In their hands the scales of empire seem to rest.

They declare for Vitellius, and the civil war begins.

Otho is defeated; Vitellius acknowledged by Senate and people.

Fearing, like his predecessors, the imperious turbulence of the Batavian legions, he, too, sends them into Germany.

It was the signal for a long and extensive revolt, which had well nigh overturned the Roman power in Gaul and Lower Germany.
IV.
Claudius Civilis was a Batavian of noble race, who had served twenty-five years in the Roman armies.