general’s advice.  He ordered the Thirteenth legion to take up their position on the raised Postumian high-road.  In touch with them on the left wing in the open country were the Seventh Galbian, beside whom stood the Seventh Claudian, so placed that their front was protected by a ditch.  On the right wing were the Eighth, drawn up along an open cross-road, and next to them the Third, distributed among some thick clumps of trees.  Such, at any rate, was the order of the eagles and standards.  In the darkness the soldiers were confused and took their places at random.  The band of Guards[60] was next to the Third, and the auxiliaries on the wings, while the cavalry were disposed in support round the flanks and the rear.  Sido and Italicus with their picked band of Suebi[61] fought in the front line.

For the Vitellians the right course was to rest at Cremona and 22 recuperate their strength with food and a night’s rest, and then on the next day to crush and rout the Flavians when they were stiff with cold and weak from hunger.  But they had no general;[62] they had no plan.  Though it was nearly nine at night they flung themselves upon the Flavians, who were standing steady in their places to receive them.  In their fury and the darkness the Vitellian line was so disordered that one can hardly venture to describe the disposition of their troops.  However, it has been stated that the Fourth Macedonian legion were on the right flank; in the centre were the Fifth and Fifteenth with the detachments of the Ninth, the Second and the Twentieth from Britain; the Sixteenth, the Twenty-second, and the First formed the left wing.  The men of the Rapax and Italian legions[63] were distributed among all the companies.[64] The cavalry and auxiliaries picked their own position.  All night the battle raged with varying fortune, never decided, always savagely contested.  Disaster threatened now one side, now the other.  Courage, strength were of little use:  their eyes could not even see in front of them.  Both sides were armed alike; the watchwords, constantly demanded, soon became known; the standards were all in confusion, as they were captured and carried off from one band to another.  The Seventh legion, raised recently by Galba, suffered most severely.  Six of the senior centurions fell and several standards were lost.  They nearly lost their eagle too, but it was rescued by the bravery of the senior centurion, named Atilius Verus, who after great slaughter of the enemy fell finally himself.

Antonius had meanwhile called up the Guards to reinforce his 23 wavering line.  Taking up the fight, they repulsed the enemy, only to be repulsed in their turn.  For the Vitellian artillery, which had at first been scattered all along the line, and had been discharged upon the bushes without hurting the enemy, was now massed upon the high-road, and swept the open space in front.  One immense engine in particular, which belonged to the Fifteenth, mowed