Thus they were assailed by promises as well as by threats, were told that they were not strong enough for war, but would lose nothing by peace. Yet all this did not shake the loyalty of the Prætorians. Nevertheless secret emissaries were dispatched by Otho to Germany, and by Vitellius to Rome. Both failed in their object. Those of Vitellius escaped without injury, unnoticed in the vast multitude, knowing none, and themselves unknown. Those of Otho were betrayed by their strange faces in a place where all knew each other. Vitellius wrote to Titianus, Otho's brother, threatening him and his son with death, unless the lives of his mother and his children were spared. Both families remained uninjured. This in Otho's reign was perhaps due to fear; Vitellius was victorious, and gained all the credit of mercy.