Bedriacum

Emperor as he did of riding dryshod across the Gulf of Baiae between Puteoli and Bauli. To prove the prediction false, Caligula ordered in 39 c. e. a bridge of boats be thrown across the bay Every boat in Italy was commissioned, causing starvation and food shortages, and other boats were built on the spot. A massive project, the historian Dio reported that there were rooms, resting places, and running water on the bridge. Dressed like Alexander the Great, Caligula for days paraded his friends and his Praetorian Guard from shore to shore as he rode in a chariot, with Darius, a prince of the Arsacids, at his side.

Bauto (d. c. 388 c. e.) Magister militum under Emperor Valentinian II

Bauto was one of the first and most powerful generals of the late empire. He both interfered in imperial policies and directed their course through his daughter, Aelia EUDOXIA, who became the wife of Eastern emperor Arcadius.

According to Zosimus, Bauto, a Frank, was sent by Gratian, the emperor of the West, to aid Theodosius on the Balkan and Danube frontiers after the disastrous battle of ADRIANOPLE in 378 c. e. As a general he was valued by Valentinian II, who brought him back to defend Italy against the attack of the usurper Magnus MAXIMUS. Henceforth, Bauto influenced Valentinian’s policy in the West, working as an ally or as a neutral with AMBROSE, the bishop of Milan. He achieved the consulship in 385, serving with Arcadius, who married his daughter in 395. His control over Valentinian ended, however, around 388, and it can be assumed that he died in that year. His wife was probably a Roman, and his daughter was given a Roman education.

Bedriacum A town in northern Italy, located on the Via Postuma, between the cities of cremona and Verona. In 69 C. E. it was the site of two major battles. The first confrontation was on April 15; it brought to an end the brief reign of Emperor OTHO, at the hands of the army of VITELLIUS. Otho had begun his reign with the assassination of Galba but discovered immediately that the German legions were in revolt, having declared their commander, Vitellius, emperor of Rome. Two legates, Aulus CAECINA ALIENUS of the IV Legion and Fabius VALENS of the I Legion at Bonn, assumed control of Vitel-lius’s army and set out for Rome with approximately 70,000 men.

In Rome, Otho cultivated popular support and garnered the oaths of legions in Pannonia, Dalmatia, and Moesia, and that of the commander Vespasian in Judaea, but he could not muster more than 25,000 men for the campaign. Although additional legions were marching to his aid, the bulk of his troops were from the reliable PRAETORIAN GUARD. His generals included the aged Marius Celsus, the Praetorian Prefect Licinius Proculus, Suetonius Paulinus and Annius Gallus. Vitellius’s legions breached the Alps and fought several inconclusive skirmishes in northern Italy with the Othonians. The first large battle took place at Placentia, between Caecina and several contingents of Otho’s Praetorians. Although outnumbering the Othonians, the veterans of Germany did not fare well.

By April, Otho was reinforced by the first troops from the Danube legions. Paulinus, Celsus, and Gallus called for patience. Victory could be won with additional forces. But Proculus and his brother, who possessed Otho’s ear, counseled bold action, citing Otho’s military genius. As Tacitus noted: “Such was the language of flattery They made their position palatable, and no man presumed to administer an antidote.” Otho commanded his army from the town of Brixellum, some miles from Bedriacum, while his legions grew despondent and fatigued.

Otho’s generals entered the contest with the I Adjutrix, the XII Pannonian, gladiators, and the Praetorian Guard in the center position. The XIV Legion from Britain stood as a reserve. They were opposed by the XXI Legion, the V Alaudae, the cohorts of Batavians, and the I Italian, which faced the Praetorians directly.

The I Adjutrix plowed into the XXI, and the Vitel-lians lost their eagle. Recovering quickly, the German veterans launched a brutal counterattack, and the Othonian I Adjutrix broke apart, its young cohorts disintegrating. Vitellius’s other legion, the Alaudae, routed the XII Pan-nonian, and then put the XIV from Britain to flight as well. Only the Praetorians refused to yield ground, bloodily dueling the I Italian Legion to a standstill. The Batavians, however, tipped the scales against them, finishing the rout of Otho’s wings. Facing retreat or total annihilation, the Praetorians withdrew.

The next morning, Otho’s camp at Bedriacum lay open to Valens and Caecina. The Praetorians pulled back to Brixellum to be with the emperor. Otho killed himself at dawn on April 17, 69. Vitellius marched to Rome to become emperor. His reign did not last much longer than Otho’s, however, for Vespasian was also on his way to Rome and would claim the throne for himself. Accounts of the battle were written by Tacitus, Suetonius, Dio, and Josephus.

A second military engagement was fought at Bedri-acum—actually at Cremona, some miles distant—on October 27, 69 C. E., between the legions of Emperor VITELLIUS and the army of Antonius PRIMUS, who represented the cause of VESPASIAN. After crushing the Othoni-ans in April, Vitellius had proceeded to Rome and there humiliated the Praetorian Guard by replacing it with new members; incensed the Danube Legions with cruel treatment; refused to allow the dead at Bedriacum to be buried; and then demonstrated a pernicious avarice and gluttony. The discontented legions chose Vespasian, general of the legions in JUDAEA, to remove Vitellius from power.

Titus, Vespasian’s son, Mucianus, the governor of Syria, and Tiberius Julius Alexander, the prefect of Egypt, urged Vespasian to accept the throne. The balance of the legions joined in his crusade. Tiberius Alexander administered the oath of allegiance to the troops on July 1, and plans were begun for a march on Rome.

Meanwhile, Antonius Primus, the legate on the Danube, and Cornelius FUSCUS, the procurator of Pan-nonia, stirred up the Danubian Legions and were soon joined by the disbanded Praetorian Guards, by now a ferocious enemy of Vitellius. These three western legions set out for Italy, even before Vespasian’s eastern legions could begin their march. Vitellius sent his legate, Alienus Caecina, with six legions to the north to confront Primus. Intending to defect to Vespasian, Caecina ignored orders from Rome and dispatched the bulk of his forces to Cremona, while a large detachment moved to Hostilia, a city on the Po River. Primus moved southward across the Alps, investing Verona and using it as the center of his operations—unaware that Vespasian had ordered that no troops cross the great mountains, preferring to leave the war to the hard-marching Mucianus. Letters from Caecina to Primus set the groundwork for betrayal, and Caecina, with the backing of the fleet in the Adriatic, proposed to his legions that they join the Flavian cause. His plans were dashed when his own soldiers placed him in chains. From Cremona the legions marched out to give battle to the waiting Primus.

The now-leaderless Vitellians formed up from right to left, cavalry and auxiliaries, XXII, XVI, I, V, and IV Legions, with more auxiliaries and cavalry The British Legions, the IX, II, and XX, stood in reserve. Opposite them, near the crossroads of the Via Postuma, were Primus’s legions, from right to left: cavalry, auxiliary cohorts, the III, VIII, XIII, VII Galbiana, and VII Claudia, with more auxiliaries and cavalry. The Praetorians formed a powerful reserve. Altogether, 100,000 soldiers took part.

The Vitellians were numerically superior, but, as Tacitus noted, the soldiers of the emperor had grown soft during their days in Rome. Tacitus wrote that “The battle lasted through the night with great slaughter on both sides, and alternate success.” The eagles were lost, retaken and lost again. The dead piled up on the field. Slowly the Vitellians gained the edge but then lost it as Primus threw in the fanatical cohorts of the Guard. A rout was started, but then prevented, as the Vitellians dragged up siege engines and opened fire with great effect on the Flavians. Two soldiers saved the battle by cutting the ropes on the engines. Nature then turned on Vitellius as the moon rose high in the sky, shining on his soldiers’ faces and shrouding Primus’s legions. According to Tacitus, Primus exhorted the Praetorians: “Now is your time to conquer, or renounce the name of soldiers.” At dawn the Flavian legions from Syria cheered the new day. The Vitellians, knowing nothing of this tradition from Syria, believed reinforcements had arrived and fled the scene.

Cremona was pillaged, looted, and burned to the ground. Vitellius, in Rome, could only wait the arrival of Primus, Mucianus and Vespasian, the next emperor of the Roman Empire. Accounts of the battle were written by Tacitus, Suetonius, Dio, Josephus, and Plutarch.

Belgae A people, probably of German extraction, living in GALLA Belgica, the most northern area of Gaul, near the Rhine, the North Sea, and the Sequani. Because of their location they not only fought with the BATAVI but, at the time of Caesar’s GALLIC WARS, were also the most “uncivilized” Gallic people. They were reportedly hard, cruel, and vicious in battle, the hardest to subdue, and even extended their influence into Britain. The Belgae penetrated the southeastern coast of Britain in the early first century b. c.e. and intervened there is subsequent years, although direct control was not possible. These ties remained until Julius Caesar destroyed the Belgae on the continent and thus put an end to their holdings in Britain.

Belgica See gallia.

Bellona A goddess of the Roman pantheon, generally associated with war. Her temple stood in the Campus Martius and formed a relationship with the god Mars, her temple resting near his altar. She was later associated with the Cappadocian goddess Ma.

Heneficiarii Soldiers in the legions who held the rank of principales (noncommissioned officers) and who were given added administrative duties by a high-ranking officer or official. Their title was derived from the beneficium, or promotion, bestowed upon them by a commanding officer, and the specific rank and prominence of the bene-ficiarius depended upon the rank of their commander. Thus, there were beneficiarii procuratoris, beneficiarii legati legionis, and beneficiarii tribuni. As the imperial era progressed, the number and prominence of the beneficia-rii increased. New grades were created (cornicularii and commentarienses, for example) and the beneficiarii began to wield more and more power. It also became common in the later empire for beneficiarii to hold a post that included nonmilitary duties.