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Bedriacum
About
Vitellius's German legions broke Emperor Otho's army near this obscure Po Valley village, in the opening battle of the chaotic Year of the Four Emperors. Otho, unwilling to prolong a civil war, took his own life two days later rather than fight on. It was the first time in over a century that legion had openly fought legion for the throne. Three more emperors would rise and fall before the year was out.
What happened here
A Roman army fights the way it camps: in lines, by drill, on ground chosen if possible. The legions form up in cohorts with gaps that let ranks rotate, throw a volley of heavy javelins at close range, and then close with the short sword, pushing behind the shield. Auxiliaries hold the flanks and do most of the cavalry work and most of the skirmishing. Battles are short and decided by whether one line breaks, and the killing happens in the pursuit rather than the fighting. The camp is dug and palisaded every night regardless. Afterwards the dead are stripped and the field is looted for days; the ground is remembered locally long after the campaign is a paragraph in someone's history.
In ancient writing
- Tacitus, Histories 2.41–45
Otho's army is broken on the road between Bedriacum and Cremona while he waits at Brixellum; the survivors go over to Vitellius the next morning.
Sources
Roman Maps shows the empire frozen at 11 August 117 CE, the day Trajan died — its moment of greatest territorial extent. Explore the full map →