accept their penitence. After having restored things to their former quiet
state, he delivered the command to Trebellius Maximus. [76] Trebellius,
indolent, and inexperienced in military affairs, maintained the
tranquillity of the province by popular manners; for even the barbarians
had now learned to pardon under the seductive influence of vices; and the
intervention of the civil wars afforded a legitimate excuse for his
inactivity. Sedition however infected the soldiers, who, instead of their
usual military services, were rioting in idleness. Trebellius, after
escaping the fury of his army by flight and concealment, dishonored and
abased, regained a precarious authority; and a kind of tacit compact took
place, of safety to the general, and licentiousness to the army. This
mutiny was not attended with bloodshed. Vettius Bolanus, [77] succeeding
during the continuance of the civil wars, was unable to introduce
discipline into Britain. The same inaction towards the enemy, and the same
insolence in the camp, continued; except that Bolanus, unblemished in his
character, and not obnoxious by any crime, in some measure substituted
affection in the place of authority.

17. At length, when Vespasian received the possession of Britain together
with the rest of the world, the great commanders and well-appointed armies
which were sent over abated the confidence of the enemy; and Petilius
Cerealis struck terror by an attack upon the Brigantes, [78] who are
reputed to compose the most populous state in the whole province. Many
battles were fought, some of them attended with much bloodshed; and the
greater part of the Brigantes were either brought into subjection, or
involved in the ravages of war. The conduct and reputation of Cerealis
were so brilliant that they might have eclipsed the splendor of a
successor; yet Julius Frontinus, [79] a truly great man, supported the
arduous competition, as far as circumstances would permit. [80] He subdued
the strong and warlike nation of the Silures, [81] in which expedition,