From being idle they waxed wanton, quarrelsome, and
turbulent; greedily listened to mutinous discourses; the most profligate
amongst them had most credit with them, and at last they became passionate
for a life of sloth and riot, utterly averse to all military discipline
and every fatigue of the camp. In the camp was one Percennius; formerly a
busy leader in the embroilments of the theatre, and now a common soldier;
a fellow of a petulant, declaiming tongue, and by inflaming parties in the
playhouse, well qualified to excite and infatuate a crowd. This incendiary
practised upon the ignorant and unwary, such as were solicitous what might
prove their future usage, now Augustus was dead. He engaged them in
nightly confabulations, and by little and little incited them to violence
and disorders; and towards the evening, when the soberest and best
affected were withdrawn, he assembled the worst and most turbulent. When
he had thus ripened them for sedition, and other ready incendiaries were
combined with him, he personated the character of a lawful Commander, and
thus questioned and harangued them:
"Why did they obey, like slaves, a few Centurions and a fewer Tribunes?
When would they be bold enough to demand redress of their heavy
grievances, unless they snatched the present occasion, while the Emperor
was yet new and his authority wavering, to prevail with him by petition,
or by arms to force him? They had already by the misery of many years paid
dear for their patient sloth and stupid silence, since decrepit with age
and maimed with wounds, after a course of service for thirty or forty
years, they were still doomed to carry arms: nor even to those who were
discharged was there any end of the misery of warfare; they were still
kept tied to the colours, and under the creditable title of Veterans
endured the same hardships, and underwent the same labours.
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