the start of the revolt as part of the empty show of war. 1Further, so that the resources of the empire, already strained by largesse, might suffice, he orders the numbers of the legions and auxiliaries to be cut, with fresh recruitment forbidden; 1and discharges were offered indiscriminately.
1This was ruinous to the state and unwelcome to the soldier, on whom, shared among fewer men, the same duties and dangers and toil came round more often: and their strength was being corrupted by luxury, contrary to the old discipline and the institutions of our ancestors, under whom the Roman state stood more firmly on courage than on money.