without staying for the return of the deputies, returned himself to Rome.

Almost at the same time, and from the same causes, the legions in Germany
raised an insurrection, with greater numbers, and thence with more fury.
Passionate too were their hopes that Germanicus would never brook the rule
of another, but yield to the spirit of the legions, who had force
sufficient to bring the whole Empire under his sway. Upon the Rhine were
two armies; that called the higher, commanded by Caius Silius, Lieutenant-
General; the lower, by Aulus Caecina: the command in chief rested in
Germanicus, then busy collecting the tribute in Gaul. The forces however
under Silius, with cautious ambiguity, watched the success of the revolt
which others began: for the soldiers of the lower army had broken out into
open outrages, which took its rise from the fifth legion, and the one-
and-twentieth; who after them drew the first, and twentieth. These were
altogether upon the frontiers of the Ubians, passing the campaign in utter
idleness or light duty: so that upon the news that Augustus was dead, the
whole swarm of new soldiers lately levied in the city, men accustomed to
the effeminacies of Rome, and impatient of every military hardship, began
to possess the ignorant minds of the rest with many turbulent
expectations, "that now was presented the lucky juncture for veterans to
demand entire dismission; the fresh soldiers, larger pay; and all, some
mitigation of their miseries; as also to return due vengeance for the
cruelties of the Centurions." These were not the harangues of a single
incendiary, like Percennius amongst the Pannonian legions; nor uttered, as
there, in the ears of men who, while they saw before their eyes armies
greater than their own, mutinied with awe and trembling: but here was a
sedition of many mouths, filled with many boasts, "that in their hands lay
the power and fate of Rome; by their victories the empire was enlarged,
and from them the Caesars took, as a compliment, the surname of
Germanicus."