Another cause of alarm was the various portents vouched for by 86 many witnesses. In the Capitoline Square, it was said, the figure of Victory had let the reins of her chariot slip from her hands: a ghost of superhuman size had suddenly burst out of the chapel of Juno:[182] a statue of the sainted Julius on the island in the Tiber had, on a fine, still day, turned round from the west and faced the east: an ox had spoken in Etruria: animals had given birth to strange monsters. Many were the stories of these occurrences, which in primitive ages are observed even in time of peace, though now we only hear of them in time of panic. But the greatest damage at the moment, and the greatest alarm for the future, was caused by a sudden rising of the Tiber. Immensely swollen, it carried away the bridge on piles,[183] and, its current being stemmed by the heavy ruins, it flooded not only the flat, low-lying portions of the city, but also districts that seemed safe from inundation. Many people were swept away in the streets, still more were overtaken by the flood in shops or in their beds at home. The result was a famine, since food was scarce,[184] and the poor were deprived of their means of livelihood. Blocks of flats, the foundations of which had rotted in the standing water, collapsed when the river sank. No sooner had the panic caused by the flood subsided than it was found that, whereas Otho was preparing an expedition, its route over the Martian Plain and up the Flaminian Road was blocked. Though probably caused by chance, or the course of Nature, this mishap was turned into a miraculous omen of impending disaster. FOOTNOTES: [152] Chap. 45. [153] Cp. note 46. [154] A much-frequented watering-place on the borders of Latium and Campania. The hot baths were considered good for hysteria. [155] Cp. chap. 7. [156] Dio and Suetonius both say that Otho offered to share the empire with Vitellius, and the latter adds that he proposed for the hand of Vitellius' daughter. Tacitus here follows Plutarch. [157] Chap. 19. [158] As a matter of fact, only twelve days before. It was on the 2nd or 3rd of January that the troops of Lower and Upper Germany proclaimed Vitellius. Galba fell to Otho on January 15. [159] L. Salvius Otho Titianus, Otho's elder brother. [160] There were two legions in Dalmatia, two in Pannonia, three in Moesia, and two in Spain (see Summary, note 3). [161] Cp. chap. 8. [162] This included Savoy, Dauphine, part of Provence or Languedoc. [163] Legs. V Macedonica, X Fretensis, XV Apollinaris. [164] IV Scythica, VI Ferrata, XII Fulminata, and III Gallica. [165] Since Claudius the great imperial bureaux, the posts of private secretary, patronage-secretary, financial secretary, &c., had all been held by freedmen. Cp. chap. 58.