After giving a six-months' emperor to Rome and setting the example of successful usurpation, the Spanish provinces took but little active part in the long agony which followed. It was, indeed, a contest not of provinces but of provincial garrisons, and the Spanish army was too small and remote again to take the lead; Cluvius Rufus, who succeeded Galba in Hither Spain, was not distinguished as a soldier. After a brief hesitation he recognised Vitellius, wishing perhaps to avenge Galba, and influenced by the strength and proximity of the armies of the Rhine. He proved his loyalty to his new allegiance by the measures he took against Albinus, the procurator of Mauretania, who threatened to rise for Otho. Fearing an invasion of Spain, he moved the Legio X Gemina southward to the coast of Baetica, and at the same time by active propaganda he won over the Mauretanian garrison to Vitellius; Albinus and his chief supporters were slain. Then being accused by Hilarus, an imperial freedman and probably a subordinate procurator of Hither Spain, of aiming at independent authority, he went to meet Vitellius in Gaul. His services procured him an easy acquittal; he was granted the privilege of governing his province through his legati, while he himself, attached to the imperial suite, returned to Italy and Rome.