Thus were the present commotions appeased; but others as great still
subsisted, from the rage and obstinacy of the fifth and twenty-first
legions. They were in winter quarters sixty miles off, in a place called
the Old Camp, [Footnote: Xanten.] and had first began the sedition: nor
was there any wickedness so horrid, that they had not perpetrated; nay, at
this time, neither terrified by the punishment, nor reclaimed by the
reformation of their fellow-soldiers, they persevered in their fury.
Germanicus therefore determined to give them battle, if they persisted in
their revolt; and prepared vessels, arms, and troops to be sent down the
Rhine.
Before the issue of the sedition in Illyricum was known at Rome, tidings
of the uproar in the German legions arrived; hence the city was filled
with much terror; and hence against Tiberius many complaints, "that while
with feigned consultations and delays he mocked the Senate and people,
once the great bodies of the estate, but now bereft of power and armies,
the soldiery were in open rebellion, one too mighty and stubborn to be
quelled by two princes so young in years and authority: he ought at first
to have gone himself, and awed them with the majesty of imperial power, as
doubtless they would have returned to duty upon the sight of their
Emperor, a Prince of consummate experience, the sovereign disposer of
rewards and severity.
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