ABSTRACT
The military disorder of 68-70 embodied an old nightmare. But the new events, in which a strong factor was the fear and humiliation of the army that had defeated Vindex, give no reason for seeing in them the beginning of the demoralization and wilfulness of third-century armies. Vespasian, victorious and in control of the centre, had a sharp problem: to restore discipline, among Flavian and Vitellian troops in Italy, eventually in the remnants of the Rhine legions, by showing himself master and by assuaging fear.1
