for the sake of Poppaa, shald afterwards | Germany had a particular apology for their spare Otho. aversion. They alleged, "That Virginius Rufus, their general, had been removed with ignominy, and that the Gauls who had fought against them, were the only people that were rewarded; whilst all who had not joined Vindex were punished, and Galba, as if he had obligations to none but him for the imperial diadem, honoured his memory with sacrifices and pub lic libations." But Otho had a friend in Seneca; and it was he who persuaded Nero to send him out governor of Lusitania, upon the borders of the ocean. Otho made himself agreeable to the inhabitants by his lenity; for he knew that this command was given him only as a more honourable exile. Upon Galba's revolt, he was the first governor of a province that came over to him, and he carried with him all the gold Such speeches as this were common in the and silver vessels he had, to be melted down camp, when the calends of January were at and coined for his use. He likewise presented hand, and Flaccus assembled the soldiers, that him with such of his servants as knew best they might take the customary oath of fealty how to wait upon an emperor. He behaved to the emperor. But, instead of that, they to him, indeed, in all respects with great fidel- overturned and broke to pieces the statues of ity; and it appeared from the specimen he gave, Galba, and having taken an oath of allegiance that there was no department in the govern- to the senate and people of Rome, they retired ment for which he had not talents. He ac- to their tents. Their officers were now as apcompanied him in his whole journey, and was prehensive of anarchy as rebellion, and the many days in the same carriage with him; dur- following speech is said to have been made on ing all which time he lost no opportunity to the occasion: "What are we doing, my fellowpay his court to Vinius, either by assiduities or soldiers? We neither appoint another empresents; and as he always took care to leave peror nor keep our allegiance to the present, him the first place, he was secure by his means as if we had renounced not only Galba, but of having the second. Besides that there was every other sovereign, and all manner of obenothing invidious in this station, he recom-dience. It is true, Hardeonius Flaccus is no mended himself by granting his favours and more than the shadow of Galba. Let us quit services without reward, and by his general him. But at the distance of one day's march affability and politeness. He took most pleas-only, there is Vitellius, who commands in the ure in serving the officers of the army, and obtained governments for many of them, partly by applications to the emperor, and partly to Vinius and his freedmen, Icelus and Asiaticus, for these had the chief influence at court. Lower Germany, whose father was censor and thrice consul, and in a manner colleague to the emperor Claudius. And though his poverty may be a circumstance for which some people may despise him, it is a strong proof of his probity and greatness of mind. Let us go and declare him emperor, and shew the world that we know how to choose a person for that high dignity better than the Spaniards and Lusitanians." Whenever Galba visited him, he complimented the company of guards that was upon duty, with a piece of gold for each man; thus practising upon and gaining the soldiers, while he seemed only to be doing honour to their master. When Galba was deliberating on the Some approved and others rejected this mochoice of a successor, Vinius proposed Otho. tion. One of the standard-bearers, however, Nor was this a disinterested overture, for marched off privately and carried the news to Otho had promised to marry Vinius's daugh- Vitellius that night. He found him at table, ter, after Galba had adopted him, and appoint- for he was giving a great entertainment to his ed him his successor. But Galba always officers. The news soon spread through the shewed that he preferred the good of the pub- army, and Fabius Valens who commanded one lic to any private considerations: and in this of the legions, went next day at the head of a case he sought not for the man who might be considerable party of horse, and saluted Vimost agreeable to himself, but one who prom-tellius emperor. For some days before, he ised to be the greatest blessing to the Romans. seemed to dread the weight of sovereign power, Indeed it can hardly be supposed that he would and totally to decline it: but now, being fortihave appointed Otho heir even to his private fied with the indulgences of the table, to patrimony, when he knew how expensive and which he had sat down at mid-day, he went profuse he was, and that he was loaded with a out and accepted the title of Germanicus, which debt of five millions of drachmas. He there- the army conferred upon him, though he refore gave Vinius a patient hearing, without re-fused that of Cæsar. Soon after, Flaccus's turning him any answer, and put off the affair to another time. However, as he declared himself consul, and choose Vinius for his colleague, it was supposed that he would appoint a successor at the beginning of the next year, and As soon as Galba was informed of the inthe soldiers wished that Otho might be the man.surrection there, he resolved without further But while Galba delayed the appointment, and continued deliberating, the army mutined in Germany. All the troops throughout the empire hated Galba because they had not received the promised donations; but those in On this occasion the following distich was made: troops forgot the republican oaths they had taken to the senate and the people, and swore allegiance to Vitellius. Thus Vitellius was proclaimed emperor in Germany. delay, to proceed to the adoption. He knew some of his friends were for Dolabella, and a still greater number for Otho; but without being guided by the judgment of either party, or making the least mention of his design, he sent suddenly for Piso the son of Crassus and Scribonia, who were pus to death by Nero; a young man formed by nature for every virtue, and distinguished for his modesty and sobriety went to that part of the forum where stands the gilded pillar which terminates all the great roads in Italy.* of manners. In pursuance of his intentions, he | not have been prepared for a revolt in so short went down with him to the camp, to give him a space of time as that of four days, which was the title of Cæsar, and declare him his succes- all that passed between the adoption and the sor. But he was no sooner out of his palace, assassination; for Piso and Galba were both than very inauspicious presages appeared. And slain the sixth day after, which was the fifin the camp, when he delivered a speech to teenth of January. Early in the morning Galthe army, reading some parts and pronouncing ba sacrificed in the palace in presence of his others from memory, the many claps of thun- friends. Umbricius, the diviner, no sooner der and flashes of lightning, the violent rain | took the entrails in his hands than he declared, that fell, and the darkness that covered both not in enigmatical expressions, but plainly, that the camp and the city, plainly announced that there were signs of great troubles and of treathe gods did not admit of the adoption, and son that threatened immediate danger to the that the issue would be unfortunate. The emperor. Thus Otho was almost delivered up countenance of the soldiers too, were black and to Galba by the hand of the gods; for he stood louring, because there was no donation even behind the emperor, listening with great attenon that occasion.* tion to the observations made by Umbricius. As to Piso, all that were present could not These put him in great confusion, his fears but wonder, that so far as they could conjec- were discovered by his change of colour, when ture from his voice and look, he was not dis- his freedman Onomastus came and told him concerted with so great an honour, though he that the architects were come, and waited for did not receive it without sensibility. On the him at his house This was the signal for contrary, in Otho's countenance there appear- Otho's meeting the soldiers. He pretended, ed strong marks of resentment, and of the im- therefore, that he had bought an old house, patience with which he bore the disappoint- which these architects were to examine, and ment of his hopes. For his failing of that hon-going down by what is called Tiberius's palace, our, which he had been thought worthy to aspire to, and which he lately believed himself very near attaining, seemed a proof of Galba's hatred and ill-intentions to him. He was not, The soldiers who received him, and saluted therefore, without apprehensions of what might him emperor, are said not to have been more befal him afterwards; and dreading Galba, ex- than twenty-three. So that, though he had ecrating Piso, and full of indignation against nothing of that dastardly spirit which the deliVinius, he retired with this confusion of pas-cacy of his constitution and the effeminacy of sions in his heart. But the Chaldeans and other diviners, whom he had always about him, would not suffer him entirely to give up his hopes, or abandon his design. In particular he relied on Ptolemy, because he had formerly predicted that he should not fall by the hand of Nero, but survive him, and live to ascend the imperial throne. For, as the former part of the prophecy proved true, he thought he had no reason to despair of the latter. None, however, exasperated him more against Galba than those who condoled with him in private, and pretended that he had been treated with great ingratitude. Besides, there was a number of people that had flourished under Tigellinus and Nymphidius, and now lived in poverty and disgrace, who, to recommend themselves to Otho, expressed great indignation at the slight he had suffered, and urged him to revenge it. Ainongst these were Veturius, who was optio, or centurion's deputy, and Barbius, who was tesserarius, or one of those that carry the word from the tribunes to the centurions. Onomastus, one of Otho's freed-ance, for the conspirators gathered about such men, joined them, and went from troop to troop, corrupting some with money, and others with promises. Indeed, they were corrupt enough already, and wanted only an opportunity to put their designs in execution. If they had not been extremely disaffected, they could his life seemed to declare; but on the contrary, was firm and resolute in time of danger; yet, on this occasion, he was intimidated and wanted to retire. But the soldiers would not suffer it. They surrounded the chairt with drawn swords, and insisted on his proceeding to the camp. Meantime Otho desired the bearers to make haste, often declaring that he was a lost man. There were some who overheard him, and they rather wondered at the hardiness of the attempt with so small a party, than disturbed themselves about the consequences. As he was carried through the forum, about the same number as the first, joined him, and others afterward, by three or four at a time. The whole party then saluted him Cæsar, and conducted him to the camp, flourishing their swords before him. Martialis, the tribune who kept guard that day, knowing nothing (as they tell us) of the conspiracy, was surprised and terrified at so unexpected a sight, and suffered them to enter. When Otho was within the camp, he met with no resist as were strangers to the design, and made it their business to explain it to them; upon which they joined them by one or two at a time, first out of fear, and afterwards out of choice. The news was immediately carried to Galba, while the diviner yet attended, and had the entrails in his hands; so that they who had been most incredulous in matters of divination, and even held it in contempt before, were astonished at the divine interposition in the *This pillar was set up by Augustus, when he took the highways under his inspection, and had the distances of places from Rome marked upon it. † Suetonius says, he got into a women's sedan, in order to be the better concealed. accomplishment of this presage. People of all sorts now crowding from the forum to the palace, Vinius and Laco, with some of the emperor's freedmen, stood before him with drawn swords to defend him. Piso went out to speak to the life-guards, and Marius Celsus, a man of great courage and honour, was sent to secure the Illyrian legion, which lay in Vip-wrapped it up in the skirt of his garment, besanius's portico. many strokes upon his arins and legs, for he had a coat of mail upon his body. According to most accounts, it was Camurius, a soldier of the fifteenth legion that despatched him; though some say it was Terentius, some Arcadius, and others Fabius Fabulus. They add, that when Fabius had cut off his head, he cause it was so bald that he could take no ho'd of it. His associates, however, would not suffer him to conceal it, but insisted that he should let the world see what an exploit he had performed; he therefore fixed it upon the point of his spear, and swinging about the head of a venerable old man, and a mild prince, who was both Pontifex Maximus and consul, he ran on, (like the Bacchanals with the head of Pentheus) brandishing his spear that was dyed with the blood that had trickled from it. When the head was presented to Otho, he cried out, "This is nothing, my fellow-soldiers; shew me the head of Piso." It was brought not long after; for that young prince being wounded, and pursued by one Marcus, was killed by him at the gates of the temple of Vesta. Vinius also was put to the sword, though he declared himself an accomplice in the conspiracy, and protested that it was against Otho's orders that he suffered. However, they cut off his head, and that of Laco, and carrying them to Otho, demanded their reward: For, as Archilochus says: We bring seven warriors only to your tent, Galba was inclined to go out to the people. Vinius endeavoured to dissuade him from it; but Celsus and Laco encouraged him to go on, and expressed themselves with some sharpness against Vinius. Meantime a strong report prevailed that Otho was slain in the camp; soon after which, Julius Atticus, a soldier of some note amongst the guards, came up, and crying that he was the man that had killed Cæsar's enemy, made his way through the crowd, and shewed his bloody sword to Galba. The emperor, fixing his eye upon him, said, "Who gave you orders?" He answered, "My allegiance and the oath I had taken;" and the people expressed their approbation in loud plaudits. Galba then went out in a sedan chair, with a design to sacrifice to Jupiter, and shew himself to the people. But he no sooner entered the forum than the rumour changed like the wind, and news met him, that Otho was master of the camp. On this occasion, as it was natural amongst a multitude of people, some called out to him to advance, and some to retire; some to take courage, and some to be cautious. His chair was tossed backward and forward, as in a tempest, and ready to be overset, when there appeared first a party of So in this case many who had no share in the horse, and then another of foot, issuing from action, bathed their hands and swords in the the Basilica of Paulus, and crying out, "Away blood, and shewing them to Otho, petitioned with this private man!" Numbers were then for their reward. It appeared afterwards, from running about, not to separate by flight, but the petitions given in, that the number of them to possess themselves of the porticoes and emi- was a hundred and twenty; and Vitellius, havnences about the forum, as it were to enjoying searched them out, put them all to death. some public spectacle. Atilius Virgilio beat down one of Galba's statues, which served as signal for hostilities, and they attacked the chair on all sides with javelins. As those did not despatch him, they advanced sword in hand. In this time of trial none stood up in his defence but one man, who, indeed, amongst so many millions, was the only one that did honour to the Roman empire. This was Sempronius Densus,* a centurion, who, without any particular obligations to Galba, and only from a regard to honour and the law, stood forth to defend the chair. First of all he lifted up the vine-branch, with which the centurions chastise such as deserve stripes, and then called out to the soldiers who were pressing on, and commanded them to spare the emperor. They fell upon him, notwithstanding, and he drew his sword and fought a long time, till he received a stroke in the ham, which brought him to the ground. The chair was overturned, at what is called the Curtian lake, and Galba tumbling out of it, they ran to despatch him. At the same time he presented his throat, and said, "Strike, if it be for the good of Rome." He received In the Greek text it is Indistrus; but that text (as we observed before) in the life of Galba, is extremely corrupt. We have therefore given Densus from Tacitus; as l'irgilio, instead of Sercello, above. Marius Celsus also coming to the camp, many accused him of having exhorted the soldiers to stand by Galba, and the bulk of the army insisted that he should suffer. But Otho being desirous to save him, and yet afraid of contradicting them, told them, "He did not choose to have him executed so soon, because he had several important questions to put to him." He ordered him, therefore, to be kept in chains, and delivered him to persons in whom he could best confide. The senate was immediately assembled; and, as if they were become different men, or had other gods to swear by, they took the oath to Otho, which he had before taken to Galba, but had not kept; and they gave him the titles of Cæsar and Augustus, while the bodies of those that had been beheaded, lay in their consular robes in the forum. As for the heads, the soldiers, after they had no farther use for them, sold that of Vinius to his daughter for two thousand five hundred drachmas. Piso's was given to his wife Verania, at her request; and Galba's to the servants of Patrobius and Vitellius,‡ who, *In Tacitus, Lecanius. That historian makes no mention of Fabius. Tacitus (lib. i.) says, she purchased it. after they had treated it with the utmost insolence and outrage, threw it into a place called Sestertium, where the bodies of those are cast that are put to death by the emperors. Galba's corpse was carried away by Helvidius Priscus, with Otho's permission, and buried in the night by his freedman Argius. Such is the history of Galba; a man who, in the points of family and fortune, distinctly considered, was exceeded by few of the Romans, and who, in the union of both, was superior to all. He had lived, too, in great honour, and with the best reputation, under five emperors; and it was rather by his character than by force of arms that he deposed Nero. As to the rest, who conspired against the tyrant, some of them were thought unworthy of the imperial diadem by the people, and others thought themselves unworthy. But Galba was invited to accept it, and only followed the sense of those who called him to that high dignity. Nay, when he gave the sanction of his name to Vindex, that which before was called rebellion was considered only as a civil war, because a man of princely talents was then at the head of it. So that he did not so much want the empire as the empire wanted him: and with these principles he attempted to govern a people corrupted by Tigellinus and Nymphidius, as Scipio, Fabricius, and Camillus governed the Romans of their times. Notwithstanding his great age, he shewed himself a chief worthy of ancient Rome through all the military department: but, in the civil administration, he delivered himself up to Vinius, to Laco, and to his enfranchised slaves, who sold every thing, in the same manner as Nero had left all to his insatiable vermin. The consequence of this was, that no man regretted him as an emperor, though almost all were moved with pity at his miserable fate. OTHO. THE new emperor went early in the morning to the Capitol, and sacrificed; after which he ordered Marius Celsus to be brought before him. He received that officer with great marks of his regard, and desired him rather to forget the cause of his confinement than to remember his release. Celsus neither shewed any meanness in his acknowledgments, nor any want of gratitude. He said, "The very charge brought against him bore witness to his character; since he was accused only of having been faithful to Galba, from whom he had never received any personal obligations." All who were present at the audience admired both the emperor and Celsus, and the soldiers in particular testified their approbation.t Otho made a mild and gracious speech to the senate. The remaining time of his consulship he divided with Virginius Rufus, and he left those who had been appointed to that dignity by Nero and Galba, to enjoy it in their course. Such as were respectable for their age and character, he promoted to the priesthood: and to those senators who had been banished by Nero, and recalled by Galba, he restored all their goods and estates that he found unsold. So that the first and best of the citizens, who had before not considered him as a man, but dreaded him as a fury or destroying demon that had suddenly seized the seat of government, now entertained more pleasing hopes from so promising a beginning. But nothing gave the people in general so high a pleasure, or contributed so much to Lipsius says, it was so called quasi semitertium, as being two miles and a half from the city. Otho exempted the soldiers from the fees which they had paid the centurions for furloughs and other immunities; but at the same time promised to satisfy the centurions, on all reasonable occasions, out of his own revenue. In consequence of these furloughs, the fourth part of a legion was often absent, and the troops oecame daily more and more corrupted. In the close of the day on which he was inaugurated, he put Laco and Icelus to death. gain him their affections, as his punishing Tigellinus. It is true, he had long suffered under the fear of punishment, which the Romans demanded as a public debt, and under a complication of incurable distempers. These, together with his infamous connections with the worst of prostitutes, into which his passions drew him, though almost in the arms of death, were considered by the thinking part of mankind as the greatest of punishments, and worse than many deaths. Yet it was a pain to the common people, that he should see the light of the sun, after so many excellent men had been deprived of it through his means. He was then at his country house near Sinuessa, and had vessels at anchor, ready to carry him on occasion to some distant country. Otho sent to him there; and he first attempted to bribe the messenger with large sums to suffer him to escape When he found that did not take effect, he gave him the money notwithstanding; and de siring only to be indulged a few moments till he had shaved himself, he took the razor and cut his own throat. Besides this just satisfaction that Otho gave the people, it was a most agreeable circumstance that he remembered none of his private quarrels. To gratify the populace, ne suffered them also at first to give him in the theatres the name of Nero, and he made no opposition to those who erected publicly the statues of that emperor. Nay, Claudius Rufus tells us that in the letters with which the couriers were sent to Spain, he joined the name of Nero to that of Otho. But perceiving that the nobility were offended, he made use of it nc more. After his government was thus established, the prætorian cohorts gave him no small trouble, by exhorting him to beware of many per This writer, who was a man of consular dignity, and succeeded Galba in the government of Spain, was not called Claudius but Cluvius Rufus. with their generals, had declared for Otho. And a few days after, he received obliging letters from Mucianus and Vespasian, who both commanded numerous armies, the one in Sy ria, and the other in Judæa. sons of rank, and to forbid them the court; | the forces in Pannonia, Dalmatia, and Mysia, whether it was their affection made them really apprehensive for him, or whether it was only a colour for raising commotions and wars. One day the emperor himself had sent Crispinus orders to bring the seventeenth cohort from Ostia, and in order to do it without interruption, that Elated with this intelligence, he wrote to officer began to prepare for it as soon as it Vitellius, advising him not to aspire to things grew dark, and to pack up the arms in wagons. above his rank, and promised, in case he deUpon which, some of the most turbulent cried sisted, to supply him liberally with money, and out, that Crispinus was come with no good in- gave him a city in which he might spend his tention, that the senate had some design against days in pleasure and repose. Vitelius at first the government, and that the arms he was going gave him an answer, in which ridicule was to carry were to be made use of against Cæsar, tempered with civility. But afterwards, being not for him. This notion soon spread, and both thoroughly exasperated, they wrote to exasperated numbers; some laid hold on the each other in a style of the bitterest invective. wagons, while others killed two centurions Not that their mutual reproaches were groundwho endeavoured to quell the mutiny, and less, but it was absurd for the one to insult the Crispinus himself. Then the whole party arm- other with what might with equal justice be ed, and exhorting each other to go to the em- objected to both. For their charges consisted peror's assistance, they marched straight to of prodigality, effeminacy, incapacity for war, Rome. Being informed there that eighty sen- their former poverty and immense debts: such ators supped with him that evening, they hast-articles that it is hard to say which of them ened to the palace saying, Then was the time had the advantage. to crush all Cæsar's enemies at once. The As to the stories of prodigies and apparitions city was greatly alarmed, expecting to be plun- at that time, many of them were founded upon dered immediately. The palace, too, was in vague reports that could not be traced to their the utmost confusion, and Otho himself in un-author. But in the capitol there was a Victory speakable distress. For he was under fear and concern for the senators, while they were afraid of him; and he saw they kept their eyes fixed upon him in silence and extreme consternation; some having even brought their wives with them to supper. He therefore ordered the principal officers of the guards to go and speak to the soldiers and endeavour to appease them, and at the same time sent out his guests at another door. They had scarce made their escape when the soldiers rushed into the room, and asked what was become of the enemies of Cæsar. The emperor then, rising from his couch, used many arguments to satisfy them, and by entreaties and tears at last prevailed upon them with much difficulty to desist. Next day, having presented the soldiers with twelve hundred and fifty drachmas a man, he entered the camp. On this occasion he commended the troops as, in general, well affected to his government; but at the same time he told them, there were some designing men amongst them, who by their cabals brought his moderation and their fidelity, both into question: these, he said, deserved their resentment, and he hoped they would assist him in punishing them. They applauded his speech, and desired him to chastise whatever persons he thought proper; but he pitched upon two only for capital punishment, whom no man could possibly regret, and then returned to his palace. Those who had conceived an affection for Otho, and placed a confidence in him, admired this change in his conduct. But others thought it was no more than a piece of policy which the times necessarily required, and that he assumed a popular behaviour on account of the impending war. For now he had undoubted intelligence that Vitellius had taken the title of emperor and all the ensigns of supreme power, and couriers daily arrived with news of continual additions to his party. Other messengers also arrived, with accounts that mounted upon a chariot, and numbers of people saw her let the reins fall out of her hands, as if she had lost the power to hold them. And in the island of the Tyber, the statue of Julius Cæsar turned from west to east, withou either earthquake or whirlwind to move it. A circumstance which is said likewise to have happened when Vespasian openly took upon him the direction of affairs. The inundation of the Tyber, too, was considered by the popu lace as a bad omen. It was at a time, indeed, when rivers usually overflow their banks; but the flood never rose so high before, nor was so ruinous in its effects; for now it laid great part of the city under water, particularly the corn market, and caused a famine which continued for some days. About this time news was brought that Cecina and Valens, who acted for Vitellius, had seized the passes of the Alps. And in Rome, Dolabella, who was of an illustrious family, was suspected by the guards of some disloyal design. Otho, either fearing him, or some other whom he could influence, sent him to Aquinum, with assurances of friendly treatment. When the emperor came to select the officers that were to attend him on his march, he appointed Lucius, the brother of Vitellius, to be of the number, without either promoting or lowering him in point of rank. He took also particular care of the mother and wife of Vitellius, and endeavoured to put them in a situation where they had nothing to fear. The government of Rome he gave to Flavius Sabinus, the brother of Vespasian; either with an intention to do honour to Nero (for he had formerly given him that appointment, and Galba had deprived him of it,) or else to show his affection to Vespasian by promoting his brother. Otho himself stopped at Brixillum, a tower in Italy, near the Po, and ordered the army to march on under the conduct of his lieutenants, Marius Celsus, Suetonius Paulinus, Gallus and |