Interea manipuli ante coeptam seditionem Nauportum missi ob itinera et pontes et alios usus, postquam turbatum in castris accepere, vexilla convellunt direptisque proximis vicis ipsoque Nauporto, quod municipii instar erat, retinentes centuriones inrisu et contumeliis, postremo verberibus insectantur, praecipua in Aufidienum Rufum praefectum castrorum ira, quem dereptum vehiculo sarcinis gravant aguntque primo in agmine per ludibrium rogitantes an tam immensa onera, tam longa itinera libenter ferret. quippe Rufus diu manipularis, dein centurio, mox castris praefectus, antiquam duramque militiam revocabat, intentus operis ac laboris et eo inmitior quia toleraverat.

Meanwhile the companies sent to Nauportus before the mutiny began, for road-making and bridge-building and other necessities, after they heard about the mayhem in the camp, having picked up their standards and plundered both the neighbouring villages and Nauportus itself, which was the size of a town, attacked the centurions, who were trying to restrain them, with derision and insults, and finally with beatings, their anger chiefly directed against Aufidienus Rufus, the prefect of the camp, whom they pulled out of his carriage and weighed down with baggage and drove in the front of the column, asking him mockingly whether he bore such massive loads, such long journeys willingly. Indeed Rufus, for a long time an ordinary soldier, then a centurion, then put in charge of the camp, was trying to restore an ancient and tough military service, being keen on work and toil, and all the more unforgiving because he had endured them.