After occupying Aquileia,[26] Antonius and Varus found a ready welcome at Opitergium and Altinum[27] and all the other towns in the neighbourhood.  At Altinum a garrison was left behind to guard their communications against the fleet at Ravenna, for the news of its desertion had not as yet arrived.  Pressing forward, they won Patavium and Ateste[28] for the party.  At the latter place they learnt that three cohorts of Vitellius’ auxiliary infantry and a regiment of cavalry, known as Sebosus’ Horse,[29] were established at Forum Alieni,[30] where they had constructed a bridge.[31] The report added that they were off their guard, so this seemed a good opportunity to attack them.  They accordingly rushed the position at dawn, and cut down many of the men without their weapons.  Orders had been given that, after a few had been killed, the rest should be terrorized into desertion.  Some surrendered at once, but the majority succeeded in destroying the bridge, and thus checked the enemy’s pursuit.  The first bout had gone in the Flavians’ favour.

When the news spread to Poetovio, the Seventh Galbian and the 7 Thirteenth Gemina hurried in high spirits to Patavium under the command of Vedius Aquila.  At Patavium they were given a few days’ rest, during which Minicius Justus, the camp-prefect of the Seventh legion, who endeavoured to enforce a standard of discipline too severe for civil war, had to be rescued from the fury of his troops and sent to Vespasian.  Antonius conceived that his party would gain in prestige, if they showed approval of Galba’s government, and stood for the revival of his cause.  So he gave orders that all the statues of Galba, which had been thrown down during the civil war, should be replaced for worship throughout the country towns.  This was a thing that had long been desired, and in their ambitious imaginations it assumed an undue importance.

The question then arose where they should choose their seat of war. 8 The best place seemed to be Verona.  The open country round it was suited for the manoeuvres of the cavalry, in which their strength lay:  and they would gain both prestige and profit by wresting from Vitellius a strongly garrisoned town.  On the road they occupied Vicetia.[32] In itself this was a very small matter, since there was only a moderate force in the town, but it gained considerable importance from the reflection that it was Caecina’s birthplace:  the enemy’s general had thus lost his native town.  But Verona was well worth while.  The inhabitants could aid the party with encouragement and funds:  the army was thrust midway between Raetia and the Julian Alps,[33] and had thus blocked all passages by that route for the German armies.