troubled him still more, and he quietly sent his brother to Tarracina, a
strong city, which the latter occupied. But when the generals of Vespasian
approached Rome he became alarmed and took his departure. He did nothing
and formed no plan, but in a state of terror was carried back and forth on
the billows of chance. One moment he was for clinging to the sovereignty
and he was making definite preparations for warfare: the next he was quite
willing to give it up and was definitely getting ready to live as a
private person. At times he wore the purple chlamys and girded on a sword:
again he assumed dark colored clothing. His public addresses both in the
palace and in the Forum were now of one tenor, now of another, first
urging battle and next terms of peace. At times he was inclined to
surrender himself for the public welfare, and later he would clasp his
child in his arms, kiss him, and hold him out to the people as if to
arouse their pity. Similarly he would dismiss the Pretorians and then send
for them again, would leave the palace to retire to his brother's house
and then return: in this way he dulled the enthusiasm of almost everybody
interested in him. Seeing him dashing hither and thither so frenziedly
they ceased to carry out commands with their usual diligence, and began to
consider their own interests as well as his. They ridiculed him a great
deal, especially when in the assemblies he proffered his sword to the
consuls and to the senators present as if to show that by this act he had
divested himself of the imperial office. No one of the above persons dared
to take it, and the bystanders jeered.

[Sidenote:--17--] In view of these conditions, when Primus at last drew
near, the consuls, Gaius Quintius Atticus and Gnaeus Caecilius Simplex,
together with Sabinus (a relative of Vespasian) and the other foremost men
held a consultation, the result of which was that they set out for the
palace in company with the soldiers that favored their cause, intending to
either persuade or force Vitellius to resign his position as emperor. They