Caecina

Family: Roman army · Role: Lieutenant-General · First appears: Annals I (11)

In Annals I, Germanicus entrusted Caecina with four legions, auxiliary forces, and command in the campaign across German territories: “Germanicus to the command of Caecina committed four legions, five thousand auxiliaries, and some bands of Germans.” Caecina later helped direct fleet construction with Silius and Anteius. In the Histories, while quaestor in Baetica, he joined Galba’s party and received command of a legion, but after being convicted of misappropriating public funds and prosecuted on Galba’s orders, he rebelled against him.

Under Vitellius, Caecina was sent to invade Italy over the Pennine Pass. He executed Julius Alpinus, abandoned the plan to attack Petronius Urbicus in Noricum, and led his forces across the Alps. After the failed assault on Placentia, he withdrew to Cremona, where Turullius Cerialis and Julius Briganticus joined him; but Suetonius Paulinus and Marius Celsus later helped defeat his army at Twin Brethren, and mutiny broke out in his camp. Once Fabius Valens joined him, Caecina shared command, government, military expansion, public honours, and the celebration of Vitellius’ birthday, while Caecina’s wife Salonina rode beside him with purple trappings.

In the later Histories, Caecina turned secretly against Vitellius, working with Lucilius Bassus in support of Vespasian and attempting to weaken the soldiers’ loyalty. After the Flavian capture of Vicetia, his birthplace, he surrendered his strategic advantages and made his camp swear allegiance to Vespasian, but the troops restored Vitellius’ portraits, put Caecina in irons, and chose Fabius Fabullus and Cassius Longus as leaders. Released at Cremona and sent under escort to Vespasian by Antonius Primus, Caecina remained tied to the conflict between the rival factions, while Lucius Vitellius proposed a harsh sentence against him and Publilius Sabinus was imprisoned because of his intimacy with Caecina.