 Section 1. Book 1, Part 1 of the Histories by Publius Cornelius Tastus. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information, or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Andrew Coleman. The Histories by Publius Cornelius Tastus. Translated by Alfred John Church and William Jackson Broderib. Book 1. January to March, AD 69. Part 1. I begin my work, with the time when Servius Galba was consul for the second time with Titus Vinius for his colleague. Of the former period, the 820 years dating from the founding of the city, many authors have treated. And while they had to record the transactions of the Roman people, they wrote with equal eloquence and freedom. After the conflict at Actium, and when it became essential to peace that all power should be centred in one man, these great intellects passed away. Then, too, the truthfulness of history was impaired in many ways. At first, through men's ignorance of public affairs, which were now wholly strange to them. Then, through their passion for flattery. Or, on the other hand, their hatred of their masters. And so, between the enmity of the one and the civility of the other, neither had any regard for posterity. But while we instinctively shrink from a writer's adulation, we lend a ready ear to detraction and spite. Because flattery involves the shameful imputation of civility, whereas malignity wears the false appearance of honesty. I myself knew nothing of Galba, of Otho, or of Vitelius, either from benefits or from injuries. I would not deny that my elevation was begun by Vespasian, augmented by Titus, and still further advanced by Domitian. But those who profess inviolable truthfulness must speak of all without partiality and without hatred. I have reserved, as an employment for my old age, should my life be long enough, as subject at once more fruitful and less anxious in the reign of the Divine Nervour and the Empire of Trajan, enjoying the rare happiness of times when we may think what we please, and express what we think. I am entering on the history of a period rich in disasters, frightful in its wars, torn by civil strife, and even in peace, full of horrors. Four emperors perished by the sword. There were three civil wars. There were more with foreign enemies. There were often wars that had both characters at once. There was success in the East, and disaster in the West. There were disturbances in Illyricum. Gaul wavered in its allegiance. Britain was thoroughly subdued, and immediately abandoned. The tribes of the Suevi and the Samatai rose in concert against us. The Dacians had the glory of inflicting as well as suffering defeat. The armies of Parthia were all but set in motion by the cheat of a counterfeit Nero. Now too, Italy was prostrated by disasters either entirely novel, or that recurred only after a long succession of ages. Cities in Campania's richest plains were swallowed up and overwhelmed. Rome was wasted by conflagrations, its oldest temples consumed, and their capital itself fired by the hands of citizens. Sacred rites were profaned. There was profligacy in the highest ranks. The sea was crowded with exiles, and its rocks polluted with bloody deeds. In the capital there were yet worse horrors. Nobility, wealth, the refusal or the acceptance of office were grounds for accusation, and virtue ensured destruction. The rewards of the informers were no less odious than their crimes, for while some seized on consulships and priestly offices as their share of the spoil. Others on procurator ships and posts of more confidential authority, they robbed and ruined in every direction amid universal hatred and terror. Slaves were blibed to turn against their masters and freedmen to betray their patrons, and those who had not an enemy were destroyed by friends. Yet the age was not so barren in noble qualities, as not also to exhibit examples of virtue. Mothers accompanied the flight of their sons. Wives followed their husbands into exile. There were brave kinsmen and faithful sons-in-law. There were slaves whose fidelity defied even torture. There were illustrious men driven to the last necessity, and enduring it with fortitude. There were closing scenes that equalled the famous deaths of antiquity. Besides the manifold vicissitudes of human affairs, there were prodigies in heaven and earth, the warning voices of the thunder, and other intimations of the future, or spicious or gloomy, doubtful or not be mistaken. Never surely did more terrible calamities of the Roman people, or evidence more conclusive, prove that the gods take no thought for our happiness, but only for our punishment. I think it proper, however, before I commence my purposed work, to pass under review the condition of the capital, the temper of the armies, the attitude of the provinces, and the elements of weakness and strength, which existed throughout the whole empire, so that we may become acquainted not only with the vicissitudes and the issues of events, which were often matters of chance, but also with their relations and their causes. Welcome as the death of Nero had been in the first burst of joy, yet it had not only roused various emotions in Rome, among the senators, the people, or the soldiery of the capital, it had also excited all the legions and their generals. For now had been divulged that secret of the empire, that emperors could be made elsewhere than at Rome. The senators enjoyed the first exercise of freedom with a less restraint, because the emperor was new to power, and absent from the capital. The leading men of the equestrian order sympathized most closely with the joy of the senators. The respectable portion of the people, which was connected with the great families, as well as the dependents and freedmen of condemned and banished persons, were high in hope, the degraded populace. Frequenters of the arena and the theatre, the most worthless of the slaves, and those who, having wasted their property, were supported by the infamous excesses of Nero, caught eagerly in their dejection at every rumour. The soldiery of the capital, who imbued with the spirit of an old allegiance to the Caesars, and who had been led to desert Nero by intrigues and influences from without, rather than by their own feelings, were inclined for change when they found that the donative promised in Galba's name was withheld, and reflected that for great services and great rewards there was not the same room in peace as in war, and that the favour of an emperor created by the legions must be already preoccupied. They were further excited by the treason of Nymphidius Sabinesus, their prefect, who himself aimed at the throne. Nymphidius indeed perished in the attempt, but though the head of the mutiny was thus removed, there yet remained in many of the soldiers the consciousness of guilt. There were even men who talked in angry terms of the feebleness and avarice of Galba. The strictness once so commended, and celebrated in the praises of the army, was galling to troops who rebelled against the old discipline, and who had been accustomed by fourteen years' service under Nero to love the vices of their emperors, as much as they had once respected their virtues. To all this was added Galba's own expression, I choose my soldiers, I do not buy them, noble words for the commonwealth, but fraught with peril for himself. His other acts were not after this pattern. Titus Vinius and Cornelius Laco won the most worthless, the other the most spiritless of mankind, were ruining the weak old emperor, who had to bear the odium of such crimes, and the scorned felt for such cowardice. Galba's progress had been slow and blood-stained. Kingonius Varro, consular lect, and Petronius Terpillianus, a man of consular rank, were put to death. The former as an accomplice of Nymphidius, the latter as one of Nero's generals, both had perished without hearing or defence, like innocent men. His entry into the capital, made after the slaughter of thousands of unarmed soldiers, was most ill-oment, and was terrible even to the executioners. As he brought into the city his Spanish legion, while that which Nero had levied from the fleet still remained, Rome was full of strange troops. There were also many detachments from Germany, Britain, and Illyria, selected by Nero, and sent on by him to the Caspian Passes, for service in the expedition which he was preparing against the Albani, but afterwards recalled to crush the insurrection of Vindex. Here there were vast materials for a revolution, without indeed a decided bias towards any one man, but ready to a daring hand. In this conjuncture it happened that tidings of the death of Frontius Capito and Claudius Macca reached the capital. Macca was executed in Africa, where he was undoubtedly fermenting sedition, by Trebonius Garotianus, the procurator, who acted on Galba's authority. Capito fell in Germany when he was making similar attempts, by the hands of Cornelius Aquinas and Fabius Valens, legates of legions who did not wait for an order. There were, however, some who believed that Capito, though fowly stained with avarice and profligacy, had yet abstained from all thought of revolution, that this was a treacherous accusation invented by the commanders themselves who had urged him to take up arms when they found themselves unable to prevail, and that Galba had approved of the deed, either from weakness of character, or to avoid investigation into the circumstances of acts which could not be altered. Both executions, however, were unfavourably regarded. Indeed, when a ruler once becomes unpopular, all his acts, be they good or bad, tell against him. The freedmen, in their excessive power, were now putting up everything for sale. The slaves caught with greedy hands at immediate gain, and, reflecting on their master's age, hastened to be rich. The new court had the same abuses as the old, abuses as grievous as ever, but not so readily excused. Even the age of Galba caused ridicule and disgust among those whose associations were with the youth of Nero, and who were accustomed, as is the fashion of the vulgar, to value their emperors by the beauty and grace of their persons. Such, as far as one can speak of so vast a multitude, was the state of feeling at Rome. Among the provinces, Spain was under the government of Cluvius Rufus, an eloquent man who had all the accomplishments of civil life. But who was without experience in war. Gaul, besides remembering Vindex, was bound to Galba by the recently conceded privileges of citizenship, and by the diminution of its future tribute. Those Gallic states, however, which were nearest to the armies of Germany, had not been treated with the same respect, and had even in some cases been deprived of their territory. And these were reckoning the gains of others and their own losses with equal indignation. The armies of Germany were at once alarmed and angry, a most dangerous temper when allied with such strength. While elated by their recent victory, they feared because they might seem to have supported an unsuccessful party. They had been slow to revolt from Nero, and Virginius had not immediately declared for Galba. It was doubtful whether he had himself wished to be emperor, but all agreed that the empire had been offered to him by the soldiery. Again, the execution of capital was a subject of indignation, even with those who could not complain of its injustice. They had no leader, for Virginius had been withdrawn on the pretext of his friendship with the emperor, that he was not sent back, and that he was even impeached. They regarded as an accusation against themselves. The army of Upper Germany despised their legate, Hordeonius Flaccus, who, disabled by age and lameness, had no strength of character and no authority. Even when the soldiery were quiet, he could not control them. Much more in their fits of frenzy were they irritated by the very feebleness of his restraint. The legions of Lower Germany had long been without any general of consular rank, until, by the appointment of Galba, Aulus Vitellius took the command. He was son of that Vitellius who was censor and three times consul. This was thought sufficient recommendation. In the army of Britain, there was no angry feeling. Indeed, no troops behaved more blamelessly throughout all the troubles of these civil wars, either because they were far away and separated by the ocean from the rest of the empire. Or because continual warfare had taught them to concentrate their hatred on the enemy. Illyricum, too, was quiet, though the legions drawn from that province by Nero had, while lingering in Italy, sent deputations to Virginia's. But separated as these armies were by long distances, a thing of all others the most favourable for keeping troops to their duty, they could neither communicate their vices nor combine their strength. In the East, there was as yet no movement. Syria and its four legions were under the command of Lycinius Mukianus, a man whose good and bad fortune were equally famous. In his youth he had cultivated with many intrigues the friendship of the great. His resources soon failed and his position became precarious. And as he also suspected that Claudius had taken some offence, he withdrew into a retired part of Asia, and was as like an exile as he was afterwards like an emperor. He was a compound of dissipation and energy, of arrogance and courtesy, of good and bad qualities. His self-indulgence was excessive when he had leisure, yet whenever he had served he had shown great qualities. In his public capacity he might be praised. His private life was in bad repute. Yet over subjects, friends and colleagues, he exercised the influence of many fascinations. He was a man who would find it easier to transfer the imperial power to another than to hold it for himself. Flavius Vespasian, a general of Nero's appointment, was carrying on the war in Judea with three legions, and he had no wish or feeling adverse to Galba. He had, in fact, sent his son Titus to acknowledge his authority and to bespeak his favour, as in its proper place I shall relate. As for the hidden decrees of fate, the omens and the oracles that marked out Vespasian and his sons for imperial power, we believed in them only after his success. Ever since the time of the Divine Augustus Roman knights have ruled Egypt as kings, and the forces by which it has to be kept in subjection. It has been thought expedient, thus to keep under home control, a province so difficult of access, so productive of corn, ever distracted, excitable, and restless through the superstition and licentiousness of its inhabitants, knowing nothing of laws and unused to civil rule. Its governor was at this time Tiberius Alexander, a native of the country. Africa and its legions, now that Claudius Macca was dead, were disposed to be content with any emperor after having experienced the rule of a smaller tyrant. The two divisions of Mauritania, Rhaetia, Noricum and Thrace, and the other provinces governed by procurators, as they were near this or that army, were driven by the presence of such powerful neighbours into friendship or hostility. The unarmed provinces with Italy at their head were exposed to any kind of slavery and were ready to become the prize of victory. Such was the state of the Roman world when Servius Galba, consul for the second time with Titus Vinius for his colleague, entered upon a year which was to be the last of their lives and which Welnai brought the Commonwealth to an end. A few days after the first of January, they arrived from Belgica dispatches of Pompeius Proprincus, the procurator, to this effect, that the legions of Upper Germany had broken through the obligation of their military oath and were demanding another emperor, but conceded the power of choice to the senate and people of Rome in the hope that a more lenient view might be taken of their revolt. These tidings hastened the plans of Galba, though had been long debating the subject of adoption with himself and with his intimate friends. There was indeed no more frequent subject of conversation during these months, at first because men had liberty and inclination to talk of such matters, afterwards because the feebleness of Galba was notorious. Few had any discrimination of patriotism. Many had foolish hopes for themselves and spread interested reports in which they named this or that person to whom they might be related as friend or dependent. They were also moved by hatred of Titus Vinius, who grew daily more powerful and in the same proportion, more unpopular. The very easiness of Galba's temper stimulated the greedy cupidity which great advancement had excited in his friends because with one so weak and so credulous wrong might be done with less risk and greater gain. The real power of the empire was divided between Titus Vinius, the consul and Cornelius Laco, prefect of the Praetorian Guard. Aichelus, a freedman of Galba, was in equal favour. He had been presented with the rings of knighthood and bore the equestrian name of Martianus. These men, being at variance and in smaller matters pursuing their own aims, were divided in the affair of choosing a successor into two opposing factions. Titus Vinius was for Marcus Arthur. Laco and Aichelus agreed, not indeed in supporting any particular individual. But in striving for someone else. Galba indeed was aware of the friendship between Vinius and Otho. The gossip of those who allowed nothing to pass in silence had named them as father-in-law and son-in-law, for Vinius had a widowed daughter and Otho was unmarried. I believe that he had also at heart some care for the commonwealth. In vain, he would think, rescued from Nero if it was to be left with Otho. For Othos had been a neglected boyhood and riotous youth and he had made himself agreeable to Nero by emulating his profligacy. For this reason the emperor had entrusted to him as being the confidant of his amours, Popeia Sabina, the imperial favourite, until he could rid himself of his wife Octavia. Soon suspecting him with regard to this same Popeia he sent him out of the way to the province of Lucetania, ostensibly to be its governor. Otho ruled the province with mildness and as he was the first to join Galba's party was not without energy and while the war lasted was the most conspicuous of the emperor's followers. He was led to cherish more and more passionately every day those hopes of adoption which he had entertained from the first. Many of the soldiers favoured him and the court was biased in his favour because he resembled Nero. When Galba heard of the mutiny in Germany though nothing was as yet known about Vitellius he felt anxious as to the direction which the violence of the legions might take while he could not trust even the soldiery of the capital. He therefore resorted to what he supposed to be the only remedy and held a council for the election of an emperor. To this he summoned, besides Vinius and Lago, Marius Celsus, consul-elect and Eugenius Gimminus, prefect of the city. Having first said a few words about his advanced years he ordered Piso Licinianus to be summoned. It is uncertain whether he acted on his own free choice or as believed by some under the influence of Laco who through rebellious plotters had cultivated the friendship of Piso. But, cunningly enough, it was as a stranger that Laco supported him and the high character of Piso gave weight to his advice. Piso, who was the son of Marcus Crassus and Scribonia and thus of noble descent on both sides was in look and manner a man of the old type. Rightly judged he seemed the stern man morose to those who estimated him less favourably. This point in his character pleased his adopted father in proportion as it raised the anxious suspicions of others. We are told that Galba, taking hold of Piso's hand spoke to this effect. If I were a private man and were now adopting you by the act of the curiae before the pontiffs, as our custom is it would be a high honour to me to introduce into my family a descendant of Cnius Pompeius and Marcus Crassus. It would be a distinction to you to add to the nobility of your race the honours of the Sopichian and Lutatian houses. As it is, I who have been called to the throne by the unanimous consent of gods and men am moved by your splendid endowments and by my own patriotism to offer to you a man of peace that power for which our ancestors fought and which I myself obtained by war. I am following the precedent of the divine Augustus who placed on an eminence next to his own first his nephew Markelus then his son-in-law Agrippa afterwards his grandsons and finally Tiberius Nero, his stepson. But Augustus looked for a successor in his own family I look for one in the state not because I have no relatives or companions of my campaigns but because it was not by any private favour that I myself received the imperial power. Let the principle of my choice be shown not only by my connections which I have set aside for you but by your own. You have a brother noble as yourself and older who would be well worthy of this dignity were you not worthier. Your age is such as to be now free from the passions of youth and such your life that in the past you have nothing to excuse. Hitherto you have only borne adversity Prosperity tries the heart with keener temptations for hardships may be endured whereas we are spoiled by success. You indeed will cling with the same constancy to honour, freedom, friendship the best possessions of the human spirit but others will seek to weaken them with their civility. You will be fiercely assailed by adulation by flattery that worst poison of the true heart and by the selfish interests of individuals. You and I speak together today with perfect frankness but others will be more ready to address us as emperors than as men for to urge his duty upon a prince is indeed a hard matter. To flatter him, whatever his character is a mere routine gone through without any heart. Could the vast frame of this empire have stood and preserved its balance without a directing spirit? I was not unworthy of inaugurating a republic as it is we have been long reduced to a position in which my age confer no greater boon on the Roman people than a good successor. Your youth no greater than a good emperor. Under Tiberius, Caius and Claudius we were so to speak the inheritance of a single family the choice which begins with us will be a substitute for freedom now that the family of the Julie and the Claudie has come to an end adoption will discover the worthiest successor. To be begotten and born of a princely race is a mere accident and is only valued as such. In adoption there is nothing that need bias the judgement and if you wish to make a choice an unanimous opinion points out the man let Nero be ever before your eyes swollen with the pride of a long line of Caesars. It was not Vindex with his unarmed province it was not myself with my single legion that shook his yoke from our necks it was his own profligacy his own brutality and that though there had been before no precedent of an emperor condemned by his own people we who have been called to power by the issues of war and by the deliberate judgement of others shall incur unpopularity however illustrious our character do not however be alarmed if after a movement which has shaken the world two legions are not yet quiet I did not myself succeed to a throne without anxiety and when men shall hear of your adoption I shall no longer be thought old and this is the only objection which is now made against me Nero will always be regretted by the thoroughly depraved it is for you and me to take care that you be not regretted also by the good to prolong such advice suits not this occasion and all my purpose is fulfilled if I have made a good choice in you the most practical and the shortest method of distinguishing between good and bad measures is to think what you yourself would or would not like under another emperor it is not here as it is among nations despotically ruled that there is a distinct governing family while all the rest are slaves you have to reign over men you cannot bear either absolute slavery or absolute freedom this with more to the same effect was said by Galba he spoke to Pisa as if he were creating an emperor the others addressed him as if he were an emperor already it is said of Piso that he betrayed no discomposure or excessive joy either to the gaze to which he was immediately subjected or afterwards when all eyes were turned upon him his language to the emperor, his father, was reverential his language about himself was modest he showed no change in look or manner he seemed like one who had the power rather than the wish to rule it was next discussed whether the adoption should be publicly pronounced in front of the rostra in the senate or in the camp it was thought best to go to the camp this would be a compliment to the soldiery and their favour based as it was to purchase it by bribery or intrigue was not to be despised if it could be obtained by honourable means meanwhile the expectant people had surrounded the palace impatient to learn the great secret and those who sought to stifle the ill-concealed rumour did but spread it the more the 10th of January was a gloomy stormy day unusually disturbed by thunder, lightning and all bad omens from heaven though this had from ancient time been made a reason for dissolving an assembly it did not deter Galba from proceeding to the camp either because he despised such things as being mere matters of chance or because the decrees of fate, though they be foreshown are not escaped addressing a crowded assembly of the soldiers he announced with imperial brevity that he adopted Piso following the precedent of the divine Augustus and the military custom by which a soldier chooses his comrade fearing that to conceal the mutiny would be to make them think it greater than it really was he spontaneously declared that the 4th and 18th legions led by a few factious persons had been insubordinate but had not gone beyond certain words and cries and that they would soon return to their duty to this speech he added no word of flattery no hint of a bribe yet the tribunes, the centurions and such of the soldiers as stood near made an encouraging response a gloomy silence prevailed among the rest who seemed to think that they had lost by war that right to a donative which they had made good even in peace it is certain that their feelings might have been conciliated by the very smallest liberality on the part of the parsimonious old man he was ruined by his old-fashioned inflexibility and by an excessive sternness which we are no longer able to endure End of Book 1 Part 1 Section 2 Book 1 Part 2 of the Histories by Pumpleus Cornelius Tastus this is a Lebervox recording all Lebervox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit Lebervox.org Recording by Andrew Coleman The Histories by Pumpleus Cornelius Tastus translated by Alfred John Church and William Jackson Broderib Book 1 January to March AD 69 Part 2 Then followed Galba's speech in the Senate which was as plain and brief as his speech to the soldiery Piso delivered a graceful aeration and was supported by the feeling of the Senate many who wished him well spoke with enthusiasm those who had opposed him in moderate terms the majority met him with an officious homage having aims of their own and no thought for the state Piso neither said nor did anything else in public in the following four days which intervened between his adoption and his death as tidings of the mutiny in Germany were arriving with daily increasing frequency while the country was ready to receive and to credit all intelligence that had an unfavourable character the Senate came to a resolution to send deputies to the German armies it was privately discussed whether Piso should go with them to give them a more imposing appearance they it was said would bring with them the authority of the Senate he the majesty of the Caesar it was thought expedient to send with them Cornelius Laco prefect of the Praetorian Guard but he thwarted the design in nominating, excusing and changing the deputies the Senate having entrusted the selection to Galba the emperor showed a disgraceful want of firmness yielding to individuals who made interest to stay or to go as their fears or their hopes prompted next came the question of money on a general inquiry it seemed the fairest cause to demand restitution from those who had caused the public poverty Nero had squandered in presence 2200 million Cisterces it was ordered that each recipient should be sued but should be permitted to retain a tenth part of the bounty they had however barely a tenth part left having wasted the property of others in the same extravagances in which they had squandered their own till the most rapacious and profligate among them had neither capital nor land remaining nothing in fact but the appliances of their vices thirty Roman knights were appointed to conduct the process of recovery a novel office and made burdensome by the number and intriguing practices of those with whom it had to deal everywhere were sales and brokers and Rome was in an uproar with auctions yet great was the joy to think that the men whom Nero had enriched would be as poor as those whom he had robbed about this time Wickers she had two tribunes of the Praetorian Guard Antonius Taurus and Antonius Nazo an officer of the city cohorts Emilius Pecensis and one of the watch Julius Fronto this led to no amendment with the rest but only started the apprehension that a crafty and timid policy was getting rid of individuals while all were suspected although meanwhile who had nothing to hope while the state was tranquil and whose whole plans depended on revolution was being roused to action by a combination of many motives by a luxury that would have embarrassed even an emperor by a poverty that a subject could hardly endure by his rage against Galba by his envy of Piso he even pretended to fear to make himself keener in desire I was, said he, too formidable to Nero and I must not look for another Lusitania another honourable exile rulers always suspect and hate the man who has been named for the succession this has injured me with the aged emperor and will injure me yet more with a young man whose temper naturally savage has been rendered ferocious by prolonged exile how easy to put Otto to death I must therefore do and dare now while Galba's authority is still unsettled and before that of Piso is consolidated periods of transitions suit great attempts and delay is useless where inaction is more hurtful than temerity death which nature ordains for all alike yet admits of the distinction of being either forgotten or remembered with honour by posterity and if the same lot awaits the innocent and the guilty the man of spirit will at least deserve his fate the soul of Otto was not effeminate like his person his confidential freedmen and slaves who enjoyed a license unknown in private families brought the debaucheries of Nero's court its intrigues its easy marriages and the other indulgences of despotic power before a mind passionately fond of such things dwelt upon them as his if he dared to seize them and to approach the inaction that would leave them to others the astrologers also urged him to action predicting from their observation of the heavens revolutions and a year of glory for Otto this is a class of men whom the powerful cannot trust and who deceive the aspiring a class which will always be prescribed in this country and yet always retained many of these men were attached to the secret councils of Papaya and were the vilest tools in the employ of the imperial household one of them, Toller Mayes, had attended Otto in Spain and had therefore told that his patron would survive Nero gaining credit by the result and arguing from his own conjectures and from the common talk of those who compared Galba's age with Otto's youth he had persuaded the latter that he would be called to the throne Otto however received the prediction as the words of wisdom and the intimation of destiny with that inclination so natural to the human mind readily to believe in the mysterious nor did Toller Mayes fail to play his part he now even prompted to crime to which from such witches it is easy to pass whether indeed these thoughts of crime were suddenly conceived is doubtful Otto had long been courting the affections of the soldiery either in the hope of succeeding to the throne or in preparation for some desperate act on the march, on parade and in their quarters he would address all of the oldest soldiers by name and in allusion to the progressives of Nero would call them his mess-mates some he would recognise, he would inquire after others and would help them with his money and interest he would often intersperse his conversation with complaints and insinuations against Galba and anything else that might excite the vulgar mind laborious marches, a scanty commissariat the rigour of military discipline were especially distasteful when men accustomed to sail to the lakes of Campania and the cities of Greece had painfully to struggle under the weight of their arms over the Pyrenees, the Alps and vast distances of road the minds of the soldiery were already on fire when Mavius Pudens, near relative of Tegelinas so to speak, fuelled to the flames in his endeavour to win over all who were particularly weak in character or who wanted money and were ready to plunge into revolution he gradually went so far as to distribute whenever Galba dined with Otho 100 Cisterces to each soldier of the cohort on duty and a pretext of treating them this, which we may almost call a public bounty Otho followed up by presence more privately bestowed on individuals nay, he bribed with such spirit that finding there was a dispute between Coquere's Proculus the soldier of the bodyguard and one of his neighbours about some part of their boundaries he purchased with his own money the neighbours entire estate and made a present of it to the soldier he took advantage of the lazy indifference of the prefect who overlooked alike notorious facts and secret practices he then entrusted the conduct of his meditated treason to Honor Masters, one of his freedmen who brought over to his views Barbius Proculus officer of the watchword to the bodyguard and Vitorius, a dipty centurion in the same force having assured himself by various conversations with these men that they were cunning and bold he loaded them with presence and promises and furnished them with money with which to tempt the cupidity of others thus two soldiers from the ranks undertook to transfer the empire of Rome and actually transferred it only a few were admitted to be accomplices in the plot but they worked by various devices on the wavering minds of the remainder on the more distinguished soldiers by hinting that the favours of Nymphidius had subjected them to suspicion on the vulgar herd by the anger and despair with which the repeated postponement of the donative had inspired them some were fired by their recollections of Nero and their longing regrets for their old license all felt a common alarm at the idea of having to serve elsewhere the contagion spread to the legions and the auxiliary troops already excited by the news of the wavering loyalty of the army of Germany so ripe were the disaffected for mutiny and so close the secrecy preserved by the loyal that they would actually have seized Otho on the 14th of January as he was returning from dinner had they not been deterred by the risks of darkness the inconvenient dispersion of the troops over the whole city and the difficulty of concerted action among a half intoxicated crowd it was no care for the state which they deliberately meditated polluting with the blood of their emperor it was a fear lest in the darkness of night anyone who presented himself to the soldiers of the Pannonian or German army might be fixed on instead of Otho whom few of them knew many symptoms of the approaching outburst were repressed by those who were in the secret some hints which had reached Galba's ears were turned into ridicule by Leko the Prefect who knew nothing of the temper of the soldier and who inimical to all measures however excellent which he did not originate obstinately thwarted men wiser than himself on the 15th of January as Galba was sacrificing in front of the temple of Apollo the Haraspex and Brickius announced to him that the entrails had a sinister aspect that treachery threatened him that he had an enemy at home although heard for he had taken his place close by and interpreted it by contraries in a favourable sense as promising success to his designs not long after his freedmen on a masters informed him that the architect and the contractors were waiting for him it had been arranged thus to indicate that the soldiers were assembling and that the preparations of the conspiracy were complete to those who inquired the reason of his departure Otho pretended that he was purchasing certain farm buildings which from their age he suspected to be unsound and which had therefore to be first surveyed leaning on his freedmen's arm he proceeded through the palace of Tiberius to the Velabrum and thence to the golden milestone near the temple of Saturn there three and twenty soldiers of the bodyguard saluted him as emperor and while he trembled at their scanty number put him hastily into a chair drew their swords and hurried him onwards about as many more soldiers joined them on their way some because they were in the plot many from mere surprise some shouted and brandished their swords others proceeded in silence intending to let the issue determine their sentiments Julius Marchialis was the tribune on guard in the camp appalled by the enormity and suddenness of the crime or perhaps fearing that the troops were very extensively corrupted and that it would be destruction to oppose them he made many suspect him of complicity the rest of the tribunes and centurions preferred immediate safety to danger and duty such was the temple of men's minds that while there were few to venture on so atrocious a treason many wished it done and all were ready to acquiesce meanwhile the unconscious Galba busy with his sacrifice was importuning the gods of an empire that was now another's a rumour reached him that some senator unknown was being hurried into the camp before long it was affirmed that this senator was Otho at the same time came messengers from all parts of the city where they had chance to meet the procession some exaggerating the danger some who could not even then forget to flatter representing it as less than the reality under liberation it was determined to sound the feeling of the cohort on guard in the palace but not through Galba in person whose authority was to be kept unimpaired to meet greater emergencies they were accordingly collected before the steps of the palace and Piso addressed them as follows comrades this is the sixth day since I became a Caesar by adoption not knowing what was to happen whether this title was to be desired or dreaded it rests with you to determine what will be the result to my family and to the state it is not that I dread on my own account the gloomier issue for I have known adversity and I am learning at this very moment that prosperity is fully as dangerous it is the lot of my father of the senate of the empire itself that I deplore if we have either to fall this day or to do what is equally abhorrent to the good to put others to death in the late troubles we had this consolation a capital unstained by bloodshed and power transferred without strife it was thought that by my adoption provision was made against the possibility of war even after Galba's death I will lay no claim to nobleness or moderation for indeed to count up virtues in comparing oneself with Otto is needless the vices of which alone he boasts over through the empire even when he was but the emperor's friend shall he earn that empire now by his manner and his gate or by those womanish adornments they are deceived on whom luxury imposes by its false show of liberality he will know how to squander he will not know how to give already he is thinking of debaucheries of revels of tribes of mistresses these things he holds to be the prizes of princely power things in which the wanton enjoyment will be for him alone the shame and the disgrace for all never yet has anyone exercised for good ends the power obtained by crime the unanimous will of mankind gave to Galba the title of Caesar and you consented when he gave it to me were the senate, the country, the people but empty names yet comrades it is your interest that the most worthless of men should not create an emperor we have occasionally heard of legions mutinying against their generals but your loyalty, your character, stand unimpeached up to this time even with Nero it was he that deserted you not you that deserted him shall less than 30 runaways and deserters whom no one would allow to choose a tribune or centurion for themselves assign the empire at their pleasure do you tolerate the precedent do you by your inaction make the crime your own this lawless spirit will pass into the provinces and though we shall suffer from this treason you will suffer from the wars that will follow again no more is offered to you for murdering your prince than you will have if you shun such guilt we shall give you a donative for your loyalty as surely as others can give it for your treason the soldiers of the bodyguard dispersed but the rest of the cohort who showed no disrespect to the speaker displayed their standards acting as often happens in a disturbance on mere impulse and without any settled plan rather than as was afterwards believed with treachery at an intention to deceive Kelsus Marius was sent to the Pict troops from the army of Illyricum then encamped in the portico of Vipsanius instructions were also given to Amulia Serinas and Quintia Serbinus centurions of the first rank to bring up the German soldiers from the Hall of Liberty no confidence was placed in the legion levied from the fleet which had been enraged by the massacre of their comrades whom Galba has slaughtered immediately on his entry into the capital meanwhile, Ketrius Severus, Subrius Dexter and Pompeius Longinus, all three military tribunes proceeded to the Praetorian camp in the hope that its addition which was but just commencing and not yet fully matured might be swayed by better councils two of these tribunes, Subrius and Ketrius the soldiers are sailed with menaces Longinus they seized and disarmed it was not his rank as an officer but his friendship with Galba that bound him to that prince and roused a stronger suspicion in the mutineers the legion levied from the fleet joined the Praetorians without any hesitation the Illyrian detachments drove Salsus away with a shower of javelins the German veterans wavered long their frames were still enfeebled by sickness and their minds were favourably disposed towards Galba who, finding them exhausted by their long return voyage from Alexandria whether they had been sent on by Nero had supplied their wants with the most unsparing attention the whole populace and the slaves with them were now crowding the palace clamouring with discordant shouts for the death of Otho and the destruction of the conspirators just as if they were demanding some spectacle in the circus or amphitheatre they had not indeed any discrimination or sincerity from that same day they would raise with equal zeal a wholly different cry it was their traditional custom to flatter any ruler with reckless applause and meaningless seal meanwhile two suggestions were keeping Galba in doubt Titus Vinius thought that he should remain within the palace array the slaves against the foe secure the approaches and not go out to the enraged soldiers you should, he said give the disaffected time to repent the loyal time to unite crimes gained by hasty action better councils by delay at all events you will still have the same facilities of going out if need be whereas your retreat should you repent of having gone will be in the power of another the rest were for speedy action before they said the yet feeble treason of this handful of men can gather strength Otho himself will be alarmed Otho who stole away to be introduced to a few strangers but who now, thanks to the hesitation and inaction in which we waste our time is learning how to play the prince we must not wait till having arranged matters in the camp he bursts into the forum and under Galba's very eyes mixes way to the capital while our noble emperor with his brave friends barricades the doors of his palace we are to stand as siege for sooth and truly we shall have an admirable resource in the slaves if the unanimous feeling of this vast multitude and that which can do so much the first burst of indignation be suffered to subside moreover that cannot be safe which is not honourable if we must fall let us go to meet the danger this will bring more odium upon Otho and will be more becoming to ourselves Vinius opposing this advice Laco assailed him with threats encouraged by Ikelis who persisted in his private animosities to the public ruin without further delay Galba sided with these more plausible advisers Piso was sent on into the camp as being a young man of noble name whose popularity was of recent date and who was a bitter enemy to Titus Vinius that is either he was so in reality or these angry partisans would have it so and belief in hatred is but too ready Piso had hardly gone forth when there came a rumour that at first vague and wanting confirmation that Otho had been slain in the camp soon as happens with these great fictions men asserted that they had been present and had seen the deed and between the delight of some and the indifference of others the report was easily believed many thought the rumour had been invented and circulated by the Orthonianists who were now mingling with the crowd who disseminated these false tidings of success to draw Galba out of the palace upon this not only did the people and the ignorant rabble break out into applause and vehement expressions of zeal but many of the knights and senators losing their caution as they laid aside their fear burst open the doors of the palace rushed in and displayed themselves to Galba explaining that their revenge had been snatched from them the most aren't coward the man who, as the event proved would dare nothing in the moment of danger was the most volleyball and fierce of speech no one knew anything yet all were confident in assertion to let length Galba in the dearth of all true intelligence and overborn by the universal delusion he assumed his cuirass and as from age and bodily weakness he could not stand up against the crowd that was still rushing in he was elevated on a chair he was met in the palace by Julius Atticus a soldier of the bodyguard who displaying a bloody sword cried, I have slain Ortho! comrade! replied Galba who gave the order so singularly resolute was his spirit the license of the soldiery threats did not dismay him nor flatteries seduce end of book one part two recording by Andrew Coleman book one part three of the histories by Publius Cornelius Tacitus this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org the histories by Publius Cornelius Tacitus translated by Alfred John Church and William Jackson Broderick book one January to March, 8069 part three there was now no doubt about the feeling of all the troops in the camp so great was their zeal that not content with surrounding Ortho with their persons in close array they elevated him to the pedestal on which a short time before had stood the guilt statue of Galba and there amid the standards encircled him with their colours neither tribunes nor centurions could approach the common soldiers even insisted that all the officers should be watched everything was in an uproar with their tumultuous cries and their appeals to each other which were not like those of a popular assembly or mob the discordant expressions of an idle flattery on the contrary as soon as they caught sight of any of the soldiers coming in they seized him gave him the military embrace placed him close to Ortho dictated to him the oath of allegiance commending sometimes the emperor to his soldiers sometimes the soldiers to their emperor Ortho did not fail to play his part he stretched out his arms and bowed to the crowd and kissed his hands and altogether acted the slave to make himself the master it was when the whole legion feeling confidence in his strength and thinking that the men on whose individual feeling he had been working should be roused by a general appeal he stood before the rampart of the camp and spoke as follows Comrades, I cannot say in what character I have presented myself to you I refuse to call myself a subject now that you have named me Prince or Prince while another reigns your title also will be equally uncertain so long as it shall be a question whether it is the emperor whether it is the emperor of the Roman people or a public enemy whom you have in your camp mark you how in one breath they cry for my punishment and for your execution so evident it is that we can neither perish nor be saved except together perhaps with his usual clemency Galba has already promised that we should die like the man who though no one demanded it massacred so many thousands of perfectly guiltless soldiers a shutter comes over my soul whenever I call to mind that ghastly entry Galba's solitary victory when before the eyes of the capital he gave orders to decimate the prisoners the suppliants whom he had admitted to surrender these were the auspices with which he entered the city what is the glory that he has brought to the throne none but that he has murdered Alvatronius subinus and Cornelius Marcellus in Spain Batuus Chilo and Gaul Capito in Germany Claudius Massar in Africa Sigonius on the high road Terpillianus in the city Nymphidius in the camp what province, what camp in the world but is stained with blood and foul with crime or as he expresses it himself purified and chastened for what others call crimes he calls reforms and by similar misnomers he speaks of strictness instead of barbarity of economy instead of avarice while the cruelties and affronts inflicted upon you he calls discipline seven months only have passed since Nero fell and already Icelus has seized more than the Polycleti, the Vattenii and the Eleae amassed the Nias would not have gone so far with his rapacity and lawlessness had he been emperor himself as it is he has lorded it over us as if we had been his own subjects has led us as cheap as if we had been in others the house would furnish the donative which has never given you but with which you are daily up braided again that we might have nothing to hope even from his successor Galba fetches out of exile the man in whose ill humor and avarice he considers that he has found the best resemblance to himself you witnessed comrades how by a remarkable storm even the gods discounted that ill-started option and the feeling of the senate of the people of Rome is the same it is to your valor that they look in you these better councils find all their support without you as noble as they may be they are powerless it is not to war or to danger that I invite you the swords of all Roman soldiers are with us at this moment Galba has but one half armed cohort which is detaining not defending him let it once behold you let it receive my signal and the only strife will be that I manage me most there is no room for delay in a business which can only be approved when it is done he then ordered the armory to be opened the soldiers immediately seized the arms without regard to rule or military order no distinction being observed between Praetorians and legionaries both of whom again indiscriminately assumed the shields and helmets of the auxiliary troops no tribune or centurion encouraged them every man appointed on his own impulse and guidance and the vilest found their chief ensightment in the dejection of the good meanwhile appalled by the roar of the increasing sedition and by the shouts which reached the city Piso had overtaken Galba who in the interval had quitted the palace and was approaching the forum already Marius Celsus had brought back discouraging tidings and now some advise that the emperor should return to the palace others that he should make for the capital many again that he should occupy the rostra though most did but opposed the opinions of others while as ever happens in these ill-starred councils plans for which the opportunity had slipped away seemed the best it is said that Lako without Galba's knowledge meditated the death of Vinius either hoping by this execution to appease the fury of the soldiers or believing him to be an accomplice of Otho or it may be out of mere hatred the time and the place however made him hesitate he knew that a massacre once begun is not easily checked his plan too was disconcerted by a secession of alarming tidings and the desertion of immediate adherents so languid was now the zeal of those who had at first been eager to display their fidelity and courage Galba was hurried to and fro with every movement of the surging crowd the halls and temples all around were thronged with spectators of this mournful sight not a voice was heard from the people or even from the rabble everywhere were terror-stricken countenances and ears turned to catch every sound it was a scene neither of agitation nor of repose but there reigned the silence of profound alarm and profound indignation Otho however was told that they were arming the mob he ordered his men to hurry on at full speed and to anticipate the danger then did Roman soldiers rush forward like men who had to drive a vulgizes or a pecorus from the ancestral throne of the Arsacidae not as though they were hastening to murder their aged and defenseless emperor in all the terror of their arms and at the full speed of their horses they burst into the forum thrusting aside the crowd and trampling on the senate neither did the side of the capital nor the sanctity of the overhanging temples nor the thought of rulers past or future could deter them from committing a crime which anyone succeeding to power must avenge when this armed array was seen to approach the standard bearer of the cohort that escorted Galba he is said to have been one Attilius Virgilio tore off and dashed upon the ground Galba's effigy at this signal the feeling of all the troops declared himself plainly for Otho the forum was deserted by the flying populace weapons were pointed against all who hesitated near the lake of Cardius Galba was thrown out of his litter and fell to the ground through the alarm of his bearers his last words have been variously reported according his men hated or admired him some have said that he asked in a tone of entreaty what wrong he had done and begged a few days for the payment of the donative the more general account is that he voluntarily offered his neck to the murderers and bade them haste and strike if it seemed to be for the good of the commonwealth to those who slew him mattered not what he said about the actual murderer nothing is clearly known some have recorded the name of Tarentius an enrolled pensioner others that of Lecheneus but it is the current report that one Camarius a soldier of the 15th Legion completely severed his throat by threading his sword down upon it the rest of the soldiers foully mulated his arms and legs for his breast was protected and in their savage ferocity inflicted many wounds even on the headless trunk they next fell on T. Vinius and in his case also it is not known whether the fear of instant death choked his utterance or whether he cried out that Otho had not given orders to slay him either he invented this in his terror or he thus confessed his share in the conspiracy his life and character inclined us rather to believe that he was an accomplice in the crime which he certainly caused he fell in front of the temple of the divine Julius and at the first blow which struck him on the back of the knee immediately afterwards Julius carus a legionary ran him through the body a noble example of manhood was on that day witnessed by our age in Sampronius Densis he was a centurion in a cohort of the Praetorian Guard and had been appointed by Galba to escort Piso rushing dagger in hand to meet the armed men and upbraiding them with their crime he drew the attention of the murderers on himself by his exclamations and gestures and thus gave Piso wounded as he was an opportunity of escape Piso made his way to the temple of Vesta where he was admitted by the compassion of one of the public slaves who concealed him in his chamber there not indeed through the sanctity of the place or its worship through the obscurity of his hiding place he obtained a respite from instant destruction till there came by Aotho's direction and specially eager to slay him Sulpichius Flores of the British Auxiliary Infantry to whom Galba had lately given the citizenship and Statius Marces one of the bodyguard Piso was dragged out by these men and slaughtered in the entrance of the temple there was we are told no death of which Aotho heard or with the greater joy no head which he surveyed was so insatiable a gaze perhaps it was that his mind was then for the first time relieved from all anxiety and so had leisure to rejoice perhaps there was with Galba something to recall departed majesty with Vinius some thought of old friendship which troubled with mournful images even that ruthless heart Piso's death as that of an enemy and a rival he felt to be a right thoughtful subject of rejoicing the heads were fixed upon poles and carried about among the standards of the cohorts close to the eagle of the Legion while those who had struck the blow those who had been present those who, whether truly or falsely boasted of the act as of some great and memorable achievement vied in displaying their blood-stained hands Vitellius afterwards found more than 120 memorials from persons who claimed a reward for some notable service on that day all these persons he ordered to be sought out and slain not to honor Galba but to comply with the traditional policy of rulers who thus provide protection for the present and vengeance for the future one would have thought it a different senate a different people all rushed to the camp outran those who were close to them and struggled with those who were before invade against Galba praised the wisdom of the soldiers with kisses the more insincere their demonstrations the more they multiplied them nor did Arthur repulse the advances of individuals while he checked the greed and ferocity of the soldiers by word and look they demanded that Marius Celsus consul-elect Galba's faithful friend to the very last moment should be led to execution loathing his energy and integrity as if they were vices it was evident that they were seeking to begin massacre and plunder and the prescription of all the most virtuous citizens and also had not yet sufficient authority to prevent crime though he could command it he feigned anger and ordered him to be loaded with chains declaring that he was to suffer more signal punishment and thus he rescued him from immediate destruction everything was then ordered according to the will of the soldiery the Praetorians chose their own prefects one was Plotius Firmus who had been once in the ranks had afterwards commanded the watch and who, while Galba was yet alive had embraced the cause of Arthur with him was associated Lechinius Procolus Arthur's intimate friend and consequently suspected of having encouraged his schemes Flavius Sabinesus they appointed prefect of the city thus adopting Nero's choice in whose reign he had held the same office though many in choosing him had an eye to his brother Vespasian a demand was then made that the fees for furlough usually paid to the centurions should be abolished these the common soldiers paid as a kind of annual tribute a fourth part of every company might be scattered on furlough or even loiter about the camp provided that they paid the fees to the centurions no one cared about the amount of the tax or the way in which it was raised it was by robbery, plunder and servile occupations that the soldier's holiday was purchased the man with the fullest purse was worn out with toil and cruel usage till he bought his furlough his means exhausted by this outlay and his energies utterly relaxed by idleness the once rich and vigorous soldier returned to his company a poor and spiritless man one after another was ruined by the same poverty and license and rushed into mutiny and dissension and finally into civil war Otto, however, not to alienate the affections of the centurions by an act of bounty to the ranks promised that his own purse should pay these annual sums it was undoubtedly a salutary reform and was afterwards under good emperors established as a permanent rule of the service Lacco, prefect of the city who had been ostensibly banished to an island was assassinated by an enrolled pensioner sent on by Otto to do the deed Marchianus Acellus, being but a freedman was publicly executed a day spent in crime found its last horror in the rejoicings that concluded it the praetor of the city summoned the senate the rest of the magistrates vied with each other in their flatteries the senators hastily assembled and conferred by decree upon Otto the tribunatile office the name of Augustus and every imperial honour all strove to extinguish the remembrance of those taunts and invectives which had been thrown out at random and which no one supposed were rankling in his heart whether he had forgotten or only postponed his resentment the shortness of his reign left undecided the forum yet streamed with blood when he was born in a litter over heaps of dead to the capital and thence to the palace he suffered the bodies to be given up for burial and to be burnt for Piso the last riots were performed by his wife Verania and his brother Scribonianus Pervinius by his daughter Crispina their heads having been discovered and purchased from the murderers who had reserved them for sale Piso who was then completing his thirty-first year had enjoyed more fame than the unfortunate his brothers Magnus and Crossus had been put to death by Claudius and Nero respectively he was himself for many years in exile for four days a Caesar and Galba's hurried adoption of him only gave him this privilege over his elder brother but he perished first Vinius had lived to the age of fifty-seven with many changes of character his father was of a Praetorian family his maternal grandfather was one of the prescribed he had disgraced himself in his first campaign when he served under the legate Calvicius subinus that officer's wife urged by a perverse curiosity to view the camp entered it by night in the disguise of a soldier and after extending the insulting frolic to the watches and general arrangements of the army actually dared to commit the act of adultery in the headquarters Vinius was charged with having participated in her guilt and by order of Caius was loaded with irons the altered time soon restored him to liberty he then enjoyed an uninterrupted secession of honors first filling the praetorship and then commanding a legion with general satisfaction but he subsequently incurred the decreting imputation of having pilfered a gold cup at the table of Claudius who the next day directed that he alone should be served on earthenware yet as proconsul of Gallia Nabonensis he administered the government with strict integrity when forced by his friendship with Galba to a dangerous elevation he showed himself bold, crafty and enterprising and whether he applied his powers to visor virtue was always equally energetic his will was made void by his vast wealth that of Piso owed its validity to its poverty the body of Galba lay for a long time neglected and subjected through the license which the darkness permitted to a thousand indignities till Argius, his steward who had been one of his slaves gave it a humble burial in his master's private gardens his head, which the subtlers and camp-followers had fixed on a pole and mangled was found only the next day in front of the tomb of Petrobius a freedman of Nero's whom Galba had executed it was put with the body which had by that time been reduced to ashes such was the end of Servius Galba who in his seventy-three years had lived prosperously through the reigns of five emperors and had been more fortunate under the rule of others than he was in his own his family could boast in ancient nobility his wealth was great his character was of an average kind rather free from vices than distinguished by virtues he was not regardless of fame nor yet vainly fond of it other men's money he did not covet with his own he was parsimonious with that of the state avaricious to his freedmen and friends he showed a forbearance which, when he had fallen into worthy hands could not be blamed when, however, these persons were worthless he was even culpably blind the nobility of his birth and the perils of the times made what was really indolence pass for wisdom while in the vigor of life he enjoyed a high military reputation in Germany as proconsul he ruled Africa with moderation and, when advanced in years showed the same integrity in eastern Spain he seemed greater than a subject while he was yet in a subject's rank and by common consent would have been pronounced equal to empire had he never been emperor the alarm of the capital which trembled to see the atrocity of these recent crimes the murder of Otto was heightened into terror by the fresh news about Vitellius news which had been suppressed before the murder of Galba in order to make it appear that only the army of upper Germany had revolted that two men who for shamelessness indolence and profligacy where the most worthless of mortals had been selected it would seem by some fatality to ruin the empire became the open complaint not only of the senate and the knights who had some stake and interest in the country but even of the common people it was no longer the late horrors of a dreadful peace but to the recollections of the civil wars that men recurred speaking of how the capital had been taken by Roman armies how Italy had been wasted and the provinces spoiled of Parcellia, Philippi, Perugia and Mutina and all the familiar names of the great public disasters the world, they said was well nigh turned upside down when the struggle for empire was between worthy competitors yet the empire continued to exist after the victories of Caius Julius and Caesar Augustus the republic would have continued to exist under Pompey and Brutus and is it for Otto or for Vitellius that we are now to repair to the temples prayers for either would be empires vows for either a blasphemy when from their conflict you can only learn that the conqueror must be the worst of the two some were speculating on Vespasian and the armies of the east Vespasian was indeed preferable to either yet they shuttered at the idea of another war or of other massacres even about Vespasian there were doubtful rumors and he, unlike any of his predecessors was changed for the better by power I will now describe the origin and occasion of the revolt of Vitellius after the destruction of Julius Vindix and his whole force the army flushed with the delights of plunder and glory as men who might well be to triumph without toil or danger in a most lucrative war began to hanker after campaigns and battles and to prefer prize money to pay they had long endured a service which the character of the country and of the climate and the rigors of military discipline rendered at once unprofitable and severe but that discipline, inexorable as it is in times of peace is relaxed by civil strife when on both sides are found the agents of corruption were punished they had men, arms and horses more than enough for all purposes of utility and show but before the war they had been acquainted only with the companies and squadrons of their own force as the various armies were separated from each other by the limits of their respective provinces but the legions having been concentrated to act against Vindix and having thus learned to measure their own strength against the strength of Gaul and for new conflicts they called their neighbors not allies as of old but the enemy and the vanquished nor did that part of Gaul which borders on the Rhine failed to espouse the same cause and to the bitterest hostility in inflaming the army against the Galvanists that being the name which in their contempt for Vindix they had given to the party the rage first excited against the Sikwani and Adui extended to other states in proportion to their wealth and imagination on the storm of cities the plunder of estates the sack of dwelling houses but besides the rapacity and arrogance which are the special faults of superior strength they were exasperated by the bravados of the Gaelic people who in a spirit of insult to the army boasted of how they had been relieved by Gaul from a fourth part of their tribute and had received grants from the state there was also a report ingenuously spread and recklessly believed to the effect that the legions were being decimated and all the most energetic centurions dismissed from all quarters arrived the most alarming tidings the reports from the capital were unfavorable while the disaffection of the colony of Lugdunham which obstinately adhered to Nero gave rise to a multitude of rumors but it was in the army itself in its hatreds, its fears and even in the security which a review of its own strength inspired it that there was the most abundant material of imagination and credulity just before December 1st in the preceding year Alias Vitellius had visited lower Germany and had carefully inspected the winter quarters of the legions many had their rank restored to them sentences of degradation were cancelled and marks of disgrace partially removed in most cases he did but court popularity in some he exercised a sound discretion making a salutary change from the meanness and rapacity Thayus Capito had shown in bestowing and withdrawing promotion but he seemed greater personage than a simple consul legate and all his acts were invested with an unusual importance though sterner judges pronounced Vitellius to be a man of low tastes those who were partial to him attributed to gentility and good nature the immoderate and indiscriminate prodigality with which he gave away what was his own and squandered what did not belong to him besides this men themselves eager for power were ready to represent his many vices as virtues as there were in both armies many of obedient and quiet habits so there were many who were as unprincipled as they were energetic but distinguished above all for boundless ambition and singular daring were the legates of the legions Fabius Valens and Alienus Cassina one of these men Valens had taken offense against Galba under the notion that he had not shown proper gratitude for his services in discovering to him the hesitation of Reginius and crushing the plans of Capito he now began to urge Vitellius to action he enlarged on the zeal of the soldiery you have he said everywhere great reputation you will find nothing to stop you in Hordeonus flakus Britain will be with you the German auxiliaries will follow your standard all the provinces waver in their allegiance the empire is held on the precarious tenure of an aged life and must shortly pass into other hands you have only to open your arms and to meet the advances of fortune it was well for Reginius to hesitate the sign of a mere equestrian family and the son of a father unknown to fame he would have been unequal to empire had he accepted it and yet been safe though he refused it but from the honors of a father who was Thrice Consul was censor and colleague of Caesar Vitellius has long since derived an imperial rank while he has lost the security that belongs to a subject these arguments roused the indolent temper of the man yet roused him rather to wish than to hope for the throne meanwhile however in upper Germany Catina, young and handsome of commanding stature and of boundless ambition had attracted the favor of the soldiery by his skillful oratory and his dignified mean this man had when Stor and Batica attached him with zeal to the party of Galba who had appointed him, young as he was to the command of a legion but it being afterwards discovered that he had embezzled the public money Galba directed that he should be prosecuted for peculation Catina, grievously offended determined to throw everything into confusion and under the disasters of his country to conceal his private dishonor there were not wanting in the army itself the elements of civil strife the whole of it had taken part in the war against fendex it had not passed over to Galba till Nero fell even then in this transference of its allegiance it had been anticipated by the armies of lower Germany besides this the Traveri the Lingones and the other states which Galba had most seriously injured by his severe edicts and by the confiscation of their territory were particularly close to the winter quarters of the legions then arose seditious conferences a soldierly, demoralized by intercourse with the inhabitants of the country and tendencies in favor of Virginia's which could easily be to the profit of any other person End of book one part three