Vexillations from all three British legions – II Augusta, IX Hispana and XX Valeria Victrix – took part on the Vitellian side in the second battle of Bedriacum in A.D. 69 (Tacitus, Histories 3, 22), but their main bodies had remained behind in the province under the cautious governorship of Vettius Bolanus (Histories 2, 97). After the capture of Fabius Valens, however, when the cause of Vitellius was plainly becoming hopeless, the army of Britain declared for Vespasian (Histories 3, 44): et Britanniam inditus erga Vespasianum favor, quod illic secundae legioni a Claudio praepositus et hello clarus egerat, non sine motu adiunxit ceterarum, in quibus plerique centuriones ac milites a Vitellio provecti expertum iam principem anxii mutabant. The meaning of this passage is surely clear enough: II Augusta, which Vespasian had commanded with distinction during the Claudian invasion and the following years, took the lead in swinging the whole army of Britain on to the Flavian side, despite the resistance of the other legions. On the attitude of XIV Gemina there is room for uncertainty: it had been sent back to Britain by Vitellius (Histories 2, 66), but it can hardly have been very enthusiastic for him, nor is it easy to suppose that many of its centurions and men can have owed their advancement to him. However that may be, II Augusta was manifestly the prime mover in securing the adherence of the army of Britain to Vespasian.