Rome Must Perish

He urgently summoned two thousand citizen soldiers from Verona and nearby towns, ordering his subordinates to lead the troops to the mouth of the Po River, as the rebel army in Rimini and crossing the Po River via the Bobilia Avenue along the coast was undoubtedly the shortest route.

Soon, news came: the rebel army was indeed moving north along the Bobilia Avenue.

Casius was secretly pleased with the accuracy of his prediction.

But a few days later, he received reports from scouts: the main rebel army stopped heading north, turned south instead, and only a force of about 20,000 men marched northwest along the Emilia Avenue.

The main rebel force no longer advanced north into the Northern Italy Province! ... This made Casius breathe a sigh of relief, but Crodianus became anxious because the main rebel force turning south would continue to ravage Italy and even threaten Rome, so he demanded Casius to quickly assemble a large army to move south to contain the enemy.

This time, Casius refused to comply because the new resolution from the Roman Senate had already been delivered to Verona, stripping Crodianus of military command, effectively ending his one-year term as Governor. As a result, Casius had no fear.

However, as the governor, Casius needed to show the Roman Senate his efforts to make up for previous failures. At the same time, he also needed to be responsible for the citizens of the Northern Italy Province, which was different from other provinces because it had too many Roman immigrants. With the main rebel force absent, leaving only a detachment of less than 20,000, Casius believed he could attempt to intercept and defeat this marauding rebel force on the north bank of the Po River.

Casius judged that this rebel detachment intended to cross the river from Piacenza and then head to the mountain pass north of Milan because it was the easiest route over the Alps to Outer Gaul. Therefore, he dispatched a fast horse to notify the magistrates of nearby towns such as Milan and Piacenza to gather citizen soldiers and prepare for defense. He also notified the troops already at the mouth of the Po River to turn around and accelerate westward to the north bank of the Po River where Piacenza was located.

Meanwhile, he himself led the Personal Guard along the Postumia Road to the same destination (the Postumia Road is a road that runs across the Northern Italy Province, from the west to Genoa, east to Aquileia, with Piacenza and Verona both located along this road), and he prepared to summon the City Guards from the towns along the way.