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140 murdered, myself imprisoned, my death demanded by the savage clamour of a legion; and for which wrongs I by the law of nations now demand vengeance."

Civilis perceiving, or surmising, that since Nero's death Rome was in no condition to war successfully with a distant ally, devoted himself thenceforth to what he justly considered a noble cause. The Batavian Wallace was no barbarian. Like the Cheruscan German hero Arminius, he had received a Roman education, and he had learned more than schoolmasters, lecturers, or books could teach him. He had seen the capital in perhaps its most low and degraded state; he had witnessed the public excesses and prodigality of Nero; he had perhaps heard, whispered with bated breath, of the orgies of the palace. The hour, it seemed to him, had come when he might deliver the Batavian island, if not Germany itself, from the tyranny and the vices of Rome.

As to the Germans of the Rhine, they had little dread from the garrisons or camps of the Cæsar. Vitellius had withdrawn from many if not all of them their best troops when he despatched seven legions across the Alps; and in fact there was just then no Cæsar. Galba had been murdered, Otho had destroyed himself, and Vitellius was daily exhibiting his unfitness for empire. Vespasian, whose character he knew, might give cause for some alarm to Civilis. They had once been companions in arms, and even friends; for the Flavian competitor for the throne was at one time, like Civilis himself, an obscure adventurer, and his chance of victory was still doubtful. The very attempt, however, of the Flavian was favorable to the designs of the Batavian, since he could and for a while