" The
officers, having tried those they believed for their purpose, and found
the majority still to persevere in their duty, did, in concurrence with
the General, settle the time for falling with the sword upon the most
notoriously guilty and turbulent. Upon a particular signal given they
rushed into their tents and butchered them, void as they were of all
apprehension; nor did any but the centurions and executioners know whence
the massacre began, or where it would end.
This had a different face from all the civil slaughters that ever
happened: it was a slaughter not of enemies upon enemies, nor from
different and opposite camps, nor in a day of battle; but of comrades upon
comrades, in the same tents where they ate together by day, where they
slept together by night. From this state of intimacy they flew into mortal
enmity, and friends launched their darts at friends: wounds, outcries, and
blood were open to view; but the cause remained hid: wild chance governed
the rest, and several innocents were slain. For the criminals, when they
found against whom all this fury was bent, had also betaken themselves to
their arms; neither did Caecina, nor any of the Tribunes, intervene to
stay the rage; so that the soldiers had full permission to vengeance, and
a licentious satiety of killing.
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