Aderat pugnantibus spectator populus, utque in ludicro certamine, hos, rursus illos clamore et plausu fovebat.
Translation :
The populace stood by and watched the combatants; and, as though it had been a mimic conflict, encouraged first one party and then the other by their shouts and plaudits.
Edition :
Historiae. Cornelius Tacitus. Charles Dennis Fisher. Clarendon Press. Oxford. 1911.
Complete Works of Tacitus. Tacitus. Alfred John Church. William Jackson Brodribb. Sara Bryant. edited for Perseus. New York. : Random House, Inc. Random House, Inc. 1873. reprinted 1942.
Notes :
The soldiers of both sides also turn their weapons against some civilians, further encouraged by some in the populated, described in: "Soldiers of Vespasian and Vitellius kill civilians in Rome, incited by the greed of the Populace."
