A short speech; and an unattentive, and disheartened audience! For, the embattled legions approached; and the crowd of townsmen, ill appointed and novices in war, stood astonished, bereft of the present use of eyes and hearing. On the other side, Silius, though he presumed the victory, and thence might have spared exhortations, yet called to his men, "that they might be with reason ashamed that they, the conquerors of Germany, should be thus led against a rabble of Gauls as against an equal enemy: one cohort had newly defeated the rebels of Tours; one regiment of horse, those of Treves; a handful of this very army had routed the Sequanians: the present Aeduans, as they are more abounding in wealth, as they wallow more in voluptuousness, are by so much more soft and unwarlike: this is what you are now to prove, and your task to prevent their escape." His words were returned with a mighty cry. Instantly the horse surrounded the foe; the foot attacked their front, and the wings were presently routed: the iron band gave some short obstruction, as the bars of their coats withstood the strokes of sword and pike: but the soldiers had recourse to their hatchets and pick-axes; and, as if they had battered a wall, hewed their bodies and armour: others with clubs, and some with forks, beat down the helpless lumps, who as they lay stretched along, without one struggle to rise, were left for dead. Sacrovir fled first to Augustodunum; and thence, fearful of being surrendered, to a neighbouring town, accompanied by his most faithful adherents. There he slew himself; and the rest, one another: having first set the town on fire, by which they were all consumed.
Now at last Tiberius wrote to the Senate about this war, and at once acquainted them with its rise and conclusion, neither aggravating facts nor lessening them; but added "that it was conducted by the fidelity and bravery of his lieutenants, guided by his counsels." He likewise assigned the reasons why neither he, nor Drusus, went to that war; "that the Empire was an immense body; and it became not the dignity of a Prince, upon the revolt of one or two towns, to desert the capital, whence motion was derived to the whole: but since the alarm was over, he would visit those nations and settle them." The Senate decreed vows and supplications for his return, with other customary honours. Only Cornelius Dolabella, while he strove to outdo others, fell into ridiculous sycophancy, and moved "that from Campania he should enter Rome in the triumph of ovation." This occasioned a letter from Tiberius: in it he declared, "he was not so destitute of glory, that after having in his youth subdued the fiercest nations, and enjoyed or slighted so many triumphs, he should now in his old age seek empty honours from a short progress about the suburbs of Rome."