Tacitus: HISTORIAE

[1] Initium mihi operis Servius Galba iterum Titus Vinius consules erunt. nam post conditam urbem octingentos et viginti prioris aevi annos multi auctores rettulerunt, dum res populi Romani memorabantur pari eloquentia ac libertate: postquam bellatum apud Actium atque omnem potentiam ad unum conferri pacis interfuit, magna illa ingenia cessere; simul veritas pluribus modis infracta, primum inscitia rei publicae ut alienae, mox libidine adsentandi aut rursus odio adversus dominantis: ita neutris cura posteritatis inter infensos vel obnoxios. sed ambitionem scriptoris facile averseris, obtrectatio et livor pronis auribus accipiuntur; quippe adulationi foedum crimen servitutis, malignitati falsa species libertatis inest.

[1] The beginning of my work will be the consulship of Servius Galba, again, and Titus Vinius. For after the founding of the city, through eight hundred and twenty years of the earlier age, many authors recounted matters, while the affairs of the Roman people were being remembered with equal eloquence and liberty: after it was fought at Actium, and it was to the interest of peace that all power be transferred to one, those great talents fell silent; at the same time truth was impaired in more ways, first by ignorance of the republic as though it were another’s, soon by the lust of assenting or, again, by hatred against those dominating: thus neither side had a care for posterity, being either hostile or beholden. But a writer’s ambition you may easily turn aside; detraction and envy are received with willing ears; for to adulation there belongs the foul charge of servitude, to malignity there is a false appearance of liberty.

mihi Galba Otho Vitellius nec beneficio nec iniuria cogniti. dignitatem nostram a Vespasiano inchoatam, a Tito auctam, a Domitiano longius provectam non abnuerim: sed incorruptam fidem professis neque amore quisquam et sine odio dicendus est. quod si vita suppeditet, principatum divi Nervae et imperium Traiani, uberiorem securioremque materiam, senectuti seposui, rara temporum felicitate ubi sentire quae velis et quae sentias dicere licet.

To me Galba, Otho, and Vitellius were known neither by benefit nor by injury. I will not deny that my dignity was inchoated by Vespasian, augmented by Titus, and carried further by Domitian; but for those who profess uncorrupted fidelity, no one is to be spoken of out of love, and one must speak without hatred. And if life should suffice, I have reserved for my old age the principate of the deified Nerva and the empire of Trajan—material more abundant and more secure—by the rare felicity of the times, when it is permitted to think what you will and to say what you think.

[2] Opus adgredior opimum casibus, atrox proeliis, discors seditionibus, ipsa etiam pace saevum. quattuor principes ferro interempti: trina bella civilia, plura externa ac plerumque permixta: prosperae in Oriente, adversae in Occidente res: turbatum Illyricum, Galliae nutantes, perdomita Britannia et statim omissa: coortae in nos Sarmatarum ac Sueborum gentes, nobilitatus cladibus mutuis Dacus, mota prope etiam Parthorum arma falsi Neronis ludibrio. iam vero Italia novis cladibus vel post longam saeculorum seriem repetitis adflicta.

[2] I set myself to a work rich in vicissitudes, atrocious with battles, discordant with seditions, savage even in peace itself. Four princes slain by steel: three civil wars, more external and for the most part commingled: affairs prosperous in the East, adverse in the West: Illyricum disturbed, Gaul wavering, Britain thoroughly subdued and straightway abandoned: against us the nations of the Sarmatians and Suebi arose, the Dacian made illustrious by mutual slaughters, the arms of the Parthians almost stirred as well by the mockery of a false Nero. And indeed Italy afflicted by new disasters, or by disasters repeated after a long series of ages.

haustae aut obrutae urbes, fecundissima Campaniae ora; et urbs incendiis vastata, consumptis, antiquissimis delubris, ipso Capitolio civium manibus incenso. pollutae caerimoniae, magna adulteria: plenum exiliimare, infecti caedibus scopuli. atrocius in urbe saevitum: nobilitas, opes, omissi gestique honores pro crimine et ob virtutes certissimum exitium.

cities gulped down or overwhelmed, the most fertile shore of Campania; and the city devastated by fires, the most ancient shrines consumed, the Capitol itself set ablaze by citizens’ hands. ceremonies polluted, great adulteries: a sea full of exiles, crags stained with slaughters. more atrociously did cruelty rage in the city: nobility, wealth, honors either omitted or performed counted as a crime, and for virtues the surest doom.

nec minus praemia delatorum invisa quam scelera, cum alii sacerdotia et consulatus ut spolia adepti, procurationes alii et interiorem potentiam, agerent verterent cuncta odio et terrore. corrupti in dominos servi, in patronos liberti; et quibus deerat inimicus per amicos oppressi.

and the rewards of delators were no less hateful than the crimes, since some had obtained priesthoods and consulships as if spoils, others procuratorships and inner power, and they were driving and overturning everything by hatred and terror. slaves were corrupted against their masters, freedmen against their patrons; and those to whom an enemy was lacking were crushed through friends.

[3] Non tamen adeo virtutum sterile saeculum ut non et bona exempla prodiderit. comitatae profugos liberos matres, secutae maritos in exilia coniuges: propinqui audentes, constantes generi, contumax etiam adversus tormenta servorum fides; supremae clarorum virorum necessitates fortiter toleratae et laudatis antiquorum mortibus pares exitus. praeter multiplicis rerum humanarum casus caelo terraque prodigia et fulminum monitus et futurorum praesagia, laeta tristia, ambigua manifesta; nec enim umquam atrocioribus populi Romani cladibus magisve iustis indiciis adprobatum est non esse curae deis securitatem nostram, esse ultionem.

[3] Not, however, was the age so sterile of virtues that it did not also bring forth good exemplars. mothers accompanied their fugitive children, wives followed their husbands into exile: kinsmen daring, steadfast toward their stock; even the loyalty of slaves defiant against torments; the last necessities of illustrious men bravely endured, and outcomes equal to the lauded deaths of the ancients. besides the manifold vicissitudes of human affairs, there were portents in sky and earth, admonitions of thunderbolts, and presages of things to come—joyous and grievous, ambiguous and manifest; for never, by more atrocious disasters of the Roman people and by more just indications, was it more demonstrated that our security is not a care to the gods, but that vengeance is.

[4] Ceterum antequam destinata componam, repetendum videtur qualis status urbis, quae mens exercituum, quis habitus provinciarum, quid in toto terrarum orbe validum, quid aegrum fuerit, ut non modo casus eventusque rerum, qui plerumque fortuiti sunt, sed ratio etiam causaeque noscantur. finis Neronis ut laetus primo gaudentium impetu fuerat, ita varios motus animorum non modo in urbe apud patres aut populum aut urbanum militem, sed omnis legiones ducesque conciverat, evulgato imperii arcano posse principem alibi quam Romae fieri. sed patres laeti, usurpata statim libertate licentius ut erga principem novum et absentem; primores equitum proximi gaudio patrum; pars populi integra et magnis domibus adnexa, clientes libertique damnatorum et exulum in spem erecti: plebs sordida et circo ac theatris sueta, simul deterrimi servorum, aut qui adesis bonis per dedecus Neronis alebantur, maesti et rumorum avidi.

[4] However, before I put together what I have destined, it seems to be repeated what was the status of the city, what the mind of the armies, what the condition of the provinces, what in the whole orb of lands was robust, what was ailing, so that not only the chances and events of affairs, which for the most part are fortuitous, but also the rationale and the causes may be known. The end of Nero, although joyous at first with the impetus of those rejoicing, nevertheless had stirred various movements of spirits not only in the city among the senators or the people or the urban soldiery, but had aroused all the legions and their leaders, the arcana of empire having been divulged, that a princeps could be made elsewhere than at Rome. But the senators were glad, liberty being immediately usurped, more licentiously as toward a new and absent princeps; the foremost of the equestrians were next in joy to the senators; a portion of the populace untainted and attached to the great houses, the clients and freedmen of the condemned and of exiles raised into hope: the sordid plebs and those accustomed to the circus and theatres, together with the worst of the slaves, or those who, their goods eaten away, were sustained by Nero’s disgrace, were gloomy and greedy for rumors.

[5] Miles urbanus longo Caesarum sacramento imbutus et ad destituendum Neronem arte magis et impulsu quam suo ingenio traductus, postquam neque dari donativum sub nomine Galbae promissum neque magnis meritis ac praemiis eundem in pace quem in bello locum praeventamque gratiam intellegit apud principem a legionibus factum, pronus ad novas res scelere insuper Nymphidii Sabini praefecti imperium sibi molientis agitatur. et Nymphidius quidem in ipso conatu oppressus, set quamvis capite defectionis ablato manebat plerisque militum conscientia, nec deerant sermones senium atque avaritiam Galbae increpantium. laudata olim et militari fama celebrata severitas eius angebat aspernantis veterem disciplinam atque ita quattuordecim annis a Nerone adsuefactos ut haud minus vitia principum amarent quam olim virtutes verebantur.

[5] The urban soldier, steeped in a long oath to the Caesars and led to abandon Nero more by artifice and impulse than by his own disposition, after he perceives that neither is the donative promised under the name of Galba being given, nor that great merits and rewards carry the same place in peace as in war, and that favor has been forestalled with the emperor by the legions that made him, being prone to new things is driven on, besides, by the crime of Nymphidius Sabinus, the prefect, who was engineering the imperium for himself. And Nymphidius indeed was crushed in the very attempt; but although the head of the defection was removed, a sense of complicity remained with most of the soldiers, nor was there any lack of talk railing at Galba’s old age and avarice. His severity, once praised and celebrated in military report, vexed men spurning the ancient discipline, and they had been so habituated by Nero for 14 years that they loved the vices of emperors no less than once they had revered virtues.

accessit Galbae vox pro re publica honesta, ipsi anceps, legi a se militem, non emi; nec enim ad hanc formam cetera erant.

There was added Galba’s utterance, honest for the Republic, two‑edged for himself: that the soldier was to be levied by him, not bought; for the rest did not conform to this form.

[6] Invalidum senem Titus Vinius et Cornelius Laco, alter deterrimus mortalium, alter ignavissimus, odio flagitiorum oneratum contemptu inertiae destruebant. tardum Galbae iter et cruentum, interfectis Cingonio Varrone consule designato et Petronio Turpiliano consulari: ille ut Nymphidii socius, hic ut dux Neronis, inauditi atque indefensi tamquam innocentes perierant. introitus in urbem trucidatis tot milibus inermium militum infaustus omine atque ipsis etiam qui occiderant formidolosus.

[6] The weak old man was being undone by Titus Vinius and Cornelius Laco—one the worst of mortals, the other the most slothful—burdened with the hatred for his flagitious deeds and the contempt for his inertia. Galba’s march was slow and bloody, with Cingonius Varro, consul-designate, and Petronius Turpilianus, a consular, slain: the former as an associate of Nymphidius, the latter as a general of Nero; unheard and undefended, they had perished as though innocent. The entry into the city, with so many thousands of unarmed soldiers butchered, was ill-omened and even fearsome to those very men who had done the killing.

inducta legione Hispana, remanente ea quam e classe Nero conscripserat, plena urbs exercitu insolito; multi ad hoc numeri e Germania ac Britannia et Illyrico, quos idem Nero electos praemissosque ad claustra Caspiarum et bellum, quod in Albanos parabat, opprimendis Vindicis coeptis revocaverat: ingens novis rebus materia, ut non in unum aliquem prono favore ita audenti parata.

With the Spanish legion brought in, and that one remaining which Nero had conscripted from the fleet, the city was full of an unusual army; in addition many units from Germany and Britain and Illyricum, whom that same Nero—chosen and sent forward to the Caspian Gates and to the war which he was preparing against the Albani—had recalled for the crushing of Vindex’s undertakings: a vast material for novelties, prepared not with favor inclined toward any single person so much as for whoever dared.

[7] Forte congruerat ut Clodii Macri et Fontei Capitonis caedes nuntiarentur. Macrum in Africa haud dubie turbantem Trebonius Garutianus procurator iussu Galbae, Capitonem in Germania, cum similia coeptaret, Cornelius Aquinus et Fabius Valens legati legionum interfecerant antequam iuberentur. fuere qui crederent Capitonem ut avaritia et libidine foedum ac maculosum ita cogitatione rerum novarum abstinuisse, sed a legatis bellum suadentibus, postquam impellere nequiverint, crimen ac dolum ultro compositum, et Galbam mobilitate ingenii, an ne altius scrutaretur, quoquo modo acta, quia mutari non poterant, comprobasse.

[7] By chance it coincided that the slayings of Clodius Macer and Fonteius Capito were reported. Macer, in Africa, without doubt troubling the situation, Trebonius Garutianus, the procurator, killed by order of Galba; Capito in Germany, when he was attempting similar undertakings, Cornelius Aquinus and Fabius Valens, legates of legions, killed before they were ordered. There were those who believed that Capito—though foul and blotched with avarice and lust—had nevertheless abstained from the cogitation of new measures; but that, when the legates were urging war, after they could not drive him to it, the charge and the trick were devised on their own initiative, and that Galba, from mobility of disposition, or lest he probe more deeply, approved acts done in whatever manner, because they could not be changed.

ceterum utraque caedes sinistre accepta, et inviso semel principi seu bene seu male facta parem invidiam adferebant. venalia cuncta, praepotentes liberti, servorum manus subitis avidae et tamquamm apud senem festinantes, eademque novae aulae mala, aeque gravia, non aeque excusata. ipsa aetas Galbae inrisui ac fastidio erat adsuetis iuventae Neronis et imperatores forma ac decore corporis, ut est mos vulgi, comparantibus.

But both slayings were ominously received, and for a prince once hated, deeds whether done well or badly were bringing equal envy. Everything was venal, the freedmen overmighty, a gang of slaves greedy for sudden windfalls and hurrying as if in the house of an old man; and the same ills of a new court, equally grievous, not equally excused. Galba’s very age was a matter of mockery and disgust to those accustomed to Nero’s youth and to people comparing emperors by the form and comeliness of the body, as is the custom of the crowd.

[8] Et hic quidem Romae, tamquam in tanta multitudine, habitus animorum fuit. e provinciis Hispaniae praeerat Cluvius Rufus, vir facundus et pacis artibus, bellis inexpertus. Galliae super memoriam Vindicis obligatae recenti dono Romanae civitatis et in posterum tributi levamento.

[8] And here indeed at Rome, such, as in so great a multitude, was the temper of minds. Of the provinces, Hispaniae were under the command of Cluvius Rufus, a man facund (eloquent) and skilled in the arts of peace, unexperienced in wars. The Galliae, besides the memory of Vindex, were obligated by the recent donation of Roman citizenship and by an alleviation of the tribute for the future.

proximae tamen Germanicis exercitibus Galliarum civitates non eodem honore habitae, quaedam etiam finibus ademptis pari dolore commoda aliena ac suas iniurias metiebantur. Germanici exercitus, quod periculosissimum in tantis viribus, solliciti et irati, superbia recentis victoriae et metu tamquam alias partis fovissent. tarde a Nerone desciverant, nec statim pro Galba Verginius.

yet the cities of Gaul nearest to the German armies were not held in the same honor; some, even with their boundaries taken away, with equal grief were measuring the advantages of others and their own injuries. The German armies—most perilous thing in forces so great—were anxious and angry, through the pride of a recent victory and through fear, as though they had favored another party. They had deserted Nero late, and Verginius not immediately for Galba.

an imperare noluisset dubium: delatum ei a milite imperium conveniebat. Fonteium Capitonem occisum etiam qui queri non poterant, tamen indignabantur. dux deerat abducto Verginio per simulationem amicitiae; quem non remitti atque etiam reum esse tamquam suum crimen accipiebant.

an it was doubtful whether he had been unwilling to command: the imperium, conferred upon him by the soldiery, befitted him. they were indignant at Fonteius Capito having been killed; even those who could not complain, nevertheless, were indignant. a leader was lacking, with Verginius drawn away under the pretense of friendship; and the fact that he was not sent back, and was even a defendant, they took as though it were their own crime.

[9] Superior exercitus legatum Hordeonium Flaccum spernebat, senecta ac debilitate pedum invalidum, sine constantia, sine auctoritate: ne quieto quidem milite regimen; adeo furentes infirmitate retinentis ultro accendebantur. inferioris Germaniae legiones diutius sine consulari fuere, donec missu Galbae A. Vitellius aderat, censoris Vitellii ac ter consulis filius: id satis videbatur. in Britannico exercitu nihil irarum.

[9] The army of Upper Germany spurned the legate Hordeonius Flaccus, infirm from old age and a debility of the feet, without constancy, without authority: there was not governance even with the soldiery quiet; to such a degree the raging men were on the contrary inflamed by the weakness of the one restraining them. The legions of Lower Germany were for a longer time without a consular commander, until at Galba’s sending A. Vitellius arrived, the son of the censor Vitellius and a thrice-consul: that seemed sufficient. In the British army there was nothing of resentments.

non sane aliae legiones per omnis civilium bellorum motus innocentius egerunt, seu quia procul et Oceano divisae, seu crebris expeditionibus doctae hostem potius odisse. quies et Illyrico, quamquam excitae a Nerone legiones, dum in Italia cunctantur, Verginium legationibus adissent: sed longis spatiis discreti exercitus, quod saluberrimum est ad con tinendam militarem fidem, nec vitiis nec viribus miscebantur.

surely no other legions conducted themselves more innocently through all the movements of the civil wars, whether because they were far off and divided by the Ocean, or because by frequent expeditions they were trained to hate the enemy rather. there was quiet also in Illyricum, although the legions stirred up by Nero, while they delayed in Italy, approached Verginius with legations: but the armies, separated by long distances—which is most salutary for maintaining military fidelity—were blending neither their vices nor their forces.

[10] Oriens adhuc immotus. Syriam et quattuor legiones obtinebat Licinius Mucianus, vir secundis adversisque iuxta famosus. insignis amicitias iuvenis ambitiose coluerat; mox attritis opibus, lubrico statu, suspecta etiam Claudii iracundia, in secretum Asiae sepositus tam prope ab exule fuit quam postea a principe.

[10] The East was as yet unmoved. Licinius Mucianus held Syria and four legions, a man equally notorious in prosperous and adverse circumstances. As a young man he had ambitiously cultivated distinguished friendships; soon, with his resources worn down, his position slippery, and even the anger of Claudius suspected, set aside into the seclusion of Asia he was as near to an exile as afterwards to a princeps.

luxuria industria, comitate adrogantia, malis bonisque artibus mixtus: nimiae voluptates, cum vacaret; quotiens expedierat, magnae virtutes: palam laudares, secreta male audiebant: sed apud subiectos, apud proximos, apud collegas variis inlecebris potens, et cui expeditius fuerit tradere imperium quam obtinere. bellum Iudaicum Flavius Vespasianus (ducem eum Nero delegerat) tribus legionibus administrabat. nec Vespasiano adversus Galbam votum aut animus: quippe Titum filium ad venerationem cultumque eius miserat, ut suo loco memorabimus.

luxury with industry, affability with arrogance, mixed with bad and good arts: excessive pleasures, when he had leisure; whenever it was expedient, great virtues: in public you would praise, his secrets were ill spoken of: yet among subjects, among intimates, among colleagues, powerful by various allurements, and one for whom it would have been easier to hand over imperium than to hold it. The Judaean war Flavius Vespasian (Nero had chosen him as leader) was administering with three legions. Nor had Vespasian any vow or disposition against Galba: for he had sent his son Titus to his veneration and cult, as we shall mention in its place.

occulta fati et ostentis ac responsis destinatum Vespasiano liberisque eius imperium post fortunam credidimus.

the occult things of fate and by portents and responses we believed the empire to have been destined for Vespasian and his children—after the outcome.

[11] Aegyptum copiasque, quibus coerceretur, iam inde a divo Augusto equites Romani obtinent loco regum: ita visum expedire, provinciam aditu difficilem, annonae fecundam, superstitione ac lascivia discordem et mobilem, insciam legum, ignaram magistratuum, domi retinere. regebat tum Tiberius Alexander, eiusdem nationis. Africa ac legiones in ea interfecto Clodio Macro contenta qualicumque principe post experimentum domini minoris.

[11] Egypt and the forces by which it was kept in check, from the time of the deified Augustus onward, Roman equestrians have held in the place of kings: thus it seemed expedient, to keep at home a province difficult of access, fruitful for the grain-supply, discordant and mobile through superstition and wantonness, unacquainted with laws, ignorant of magistrates. At that time Tiberius Alexander, of the same nation, was governing it. Africa, and the legions in it, with Clodius Macer slain, were content with whatever sort of prince after the experiment of a lesser master.

duae Mauretaniae, Raetia, Noricum, Thraecia et quae aliae procuratoribus cohibentur, ut cuique exercitui vicinae, ita in favorem aut odium contactu valentiorum agebantur. inermes provinciae atque ipsa in primis Italia, cuicumque servitio exposita, in pretium belli cessurae erant. hic fuit rerum Romanarum status, cum Servius Galba iterum Titus Vinius consules inchoavere annum sibi ultimum, rei publicae prope supremum.

the two Mauretanias, Raetia, Noricum, Thrace, and whatever other [provinces] are restrained by procurators, according as they were near to each army, so were driven into favor or hatred by contact with the stronger. the unarmed provinces, and Italy herself foremost of all, exposed to servitude under whomever, were destined to pass as the price of war. this was the status of Roman affairs, when Servius Galba, for the second time, and Titus Vinius, consuls, began the year—the last for themselves, for the commonwealth almost the final.

[12] Paucis post kalendas Ianuarias diebus Pompei Propinqui procuratoris e Belgica litterae adferuntur, supeioris Germaniae legiones rupta sacramenti reverentia imperatorem alium flagitare et senatui ac populo Romano arbitrium eligendi permittere quo seditio mollius acciperetur. maturavit ea res consilium Galbae iam pridem de adoptione secum et cum proximis agitantis. non sane crebrior tota civitate sermo per illos mensis fuerat, primum licentia ac libidine talia loquendi, dein fessa iam aetate Galbae.

[12] A few days after the Kalends of January, letters are brought from Belgica by the procurator Pompeius Propinquus, that the legions of Upper Germany, with the reverence of the oath broken, were demanding another emperor, and were permitting to the Senate and the Roman People the arbitration of choosing, so that the sedition might be received more mildly. That matter hastened Galba’s plan, who had long since been debating adoption with himself and with his closest intimates. Truly no talk had been more frequent throughout the whole city during those months—first through the license and lust of speaking such things, then because Galba’s age was now weary.

paucis iudicium aut rei publicae amor: multi stulta spe, prout quis amicus vel cliens, hunc vel illum ambitiosis rumoribus destinabant, etiam in Titi Vinii odium, qui in dies quanto potentior eodem actu invisior erat. quippe hiantis in magna fortuna amicorum cupiditates ipsa Galbae facilitas intendebat, cum apud infirmum et credulum minore metu et maiore praemio peccaretur.

Few had judgment or love of the commonwealth: many, in foolish hope, each man as friend or client, were marking out this one or that by ambitious rumors, even out of hatred for Titus Vinius, who day by day, the more powerful he became, by that same act was the more odious. For indeed Galba’s very facility was intensifying the desires of friends gaping for great fortune, since with a weak and credulous man one sinned with less fear and with greater reward.

[13] Potentia principatus divisa in Titum Vinium consulem Cornelium Laconem praetorii praefectum; nec minor gratia Icelo Galbae liberto, quem anulis donatum equestri nomine Marcianum vocitabant. hi discordes et rebus minoribus sibi quisque tendentes, circa consilium eligendi successoris in duas factiones scindebantur. Vinius pro M. Othone, Laco atque Icelus consensu non tam unum aliquem fovebant quam alium.

[13] The power of the principate was divided between Titus Vinius, consul, and Cornelius Laco, prefect of the praetorian guard; nor was the favor less for Icelus, Galba’s freedman, whom, having been presented with the rings, they kept calling Marcianus with the equestrian name. These men, at odds and, in lesser matters, each striving for himself, were split into two factions over the counsel of choosing a successor. Vinius was for M. Otho; Laco and Icelus, by common consent, were fostering, not so much any one individual, as someone else.

neque erat Galbae ignota Othonis ac Titi Vinii amicitia; et rumoribus nihil silentio transmittentium, quia Vinio vidua filia, caelebs Otho, gener ac socer destinabantur. credo et rei publicae curam subisse, frustra a Nerone translatae si apud Othonem relinqueretur. namque Otho pueritiam incuriose, adulescentiam petulanter egerat, gratus Neroni aemulatione luxus.

Nor was the friendship of Otho and Titus Vinius unknown to Galba; and among rumor-mongers who let nothing pass into silence, since Vinius had a widowed daughter, and Otho was a bachelor, they were being destined as son-in-law and father-in-law. I believe also that a concern for the commonwealth came over him—the transfer from Nero would be in vain if it were left in Otho’s hands. For Otho had spent his boyhood carelessly, his youth petulantly, pleasing Nero by an emulation of luxury.

eoque Poppaeam Sabinam, principale scortum, ut apud conscium libidinum deposuerat, donec Octaviam uxorem amoliretur. mox suspectum in eadem Poppaea in provinciam Lusitaniam specie legationis seposuit. Otho comiter administrata provincia primus in partis transgressus nec segnis et, donec bellum fuit, inter praesentis splendidissimus, spem adoptionis statim conceptam acrius in dies rapiebat, faventibus plerisque militum, prona in eum aula Neronis ut similem.

and so he had deposited Poppaea Sabina, the principal courtesan, with him as with a confidant of his lusts, until he might remove Octavia his wife. Soon, suspect in regard to that same Poppaea, he set him apart to the province of Lusitania under the guise of a legation. Otho, with the province administered amicably, was the first to cross over into the party, not sluggish, and, so long as there was war, the most splendid among those present; the hope of adoption, conceived at once, he was snatching at more keenly day by day, with the greater part of the soldiers favoring, and the court of Nero inclined toward him as similar.

[14] Sed Galba post nuntios Germanicae seditionis, quamquam nihil adhuc de Vitellio certum, anxius quonam exercituum vis erumperet, ne urbano quidem militi confisus, quod remedium unicum rebatur, comitia imperii transigit; adhibitoque super Vinium ac Laconem Mario Celso consule designato ac Ducenio Gemino praefecto urbis, pauca praefatus de sua senectute, Pisonem Licinianum accersiri iubet, seu propria electione sive, ut quidam crediderunt, Lacone instante, cui apud Rubellium Plautum exercita cum Pisone amicitia; sed callide ut ignotum fovebat, et prospera de Pisone fama consilio eius fidem addiderat. Piso M. Crasso et Scribonia genitus, nobilis utrimque, vultu habituque moris antiqui et aestimatione recta severus, deterius interpretantibus tristior habebatur: ea pars morum eius quo suspectior sollicitis adoptanti placebat.

[14] But Galba, after the reports of the German sedition—although nothing as yet certain about Vitellius—anxious whence the force of the armies would burst forth, and trusting not even the urban soldiery, carries through, as the sole remedy he reckoned, the election of the empire; and, with Marius Celsus the consul-designate and Ducenius Geminus the prefect of the city summoned in in addition to Vinius and Laco, after a few prefatory words about his own old age, he orders Piso Licinianus to be called, whether by his own choice or, as some believed, with Laco urging, who had with Piso a friendship cultivated in the household of Rubellius Plautus; but he cleverly fostered him as though unknown, and the favorable report about Piso had added credibility to his plan. Piso, born of M. Crassus and Scribonia, noble on both sides, in countenance and bearing of the ancient manner, and, in right estimation, severe, was by those who interpreted less favorably accounted rather gloomy: that part of his character, by which he was the more suspect to the anxious, pleased the adopter.

[15] Igitur Galba, adprehensa Pisonis manu, in hunc modum locutus fertur: "si te privatus lege curiata apud pontifices, ut moris est, adoptarem, et mihi egregium erat Cn. Pompei et M. Crassi subolem in penatis meos adsciscere, et tibi insigne Sulpiciae ac Lutatiae decora nobilitati tuae adiecisse: nunc me deorum hominumque consensu ad imperium vocatum praeclara indoles tua et amor patriae impulit ut principatum, de quo maiores nostri armis certabant, bello adeptus quiescenti offeram, exemplo divi Augusti qui sororis filium Marcellum, dein generum Agrippam, mox nepotes sus, postremo Tiberium Neronem privignum in proximo sibi fastigio conlocavit. sed Augustus in domo successorem quaesivit, ego in re publica, non quia propinquos aut socios belli non habeam, sed neque ipse imperium ambitione accepi, et iudicii mei documentum sit non meae tantum necessitudines, quas tibi postposui, sed et tuae. est tibi frater pari nobilitate, natu maior, dignus hac fortuna nisi tu potior esses.

[15] Therefore Galba, having taken Piso’s hand, is reported to have spoken in this manner: "If, as a private man, by a curiate law before the pontiffs, as is the custom, I were adopting you, it were both excellent for me to enroll into my Penates the offspring of Cn. Pompeius and M. Crassus, and for you to have added to your nobility the distinguished decorations of the Sulpician and Lutatian houses: now, I—called to imperium by the consensus of gods and men—have been impelled by your preeminent natural disposition and love of country to offer to one at rest the principate, which our ancestors contested by arms, having won it in war, following the example of the deified Augustus, who placed at the step next to himself his sister’s son Marcellus, then his son‑in‑law Agrippa, soon his grandsons, and at last Tiberius Nero his stepson. But Augustus sought a successor in his household; I, in the republic—not because I have not kinsmen or comrades in war, but neither did I myself receive rule through ambition; and let there be as proof of my judgment not only my own connections, whom I have set after you, but yours as well. You have a brother of equal nobility, older by birth, worthy of this fortune if you were not the better."

ea aetas tua quae cupiditates adulescentiae iam effugerit, ea vita in qua nihil praeteritum excusandum habeas. fortunam adhuc tantum adversam tulisti: secundae res acrioribus stimulis animos explorant, quia miseriae tolerantur, felicitate corrumpimur. fidem, libertatem, amicitiam, praecipua humani animi bona, tu quidem eadem constantia retinebis, sed alii per obsequium imminuent: inrumpet adulatio, blanditiae [et] pessimum veri adfectus venenum, sua cuique utilitas.

that age of yours which has already escaped the desires of adolescence, that life in which you have nothing past to have excused. fortune until now you have borne only adverse: prosperous circumstances test minds with sharper goads, because miseries are tolerated, by felicity we are corrupted. faith, liberty, friendship, the chief goods of the human spirit, you indeed will retain with the same constancy, but others will lessen them through obsequiousness: flattery will break in, blandishments and the worst poison of true feeling, each one’s self-interest.

etiam [si] ego ac tu simplicissime inter nos hodie loquimur, ceteri libentius cum fortuna nostra quam nobiscum; nam suadere principi quod oporteat multi laboris, adsentatio erga quemcumque principem sine adfectu peragitur."

even [if] I and you today speak with utmost simplicity among ourselves, the rest more gladly deal with our fortune than with us; for to persuade a prince of what is fitting is of much labor, assentation toward any prince is carried on without affection."

[16] "Si immensum imperii corpus stare ac librari sine rectore posset, dignus eram a quo res publica inciperet: nunc eo necessitatis iam pridem ventum est ut nec mea senectus conferre plus populo Romano possit quam bonum successorem, nec tua plus iuventa quam bonum principem. sub Tiberio et Gaio et Claudio unius familiae quasi hereditas fuimus: loco libertatis erit quod eligi coepimus; et finita Iuliorum Claudiorumque domo optimum quemque adoptio inveniet. nam generari et nasci a principibus fortuitum, nec ultra aestimatur: adoptandi iudicium integrum et, si velis eligere, consensu monstratur.

[16] "If the immense body of the empire could stand and be balanced without a ruler, I were worthy to be he from whom the republic should take its beginning: now it has long since come to such a point of necessity that neither my old age can contribute more to the Roman people than a good successor, nor your youth more than a good emperor. Under Tiberius and Gaius and Claudius we were, as it were, the inheritance of a single family: in place of liberty it will be this—that we have begun to be chosen; and with the house of the Julii and Claudii ended, adoption will find the best men. For to be begotten and born from princes is a matter of fortune, nor is it valued beyond that: the judgment of adopting is intact, and, if you wish to choose, it is shown by consensus."

sit ante oculos Nero quem longa Caesarum serie tumentem non Vindex cum inermi provincia aut ego cum una legione, sed sua immanitas, sua luxuria cervicibus publicis depulerunt; neque erat adhuc damnati principis exemplum. nos bello et ab aestimantibus adsciti cum invidia quamvis egregii erimus. ne tamen territus fueris si duae legiones in hoc concussi orbis motu nondum quiescunt: ne ipse quidem ad securas res accessi, et audita adoptione desinam videri senex, quod nunc mihi unum obicitur.

Let Nero be before your eyes, who, puffed up by the long series of the Caesars, was driven from the public necks not by Vindex with an unarmed province nor by me with one legion, but by his own monstrousness, his own luxury; nor was there yet a precedent of a condemned emperor. We, taken up by war and by those who assess, will, though outstanding, be accompanied by envy. Yet do not be frightened if two legions, in this upheaval of a shaken world, do not yet come to rest: not even I approached affairs that were secure, and, once the adoption is heard of, I shall cease to seem an old man, which now is the one thing thrown at me.

Nero a pessimo quoque semper desiderabitur: mihi ac tibi providendum est ne etiam a bonis desideretur. monere diutius neque temporis huius, et impletum est omne consilium si te bene elegi. utilissimus idem ac brevissimus bonarum malarumque rerum dilectus est, cogitare quid aut volueris sub alio principe aut nolueris; neque enim hic, ut gentibus quae regnantur, certa dominorum domus et ceteri servi, sed imperaturus es hominibus qui, nec totam servitutem pati possunt nec totam libertatem." et Galba quidem haec ac talia, tamquam principem faceret, ceteri tamquam cum facto loquebantur.

Nero will always be missed even by the worst; it falls to me and to you to provide that he not be missed also by the good. To admonish longer is not for this moment, and every counsel is fulfilled if I have chosen you well. The most useful and likewise the briefest discrimination of good and bad things is to consider what you either wished under another prince or did not wish; for here there is not, as among nations that are ruled, a fixed house of masters and the rest slaves, but you are going to command men who can endure neither total servitude nor total liberty." And Galba indeed said these and such things as though he were making a prince; the rest were speaking as though with one already made.

[17] Pisonem ferunt statim intuentibus et mox coniectis in eum omnium oculis nullum turbati aut exultantis animi motum prodidisse. sermo erga patrem imperatoremque reverens, de se moderatus; nihil in vultu habituque mutatum, quasi imperare posset magis quam vellet. consultatum inde, pro rostris an in senatu an in castris adoptio nuncuparetur.

[17] They report that Piso, while people were looking at once and soon when the eyes of all were cast upon him, betrayed no movement of a mind either perturbed or exultant. His speech toward his father and the emperor was reverent, about himself moderate; nothing in countenance or bearing altered, as if he were able to command rather than wished to. Then it was deliberated whether the adoption should be proclaimed before the Rostra or in the senate or in the camp.

iri in castra placuit: honorificum id militibus fore, quorum favorem ut largitione et ambitu male adquiri, ita per bonas artis haud spernendum. circumsteterat interim Palatium publica expectatio, magni secreti impatiens; et male coercitam famam supprimentes augebant.

it was decided to go into the camp: that would be honorific for the soldiers, whose favor, just as it is ill acquired by largesse and canvassing, so through good arts is by no means to be scorned. meanwhile the Palatium had been surrounded by public expectation, impatient of a great secret; and those suppressing the ill‑restrained rumor were augmenting it.

[18] Quartum idus Ianuarias, foedum imbribus diem, tonitrua et fulgura et caelestes minae ultra solitum turbaverunt. observatum id antiquitus comitiis dirimendis non terruit Galbam quo minus in castra pergeret, contemptorem talium ut fortuitorum; seu quae fato manent, quamvis significata, non vitantur. apud frequentem militum contionem imperatoria brevitate adoptari a se Pisonem exemplo divi Augusti et more militari, quo vir virum legeret, pronuntiat.

[18] On the fourth day before the Ides of January (January 10), a day foul with downpours, thunder and lightning and celestial menaces disturbed beyond the usual. That observance, anciently kept for dissolving the comitia, did not frighten Galba from proceeding to the camp—being a contemner of such things as fortuitous; or else (the thought being) that things which abide by fate, although signified, are not avoided. Before a crowded assembly of soldiers, with imperatorial brevity he proclaims that Piso is adopted by him, after the example of the Deified Augustus and in military fashion, wherein a man chooses a man.

ac ne dissimulata seditio in maius crederetur, ultro adseverat quartam et duoetvicensimam legiones, paucis seditionis auctoribus, non ultra verba ac voces errasse et brevi in officio fore. nec ullum orationi aut lenocinium addit aut pretium. tribuni tamen centurionesque et proximi militum grata auditu respondent: per ceteros maestitia ac silentium, tamquam usurpatam etiam in pace donativi necessitatem bello perdidissent.

and lest a sedition, if concealed, be believed to be greater, he of his own accord affirms that the 4th and 22nd legions, with few authors of the sedition, had not strayed beyond words and shouts and would shortly be in duty. nor does he add to his speech either any blandishment or any price. the tribunes, however, and the centurions and those nearest to the soldiers reply things pleasing to hear; among the rest, gloom and silence, as though they had lost in war the necessity of a donative, usurped even in peace.

constat potuisse conciliari animos quantulacumque parci senis liberalitate: nocuit antiquus rigor et nimia severitas, cui iam pares non sumus.

it is agreed that the minds could have been conciliated by however small a liberality of the sparing old man; the ancient rigor and excessive severity did harm—things to which we are now no longer a match.

[19] Inde apud senatum non comptior Galbae, non longior quam apud militem sermo: Pisonis comis oratio. et patrum favor aderat: multi voluntate, effusius qui noluerant, medii ac plurimi obvio obsequio, privatas spes agitantes sine publica cura. nec aliud sequenti quadriduo, quod medium inter adoptionem et caedem fuit, dictum a Pisone in publico factumve.

[19] Then before the senate Galba’s speech was no more polished, no longer than before the soldiers; Piso’s oration was affable. And the favor of the Fathers was at hand: many willingly, more profusely those who had been unwilling, the middle party and the majority with ready obsequious compliance, revolving private hopes without public care. Nor in the following span of four days, which was the interval between the adoption and the slaughter, was anything else said or done by Piso in public.

crebrioribus in dies Germanicae defectionis nuntiis et facili civitate ad accipienda credendaque omnia nova cum tristia sunt, censuerant patres mittendos ad Germanicum exercitum legatos. agitatum secreto num et Piso proficisceretur, maiore praetextu, illi auctoritatem senatus, hic dignationem Caesaris laturus. placebat et Laconem praetorii praefectum simul mitti: is consilio intercessit.

With the reports of the Germanic defection growing more frequent by the day, and with a populace facile to accept and to give credence to all novelties when they are gloomy, the Fathers had voted that legates be sent to the Germanic army. It was debated in secret whether Piso too should set out, under a greater pretext, he to carry to them the authority of the Senate, and here the dignity of Caesar. It also pleased that Laco, the prefect of the Praetorium, be sent at the same time: he interposed his veto in council.

legati quoque (nam senatus electionem Galbae permiserat) foeda inconstantia nominati, excusati, substituti, ambitu remanendi aut eundi, ut quemque metus vel spes impulerat.

the legates too (for the senate had allowed Galba the election) were, with foul inconstancy, nominated, excused, substituted, by canvassing for remaining or for going, as fear or hope had impelled each.

[20] Proxima pecuniae cura; et cuncta scrutantibus iustissimum visum est inde repeti ubi inopiae causa erat. bis et viciens miliens sesteritum donationibus Nero effuderat: appellari singulos iussit, decima parte liberalitatis apud quemque eorum relicta. at illis vix decimae super portiones erant, isdem erga aliena sumptibus quibus sua prodegerant, cum rapacissimo cuique ac perditissimo non agri aut faenus sed sola instrumenta vitiorum manerent.

[20] Next came care for money; and to those scrutinizing everything it seemed most just that it be recovered thence where the cause of penury lay. Nero had poured out 2,200,000,000 sesterces in donatives: he ordered each to be called to account, with a tenth part of the liberality left with each of them. But for them scarcely even tenth-portions remained, having spent upon others’ property with the same outlays with which they had squandered their own, since for every most rapacious and most ruined man there remained not lands or interest, but only the instruments of vices.

exactioni triginta equites Romani praepositi, novum officii genus et ambitu ac numero onerosum: ubique hasta et sector, et inquieta urbs actionibus. ac tamen grande gaudium quod tam pauperes forent quibus donasset Nero quam quibus abstulisset. exauctorati per eos dies tribuni, e praetorio Antonius Taurus et Antonius Naso, ex urbanis cohortibus Aemilius Pacensis, e vigilibus Iulius Fronto.

Thirty Roman equites were put in charge of the exaction, a new kind of office and burdensome in its ambit and in its number: everywhere the spear and the auctioneer, and the city restless with actions. And yet there was great joy that those to whom Nero had given were as poor as those from whom he had taken. In those days tribunes were cashiered: from the Praetorian, Antonius Taurus and Antonius Naso; from the urban cohorts, Aemilius Pacensis; from the vigiles, Iulius Fronto.

nec remedium in ceteros fuit, sed metus initium, tamquam per artem et formidine singuli pellerentur, omnibus suspectis.

nor was there a remedy for the rest, but the beginning of fear, as if by artifice and dread individuals were being driven out, with everyone suspect.

[21] Interea Othonem, cui compositis rebus nulla spes, omne in turbido consilium, multa simul extimulabant, luxuria etiam principi onerosa, inopia vix privato toleranda, in Galbam ira, in Pisonem invidia; fingebat et metum quo magis concupisceret: praegravem se Neroni fuisse, nec Lusitaniam rursus et alterius exilii honorem expectandum. suspectum semper invisumque dominanus qui proximus destinaretur. nocuisse id sibi apud senem principem, magis nociturum apud iuvenem ingenio trucem et longo exilio efferatum: occidi Othonem posse.

[21] Meanwhile many things at once were goading Otho on—who, with affairs settled, had no hope, and all counsel in turmoil—luxury, burdensome even for an emperor; want, scarcely tolerable for a private man; anger against Galba, envy toward Piso; he even was feigning fear, that he might crave the more: that he had been over-oppressive to Nero, nor must Lusitania and the honor of another exile be awaited again. One who was next designated for mastery was always suspect and hated to the man in power. That had harmed him with an old emperor; it would harm him more with a young man, truculent in disposition and made feral by long exile: Otho could be put to death.

proinde agendum audendumque, dum Galbae auctoritas fluxa, Pisonis nondum coaluisset. opportunos magnis conatibus transitus rerum, nec cunctatione opus, ubi perniciosior sit quies quam temeritas. mortem omnibus ex natura aequalem oblivione apud posteros vel gloria distingui; ac si nocentem innocentemque idem exitus maneat, acrioris viri esse merito perire.

accordingly, one must act and dare, while Galba’s authority is fluid and Piso’s has not yet coalesced. transitions of affairs are opportune for great undertakings, nor is there need of delay where quiet is more pernicious than temerity. death, equal by nature to all, is distinguished among posterity by oblivion or by glory; and if the same outcome awaits the guilty and the innocent, it is the part of a more vigorous man to perish with cause.

[22] Non erat Othonis mollis et corpori similis animus. et intimi libertorum servorumque, corruptius quam in privata domo habiti, aulam Neronis et luxus, adulteria, matrimonia ceterasque regnorum libidines avido talium, si auderet, ut sua ostentantes, quiescenti ut aliena exprobrabant, urgentibus etiam mathematicis, dum novos motus et clarum Othoni annum observatione siderum adfirmant, genus hominum potentibus infidum, sperantibus fallax, quod in civitate nostra et vetabitur semper et retinebitur. multos secreta Poppaeae mathematicos pessimum principalis matrimonii instrumentum, habuerant: e quibus Ptolemaeus Othoni in Hispania comes, cum superfuturum eum Neroni promisisset, postquam ex eventu fides, coniectura iam et rumore senium Galbae et iuventam Othonis computantium persuaserat fore ut in imperium adscisceretur.

[22] Otho’s spirit was not soft nor like his body. And his closest freedmen and slaves—kept with more corruption than in a private household—paraded before him the court of Nero and luxuries, adulteries, marriages, and the other lusts of kingdoms to one avid for such things, if he would dare, as his own; if he kept quiet, they taunted him with them as another’s, the astrologers also pressing on, while by observation of the stars they affirmed new upheavals and a bright year for Otho—a race of men treacherous to the powerful, deceitful to those who hope, which in our state will always both be forbidden and retained. Many astrologers privy to Poppaea’s secrets—the worst instrument of an imperial marriage—had been maintained; among these Ptolemaeus, a companion to Otho in Spain, when he had promised that he would outlive Nero, after credit from the event, now by conjecture and by the rumor of those computing Galba’s senility and Otho’s youth, had persuaded him that he would be taken up into the imperium.

sed Otho tamquam peritia et monitu fatorum praedicta accipiebat, cupidine ingenii humani libentius obscura credendi. nec deerat Ptolemaeus, iam et sceleris instinctor, ad quod facillime ab eius modi voto transitur.

but Otho accepted the predictions as though by expertise and by the monition of the Fates, with the cupidity of human nature to believe the obscure more readily. Nor was Ptolemaeus lacking, now even an instigator of the crime, to which from a wish of that sort one most easily passes.

[23] Sed sceleris cogitatio incertum an repens: studia militum iam pridem spe successionis aut paratu facinoris adfectaverat, in itinere, in agmine, in stationibus vetustissimum quemque militum nomine vocans ac memoria Neroniani comitatus contubernalis appellando; alios agnoscere, quosdam requirere et pecunia aut gratia iuvare, inserendo saepius querelas et ambiguos de Galba sermones quaeque alia turbamenta vulgi. labores itinerum, inopia commeatuum, duritia imperii atrocius accipiebantur, cum Campaniae lacus et Achaiae urbes classibus adire soliti Pyrenaeum et Alpes et immensa viarum spatia aegre sub armis eniterentur.

[23] But whether the deliberation of the crime was sudden is uncertain: he had long since courted the partisanship of the soldiers with the hope of succession or with the preparation of a deed, on the march, in the column, at the stations, calling each of the most veteran soldiers by name and, by the memory of the Neronian comitatus, addressing them as tent‑mates; recognizing some, seeking out others, and helping them with money or favor, more often inserting complaints and ambiguous speeches about Galba, and whatever other agitations of the crowd. The hardships of the marches, the scarcity of supplies, the hardness of command were taken more bitterly, since, being accustomed to reach the lakes of Campania and the cities of Achaea by fleets, they now under arms struggled with difficulty over the Pyrenees and the Alps and the immense stretches of roads.

[24] Flagrantibus iam militum animis velut faces addiderat Maevius Pudens, e proximis Tigellini. is mobilissimum quemque ingenio aut pecuniae indigum et in novas cupiditates praecipitem adliciendo eo paulatim progressus est ut per speciem convivii, quotiens Galba apud Othonem epularetur, cohorti excubias agenti viritim centenos nummos divideret; quam velut publicam largitionem Otho secretioribus apud singulos praemiis intendebat, adeo animosus corruptor ut Cocceio Proculo speculatori, de parte finium cum vicino ambigenti, universum vicini agrum sua pecunia emptum dono dederit, per socordiam praefecti, quem nota pariter et occulta fallebant.

[24] With the soldiers’ spirits already blazing, Maevius Pudens, from the intimates of Tigellinus, had, as it were, added torches. By luring on each man who was most mobile in disposition or indigent of money and headlong into new cupidities, he advanced by degrees to this point: that, under the appearance of a convivium, whenever Galba feasted at Otho’s, he would distribute to the cohort doing sentry-duty a hundred coins apiece, man by man; which largess, as if public, Otho heightened with more secret premiums to individuals, so spirited a corrupter that to Cocceius Proculus, a speculator, disputing with a neighbor about a portion of boundaries, he gave as a gift the neighbor’s entire field, bought with his own money, through the sloth of the prefect, whom both the manifest and the hidden alike escaped.

[25] Sed tum e libertis Onomastum futuro sceleri praefecit, a quo Barbium Proculum tesserarium speculatorum et Veturium optionem eorundem perductos, postquam vario sermone callidos audacisque cognovit, pretio et promissis onerat, data pecunia ad pertemptandos plurium animos. suscepere duo manipulares imperium populi Romani transferendum et transtulerunt. in conscientiam facinoris pauci adsciti: suspensos ceterorum animos diversis artibus stimulant, primores militum per beneficia Nymphidii ut suspectos, vulgus et ceteros ira et desperatione dilati totiens donativi.

[25] But then, from among his freedmen, he put Onomastus in charge of the future crime; by him Barbius Proculus, the tesserarius of the speculatores, and Veturius, the optio of the same, having been brought in—after he learned by varied conversation that they were shrewd and daring—he loads with money and promises, cash being supplied to sound the spirits of more men. The two rank-and-file comrades undertook that the imperium of the Roman people be transferred—and they transferred it. Few were admitted to the consciousness of the crime: they stimulate the wavering minds of the rest by diverse arts—the foremost of the soldiers, as suspect on account of the benefactions of Nymphidius; the crowd and the others by anger and desperation at the donative so often deferred.

erant quos memoria Neronis ac desiderium prioris licentiae accenderet: in commune omnes metu mutandae militiae terrebantur.

there were those whom the memory of Nero and a desire for the prior license inflamed: in common, all were terrified by fear of a change of military service.

[26] Infecit ea tabes legionum quoque et auxiliorum motas iam mentis, postquam vulgatum erat labare Germanici exercitus fidem. adeoque parata apud malos seditio, etiam apud integros dissimulatio fuit, ut postero iduum die redeuntem a cena Othonem rapturi fuerint, ni incerta noctis et tota urbe sparsa militum castra nec facilem inter temulentos consensum timuissent, non rei publicae cura, quam foedare principis sui sanguine sobrii parabant, sed ne per tenebras, ut quisque Pannonici vel Germanici exercitus militibus oblatus esset, ignorantibus plerisque, pro Othone destinaretur. multa erumpentis seditionis indicia per conscios oppressa: quaedam apud Galbae auris praefectus Laco elusit, ignarus militarium animorum consiliique quamvis egregii, quod non ipse adferret, inimicus et adversus peritos pervicax.

[26] That corruption infected the already-stirred minds of the legions too and of the auxiliaries, after it had been bruited abroad that the loyalty of the German army was wavering. And sedition was so prepared among the wicked, and even among the sound there was dissimulation, that on the day after the Ides they would have seized Otho as he was returning from dinner, had they not feared the uncertainties of night and the soldiers’ camps scattered through the whole city and the lack of easy consensus among the drunken—not from concern for the commonwealth, which, when sober, they were preparing to defile with the blood of their own prince, but lest in the darkness, as anyone happened to be thrown in the way of the soldiers of the Pannonian or German army, most being ignorant, he should be marked out in place of Otho. Many signs of the breaking-out sedition were suppressed by those in the know; some the prefect Laco parried from Galba’s ears—ignorant of soldiers’ spirits, and hostile to counsel, however excellent, which he had not himself proposed, and obstinate against the experienced.

[27] Octavo decimo kalendas Februarias sacrificanti pro aede Apollinis Galbae haruspex Vmbricius tristia exta et instantis insidias ac domesticum hostem praedicit, audiente Othone (nam proximus adstiterat) idque ut laetum e contrario et suis cogitationibus prosperum interpretante. nec multo post libertus Onomastus nuntiat expectari eum ab architecto et redemptoribus, quae significatio coeuntium iam militum et paratae coniurationis convenerat. Otho, causam digressus requirentibus, cum emi sibi praedia vetustate suspecta eoque prius exploranda finxisset, innixus liberto per Tiberianam domum in Velabrum, inde ad miliarium aureum sub aedem Saturni pergit.

[27] On the eighteenth day before the Kalends of February (January 15), as Galba was sacrificing before the temple of Apollo, the haruspex Umbricius foretells grim exta and imminent ambushes and a domestic enemy, with Otho listening (for he had stood nearest) and interpreting this, contrariwise, as joyful and favorable to his own cogitations. And not long after, the freedman Onomastus announces that he is expected by the architect and contractors—a signification that had been agreed upon for the soldiers already coalescing and the conspiracy prepared. Otho, to those asking the reason for his withdrawal, when he had feigned that he was buying estates suspect from age and therefore to be explored beforehand, leaning on his freedman goes through the Tiberian house into the Velabrum, and thence proceeds to the Golden Milestone beneath the temple of Saturn.

ibi tres et viginti speculatores consalutatum imperatorem ac paucitate salutantium trepidum et sellae festinanter impositum strictis mucronibus rapiunt; totidem ferme milites in itinere adgregantur, alii conscientia, plerique miraculo, pars clamore et gladiis, pars silentio, animum ex eventu sumpturi.

there twenty-three scouts hailed him as emperor, and, alarmed at the paucity of those saluting and hastily set upon a chair, they carry him off with sword-points drawn; roughly as many soldiers join on the way, some through complicity, most through wonder, part with shouting and swords, part in silence, ready to take their resolve from the outcome.

[28] Stationem in castris agebat Iulius Martialis tribunus. is magnitudine subiti sceleris, an corrupta latius castra et, si contra tenderet, exitium metuens, praebuit plerisque suspicionem conscientiae; anteposuere ceteri quoque tribuni centurionesque praesentia dubiis et honestis, isque habitus animorum fuit ut pessimum facinus auderent pauci, plures vellent, omnes paterentur.

[28] The tribune Julius Martialis was holding the station in the camp. He, at the magnitude of the sudden crime—or fearing that the camp was more widely corrupted and that, if he should strive against it, there would be ruin—afforded to very many a suspicion of complicity. The other tribunes and the centurions also preferred present advantages to what was doubtful and honorable, and such was the disposition of minds that a few dared the worst deed, more wished it, all tolerated it.

[29] Ignarus interim Galba et sacris intentus fatigabat alieni iam imperii deos, cum adfertur rumor rapi in castra incertum quem senatorem, mox Othonem esse qui raperetur, simul ex tota urbe, ut quisque obvius fuerat, alii formidine augentes, quidam minora vero, ne tum quidem obliti adulationis. igitur consultantibus placuit pertemptari animum cohortis, quae in Palatio stationem agebat, nec per ipsum Galbam, cuius integra auctoritas maioribus remediis servabatur. Piso pro gradibus domus vocatos in hunc modum adlocutus est: "sextus dies agitur, commilitones, ex quo ignarus futuri, et sive optandum hoc nomen sive timendum erat, Caesar adscitus sum.

[29] In the meantime Galba, unaware and intent upon the sacred rites, was fatiguing the gods of an imperium now another’s, when a rumor is brought that some senator, uncertain whom, is being snatched away to the camp; soon that it was Otho who was being carried off—at the same time from the whole city, as each person had chanced to meet something, some magnifying through fear, certain reporting less than the truth, not then even forgetful of adulation. Therefore, as they consulted, it was decided to assay the spirit of the cohort which was holding station on the Palatium, and not through Galba himself, whose unimpaired authority was being reserved for greater remedies. Piso, before the steps of the house, addressed the summoned in this fashion: "It is the sixth day, fellow-soldiers, since, ignorant of what was to come, and whether this name was to be desired or to be feared, I was enrolled as Caesar."

quo domus nostrae aut rei publicae fato in vestra manu positum est, non quia meo nomine tristiorem casum paveam, ut qui adversas res expertus cum maxime discam ne secundas quidem minus discriminis habere: patris et senatus et ipsius imperii vicem doleo, si nobis aut perire hodie necesse est aut, quod aeque apud bonos miserum est, occidere. solacium proximi motus habebamus incruentam urbem et res sine discordia translatas: provisum adoptione videbatur ut ne post Galbam quidem bello locus esset."

"by what fate of our house or of the Republic it has been placed in your hands, not because on my own account I dread a sadder disaster, since, as one who has experienced adverse fortunes, I am just now learning that not even prosperous ones have less peril: I grieve for my father and for the senate and for the empire itself, if it is necessary for us either to perish today or, what is equally wretched among good men, to kill. We had, as a solace of the most recent commotion, a city unbloodied and affairs transferred without discord: it seemed to have been provided by adoption that not even after Galba would there be room for war."

[30] "Nihil adrogabo mihi nobilitatis aut modestiae; neque enim relatu virtutum in comparatione Othonis opus est. vitia, quibus solis gloriatur, evertere imperium, etiam cum amicum imperatoris ageret. habitune et incessu an illo muliebri ornatu mereretur imperium?

[30] "I will arrogate nothing to myself of nobility or modesty; nor indeed is there need of a relation of virtues in a comparison with Otho. The vices, in which alone he glories, overturned the empire even when he was playing the friend of the emperor. By his bearing and gait, or by that womanish adornment, would he merit the empire?

falluntur quibus luxuria specie liberalitatis imponit: perdere iste sciet, donare nesciet. stupra nunc et comissationes et feminarum coetus volvit animo: haec principatus praemia putat, quorum libido ac voluptas penes ipsum sit, rubor ac dedecus penes omnis; nemo enim umquam imperium flagitio quaesitum bonis artibus exercuit. Galbam consensus generis humani, me Galba consentientibus vobis Caesarem dixit.

They are deceived upon whom luxury, under the appearance of liberality, imposes: that man will know how to squander, he will not know how to donate. Rapes now and carousals and gatherings of women he revolves in his mind: he thinks these the prizes of the principate, wherein the libido and pleasure are with himself, the blush and disgrace with everyone; for no one ever exercised an imperium acquired by infamy with good arts. Galba—by the consensus of the human race; me Galba, with you consenting, declared Caesar.

si res publica et senatus et populus vacua nomina sunt, vestra, commilitones, interest ne imperatorem pessimi faciant. legionum seditio adversus duces suos audita est aliquando: vestra fides famaque inlaesa ad hunc diem mansit. et Nero quoque vos destituit, non vos Neronem.

if the commonwealth and the senate and the people are empty names, it is your concern, fellow-soldiers, that the worst not make an emperor. the sedition of legions against their own leaders has been heard of at times: your faith and fame have remained uninjured to this day. and Nero too deserted you, not you Nero.

minus triginta transfugae et desertores, quos centurionem aut tribunum sibi eligentis nemo ferret, imperium adsignabunt? admittitis exemplum et quiescendo commune crimen facitis? transcendet haec licentia in provincias, et ad nos scelerum exitus, bellorum ad vos pertinebunt.

Will fewer than thirty defectors and deserters—men whom, if they were choosing a centurion or a tribune for themselves, no one would endure—assign the imperium? Do you admit the example and, by keeping quiet, make a common crime? This license will pass over into the provinces, and the issues of crimes will pertain to us, of wars to you.

nec est plus quod pro caede principis quam quod innocentibus datur, sed proinde a nobis donativum ob fidem quam ab aliis pro facinore accipietis."

nor is there more that is given for the slaughter of an emperor than what is given to the innocents, but in like manner from us you will receive a donative on account of fidelity, as from others for a crime."

[31] Dilapsis speculatoribus cetera cohors non aspernata contionantem, ut turbidis rebus evenit, forte magis et nullo adhuc consilio rapit signa [quam], quod postea creditum est, insidiis et simulatione. missus et Celsus Marius ad electos Illyrici exercitus, Vipsania in porticu tendentis; praeceptum Amullio Sereno et Domitio Sabino primipilaribus, ut Germanicos milites e Libertatis atrio accerserent. legioni classicae diffidebatur, infestae ob caedem commilitonum, quos primo statim introitu trucidaverat Galba.

[31] The scouts having dispersed, the rest of the cohort, not disdaining the man haranguing, as happens in troubled circumstances, more by chance and with no plan as yet, seizes the standards [rather] than, as was later believed, by treachery and dissimulation. Celsus Marius, too, was sent to the picked troops of the Illyrian army, encamped in the Vipsanian Portico; instruction was given to Amullius Serenus and Domitius Sabinus, primipilars, to summon the German soldiers from the Atrium of Liberty. There was distrust of the naval legion, hostile because of the slaughter of their fellow soldiers, whom Galba had butchered at his very first entry.

pergunt etiam in castra praetorianorum tribuni Cetrius Severus, Subrius Dexter, Pompeius Longinus, si incipiens adhuc et necdum adulta seditio melioribus consiliis flecteretur. tribunorum Subrium et Cetrium adorti milites minis, Longinum manibus coercent exarmantque, quia non ordine militiae, sed e Galbae amicis, fidus principi suo et desciscentibus suspectior erat. legio classica nihil cunctata praetorianis adiungitur; Illyrici exercitus electi Celsum infestis pilis proturbant.

The tribunes Cetrius Severus, Subrius Dexter, and Pompeius Longinus also proceed to the camp of the Praetorians, to see whether a sedition, still beginning and not yet full-grown, might be bent by better counsels. The soldiers assailed the tribunes Subrius and Cetrius with threats; Longinus they coerce by laying hands on him and disarm him, because he was not by a military order, but from among Galba’s friends—faithful to his own emperor and therefore the more suspect to the defectors. The fleet legion (the marines) hesitated not at all and is joined to the Praetorians; the chosen men of the Illyrian army drive off Celsus with hostile javelins.

Germanica vexilla diu nutavere, invalidis adhuc corporibus et placatis animis, quod eos a Nerone Alexandriam praemissos atque inde rursus longa navigatione aegros impensiore cura Galba refovebat.

The German detachments wavered for a long time, their bodies still enfeebled and their spirits pacified, because Galba was reviving them with more lavish care, since Nero had sent them on ahead to Alexandria and, from there, they had again become sick from the long voyage.

[32] Vniversa iam plebs Palatium implebat, mixtis servitiis et dissono clamore caedem Othonis et coniuratorum exitium poscentium ut si in circo aut theatro ludicrum aliquod postularent: neque illis iudicium aut veritas, quippe eodem die diversa pari certamine postulaturis, sed tradito more quemcumque principem adulandi licentia adclamationum et studiis inanibus. Interim Galbam duae sententiae distinebat: Titus Vinius manendum intra domum, opponenda servitia, firmandos aditus, non eundum ad iratos censebat: daret malorum paenitentiae, daret bonorum consensui spatium: scelera impetu, bona consilia mora valescere, denique eundi ultro, si ratio sit, eandem mox facultatem, regressum, si paeniteat, inaliena potestate.

[33] Festinandum ceteris videbatur antequam cresceret invalida adhuc coniuratio paucorum: trepidaturum etiam Othonem, qui furtim digressus, ad ignaros inlatus, cunctatione nunc et segnitia terentium tempus imitari principem discat.

[32] The entire plebs was by now filling the Palace, with slave-bodies mixed in and with a dissonant clamor, demanding the slaughter of Otho and the destruction of the conspirators, as if in the circus or the theater they were calling for some spectacle: they had neither judgment nor truth—for on that same day they would demand contrary things with equal rivalry—but, by a handed‑down custom, the license of acclamations and empty enthusiasms for flattering whatever prince. Meanwhile two opinions detained Galba: Titus Vinius judged that he should remain within the house, set the slave-staff in opposition, strengthen the approaches, and not go forth to the enraged: let him give space for the repentance of the wicked, give time for the consensus of the good: crimes gain strength by impetuosity, good counsels by delay; finally, the going out of his own accord, if there be reason, would soon have the same opportunity; the return, if he should repent, would be in another’s power.

[33] To the others it seemed that there must be haste, before the conspiracy of a few, still weak, should grow: that even Otho would be in a panic—he who, having slipped away furtively and been introduced among the unknowing—would now, through the hesitation and sloth of those who are wasting time, learn to imitate a prince.

non expectandum ut compositis castris forum invadat et prospectante Galba Capitolium adeat, dum egregius imperator cum fortibus amicis ianua ac limine tenus domum cludit, obsidionem nimirum toleraturus. et praeclarum in servis auxilium si consensus tantae multitudinis et, quae plurimum valet, prima indignatio elanguescat. proinde intuta quae indecora; vel si cadere necesse sit, occurrendum discrimini: id Othoni invidiosius et ipsis honestum.

It must not be waited for until, his camp set in order, he invades the Forum and, with Galba looking on, goes to the Capitol, while the distinguished emperor, with brave friends, shuts up the house to the very door and threshold, doubtless about to endure a siege. And a splendid aid in slaves, if the consensus of so great a multitude and, that which prevails most, the first indignation should languish. Accordingly, what is unsafe is what is indecorous; or, if it is necessary to fall, the crisis must be met: that is more invidious to Otho and honorable to themselves.

repugnantem huic sententiae Vinium Laco minaciter invasit, stimulante Icelo privati odii pertinacia in publicum exitium.

Laco menacingly assailed Vinius, who was opposing this opinion, with Icelus urging him on, the pertinacity of private hatred driving on to public ruin.

[34] Nec diutius Galba cunctatus speciosiora suadentibus accessit. praemissus tamen in castra Piso, ut iuvenis magno nomine, recenti favore et infensus Tito Vinio, seu quia erat seu quia irati ita volebant: et facilius de odio creditur. vixdum egresso Pisone occisum in castris Othonem vagus primum et incertus rumor: mox, ut in magnis mendaciis, interfuisse se quidam et vidisse adfirmabant, credula fama inter gaudentis et incuriosos.

[34] Nor did Galba delay longer: he acceded to those urging the more specious counsels. Nevertheless Piso was sent ahead to the camp, on the plea that he was a young man of great name, with recent favor, and hostile to Titus Vinius—whether he truly was, or because the angry so wished it; and it is easier to believe in hatred. Scarcely had Piso gone out when a wandering and uncertain rumor first said that Otho had been killed in the camp: soon, as in great mendacities, certain men asserted that they had been present and had seen it, a credulous report among the rejoicing and the incurious.

multi arbitrabantur compositum auctumque rumorem mixtis iam Othonianis, qui ad evocandum Galbam laeta falso vulgaverint.

many were thinking the rumor had been composed and augmented, with Othonian partisans now intermingled, who had falsely published glad tidings to draw Galba out.

[35] Tum vero non populus tantum et imperita plebs in plausus et immodica studia sed equitum plerique ac senatorum, posito metu incauti, refractis Palatii foribus ruere intus ac se Galbae ostentare, praereptam sibi ultionem querentes, ignavissimus quisque et, ut res docuit, in periculo non ausurus, nimii verbis, linguae feroces; nemo scire et omnes adfirmare, donec inopia veri et consensu errantium victus sumpto thorace Galba inruenti turbae neque aetate neque corpore [re]sistens sella levaretur. obvius in Palatio Iulius Atticus speculator, cruentum gladium ostentans, occisum a se Othonem exclamavit; et Galba "commilito", inquit, "quis iussit?" insigni animo ad coercendam militarem licentiam, minantibus intrepidus, adversus blandientis incorruptus.

[35] Then indeed not the people only and the unskilled plebs burst into applause and immoderate enthusiasms, but many of the equestrians and of the senators, fear set aside, incautious, with the doors of the Palace broken open, rushed inside and made a show of themselves to Galba, complaining that vengeance had been snatched from them—each man the most cowardly and, as the event taught, not about to dare in danger, excessive in words, fierce of tongue; no one to know and all to affirm—until, overcome by a lack of truth and by the consensus of the erring, Galba, a cuirass taken up, unable to withstand the crowd rushing in either by reason of age or of body, was lifted on a chair. Meeting him in the Palace, Julius Atticus, a speculator, displaying a bloody sword, shouted that Otho had been slain by him; and Galba said, “Fellow-soldier, who ordered it?” a spirit remarkable for restraining military licence, unshaken by threats, incorrupt against flatterers.

[36] Haud dubiae iam in castris omnium mentes tantusque ardor ut non contenti agmine et corporibus in suggestu, in quo paulo ante aurea Galbae statua fuerat, medium inter signa Othonem vexillis circumdarent. nec tribunis aut centurionibus adeundi locus: gregarius miles caveri insuper praepositos iubebat. strepere cuncta clamoribus et tumultu et exhortatione mutua, non tamquam in populo ac plebe, variis segni adulatione vocibus, sed ut quemque adfluentium militum aspexerant, prensare manibus, complecti armis, conlocare iuxta, praeire sacramentum, modo imperatorem militibus, modo milites imperatori commendare, nec deerat Otho protendens manus adorare vulgum, iacere oscula et omnia serviliter pro dominatione.

[36] Now in the camp the minds of all were no longer doubtful, and so great was the ardor that, not content with a column and with bodies upon the platform on which a little before the golden statue of Galba had stood, they surrounded Otho with banners, in the midst among the standards. Nor was there room for tribunes or centurions to approach: the rank-and-file soldier was even ordering that their superiors be guarded against. Everything was rattling with shouts and tumult and mutual exhortation, not as among the populace and plebs, with various voices of sluggish adulation, but, as they caught sight of each of the soldiers flowing in, they grasped them with their hands, embraced them with their arms, placed them nearby, dictated the oath, now commending the emperor to the soldiers, now the soldiers to the emperor; nor was Otho lacking, stretching forth his hands to adore the vulgus, to throw kisses, and to do all things servilely for domination.

postquam universa classicorum legio sacramentum eius accepit, fidens viribus, et quos adhuc singulos extimulaverat, accendendos in commune ratus pro vallo castorum ita coepit.

After the entire legion of the fleet had accepted his oath, confident in his forces, and judging that those whom he had thus far stimulated singly ought to be kindled in common, he thus began before the rampart of the camp.

[37] "Quis ad vos processerim commilitones, dicere non possum, quia nec privatum me vocare sustineo princeps a vobis nominatus, nec principem alio imperante. vestrum quoque nomen in incerto erit donec dubitabitur imperatorem populi Romani in castris an hostem habeatis. auditisne ut poena mea et supplicium vestrum simul postulentur?

[37] "In what capacity I have come forward to you, fellow-soldiers, I cannot say, since I cannot bring myself to call myself a private man, having been named princeps by you, nor a princeps while another is ruling. Your own title too will be in uncertainty until there is hesitation whether you have in your camp the emperor of the Roman people or an enemy. Do you hear how my punishment and your execution are demanded together?

adeo manifestum est neque perire nos neque salvos esse nisi una posse; et cuius lenitatis est Galba, iam fortasse promisit, ut qui nullo exposcente tot milia innocentissimorum militum trucidaverit. horror animum subit quotiens recordor feralem introitum et hanc solam Galbae victoriam, cum in oculis urbis decimari deditos iuberet, quos deprecantis in fidem acceperat. his auspiciis urbem ingressus, quam gloriam ad principatum attulit nisi occisi Obultronii Sabini et Cornelii Marcelli in Hispania, Betui Cilonis in Gallia, Fontei Capitonis in Germania, Clodii Macri in Africa, Cingonii in via, Turpiliani in urbe, Nymphidii in castris?

it is so manifest that we can neither perish nor be safe except together; and of what lenity is Galba? perhaps by now he has even promised—as the very man who, with no one demanding it, slaughtered so many thousands of most innocent soldiers. horror comes over my mind whenever I recall the funereal entry and this Galba’s sole victory, when, before the eyes of the city, he ordered the surrendered to be decimated—those whom, as they begged, he had received into his good faith. with these auspices he entered the city; what glory did he bring to the Principate except the killings of Obultronius Sabinus and Cornelius Marcellus in Spain, Betuus Cilo in Gaul, Fonteius Capito in Germany, Clodius Macer in Africa, Cingonius on the road, Turpilianus in the city, Nymphidius in the camp?

quae usquam provincia, quae castra sunt nisi cruenta et maculata aut, ut ipse praedicat, emendata et correcta? nam quae alii scelera, hic remedia vocat, dum falsis nominibus severitatem pro saevitia, parsimoniam pro avaritia, supplicia et contumelias vestras disciplinam appellat. septem a Neronis fine menses sunt, et iam plus rapuit Icelus quam quod Polycliti et Vatinii et Aegiali perdiderunt.

what province anywhere, what camp is there, unless blood-stained and blotched—or, as he himself proclaims, “amended and corrected”? for what others call crimes, this man calls remedies, while with false names he styles savagery “severity,” avarice “parsimony,” and he calls your punishments and insults “discipline.” seven months it is since Nero’s end, and already Icelus has snatched more than Polyclitus and Vatinius and Aegialus squandered.

minore avaritia ac licentia grassatus esset T. Vinius si ipse imperasset: nunc et subiectos nos habuit tamquam suos et vilis ut alienos. una illa domus sufficit donativo quod vobis numquam datur et cotidie exprobratur."

With less avarice and license would T. Vinius have run riot if he himself had ruled: now he has both held us in subjection as though his own and valued us as cheap as if belonging to another. That one household alone suffices for the donative which is never given to you and is daily flung in your faces."

[38] "Ac ne qua saltem in successore Galbae spes esset accersit ab exilio quem tristitia et avaritia sui simillimum iudicabat. vidistis, commilitones, notabili tempestate etiam deos infaustam adoptionem aversantis. idem senatus, idem populi Romani animus est: vestra virtus expectatur, apud quos omne honestis consiliis robur et sine quibus quamvis egregia invalida sunt.

[38] "And, lest there be any hope at least in Galba’s successor, he summons from exile the man whom he judged most like himself in dourness and avarice. You saw, fellow-soldiers, in a notable tempest even the gods turning away from the ill-omened adoption. The same is the temper of the senate, the same the mind of the Roman people: your valor is awaited, with whom lies all the strength for honest counsels, and without whom, however excellent, they are feeble.

non ad bellum vos nec ad periculum voco: omnium militum arma nobiscum sunt. nec una cohors togata defendit nunc Galbam sed detinet: cum vos aspexerit, cum signum meum accceperit, hoc solum erit certamen, quis mihi plurimum imputet. nullus cunctationis locus est in eo consilio quod non potest laudari nisi peractum." aperire deinde armamentarium iussit.

"Not to war nor to peril do I call you: the arms of all the soldiers are with us. Nor does a single toga-clad cohort now defend Galba but detains him: when it has seen you, when it has received my signal, this alone will be the contest—who may impute to my account the most. There is no place for cunctation in that counsel which cannot be lauded unless brought to completion." Then he ordered the armory to be opened.

rapta statim arma, sine more et ordine militiae, ut praetorianus aut legionarius insignibus suis distingueretur: miscentur auxiliaribus galeis scutisque, nullo tribunorum centurionumve adhortante, sibi quisque dux et instigator; et praecipuum pessimorum incitamentum quod boni maerebant.

weapons were snatched up at once, without the custom and order of soldiery, so that a praetorian or a legionary was not distinguished by his insignia: they are mixed in with the helmets and shields of the auxiliaries, with no tribunes or centurions exhorting, each man his own leader and instigator; and the chief incitement of the worst was that the good were mourning.

[39] Iam exterritus Piso fremitu crebrescentis seditionis et vocibus in urbem usque resonantibus, egressum interim Galbam et foro adpropinquantem adsecutus erat; iam Marius Celsus haud laeta rettulerat, cum alii in Palatium redire, alii Capitolium petere, plerique rostra occupanda censerent, plures tantum sententiis aliorum contra dicerent, utque evenit in consiliis infelicibus, optima viderentur quorum tempus effugerat. agitasse Laco ignaro Galba de occidendo Tito Vinio dicitur, sive ut poena eius animos militum mulceret, seu conscium Othonis credebat, ad postremum vel odio. haesitationem attulit tempus ac locus, quia initio caedis orto difficilis modus; et turbavere consilium trepidi nuntii ac proximorum diffugia, languentibus omnium studiis qui primo alacres fidem atque animum ostentaverant.

[39] Already terrified, Piso, by the rumble of a growing sedition and by voices resounding even into the city, had overtaken Galba, who meanwhile had gone out and was approaching the forum; already Marius Celsus had reported things not happy, since some were advising to return to the Palatine, others to make for the Capitol, the majority thought the rostra must be occupied, more only spoke against the opinions of others, and, as happens in ill-starred counsels, those plans seemed best whose time had fled. It is said that Laco, with Galba unaware, had considered the killing of Titus Vinius, whether that by his punishment he might soothe the spirits of the soldiers, or he believed him an accomplice of Otho, or finally out of hatred. Hesitation was brought by the time and the place, because, once the beginning of slaughter has arisen, restraint is difficult; and the plan was thrown into confusion by panic-stricken reports and the flight of those nearest, as the zeal of all grew languid who at first, brisk, had displayed loyalty and spirit.

[40] Agebatur huc illuc Galba vario turbae fluctuantis impulsu, completis undique basilicis ac templis, lugubri prospectu. neque populi aut plebis ulla vox, sed attoniti vultus et conversae ad omnia aures; non tumultus, non quies, quale magni metus et magnae irae silentium est. Othoni tamen armari plebem nuntiabatur; ire praecipitis et occupare pericula iubet.

[40] Galba was being driven hither and thither by the various impulse of the fluctuating mob, with the basilicas and temples filled on every side, a lugubrious prospect. Nor was there any voice of the people or the plebs, but thunderstruck faces and ears turned to everything; not tumult, not quiet, such as is the silence of great fear and great wrath. Nevertheless it was reported to Otho that the plebs were being armed; he orders them to go headlong and preoccupy the dangers.

igitur milites Romani, quasi Vologaesum aut Pacorum avito Arsacidarum solio depulsuri ac non imperatorem suum inermem et senem trucidare pergerent, disiecta plebe, proculcato senatu, truces armis, rapidi equis forum inrumpunt. nec illos Capitolii aspectus et imminentium templorum religio et priores et futuri principes terruere quo minus facerent scelus cuius ultor est quisquis successit.

Therefore the Roman soldiers—just as if they were about to drive Vologaesus or Pacorus from the ancestral Arsacid throne, and not proceeding to butcher their own emperor, unarmed and old—after scattering the plebs and trampling the senate underfoot, grim in arms, swift on their horses, burst into the forum. Nor did the sight of the Capitol and the reverence of the temples looming above, nor the former and the future princes, frighten them from committing a crime of which whoever succeeds is the avenger.

[41] Viso comminus armatorum agmine vexillarius comitatae Galbam cohortis (Atilium Vergilionem fuisse tradunt) dereptam Galbae imaginem solo adflixit: eo signo manifesta in Othonem omnium militum studia, desertum fuga populi forum, destricta adversus dubitantis tela. iuxta Curtii lacum trepidatione ferentium Galba proiectus e sella ac provolutus est. extremam eius vocem, ut cuique odium aut admiratio fuit, varie prodidere.

[41] With the armed column seen at close quarters, the vexillarius of the cohort accompanying Galba (they hand down that it was Atilius Vergilion) tore down Galba’s image and dashed it to the ground: by that sign the zeal of all the soldiers for Otho was made manifest, the forum was deserted by the flight of the people, weapons were bared against the wavering. Near the Lake of Curtius, through the trepidation of his bearers, Galba was thrown from his chair and rolled forward. His last utterance, according as each man’s hatred or admiration was, they have variously transmitted.

alii suppliciter interrogasse quid mali meruisset, paucos dies exolvendo donativo deprecatum: plures obtulise ultro percussoribus iugulum: agerent ac ferirent, si ita [e] re publica videretur. non interfuit occidentium quid diceret. de percussore non satis constat: quidam Terentium evocatum, alii Laecanium; crebrior fama tradidit Camurium quintae decimae legionis militem impresso gladio iugulum eius hausisse.

others said that he had asked in suppliant fashion what evil he had deserved, begging a few days for paying out the donative; more that he had of his own accord offered his throat to the assassins: let them act and strike, if thus it seemed for the commonwealth. It made no difference to the slayers what he said. About the assailant there is no firm agreement: some [name] Terentius, an evocatus, others Laecanius; the more prevalent report handed down that Camurius, a soldier of the 15th legion, with his sword driven in, pierced his jugular.

ceteri crura brachiaque (nam pectus tegebatur) foede laniavere; pleraque vulnera feritate et saevitia trunco iam corpori adiecta.

the others foully lacerated the legs and arms (for the chest was covered); most of the wounds, by ferocity and savagery, were added to a body now a trunk.

[42] Titum inde Vinium invasere, de quo et ipso ambigitur consumpseritne vocem eius instans metus, an proclamaverit non esse ab Othone mandatum ut occideretur. quod seu finxit formidine seu conscientiam coniurationis confessus est, huc potius eius vita famaque inclinat, ut conscius sceleris fuerit cuius causa erat. ante aedem divi Iulii iacuit primo ictu in poplitem, mox ab Iulio Caro legionario milite in utrumque latus transverberatus.

[42] Then they assailed Titus Vinius, about whom too it is disputed whether pressing fear consumed his voice, or whether he cried out that it had not been ordered by Otho that he be killed. Which, whether he fabricated it from fear or confessed a conscience of the conspiracy, his life and fame incline rather to this: that he was conscious of the crime of which he was the cause. He lay before the temple of the deified Julius, the first blow to the back of the knee; soon he was run through from side to side by Julius Carus, a legionary soldier.

[43] Insignem illa die virum Sempronium Densum aetas nostra vidit. centurio is praetoriae cohortis, a Galba custodiae Pisonis additus, stricto pugione occurrens armatis et scelus exprobrans ac modo manu modo voce vertendo in se percussores quamquam vulnerato Pisoni effugium dedit. Piso in aedem Vestae pervasit, exceptusque misericordia publici servi et contubernio eius abditus non religione nec caerimoniis sed latebra inminens exitium differebat, cum advenere missu Othonis nominatim in caedem eius ardentis Sulpicius Florus e Britannicis cohortibus, nuper a Galba civitate donatus, et Statius Murcus speculator, a quibus protractus Piso in foribus templi trucidatur.

[43] On that day our age beheld a distinguished man, Sempronius Densus. He was a centurion of the praetorian cohort, assigned by Galba to Piso’s guard; running to meet the armed men with dagger drawn and reproaching the crime, and by turns with hand and with voice turning the assassins upon himself, he afforded Piso, though wounded, an escape. Piso made his way into the shrine of Vesta, and, received by the pity of a public slave and hidden in that man’s lodging, he put off the imminent destruction not by religion or rites but by a hiding-place, when there arrived, sent by Otho and burning expressly for his slaughter, Sulpicius Florus of the British cohorts, lately endowed with citizenship by Galba, and Statius Murcus, a speculator; dragged forth by them, Piso is butchered in the doorway of the temple.

[44] Nullam caedem Otho maiore laetitia excepisse, nullum caput tam insatiabilibus oculis perlustrasse dicitur, seu tum primum levata omni sollicitudine mens vacare gaudio coeperat, seu recordatio maiestatis in Galba, amicitiae in Tito Vinio quamvis immitem animum imagine tristi confuderat, Pisonis ut inimici et aemuli caede laetari ius fasque credebat. praefixa contis capita gestabantur inter signa cohortium iuxta aquilam legionis, certatim ostentantibus cruentas manus qui occiderant, qui interfuerant, qui vere qui falso ut pulchrum et memorabile facinus iactabant. plures quam centum viginti libellos praemium exposcentium ob aliquam notabilem illa die operam Vitellius postea invenit, omnisque conquiri et interfici iussit, non honori Galbae, sed tradito principibus more munimentum ad praesens, in posterum ultionem.

[44] It is said that Otho received no slaughter with greater joy, that he perused no head with eyes so insatiable—whether then for the first time his mind, relieved of all solicitude, had begun to be free for joy, or the recollection of majesty in Galba and of friendship in Titus Vinius, although his spirit was savage, had confounded him with a grim image; the slaughter of Piso, as an enemy and rival, he believed it right and divine law to rejoice at. Heads fixed upon poles were borne among the standards of the cohorts, beside the legion’s eagle, while in rivalry those who had killed, those who had been present, displaying their bloody hands, both truly and falsely were boasting it as a fair and memorable deed. Vitellius later found more than one hundred and twenty little petitions from men demanding a reward for some notable service on that day, and he ordered them all to be sought out and killed—not in honor of Galba, but, according to the custom handed down to princes, a bulwark for the present, a vengeance for the future.

[45] Alium crederes senatum, alium populum: ruere cuncti in castra, anteire proximos, certare cum praecurrentibus, increpare Galbam, laudare militum iudicium, exosculari Othonis manum; quantoque magis falsa erant quae fiebant, tanto plura facere. nec aspernabatur singulos Otho, avidum et minacem militum animum voce vultuque temperans. Marium Celsum, consulem designatum et Galbae usque in extremas res amicum fidumque, ad supplicium expostulabant, industriae eius innocentiaeque quasi malis artibus infensi.

[45] You would have thought it a different senate, a different people: all were rushing into the camp, going ahead of their nearest, vying with those who ran before, upbraiding Galba, applauding the judgment of the soldiers, kissing Otho’s hand; and the more false were the things that were being done, the more they did. Nor did Otho spurn individuals, moderating by voice and countenance the eager and menacing spirit of the soldiers. They clamored for Marius Celsus, consul-designate and a friend faithful to Galba even to the last extremities, to be punished, hostile to his industry and innocence as though they were evil arts.

caedis et praedarum initium et optimo cuique perniciem quaeri apparebat, sed Othoni nondum auctoritas inerat ad prohibendum scelus: iubere iam poterat. ita simulatione irae vinciri iussum et maiores poenas daturum adfirmans praesenti exitio subtraxit.

It was apparent that the beginning of slaughter and of plunders, and the ruin of each best man, was being sought; but Otho did not yet have the authority to prohibit the crime: he could already command. Thus, with a simulation of anger, by ordering him to be bound and affirming that he would inflict greater penalties, he withdrew him from present destruction.

[46] Omnia deinde arbitrio militum acta: praetorii praefectos sibi ipsi legere, Plotium Firmum e manipularibus quondam, tum vigilibus praepositum et incolumi adhuc Galba partis Othonis secutum; adiungitur Licinius Proculus, intima familiaritate Othonis suspectus consilia eius fovisse. urbi Flavium Sabinum praefecere, iudicium Neronis secuti, sub quo eandem curam obtinuerat, plerisque Vespasianum fratrem in eo respicientibus. flagitatum ut vacationes praestari centurionibus solitae remitterentur; namque gregarius miles ut tributum annuum pendebat.

[46] Then everything was done at the soldiers’ discretion: they themselves chose the prefects of the praetorian guard—Plotius Firmus, once from the manipular ranks, then placed over the vigiles and, with Galba still unharmed, having followed Otho’s side; Licinius Proculus is added, suspected, by reason of Otho’s innermost familiarity, to have fostered his counsels. They set Flavius Sabinus over the city, following Nero’s judgment, under whom he had held the same charge, many regarding him as the brother of Vespasian. It was demanded that the exemptions usually afforded to the centurions be remitted; for the rank-and-file soldier was paying as if an annual tribute.

quarta pars manipuli sparsa per commeatus aut in ipsis castris vaga, dum mercedem centurioni exolveret, neque modum oneris quisquam neque genus quaestus pensi habebat: per latrocinia et raptus aut servilibus ministeriis militare otium redimebant. tum locupletissimus quisque miles labore ac saevitia fatigari donec vacationem emeret. ubi sumptibus exhaustus socordia insuper elanguerat, inops pro locuplete et iners pro strenuo in manipulum redibat, ac rursus alius atque alius, eadem egestate ac licentia corrupti, ad seditiones et discordias et ad extremum bella civilia ruebant.

a fourth part of the maniple, scattered on furloughs or wandering idle in the very camp while it paid a payoff to the centurion, and no one took into account either the measure of the burden or the kind of gain: by banditry and rapine or by servile services they were buying out military leisure. then every wealthiest soldier was wearied by toil and cruelty until he bought an exemption (vacation). when, drained by expenses, he had moreover grown slack through sloth, the needy instead of the wealthy and the inert instead of the strenuous returned into the maniple; and again one and then another, corrupted by the same destitution and license, were rushing to seditions and discords and, at the last, to civil wars.

sed Otho ne vulgi largitione centurionum animos averteret, fiscum suum vacationes annuas exoluturum promisit, rem haud dubie utilem et a bonis postea principibus perpetuitate disciplinae firmatam. Laco praefectus, tamquam in insulam seponeretur, ab evocato, quem ad caedem eius Otho praemiserat, confossus; in Marcianum Icelum ut in libertum palam animadversum.

but Otho, lest by largess to the common crowd he should alienate the minds of the centurions, promised that his fisc would pay out the annual exemptions, a measure without doubt useful and later by good princes strengthened by the perpetuity of the discipline. Laco the prefect, as though he were being set aside to an island, was run through by an evocatus whom Otho had sent ahead for his killing; upon Marcianus Icelus punishment was openly inflicted, as upon a freedman.

[47] Exacto per scelera die novissimum malorum fuit laetitia. vocat senatum praetor urbanus, certant adulationibus ceteri magistratus, adcurrunt patres: decernitur Othoni tribunicia potestas et nomen Augusti et omnes principum honores, adnitentibus cunctis abolere convicia ac probra, quae promisce iacta haesisse animo eius nemo sensit; omisisset offensas an distulisset brevitate imperii in incerto fuit. Otho cruento adhuc foro per stragem iacentium in Capitolium atque inde in Palatium vectus concedi corpora sepulturae cremarique permisit.

[47] When the day had been spent in crimes, the latest of evils was joy. The city praetor summons the senate, the other magistrates contend in adulations, the Fathers run up: to Otho are decreed tribunician power and the name of Augustus and all the honors of the principes, all striving to abolish the revilings and reproaches which, hurled indiscriminately, no one perceived to have stuck in his mind; whether he had dropped his resentments or had deferred them by reason of the brevity of his rule was uncertain. Otho, with the forum still bloody, carried through the slaughter of those lying there to the Capitol and thence to the Palatium, permitted that the bodies be yielded to burial and to be cremated.

Pisonem Verania uxor ac frater Scribonianus, Titum Vinium Crispina filia composuere, quaesitis redemptisque capitibus, quae venalia interfectores servaverant.

Piso was laid to rest by his wife Verania and his brother Scribonianus; Titus Vinius, by his daughter Crispina, the heads having been sought out and redeemed, which the killers had kept for sale.

[48] Piso unum et tricensimum aetatis annum explebat, fama meliore quam fortuna. fratres eius Magnum Claudius, Crassum Nero interfecerant: ipse diu exul, quadriduo Caesar, properata adoptione ad hoc tantum maiori fratri praelatus est ut prior occideretur. Titus Vinius quinquaginta septem annos variis moribus egit.

[48] Piso was completing the 31st year of his age, with a reputation better than his fortune. His brothers, Magnus and Crassus, had been killed—the former by Claudius, the latter by Nero. He himself, long an exile, was a Caesar for four days; by a hastened adoption he was preferred to his elder brother only to this extent, that he should be killed first. Titus Vinius lived 57 years, of varied morals.

pater illi praetoria familia, maternus avus e proscriptis. prima militia infamis: legatum Calvisium Sabinum habuerat, cuius uxor mala cupidine visendi situm castrorum, per noctem militari habitu ingressa, cum vigilias et cetera militiae munia eadem lascivia temptasset, in ipsis principiis stuprum ausa, et criminis huius reus Titus Vinius arguebatur. igitur iussu G. Caesaris oneratus catenis, mox mutatione temporum dimissus, cursu honorum inoffenso legioni post praeturam praepositus probatusque servili deinceps probro respersus est tamquam scyphum aureum in convivio Claudii furatus, et Claudius postera die soli omnium Vinio fictilibus ministrari iussit.

his father belonged to a praetorian household, his maternal grandfather was among the proscribed. his first military service was infamous: he had had Calvisius Sabinus as legate, whose wife, from an evil craving to see the lay of the camp, having entered by night in military attire, when with the same wantonness she had tried the watches and the other duties of soldiery, in the very principia dared a debauch; and Titus Vinius was accused as the defendant of this crime. therefore, by order of G. Caesar, he was loaded with chains; soon, with a change of times, released; with his cursus honorum unimpeded, after the praetorship he was set over a legion and approved; thereafter he was bespattered with a servile reproach, on the pretext that he had stolen a golden cup at a convivium of Claudius; and Claudius on the next day ordered that to Vinius alone of all service be made with earthenware.

sed Vinius proconsulatu Galliam Narbonensem severe integreque rexit; mox Galbae amicitia in abruptum tractus, audax, callidus, promptus et, prout animum intendisset, pravus aut industrius, eadem vi. testamentum Titi Vinii magnitudine opum inritum, Pisonis supremam voluntatem paupertas firmavit.

but Vinius, in his proconsulship, ruled Gallia Narbonensis severely and uprightly; soon, through Galba’s friendship, dragged into a headlong plunge, bold, crafty, ready, and, according as he had directed his mind, depraved or industrious, with the same force. The testament of Titus Vinius, by the magnitude of his wealth, was rendered void; Piso’s last will, his poverty confirmed.

[49] Galbae corpus diu neglectum et licentia tenebrarum plurimis ludibriis vexatum dispensator Argius e prioribus servis humili sepultura in privatis eius hortis contexit. caput per lixas calonesque suffixum laceratumque ante Patrobii tumulum (libertus in Neronis punitus a Galba fuerat) postera demum die repertum et cremato iam corpori admixtum est. hunc exitum habuit Servius Galba, tribus et septuaginta annis quinque principes prospera fortuna emensus et alieno imperio felicior quam suo.

[49] Galba’s body, long neglected and, in the license of the darkness, harried with very many mockeries, was covered with humble sepulture in his private gardens by the steward Argius, one of his former slaves. His head, fixed on a stake and mangled by sutlers and camp-drudges, before the tomb of Patrobius (a freedman in Nero’s time who had been punished by Galba), was only on the next day at last found and was mingled with the body already cremated. Such was the end of Servius Galba, at seventy-three years, having passed through five emperors with prosperous fortune, and more fortunate under another’s rule than under his own.

vetus in familia nobilitas, magnae opes: ipsi medium ingenium, magis extra vitia quam cum virtutibus. famae nec incuriosus nec venditator; pecuniae alienae non adpetens, suae parcus, publicae avarus; amicorum libertorumque, ubi in bonos incidisset, sine reprehensione patiens, si mali forent, usque ad culpam ignarus. sed claritas natalium et metus temporum obtentui, ut, quod segnitia erat, sapientia vocaretur.

Old nobility in the family, great wealth: for himself a middling temperament, rather outside vices than endowed with virtues. Of fame neither careless nor a peddler; of other people’s money not grasping, of his own parsimonious, of the public avaricious; of friends and freedmen, when he had chanced upon good men, patient without reproach, if they were bad, ignorant even to the point of fault. But the distinction of his birth and the dread of the times served as a screen, so that what was sluggishness was called wisdom.

dum vigebat aetas militari laude apud Germanas floruit. pro consule Africam moderate, iam senior citeriorem Hispaniam pari iustitia continuit, maior privato visus dum privatus fuit, et omnium consensu capax imperii nisi imperasset.

while his age was in full vigor, he flourished with military renown among the Germanies. As proconsul he governed Africa with moderation; already an older man, he held Hither Spain with equal justice; he seemed greater than a private citizen while he was a private citizen, and by the consent of all was thought capable of imperium—if only he had not ruled.

[50] Trepidam urbem ac simul atrocitatem recentis sceleris, simul veteres Othonis mores paventem novus insuper de Vitellio nuntius exterruit, ante caedem Galbae suppressus ut tantum superioris Germaniae exercitum descivisse crederetur. tum duos omnium mortalium impudicitia ignavia luxuria deterrimos velut ad perdendum imperium fataliter electos non senatus modo et eques, quis aliqua pars et cura rei publicae, sed vulgus quoque palam maerere. nec iam recentia saevae pacis exempla sed repetita bellorum civilium memoria captam totiens suis exercitibus urbem, vastitatem Italiae, direptiones provinciarum, Pharsaliam Philippos et Perusiam ac Mutinam, nota publicarum cladium nomina, loquebantur.

[50] A panic-stricken city—and at once the atrocity of the recent crime, and, at the same time, its old fears of Otho’s character—was further terrified by a fresh message about Vitellius, which had been suppressed before Galba’s slaughter, so that it was believed only the army of Upper Germany had defected. Then that two men, worst of all mortals in impudicity, cowardice, and luxury, had been as if fatally elected to destroy the empire—this not only the senate and the equestrian order, to whom there belongs some share and care of the commonwealth, but the populace too were openly mourning. And now they spoke not of the fresh examples of savage peace, but, with the memory of civil wars recalled, of the city so often captured by its own armies, the devastation of Italy, the plunderings of the provinces, Pharsalus, Philippi, and Perusia and Mutina—the well-known names of public disasters.

prope eversum orbem etiam cum de principatu inter bonos certaretur, sed mansisse G. Iulio, mansisse Caeare Augusto victore imperium; mansuram fuisse sub Pompeio Brutoque rem publicam: nunc pro Othone an pro Vitellio in templa ituros? utrasque impias preces, utraque detestanda vota inter duos, quorum bello solum id scires, deteriorem fore qui vicisset. erant qui Vespasianum et arma Orientis augurarentur, et ut potior utroque Vespasianus, ita bellum aliud atque alias cladis horrebant.

the world was nearly overturned even when the contest for the principate was among good men; yet the empire had remained under G. Julius, had remained under Caesar Augustus as victor; the commonwealth would have remained under Pompey and Brutus: now are they going to go into the temples for Otho or for Vitellius? both prayers impious, both vows detestable, between two men, in whose war this alone you could know: that the one who had conquered would be the worse. there were those who augured Vespasian and the arms of the Orient; and though Vespasian was preferable to either, yet they shuddered at another war and other slaughters.

et ambigua de Vespasiano fama, solusque omnium ante se principum in melius mutatus est.

and the rumor about Vespasian was ambiguous, and he alone of all the emperors before him was changed for the better.

[51] Nunc initia causasque motus Vitelliani expediam. caeso cum omnibus copiis Iulio Vindice ferox praeda gloriaque exercitus, ut cui sine labore ac periculo ditissimi belli victoria evenisset, expeditionem et aciem, praemia quam stipendia malebat. diu infructuosam et asperam militiam toleraverant ingenio loci caelique et severitate disciplinae, quam in pace inexorabilem discordiae civium resolvunt, paratis utrimque corruptoribus et perfidia impunita.

[51] Now I will unfold the beginnings and the causes of the Vitellian movement. Julius Vindex having been cut down with all his forces, the army, fierce with booty and glory, as to whom the victory of a most wealthy war had fallen without toil and danger, preferred expedition and the battle-line, bounties rather than stipends. For a long time they had endured an unprofitable and harsh military service by the nature of the place and sky—that is, the climate—and by the severity of discipline, which, inexorable in peace, the civil discords unloose, with corrupters prepared on both sides and perfidy unpunished.

viri, arma, equi ad usum et ad decus supererant. sed ante bellum centurias tantum suas turmasque noverant; exercitus finibus provinciarum discernebantur: tum adversus Vindicem contractae legiones, seque et Gallias expertae, quaerere rursus arma novasque discordias; nec socios, ut olim, sed hostis et victos vocabant. nec deerat pars Galliarum, quae Rhenum accolit, easdem partis secuta ac tum acerrima instigatrix adversum Galbianos; hoc enim nomen fastidito Vindice indiderant.

Men, arms, and horses were superabundant for use and for adornment. But before the war they had known only their own centuries and cavalry troops; armies were distinguished by the frontiers of provinces: then, once the legions had been massed against Vindex, having tested both themselves and the Gauls, they began again to seek arms and new discords; nor did they call them allies, as once, but enemies and the conquered. Nor was there lacking a part of Gaul that dwells along the Rhine, following the same party and just then a most keen instigator against the Galbians; for this name they had imposed, with Vindex disdained.

igitur Sequanis Aeduisque ac deinde, prout opulentia civitatibus erat, infensi expugnationes urbium, populationes agrorum, raptus penatium hauserunt animo, super avaritiam et adrogantiam, praecipua validiorum vitia, contumacia Gallorum inritati, qui remissam sibi a Galba quartam tributorum partem et publice donatos in ignominiam exercitus iactabant. accessit callide vulgatum, temere creditum, decimari legiones et promptissimum quemque centurionum dimitti. undique atroces nuntii, sinistra ex urbe fama; infensa Lugdunensis colonia et pertinaci pro Nerone fide fecunda rumoribus; sed plurima ad fingendum credendumque materies in ipsis castris, odio metu et, ubi viris suas respexerant, securitate.

therefore the Sequani and Aedui, and then, in proportion as wealth was in the communities, hostile, drank in with their minds the expugnations of cities, the depredations of fields, the rapine of household gods and goods, over and above greed and arrogance—the chief vices of the stronger—provoked by the contumacy of the Gauls, who boasted that a fourth part of the tributes had been remitted to them by Galba and that they had been publicly gifted, to the army’s disgrace. There was added, cleverly spread and rashly believed, that the legions were being decimated and that each of the most forward of the centurions was being dismissed. On all sides savage messages, a sinister rumor from the city; the colony of Lugdunum hostile and, with obstinate loyalty for Nero, fertile in rumors; but the most plentiful matter for forging and believing was in the camps themselves, through hatred, fear, and—whenever they looked back upon their own forces—security.

[52] Sub ipsas superioris anni kalendas Decembris Aulus Vitellius inferiorem Germaniam ingressus hiberna legionum cum cura adierat: redditi plerisque ordines, remissa ignominia, adlevatae notae; plura ambitione, quaedam iudicio, in quibus sordis et avaritiam Fontei Capitonis adimendis adsignandisve militiae ordinibus integre mutaverat. nec consularis legati mensura sed in maius omnia accipiebantur. et [ut] Vitellius apud severos humilis, ita comitatem bonitatemque faventes vocabant, quod sine modo, sine iudicio donaret sua, largiretur aliena; simul aviditate imperitandi ipsa vitia pro virtutibus interpretabantur.

[52] Right at the very Kalends of December of the previous year Aulus Vitellius, having entered Lower Germany, had approached the winter quarters of the legions with care: ranks were restored to many, disgrace remitted, marks of censure alleviated; more things by ambition, some by judgment, among which he had uprightly corrected the sordidness and avarice of Fonteius Capito in the taking away or assigning of military ranks. And matters were taken not by the measure of a consular legate but on a larger scale. And just as Vitellius was humble in the eyes of the strict, so those who favored him styled as affability and goodness the fact that, without measure, without judgment, he donated his own and lavished what belonged to others; at the same time, in their avidity for his commanding, they interpreted the very vices as virtues.

multi in utroque exercitu sicut modesti quietique ita mali et strenui. sed profusa cupidine et insigni temeritate legati legionum Alienus Caecina et Fabius Valens; e quibus Valens infensus Galbae, tamquam detectam a se Verginii cunctationem, oppressa Capitonis consilia ingrate tulisset, instigare Vitellium, ardorem militum ostentans: ipsum celebri ubique fama, nullam in Flacco Hordeonio moram; adfore Britanniam, secutura Germanorum auxilia: male fidas provincias, precarium seni imperium et brevi transiturum: panderet modo sinum et venienti Fortunae occurreret. merito dubitasse Verginium equestri familia, ignoto patre, imparem si recepisset imperium, tutum si recusasset: Vitellio tris patris consulatus, censuram, collegium Caesaris et imponere iam pridem imperatoris dignationem et auferre privati securitatem.

Many in both armies were alike: as there were modest and quiet men, so too wicked and energetic. But the legates of the legions, Alienus Caecina and Fabius Valens, were of profuse cupidity and marked temerity; of these, Valens was hostile to Galba, on the plea that the hesitation of Verginius had been detected by himself, and he resented that Capito’s designs had been suppressed without gratitude, and he was goading Vitellius, displaying the ardor of the soldiers: that he himself was everywhere of celebrated fame, there would be no delay in Hordeonius Flaccus; Britain would be at hand, the auxiliaries of the Germans would follow; the provinces were ill to be trusted, the empire of an old man precarious and soon to pass; let him only open his fold and run to meet coming Fortune. Verginius, of equestrian family and with an unknown father, had justly hesitated—unequal if he had accepted the imperium, safe if he had refused: to Vitellius, the three consulships of his father, the censorship, the collegium of Caesar, had long since imposed the dignity of an imperator and removed the security of a private man.

quatiebatur his segne ingenium ut concupisceret magis quam ut speraret.

By these things his sluggish disposition was shaken, so that he desired rather than hoped.

[53] At in superiore Germania Caecina, decorus iuventa, corpore ingens, animi immodicus, scito sermone, erecto incessu, studia militum inlexerat. hunc iuvenem Galba, quaestorem in Baetica impigre in partis suas transgressum, legioni praeposuit: mox compertum publicam pecuniam avertisse ut peculatorem flagitari iussit. Caecina aegre passus miscere cuncta et privata vulnera rei publicae malis operire statuit.

[53] But in Upper Germany Caecina, handsome in youth, huge in body, immoderate in spirit, with knowing speech and an erect gait, had enticed the sympathies of the soldiers. This young man, a quaestor in Baetica who had energetically crossed over into Galba’s party, Galba set over a legion; soon, when it was discovered that he had diverted public money, he ordered him to be prosecuted as a peculator. Caecina, ill brooking it, resolved to throw everything into confusion and to cloak his private wounds with the commonwealth’s ills.

nec deerant in exercitu semina discordiae, quod et bello adversus Vindicem universus adfuerat, nec nisi occiso Nerone translatus in Galbam atque in eo ipso sacramento vexillis inferioris Germaniae praeventus erat. et Treviri ac Lingones, quasque alias civitates atrocibus edictis aut damno finium Galba perculerat, hibernis legionum propius miscentur: unde seditiosa colloquia et inter paganos corruptior miles; et in Verginium favor cuicumque alii profuturus.

nor were there lacking in the army the seeds of discord, because it had been present as a whole in the war against Vindex, and had not been transferred into Galba until Nero was slain, and in that very oath it had been forestalled by the detachments (vexilla) of Lower Germany. And the Treviri and Lingones, and whatever other communities Galba had stricken by savage edicts or by the loss of their borders, are more closely mingled with the winter-quarters of the legions: whence seditious colloquies, and among the countryfolk (pagani) a more corrupt soldiery; and the favor toward Verginius was going to be of profit to any other.

[54] Miserat civitas Lingonum vetere instituto dona legionibus dextras, hospitii insigne. legati eorum in squalorem maestitiamque compositi per principia per contubernia modo suas iniurias, modo vicinarum civitatium praemia, et ubi pronis militum auribus accipiebantur, ipsius exercitus pericula et contumelias conquerentes accendebant animos. nec procul seditione aberant cum Hordeonius Flaccus abire legatos, utque occultior digressus esset, nocte castris excedere iubet.

[54] The community of the Lingones, by ancient custom, had sent to the legions gifts—right hands, the emblem of hospitality. Their envoys, arrayed in squalor and sadness, went through the headquarters, through the tent-companies, now their own injuries, now the rewards of neighboring communities; and where they were received with the soldiers’ ears inclined, complaining of the very army’s dangers and affronts, they inflamed their spirits. Nor were they far from sedition when Hordeonius Flaccus orders the envoys to depart, and, that the withdrawal might be more concealed, to leave the camp by night.

inde atrox rumor, adfirmantibus plerisque interfectos, ac ni sibi ipsi consulerent, fore ut acerrimi militum et praesentia conquesti per tenebras et inscitiam ceterorum occiderentur. obstringuntur in ter se tacito foedere legiones, adsciscitur auxiliorum miles, primo suspectus tamquam circumdatis cohortibus alisque impetus in legiones pararetur, mox eadem acrius volvens, faciliore inter malos consensu ad bellum quam in pace ad concordiam.

thence a fierce rumor, most affirming that they had been killed, and that, unless they took counsel for themselves, it would come to pass that the fiercest of the soldiers—having complained in person—would be slain through the darkness and the ignorance of the rest. The legions are bound among themselves by a tacit compact; the soldiery of the auxiliaries is enrolled, at first suspected on the ground that, with cohorts and wings set around, an assault upon the legions was being prepared; soon, turning over the same considerations more sharply, with consensus easier among the wicked for war than in peace for concord.

[55] Inferioris tamen Germaniae legiones sollemni kalendarum Ianuariarum sacramento pro Galba adactae, multa cunctatione et raris primorum ordinum vocibus, ceteri silentio proximi cuiusque audaciam expectantes, insita mortalibus natura, propere sequi quae piget inchoare. sed ipsis legionibus inerat diversitas animorum: primani quintanique turbidi adeo ut quidam saxa in Galbae imagines iecerint: quinta decima ac sexta decima legiones nihil ultra fremitum et minas ausae initium erumpendi circumspectabant. at in superiore exercitu quarta ac duetvicensima legiones, isdem hibernis tendentes, ipso kalendarum Ianuariarum die dirumpunt imagines Galbae, quarta legio promptius, duetvicensima cunctanter, mox consensu.

[55] Nevertheless, the legions of Lower Germany, by the solemn sacrament of the Kalends of January, were compelled to swear for Galba, with much hesitation and the voices of the foremost ranks rare, the rest in silence, awaiting the daring of whoever was nearest—an inborn nature of mortals, to follow quickly what they are loath to begin. But within the legions themselves there was a diversity of spirits: the Primani and Quintani were so turbulent that some hurled stones at Galba’s images; the 15th and 16th legions, having dared nothing beyond growling and threats, were looking around for a beginning of breaking out. But in the Upper army the 4th and 22nd legions, pitching in the same winter-quarters, on the very day of the Kalends of January, tear down Galba’s images—the 4th legion more promptly, the 22nd more hesitantly, soon with consensus.

ac ne reverentiam imperii exuere viderentur, senatus populique Romani oblitterata iam nomina sacramento advocabant, nullo legatorum tribunorumve pro Galba nitente, quibusdam, ut in tumultu, notabilius turbantibus. non tamen quisquam in modum contionis aut suggestu locutus; neque enim erat adhuc cui imputaretur.

and lest they might seem to strip off reverence for the empire, they invoked by an oath the now-obliterated names of the Senate and People of Rome, with none of the legates or tribunes striving for Galba, some, as in a tumult, making more notable disturbances. Yet no one spoke in the manner of an assembly or from a platform; for there was not yet anyone to whom it could be imputed.

[56] Spectator flagitii Hordeonius Flaccus consularis legatus aderat, non compescere ruentis, non retinere dubios, non cohortari bonos ausus, sed segnis pavidus et socordia innocens. quattuor centuriones duetvicensimae legionis, Nonius Receptus, Donatius Valens, Romilius Marcellus, Calpurnius Repentinus, cum protegerent Galbae imagines, impetu militum abrepti vinctique. nec cuiquam ultra fides aut memoria prioris sacramenti, sed quod in seditionibus accidit, unde plures erant omnes fuere.

[56] A spectator of the outrage, Hordeonius Flaccus, a consular legate, was present, not daring to restrain those rushing headlong, nor to hold back the wavering, nor to exhort the good, but sluggish, timorous, and innocent through sloth. Four centurions of the Twenty-second Legion, Nonius Receptus, Donatius Valens, Romilius Marcellus, Calpurnius Repentinus, while they were protecting Galba’s images, were swept away by the soldiers’ onset and bound. Nor had anyone any longer loyalty or memory of the prior sacrament; but, as happens in seditions, all belonged to the side where the greater number were.

Nocte quae kalendas Ianuarias secuta est in coloniam Agrippinensem aquilifer quartae legionis epulanti Vitellio nuntiat quartam et duetvicensimam legiones proiectis Galbae imaginibus in senatus ac populi Romani verba iurasse. id sacramentum inane visum: occupari nutantem fortunam et offerri principem placuit. missi a Vitellio ad legiones legatosque qui descivisse a Galba superiorem exercitum nuntiarent: proinde aut bellandum adversus desciscentis aut, si concordia et pax placeat, faciendum imperatorem: et minore discrimine sumi principem quam quaeri.

On the night which followed the Kalends of January, in the colony Agrippinensis, the eagle-bearer of the Fourth Legion announces to Vitellius, as he was feasting, that the Fourth and the Two-and-Twentieth Legions, Galba’s images having been cast down, had sworn in the words of the Senate and Roman People. That sacrament seemed empty: it pleased them that the wavering fortune be seized and a princeps be offered. Envoys were sent by Vitellius to the legions and to the legates to announce that the Upper army had defected from Galba: accordingly either war must be waged against the defectors, or, if concord and peace should please, an emperor must be made; and with less risk is a princeps taken up than sought.

[57] Proxima legionis primae hiberna erant et promptissimus et legatis Fabius Valens. is die postero coloniam Agrippinensem cum equitibus legionis auxiliariorumque ingressus imperatorem Vitellium consalutavit. secutae ingenti certamine eiusdem provinciae legiones; et superior exercitus, speciosis senatus populique Romani nominibus relictis, tertium nonas Ianuarias Vitellio accessit: scires illum priore biduo non penes rem publicam fuisse.

[57] Nearest were the winter-quarters of the First legion, and, the most prompt among the legates, Fabius Valens. He, on the next day, entering the Agrippinensian colony with the cavalry of the legion and of the auxiliaries, hailed Vitellius as emperor. The legions of the same province followed with huge rivalry; and the Upper army, the specious names of the senate and Roman people having been left aside, on January 3 joined Vitellius: you would know that during the previous two days it had not been in the hands of the commonwealth.

ardorem exercituum Agrippinenses, Treviri, Lingones aequabant, auxilia equos, arma pecuniam offerentes, ut quisque corpore opibus ingenio validus. nec principes modo coloniarum aut castrorum, quibus praesentia ex affluenti et parta victoria magnae spes, sed manipuli quoque et gregarius miles viatica sua et balteos phalerasque, insignia armorum argento decora, loco pecuniae tradebant, instinctu et impetu et avaritia.

The Agrippinenses, the Treveri, and the Lingones matched the ardor of the armies, offering auxiliaries, horses, arms, and money, each according as he was strong in body, resources, or talent. Nor only the chiefs of the colonies or of the camps—for whom, because of abundance and a victory already gained, the present held great hopes—but the maniples too and the common soldier were handing over their viaticum and their baldrics and phalerae, the insignia of their arms adorned with silver, in place of money, under instigation and impulse and avarice.

[58] Igitur laudata militum alacritate Vitellius ministeria principatus per libertos agi solita in equites Romanos disponit, vacationes centurionibus ex fisco numerat, saevitiam militum plerosque ad poenam exposcentium saepius adprobat, raro simulatione vinculorum frustratur. Pompeius Propinquus procurator Belgicae statim interfectus; Iulium Burdonem Germanicae classis praefectum astu subtraxit. exarserat in eum iracundia exercitus tamquam crimen ac mox insidias Fonteio Capitoni struxisset.

[58] Therefore, with the soldiers’ alacrity praised, Vitellius assigns the ministries of the principate, which were accustomed to be transacted through freedmen, to Roman equestrians; he pays out exemptions to centurions from the fisc; he more often approves the savagery of the soldiers, who were demanding very many for punishment, and rarely balks them by the pretense of chains. Pompeius Propinquus, procurator of Belgica, was at once killed; Julius Burdo, prefect of the German fleet, he by astuteness withdrew from danger. Against him the army’s anger had blazed up, on the ground that he had constructed a charge and then a plot against Fonteius Capito.

grata erat memoria Capitonis, et apud saevientis occidere palam, ignoscere non nisi fallendo licebat: ita in custodia habitus et post victoriam demum, stratis iam militum odiis, dimissus est. interim ut piaculum obicitur centurio Crispinus. sanguine Capitonis [se] cruentaverat eoque et postulantibus manifestior et punienti vilior fuit.

the memory of Capito was welcome; and among men raging it was permitted to kill openly, to forgive only by deceiving: thus he was kept in custody and only after the victory, when the soldiers’ hatreds were now laid low, was he dismissed. meanwhile the centurion Crispinus is put forward as an expiatory victim. he had stained [himself] with Capito’s blood, and for that reason he was both more manifest to the petitioners and cheaper to the punisher.

[59] Iulius deinde Civilis periculo exemptus, praepotens inter Batavos, ne supplicio eius erox gens alienaretur. et erant in civitate Lingonum octo Batavorum cohortes, quartae decimae legionis auxilia, tum discordia temporum a legione digressae, prout inclinassent, grande momentum sociae aut adversae. Nonium, Donatium, Romilium, Calpurnium centuriones, de quibus supra rettulimus, occidi iussit, damnatos fidei crimine, gravissimo inter desciscentis.

[59] Then Julius Civilis, exempted from peril, very powerful among the Batavi, lest by his punishment that fierce nation be alienated. And there were in the city of the Lingones eight cohorts of Batavians, auxiliaries of the 14th legion, then, in the discord of the times, separated from the legion—according as they might incline, a great moment for ally or adversary. He ordered the centurions Nonius, Donatius, Romilius, and Calpurnius, about whom we reported above, to be killed, condemned on the charge of faithlessness, the most grievous among men in revolt.

accessere partibus Valerius Asiaticus, Belgicae provinciae legatus, quem mox Vitellius generum adscivit, et Iunius Blaesus, Lugdunensis Galliae rector, cum Italica legione e ala Tauriana Lugduni tendentibus. nec in Raeticis copiis mora quo minus statim adiungerentur: ne in Britannia quidem dubitatum.

Valerius Asiaticus, legate of the province of Belgica—whom Vitellius soon enrolled as his son-in-law—came over to the party, as did Junius Blaesus, governor of Lugdunensian Gaul, with the Italic legion and the Ala Tauriana encamping at Lugdunum. Nor was there delay among the Raetian forces to prevent their being immediately joined; not even in Britain was there any hesitation.

60 [ 60] Praeerat Trebellius Maximus, per avaritiam ac sordis contemptus exercitui invisusque. accendebat odium eius Roscius Coelius legatus vicensimae legionis, olim discors, sed occasione civilium armorum atrocius proruperant. Trebellius seditionem et confusum ordinem disciplinae Coelio, spoliatas et inopes legiones Coelius Trebellio obiectabat, cum interim foedis legatorum certaminibus modestia exercitus corrupta eoque discordiae ventum ut auxiliarium quoque militum conviciis proturbatus et adgregantibus se Coelio cohortibus alisque desertus Trebellius ad Vitellium perfugerit.

60 [ 60] Trebellius Maximus was in command, despised for avarice and sordidness and hated by the army. Roscius Coelius, legate of the Twentieth legion, inflamed the hatred against him—formerly at variance, but at the opportunity of civil arms their quarrels had burst out more atrociously. Trebellius charged Coelius with sedition and a disordered breach of discipline; Coelius charged Trebellius with having despoiled and impoverished the legions. Meanwhile, by the disgraceful contests of the commanders, the discipline of the army was corrupted, and the discord came to such a point that, driven off even by the taunts of the auxiliary soldiers and, as cohorts and wings were attaching themselves to Coelius, deserted by the others, Trebellius fled for refuge to Vitellius.

quies provinciae quamquam remoto consulari mansit: rexere legati legionum, pares iure, Coelius audendo potentior.

the province’s quiet, although with the consular removed, remained: the legates of the legions ruled, equal in right, Coelius more potent by daring.

[61] Adiuncto Britannico exercitu ingens viribus opibusque Vitellius duos duces, duo itinera bello destinavit: Fabius Valens adlicere vel, si abnuerent, vastare Gallias et Cottianis Alpibus Italiam inrumpere, Caecina propiore transitu Poeninis iugis degredi iussus. Valenti inferioris exercitus electi cum aquila quintae legionis et cohortibus alisque, ad quadraginta milia armatorum data; triginta milia Caecina e superiore Germania ducebat, quorum robur legio unaetvicensima fuit. addita utrique Germanorum auxilia, et quibus Vitellius suas quoque copias supplevit, tota mole belli secuturus.

[61] With the British army joined, immense in strength and resources, Vitellius appointed two commanders and two routes for the war: Fabius Valens was to allure, or, if they refused, to devastate the Gauls and to break into Italy by the Cottian Alps; Caecina, by a nearer crossing, was ordered to descend by the Poenine ridges. To Valens were given the picked men of the Lower army, with the eagle of the Fifth legion and cohorts and alae, to the number of about forty thousand armed men; thirty thousand Caecina was leading from Upper Germany, whose strength was the Twenty-first legion. To each were added auxiliaries of Germans, and with these Vitellius also supplemented his own forces, intending to follow with the whole mass of the war.

[62] Mira inter exercitum imperatoremque diversitas: instare miles, arma poscere, dum Galliae trepident, dum Hispaniae cunctentur: non obstare hiemem neque ignavae pacis moras: invadendam Italiam, occupandam urbem; nihil in discordiis civilibus festinatione tutius, ubi facto magis quam consulto opus esset. torpebat Vitellius et fortunam principatus inerti luxu ac prodigis epulis praesumebat, medio diei temulentus et sagina gravis, cum tamen ardor et vis militum ultro ducis munia implebat, ut si adesset imperator et strenuis vel ignavis spem metumve adderet. instructi intentique signum profectionis exposcunt.

[62] A strange diversity between the army and the emperor: the soldiery pressed on, demanded arms, while the Gauls were in a fright, while the Spains hesitated: that neither winter nor the delays of ignoble peace were an obstacle: Italy must be invaded, the city occupied; nothing in civil discords safer than hastening, where there was need of deed rather than of deliberation. Vitellius was torpid and was pre-assuming the fortune of the principate in inert luxury and prodigal banquets, tipsy by mid-day and heavy with stuffing; yet the ardor and force of the soldiers of their own accord were fulfilling the duties of a leader, as if the emperor were present and were adding hope or fear to the strenuous or the sluggish. Drawn up and intent, they demand the signal for departure.

nomen Germanici Vitellio statim additum: Caesarem se appellari etiam victor prohibuit. laetum augurium Fabio Valenti exercituique, quem in bellum agebat, ipso profectionis die aquila leni meatu, prout agmen incederet, velut dux viae praevolavit, longumque per spatium is gaudentium militum clamor, ea quies interritae alitis fuit ut haud dubium magnae et prosperae rei omen acciperetur.

the name Germanicus was at once added to Vitellius; he even as victor forbade himself to be called Caesar. A glad augury for Fabius Valens and for the army which he was leading into war occurred on the very day of departure: an eagle, with gentle flight, as the column advanced, flew on ahead as if a leader of the way; and for a long distance both the shout of the rejoicing soldiers and the calm of the undaunted bird were such that the omen was accepted as of a great and prosperous event.

[63] Et Treviros quidem ut socios securi adiere: Divoduri (Mediomatricorum id oppidum est) quamquam omni comitate exceptos subitus pavor terruit, raptis repente armis ad caedem innoxiae civitatis, non ob praedam aut spoliandi cupidine, sed furore et rabie et causis incertis eoque difficilioribus remediis, donec precibus ducis mitigati ab excidio civitatis temperavere; caesa tamen ad quattuor milia hominum. isque terror Gallias invasit ut venienti mox agmini universae civitates cum magistratibus et precibus occurrerent, stratis per vias feminis puerisque: quaeque alia placamenta hostilis irae, non quidem in bello sed pro pace tendebantur.

[63] And to the Treveri indeed they drew near as to allies, in security: at Divodurum (that is a town of the Mediomatrici), although received with every comity, a sudden panic terrified them, and, arms suddenly snatched up, they rushed to the slaughter of an innocent civic community, not for plunder or from a lust of despoiling, but from fury and rabid rage and causes uncertain—and therefore with remedies all the more difficult—until, softened by the entreaties of their leader, they refrained from the destruction of the city; nevertheless about four thousand men were cut down. And such terror invaded the Gauls that to the column soon coming all the communities, with their magistrates and their prayers, came to meet it, their women and children laid out along the roads: and whatever other placations of hostile ire, not indeed in war but for peace, were being proffered.

[64] Nuntium de caede Galbae et imperio Othonis Fabius Valens in civitate Leucorum accepit. nec militum animus in gaudium aut formidine permotus: bellum volvebat. Gallis cunctatio exempta est: in Othonem ac Vitellium odium par, ex Vitellio et metus.

[64] Fabius Valens received the message about the slaughter of Galba and the imperium of Otho in the city of the Leuci. Nor was the spirit of the soldiers moved to joy or by fear: it was revolving war. For the Gauls hesitation was removed: toward Otho and toward Vitellius the hatred was equal, and from Vitellius fear as well.

proxima Lingonum civitas erat, fida partibus. benigne excepti modestia certavere, sed brevis laetitia fuit cohortium intemperie, quas a legione quarta decima, ut supra memoravimus, digressas exercitui suo Fabius Valens adiunxerat. iurgia primum, mox rixa inter Batavos et legionarios, dum his aut illis studia militum adgregantur, prope in proelium exarsere, ni Valens animadversione paucorum oblitos iam Batavos imperii admonuisset.

the nearest civitas of the Lingones was faithful to the side. kindly received, they vied in modesty; but the joy was brief because of the intemperance of the cohorts, which, having departed from the 14th legion, as we have mentioned above, Fabius Valens had joined to his own army. quarrels at first, soon a brawl between the Batavi and the legionaries, while the partialities of the soldiers were gathering to these or to those, blazed up almost into battle, if Valens had not, by the punishment (animadversion) of a few, reminded the Batavi, now forgetful, of authority.

frustra adversus Aeduos quaesita belli causa: iussi pecuniam atque arma deferre gratuitos insuper commeatus praebuere. quod Aedui formidine Lugdunenses gaudio fecere. sed legio Italica et ala Tauriana abductae: cohortem duodevicensimam Lugduni, solitis sibi hibernis, relinqui placuit.

In vain was a casus belli sought against the Aedui: ordered to hand over money and arms, they moreover furnished free supplies. This the Aedui did from fear, the Lugdunenses from joy. But the Italic Legion and the Taurian Ala were withdrawn; it was decided that the eighteenth cohort be left at Lugdunum, in its accustomed winter-quarters.

Manlius Valens legatus Italicae legionis, quamquam bene de partibus meritus, nullo apud Vitellium honore fuit: secretis eum criminationibus infamaverat Fabius ignarum et, quo incautior deciperetur, palam laudatum.

Manlius Valens, legate of the Italian legion, although he had well merited of the party, was in no honor with Vitellius: Fabius, by secret criminations, had defamed him—he being unaware—and, in order that he might be deceived the more incautiously, had praised him openly.

[65] Veterem inter Lugdunensis [et Viennensis] discordiam proximum bellum accenderat. multae in vicem clades, crebrius infestiusque quam ut tantum propter Neronem Galbamque pugnaretur. et Galba reditus Lugdunensium occasione irae in fiscum verterat; multus contra in Viennensis honor: unde aemulatio et invidia et uno amne discretis conexum odium.

[65] The recent war had kindled the old discord between the Lugdunenses [and the Viennenses]. Many disasters in turn, and encounters more frequent and more hostile than that men should be fighting only on account of Nero and Galba. And Galba, taking the occasion of anger, had diverted the revenues of the Lugdunenses into the fiscus; much honor, on the contrary, to the Viennenses: whence emulation and envy, and—though separated by a single river—a bound-together hatred.

igitur Lugdunenses extimulare singulos militum et in eversionem Viennensium impellere, obsessam ab illis coloniam suam, adiutos Vindicis conatus, conscriptas nuper legiones in praesidium Galbae referendo. et ubi causas odiorum praetenderant, magnitudinem praedae ostendebant, nec iam secreta exhortatio, sed publicae preces: irent ultores, excinderent sedem Gallici belli: cuncta illic externa et hostilia: se, coloniam Romanam et partem exercitus et prosperarum adversarumque rerum socios, si fortuna contra daret, iratis ne relinquerent.

Therefore the Lugdunenses were stimulating individual soldiers and impelling them to the overthrow of the Viennenses, by reporting that their own colony had been besieged by those men, that Vindex’s attempts had been aided, that legions had lately been enrolled in Galba’s defense. And when they had pretexted the causes of hatreds, they displayed the magnitude of the booty, and now no longer a secret exhortation, but public prayers: let them go as avengers, let them extirpate the seat of the Gallic war: everything there was external and hostile: as for themselves, a Roman colony and part of the army and partners in prosperous and adverse affairs, if Fortune should give the contrary, let them not leave them to the enraged.

[66] His et pluribus in eundem modum perpulerant ut ne legati quidem ac duces partium restingui posse iracundiam exercitus arbitrarentur, cum haud ignari discriminis sui Viennenses, velamenta et infulas praeferentes, ubi agmen incesserat, arma genua vestigia prensando flexere militum animos; addidit Valens trecenos singulis militibus sestertios. tum vetustas dignitasque coloniae valuit et verba Fabi salutem incolumitatemque Viennensium commendantis aequis auribus accepta; publice tamen armis multati, privatis et promiscis copiis iuvere militem. sed fama constans fuit ipsum Valentem magna pecunia emptum.

[66] By these and more in the same vein they had driven matters to the point that not even the legates and the leaders of the factions judged that the army’s ire could be quenched, when the Viennenses, by no means ignorant of their own peril, bearing forth veils and fillets, wherever the column had advanced, by grasping the soldiers’ arms, knees, and feet, bent their minds; Valens added three hundred sesterces to each soldier. Then the antiquity and dignity of the colony prevailed, and the words of Fabius, commending the safety and unimpaired condition of the Viennenses, were received with fair ears; publicly, however, they were deprived of their weapons, while with private and common resources they aided the soldiery. But there was a consistent report that Valens himself had been bought for a great sum of money.

is diu sordidus, repente dives mutationem fortunae male tegebat, accensis egestate longa cupidinibus immoderatus et inopi iuventa senex prodigus. lento deinde agmine per finis Allobrogum ac Vocontiorum ductus exercitus, ipsa itinerum spatia et stativorum mutationes venditante duce, foedis pactionibus adversus possessores agrorum et magistratus civitatum, adeo minaciter ut Luco (municipium id Vocontiorum est) faces admoverit, donec pecunia mitigaretur. quotiens pecuniae materia deesset, stupris et adulteriis exorabatur.

He, long sordid, suddenly wealthy, ill concealed the mutation of fortune, his desires kindled by long indigence, immoderate, and—after a needy youth—prodigal as an old man. Then, with a slow column, the army was led through the borders of the Allobroges and the Vocontii, the commander selling the very distances of the marches and the changes of encampments, by foul pactions against the possessors of the fields and the magistrates of the cities, so menacingly that at Lucus (that municipium of the Vocontii) he set torches to it, until he was mitigated by money. Whenever the material for money was lacking, he was won over by debaucheries and adulteries.

sic ad Alpis perventum.

Thus they reached the Alps.

[67] Plus praedae ac sanguinis Caecina hausit. inritaverant turbidum ingenium Helvetii, Gallica gens olim armis virisque, mox memoria nominis clara, de caede Galbae ignari et Vitellii imperium abnuentes. initium bello fuit avaritia ac festinatio unaetvicensimae legionis; rapuerant pecuniam missam in stipendium castelli quod olim Helvetii suis militibus ac stipendiis tuebantur.

[67] Caecina drew more of plunder and blood. The Helvetii had irritated his turbid nature—a Gallic nation once famous for arms and men, later renowned by the memory of its name—ignorant of the slaughter of Galba and refusing the imperium of Vitellius. The beginning of the war was the avarice and haste of the 19th legion; they had seized the money sent for the stipend of a fort which formerly the Helvetii maintained with their own soldiers and stipends.

aegre id passi Helvetii, interceptis epistulis, quae nomine Germanici exercitus ad Pannonicas legiones ferebantur, centurionem et quosdam militum in custodia retinebant. Caecina belli avidus proximam quamque culpam, antequam paeniteret, ultum ibat: mota propere castra, vastati agri, direptus longa pace in modum municipii extructus locus, amoeno salubrium aquarum usu frequens; missi ad Raetica auxilia nuntii ut versos in legionem Helvetios a tergo adgrederentur.

the Helvetii endured that with difficulty; with the letters intercepted, which in the name of the Germanic army were being carried to the Pannonian legions, they were holding a centurion and some of the soldiers in custody. Caecina, avid for war, hastened to avenge whatever offense lay nearest, before he might repent: the camp was moved in haste, the fields were devastated, a place—built up in the manner of a municipium during a long peace—was plundered, frequented for the pleasant use of salubrious waters; messengers were sent to the Raetian auxiliaries to attack from the rear the Helvetii who had turned against the legion.

[68] Illi ante discrimen feroces, in periculo pavidi, quamquam primo tumultu Claudium Severum ducem legerant, non arma noscere, non ordines sequi, non in unum consulere. exitiosum adversus veteranos proelium, intuta obsidio dilapsis vetustate moenibus; hinc Caecina cum valido exercitu, inde Raeticae alae cohortesque et ipsorum Raetorum iuventus, sueta armis et more militiae exercita. undique populatio et caedes: ipsi medio vagi, abiectis armis, magna pars saucii aut palantes, in montem Vocetium perfugere.

[68] They—fierce before the crisis, panic-stricken in peril—although in the first tumult they had chosen Claudius Severus as leader, did not know how to handle their arms, did not keep the ranks, did not take counsel as one. A battle against veterans was ruinous; a siege was unsafe, the walls having collapsed through age. On one side Caecina with a strong army; on the other, Raetian wings and cohorts and the youth of the Raeti themselves, inured to arms and trained in the manner of military service. On all sides ravaging and slaughter: they themselves, wandering in the midst, their arms thrown away, a great part wounded or straggling, fled for refuge to Mount Vocetius.

ac statim immissa cohorte Thraecum depulsi et consectantibus Germanis Raetisque per silvas atque in ipsis latebris trucidati. multa hominum milia caesa, multa sub corona venundata. cumque dirutis omnibus Aventicum gentis caput infesto agmine peteretur, missi qui dederent civitatem, et deditio accepta.

and immediately, with a cohort of Thracians sent in, they were driven back, and, as the Germans and Raetians pursued, they were slaughtered through the forests and even in their very hiding-places. many thousands of men were cut down, many were sold at auction under the garland. and when, everything having been razed, Aventicum, the head of the tribe, was being sought by a hostile column, envoys were sent to surrender the city, and the surrender was accepted.

in Iulium Alpinum e principibus ut concitorem belli Caecina animadvertit: ceteros veniae vel saevitiae Vitellii reliquit.

Against Julius Alpinus, one of the principal men, as an instigator of war, Caecina animadverted; the rest he left to Vitellius’s clemency or cruelty.

[69] Haud facile dictu est, legati Helvetiorum minus placabilem imperatorem an militem invenerint. civitatis excidium poscunt, tela ac manus in ora legatorum intentant. ne Vitellius quidem verbis et minis temperabat, cum Claudius Cossus, unus ex legatis, notae facundiae sed dicendi artem apta trepidatione occultans atque eo validior, militis animum mitigavit.

[69] It is not easy to say whether the envoys of the Helvetii found the emperor or the soldiery less placable. They demand the destruction of the state, they aim weapons and hands at the faces of the envoys. Not even Vitellius kept measure in words and threats, when Claudius Cossus, one of the envoys, of noted eloquence but concealing the art of speaking beneath a fitting trepidation and thereby the stronger, mollified the soldiers’ spirit.

ut est mos, vulgus mutabile subitis et tam pronum in misericordiam quam immodicum saevitia fuerat: effusis lacrimis et meliora constantius postulando impunitatem salutemque civitati impetravere.

as is the custom, the crowd, changeable in sudden turns and as prone to mercy as it had been immoderate in savagery: with tears poured out and by more steadfastly demanding better things, they obtained impunity and safety for the civitas.

[70] Caecina paucos in Helvetiis moratus dies dum sententiae Vitellii certior fieret, simul transitum Alpium parans, laetum ex Italia nuntium accipit alam Silianam circa Padum agentem sacramento Vitellii accessisset. pro consule Vitellium Siliani in Africa habuerant; mox a Nerone, ut in Aegyptum praemitterentur, exciti et ob bellum Vindicis revocati ac tum in Italia manentes, instinctu decurionum, qui Othonis ignari, Vitellio obstricti robur adventantium legionum et famam Germanici exercitus attollebant, transiere in partis et ut donum aliquod novo principi firmissima transpadanae regionis municipia, Mediolanum ac Novariam et Eporediam et Vercellas, adiunxere. id Caecinae per ipsos compertum.

[70] Caecina, having tarried a few days among the Helvetii while he might be made more certain of Vitellius’s decision, at the same time preparing the crossing of the Alps, receives a gladsome message from Italy: that the Silian wing, operating about the Po, had taken the oath to Vitellius. The Silians had had Vitellius in Africa as proconsul; soon, at Nero’s summons, that they might be sent ahead into Egypt, they were called out and, on account of Vindex’s war, recalled, and then, remaining in Italy, at the instigation of the decurions—who, unaware of Otho and bound to Vitellius, were exalting the strength of the oncoming legions and the fame of the Germanic army—went over to his party, and, as some gift to the new princeps, they added the very firm municipia of the Transpadane region, Mediolanum and Novaria and Eporedia and Vercellae. This was ascertained by Caecina through those very men themselves.

et quia praesidio alae unius latissima Italiae pars defendi nequibat, praemissis Gallorum Lusitanorumque et Britannorum cohortibus et Germanorum vexillis cum ala Petriana, ipse paulum cunctatus est num Raeticis iugis in Noricum flecteret adversus Petronium Vrbicum procuratorem, qui concitis auxiliis et interruptis fluminum pontibus fidus Othoni putabatur. sed metu ne amitteret praemissas iam cohortis alasque, simul reputans plus gloriae retenta Italia et, ubicumque certatum foret, Noricos in cetera victoriae praemia cessuros, Poenino itinere subsignanum militem et grave legionum agmen hibernis adhuc Alpibus transduxit.

and because with the garrison of a single ala the very broad expanse of Italy could not be defended, after sending ahead cohorts of Gauls, Lusitanians, and Britons, and detachments (vexilla) of Germans together with the ala Petriana, he himself hesitated a little whether to turn by the Raetian ridges into Noricum against Petronius Urbicus, the procurator, who, with the auxiliaries stirred up and the bridges of the rivers cut, was thought loyal to Otho. But from fear lest he lose the cohorts and alae already sent forward, while at the same time reckoning that there was more glory in Italy being retained and that, wherever the contest might be joined, the Noricans would come in among the other prizes of victory, by the Pennine route he led across the Alps, still wintry, the subsignane soldiery and the heavy column of the legions.

[71] Otho interim contra spem omnium non deliciis neque desidia torpescere: dilatae voluptates, dissimulata luxuria et cuncta ad decorem imperii composita, eoque plus formidinis adferebant falsae virtutes et vitia reditura. Marium Celsum consulem designatum, per speciem vinculorum saevitiae militum subtractum, acciri in Capitolium iubet; clementiae titulus e viro claro et partibus inviso petebatur. Celsus constanter servatae erga Galbam fidei crimen confessus, exemplum ultro imputavit.

[71] Meanwhile Otho, contrary to the hope of all, did not grow torpid in delights nor in idleness: his pleasures were deferred, his luxury dissembled, and everything arranged to the decorum of the imperium; and for that very reason the feigned virtues and the vices sure to return brought the more fear. He orders Marius Celsus, consul-designate, who under the appearance of chains had been withdrawn from the soldiers’ savagery, to be summoned to the Capitol; a title of clemency was being sought from a distinguished man and one hateful to the party. Celsus, steadfastly confessing the “crime” of fidelity kept toward Galba, of his own accord entered it as a precedent.

nec Otho quasi ignosceret sed deos testis mutuae reconciliationis adhibens, statim inter intimos amicos habuit et mox bello inter duces delegit, mansitque Celso velut fataliter etiam pro Othone fides integra et infelix. laeta primoribus civitatis, celebrata in vulgus Celsi salus ne militibus quidem ingrata fuit, eandem virtutem admirantibus cui irascebantur.

Nor did Otho act as though he were pardoning, but, invoking the gods as witnesses of a mutual reconciliation, he immediately had him among his most intimate friends and soon, in war, chose him among the commanders; and in Celsus there remained, as if fatally, loyalty intact and ill-fated even on behalf of Otho. The preservation of Celsus, welcome to the foremost men of the state and celebrated among the populace, was not even unwelcome to the soldiers, who admired the same virtue at which they had been angered.

[72] Par inde exultatio disparibus causis consecuta impetrato Tigellini exitio. Ofonius Tigellinus obscuris parentibus, foeda pueritia, impudica senecta, praefecturam vigilum et praetorii et alia praemia virtutum, quia velocius erat, vitiis adeptus, crudelitatem mox, deinde avaritiam, virilia scelera, exercuit, corrupto ad omne facinus Nerone, quaedam ignaro ausus, ac postremo eiusdem desertor ac proditor: unde non alium pertinacius ad poenam flagitaverunt, diverso adfectu, quibus odium Neronis inerat et quibus desiderium. apud Galbam Titi Vinii potentia defensus, praetexentis servatam ab eo filiam.

[72] Thence a like exultation, from unlike causes, followed upon the obtaining of Tigellinus’s destruction. Ofonius Tigellinus—of obscure parentage, with a foul boyhood, an unchaste old age—obtained the prefecture of the watch and of the praetorian guard, and other prizes of virtues, by vices, because it was quicker; soon he practiced cruelty, then avarice—virile crimes—Nero being corrupted to every wicked deed, daring certain things with him unaware, and at last a deserter and betrayer of that same man. Hence none other did they more stubbornly demand for punishment, with differing feeling, both those in whom there was hatred of Nero and those in whom there was longing. With Galba he was defended by the influence of Titus Vinius, who put forward as a pretext that his daughter had been spared by him.

haud dubie servaverat, non clementia, quippe tot interfectis, sed effugium in futurum, quia pessimus quisque diffidentia praesentium mutationem pavens adversus publicum odium privatam gratiam praeparat: unde nulla innocentiae cura sed vices impunitatis. eo infensior populus, addita ad vetus Tigellini odium recenti Titi Vinii invidia, concurrere ex tota urbe in Palatium ac fora et, ubi plurima vulgi licentia, in circum ac theatra effusi seditiosis vocibus strepere, donec Tigellinus accepto apud Sinuessanas aquas supremae necessitatis nuntio inter stupra concubinarum et oscula et deformis moras sectis novacula faucibus infamem vitam foedavit etiam exitu sero et inhonesto.

He had without doubt saved her, not out of clemency—indeed, with so many slain—but as an escape for the future, since every worst sort, in distrust of the present and fearing change, prepares private favor against public hatred: whence there is no concern for innocence but alternations of impunity. Therefore the populace was the more hostile, fresh ill-will toward Titus Vinius being added to the old hatred of Tigellinus; they ran together from the whole city to the Palatium and the forums and, where the crowd has the most license, poured into the circus and the theatres to clamor with seditious voices, until Tigellinus, upon receiving at the waters of Sinuessa the message of utmost necessity, amid the debaucheries of his concubines and kisses and disgraceful delays, with his throat cut by a razor, befouled his infamous life even with an end belated and dishonorable.

[73] Per idem tempus expostulata ad supplicium Calvia Crispinilla variis frustrationibus et adversa dissimulantis principis fama periculo exempta est. magistra libidinum Neronis, transgressa in Africam ad instigandum in arma Clodium Macrum, famem populo Romano haud obscure molita, totius postea civitatis gratiam obtinuit, consulari matrimonio subnixa et apud Galbam Othonem Vitellium inlaesa, mox potens pecunia et orbitate, quae bonis malisque temporibus iuxta valent.

[73] At the same time Calvia Crispinilla, demanded for punishment, was removed from danger by various frustratory delays and by the adverse repute of a dissembling princeps. schoolmistress of Nero’s lusts, having crossed over into Africa to incite Clodius Macer to arms, she quite openly contrived famine for the Roman people, yet afterward she obtained the favor of the whole community, propped by a consular marriage and uninjured under Galba, Otho, and Vitellius, soon powerful by money and by childlessness, which in good and bad times alike have equal force.

[74] Crebrae interim et muliebribus blandimentis infectae ab Othone ad Vitellium epistulae offerebant pecuniam et gratiam et quemcumque [e] quietis prodigae vitae legisset. paria Vitellius ostentabat, primo mollius, stulta utrimque et indecora simulatione, mox quasi rixantes stupra ac flagitia in vicem obiectavere, neuter falso. Otho, revocatis quos Galba miserat legatis, rursus ad utrumque Germanicum exercitum et ad legionem Italicam easque quae Lugduni agebant copias specie senatus misit.

[74] Meanwhile frequent letters from Otho to Vitellius, tainted with womanish blandishments, were offering money and favor and whatever [e] course of a life prodigal of ease he might have chosen. Vitellius displayed equal terms, at first more mildly, with foolish and indecorous pretense on both sides; soon, as if brawling, they hurled at each other in turn debaucheries and scandals, neither falsely. Otho, having recalled the envoys whom Galba had sent, again dispatched them in the name of the Senate to each German army, and to the Italian Legion, and to the forces that were stationed at Lugdunum.

legati apud Vitellium remansere, promptius quam ut retenti viderentur; praetoriani, quos per simulationem officii legatis Otho adiunxerat, remissi antequam legionibus miscerentur. addidit epistulas Fabius Valens nomine Germanici exercitus ad praetorias et urbanas cohortis de viribus partium magnificas et concordiam offerentis; increpabat ultro quod tanto ante traditum Vitellio imperium ad Othonem vertissent.

The legates remained with Vitellius, more readily, so that they did not seem to have been held back; the Praetorians, whom Otho had adjoined to the legates under a simulation of duty, were sent back before they were mingled with the legions. Fabius Valens added epistles, in the name of the Germanic army, to the praetorian and urban cohorts, magnificent about the strength of their party and proffering concord; moreover, he was rebuking them because, so long before, they had turned toward Otho the imperium that had been handed over to Vitellius.

[75] Ita promissis simul ac minis temptabantur, ut bello impares, in pace nihil amissuri; neque ideo praetorianorum fides mutata. sed insidiatores ab Othone in Germaniam, a Vitellio in urbem missi. utrisque frustra fuit, Vitellianis inpune, per tantam hominum multitudinem mutua ignorantia fallentibus: Othoniani novitate vultus, omnibus in vicem gnaris, prodebantur.

[75] Thus they were being tempted by promises as well as by threats, on the ground that, unequal for war, they would lose nothing in peace; nor for that reason was the fidelity of the Praetorians changed. But assassins were sent by Otho into Germany, by Vitellius into the City. For both parties it was in vain— for the Vitellian men with impunity, since amid so great a multitude of people their mutual unfamiliarity enabled them to escape notice; the Othonian men, by the novelty of their faces, with all in turn being cognizant of one another, were betrayed.

Vitellius litteras ad Titianum fratrem Othonis composuit, exitium ipsi filioque eius minitans ni incolumes sibi mater ac liberi servarentur. et stetit domus utraque, sub Othone incertum an metu: Vitellius victor clementiae gloriam tulit.

Vitellius composed letters to Titianus, Otho’s brother, menacing destruction to himself and his son unless his mother and children were kept unharmed for him. And each household stood fast, under Otho—uncertain whether from fear: Vitellius as victor carried off the glory of clemency.

[76] Primus Othoni fiduciam addidit ex Illyrico nuntius iurasse in eum Dalmatiae ac Pannoniae et Moesiae legiones. idem ex Hispania adlatum laudatusque per edictum Cluvius Rufus: set statim cognitum est conversam ad Vitellium Hispaniam. ne Aquitania quidem, quamquam ab Iulio Cordo in verba Othonis obstricta, diu mansit.

[76] The first thing to add confidence to Otho was a message from Illyricum that the legions of Dalmatia, Pannonia, and Moesia had sworn to him. The same was reported from Hispania, and Cluvius Rufus was lauded by an edict; but it was immediately learned that Hispania had converted to Vitellius. Not even Aquitania, although bound by Julius Cordus under oath to Otho’s words, remained long.

nusquam fides aut amor: metu ac necessitate huc illuc mutabantur. eadem formido provinciam Narbonensem ad Vitellium vertit, facili transitu ad proximos et validiores. longinquae provinciae et quidquid armorum mari dirimitur penes Othonem manebat, non partium studio, sed erat grande momentum in nomine urbis ac praetexto senatus, et occupaverat animos prior auditus.

Nowhere was there loyalty or love; by fear and necessity they were shifted hither and thither. The same dread turned the Narbonese province to Vitellius, the passage being easy to the nearest and stronger forces. The distant provinces, and whatever armed strength the sea separates, remained in Otho’s hands, not from zeal for a party, but there was great moment in the name of the City and the pretext of the Senate, and the earlier report had preoccupied minds.

Iudaicum exercitum Vespasianus, Syriae legiones Mucianus sacramento Othonis adegere; simul Aegyptus omnesque versae in Orientem provinciae nomine eius tenebantur. idem Africae obsequium, initio Carthagine orto neque expectata Vipstani Aproniani proconsulis auctoritate: Crescens Neronis libertus (nam et hi malis temporibus partem se rei publicae faciunt) epulum plebi ob laetitiam recentis imperii obtulerat, et populus pleraque sine modo festinavit. Carthaginem ceterae civitates secutae.

Vespasian brought the Judaean army, and Mucianus the Syrian legions, under the oath to Otho; at the same time Egypt and all the provinces turned toward the Orient were held in his name. Africa showed the same obedience, the initiative having arisen at Carthage and without waiting for the authority of the proconsul Vipstanus Apronianus: Crescens, Nero’s freedman (for even these, in evil times, make themselves a part of the commonwealth), had offered a banquet to the plebs for the joy of the recent empire, and the populace hurried most things without measure. The other cities followed Carthage.

[77] Sic distractis exercitibus ac provinciis Vitellio quidem ad capessendam principatus fortunam bello opus erat, Otho ut in multa pace munia imperii obibat, quaedam ex dignitate rei publicae, pleraque contra decus ex praesenti usu properando. consul cum Titiano fratre in kalendas Martias ipse; proximos mensis Verginio destinat ut aliquod exercitui Germanico delenimentum; iungitur Verginio Pompeius Vopiscus praetexto veteris amicitiae; plerique Viennensium honori datum interpretabantur. ceteri consulatus ex destinatione Neronis aut Galbae mansere, Caelio ac Flavio Sabinis in Iulias, Arrio Antonino et Mario Celso in Septembris, quorum honoribus ne Vitellius quidem victor intercessit.

[77] Thus, with the armies and provinces torn apart, Vitellius, indeed, needed war to seize the fortune of the principate, while Otho, as if in much peace, was discharging the duties of rule, some in keeping with the dignity of the commonwealth, but the majority against decorum, by hurrying what present utility demanded. He himself was consul with his brother Titianus on March 1; he assigns the following months to Verginius as some sop for the German army; to Verginius is joined Pompeius Vopiscus under the pretext of an old friendship; most interpreted it as given to the honor of the Viennenses. The other consulships remained from the designation of Nero or Galba—Caelius and Flavius Sabinus for July, Arrius Antoninus and Marius Celsus for September—whose honors not even Vitellius, though victor, interposed against.

sed Otho pontificatus auguratusque honoratis iam senibus cumulum dignitatis addidit, aut recens ab exilio reversos nobilis adulescentulos avitis ac paternis sacerdotiis in solacium recoluit. redditus Cadio Rufo, Pedio Blaeso, Saevino P . . . senatorius locus. repetundarum criminibus sub Claudio ac Nerone ceciderant: placuit ignoscentibus verso nomine, quod avaritia fuerat, videri maiestatem, cuius tum odio etiam bonae leges peribant.

but Otho added a cumulus of dignity to elders already honored with pontificates and augurships, or, as a solace, he reinstated noble youths recently returned from exile in their ancestral and paternal priesthoods. The senatorial rank was restored to Cadius Rufus, Pedius Blaesus, Saevinus P . . . . They had fallen on charges of extortion under Claudius and Nero: it pleased the pardoners, with the name changed, that what had been avarice should seem treason, by the hatred of which even good laws at that time were perishing.

[78] Eadem largitione civitatum quoque ac provinciarum animos adgressus Hispalensibus et Emeritensibus familiarum adiectiones, Lingonibus universis civitatem Romanam, provinciae Baeticae Maurorum civitates dono dedit; nova iura Cappadociae, nova Africae, ostentata magis quam mansura. inter quae necessitate praesentium rerum et instantibus curis excusata ne tum quidem immemor amorum statuas Poppaeae per senatus consultum reposuit; creditus est etiam de celebranda Neronis memoria agitavisse spe vulgum adliciendi. et fuere qui imagines Neronis proponerent: atque etiam Othoni quibusdam diebus populus et miles, tamquam nobilitatem ac decus adstruerent, Neroni Othoni adclamavit.

[78] By the same largesse, assailing likewise the minds of communities and provinces, he gave as a gift to the Hispalenses and Emeritenses additions of households, to all the Lingones Roman citizenship, to the province of Baetica the cities of the Moors; new rights to Cappadocia, new to Africa—more ostentatious than destined to endure. Among these measures, pleading the necessity of present affairs and his pressing cares as an excuse, not even then forgetful of his amours, he restored Poppaea’s statues by senatus consultum; he was believed even to have agitated for celebrating the memory of Nero in the hope of alluring the vulgus. And there were those who set up images of Nero; and even to Otho on certain days the people and the soldiers, as if they were augmenting his nobility and honor, acclaimed “Nero Otho.”

ipse in suspenso tenuit, vetandi metu vel agnoscendi pudore.

he himself kept it in suspense, from fear of forbidding or from the shame of acknowledging.

[79] Conversis ad civile bellum animis externa sine cura habebantur. eo audentius Rhoxolani, Sarmatica gens, priore hieme caesis duabus cohortibus, magna spe Moesiam inruperant, ad novem milia equitum, ex ferocia et successu praedae magis quam pugnae intenta. igitur vagos et incuriosos tertia legio adiunctis auxiliis repente invasit.

[79] With minds turned to civil war, external matters were held without care. Therefore the Rhoxolani, a Sarmatic people, all the more audacious, having cut down two cohorts the previous winter, had burst into Moesia with great hope, to about nine thousand horsemen, driven by ferocity and by success, intent more on prey than on battle. Accordingly, the Third Legion, with auxiliaries added, suddenly fell upon them as they roamed and were incurious.

apud Romanos omnia proelio apta: Sarmatae dispersi aut cupidine praedae graves onere sarcinarum et lubrico itinerum adempta equorum pernicitate velut vincti caedebantur. namque mirum dictu ut sit omnis Sarmatarum virtus velut extra ipsos. nihil ad pedestrem pugnam tam ignavum: ubi per turmas advenere vix ulla acies obstiterit.

Among the Romans everything was apt for battle: the Sarmatians, scattered or, through cupidity for plunder, heavy with the burden of baggage, and, by the slipperiness of the roads, with the celerity of their horses taken away, were cut down as if bound. For—marvelous to say—all the valor of the Sarmatians is, as it were, outside themselves. Nothing is so cowardly for pedestrian combat: when they have come in squadrons, scarcely any battle line has withstood them.

sed tum umido die et soluto gelu neque conti neque gladii, quos praelongos utraque manu regunt, usui, lapsantibus equis et catafractarum pondere. id principibus et nobilissimo cuique tegimen, ferreis lamminis aut praeduro corio consertum, ut adversus ictus impenetrabile ita impetu hostium provolutis inhabile ad resurgendum; simul altitudine et mollitia nivis hauriebantur. Romanus miles facilis lorica et missili pilo aut lanceis adsultans, ubi res posceret, levi gladio inermem Sarmatam (neque enim scuto defendi mos est) comminus fodiebat, donec pauci qui proelio superfuerant paludibus abderentur.

but then, on a humid day and with the frost loosened, neither the pikes nor the swords—which, overlong, they wield with both hands—were of use, with the horses slipping and by the weight of the cataphracts. that covering for the chiefs and for each most noble, fastened of iron plates or of very-hard hide, as it is impenetrable against blows, so, when they were rolled forward by the enemy’s impetus, was unfit for rising again; at the same time they were swallowed up by the height and softness of the snow. the Roman soldier, unencumbered in his cuirass and, assaulting with a missile pilum or with lances, when the situation demanded, with a light sword stabbed at close quarters the unarmed Sarmatian (for it is not their custom to be defended by a shield), until the few who had survived the battle hid themselves in the marshes.

ibi saevitia hiemis aut vulnerum absumpti. postquam id Romae compertum, M. Aponius Moesiam obtinens triumphali statua, Fulvus Aurelius et Iulianus Tettius ac Numisius Lupus, legati legionum, consularibus ornamentis donantur, laeto Othone et gloriam in se trahente, tamquam et ipse felix bello et suis ducibus suisque exercitibus rem publicam auxisset.

there they were consumed by the savagery of winter or by their wounds. After this was learned at Rome, M. Aponius, holding Moesia, was honored with a triumphal statue; Fulvus Aurelius and Iulianus Tettius and Numisius Lupus, legates of the legions, are presented with consular insignia, Otho glad and drawing the glory to himself, as though he too had been fortunate in war and had augmented the Republic by his own commanders and his own armies.

[80] Parvo interim initio, unde nihil timebatur, orta seditio prope urbi excidio fuit. septimam decimam cohortem e colonia Ostiensi in urbem acciri Otho iusserat; armandae eius cura Vario Crispino tribuno e praetorianis data. is quo magis vacuus quietis castris iussa exequeretur, vehicula cohortis incipiente nocte onerari aperto armamentario iubet.

[80] From a small beginning meanwhile, whence nothing was feared, a sedition arose that was nearly the city’s destruction. Otho had ordered the seventeenth cohort to be summoned from the colony of Ostia into the city; the care of arming it was given to Varius Crispinus, a tribune from the praetorians. He, that he might the more unencumbered execute the orders with the camp quiet, at the beginning of night orders the cohort’s vehicles to be loaded, the armory being opened.

tempus in suspicionem, causa in crimen, adfectatio quietis in tumultum evaluit, et visa inter temulentos arma cupidinem sui movere. fremit miles et tribunos centurionesque proditionis arguit, tamquam familiae senatorum ad perniciem Othonis armarentur, pars ignari et vino graves, pessimus quisque in occasionem praedarum, vulgus, ut mos est, cuiuscumque motus novi cupidum; et obsequia meliorum nox abstulerat. resistentem seditioni tribunum et severissimos centurionum obtruncant; rapta arma, nudari gladii; insidentes equis urbem ac Palatium petunt.

Time grew into suspicion, the cause into a crime, the affectation of quiet into tumult, and the sight of arms among the drunken stirred a desire for them. The soldiery roars and charges the tribunes and centurions with treason, as though the households of the senators were being armed for Otho’s ruin—some ignorant and heavy with wine, every worst man for a chance of plunder, the rabble, as is its custom, eager for any new commotion; and the night had taken away the dutiful attendance of the better men. They butcher the tribune resisting the sedition and the most severe of the centurions; weapons are snatched, swords are bared; mounting their horses, they make for the city and the Palatine.

[81] Erat Othoni celebre convivium primoribus feminis virisque; qui trepidi, fortuitusne militum furor an dolus imperatoris, manere ac deprehendi an fugere et dispergi periculosius foret, modo constantiam simulare, modo formidine detegi, simul Othonis vultum intueri; utque evenit inclinatis ad suspicionem mentibus, cum timeret Otho, timebatur. sed haud secus discrimine senatus quam suo territus et praefectos praetorii ad mitigandas militum iras statim miserat et abire propere omnis e convivio, iussit. tum vero passim magistratus proiectis insignibus, vitata comitum et servorum frequentia, senes feminaeque per tenebras diversa urbis itinera, rari domos, plurimi amicorum tecta et ut cuique humillimus cliens, incertas latebras petivere.

[81] Otho had a renowned banquet with the foremost women and men; who, alarmed, debated whether the soldiers’ fury were fortuitous or the emperor’s deceit, whether it would be more perilous to remain and be apprehended or to flee and be dispersed, now to simulate constancy, now to be uncovered by fear, while at the same time scanning Otho’s face; and, as it happens when minds are inclined to suspicion, since Otho was afraid, he was feared. But he, terrified no less at the peril of the senate than his own, had at once sent the prefects of the Praetorian Guard to mitigate the soldiers’ ire and ordered all to depart quickly from the banquet. Then indeed, everywhere, the magistrates, with their insignia flung aside, avoiding the throng of attendants and slaves, old men and women through the darkness along different routes of the city—few to their homes, most to friends’ roofs, and, as each had his most lowly client—sought uncertain hiding-places.

[82] Militum impetus ne foribus quidem Palatii coercitus quo minus convivium inrumperent, ostendi sibi Othonem expostulantes, vulnerato Iulio Martiale tribuno et Vitellio Saturnino praefecto legionis, dum ruentibus obsistunt. undique arma et minae, modo in centuriones tribunosque, modo in senatum universum, lymphatis caeco pavore animis, et quia neminem unum destinare irae poterant, licentiam in omnis poscentibus, donec Otho contra decus imperii toro insistens precibus et lacrimis aegre cohibuit, redieruntque in castra inviti neque innocentes. postera die velut capta urbe clausae domus, rarus per vias populus, maesta plebs; deiecti in terram militum vultus ac plus tristitiae quam paenitentiae.

[82] The impetus of the soldiers was not checked even by the doors of the Palace from breaking into the banquet, demanding that Otho be shown to them, with Julius Martialis, a tribune, and Vitellius Saturninus, prefect of a legion, wounded while they stood in the way of the rush. On every side arms and threats, now against the centurions and tribunes, now against the Senate entire, their minds crazed with blind panic; and because they could single out no one person for their wrath, they were calling for license against all, until Otho, standing upon the couch, against imperial decorum, with prayers and tears hardly restrained them; and they returned to camp unwilling and not innocent. On the next day, as if the city had been captured, houses were shut, the populace was rare along the streets, the plebs mournful; the soldiers’ faces cast down to the ground, and more of sadness than of penitence.

manipulatim adlocuti sunt Licinius Proculus et Plotius Firmus praefecti, ex suo quisque ingenio mitius aut horridius. finis sermonis in eo ut quina milia nummum singulis militibus numerarentur: tum Otho ingredi castra ausus. atque illum tribuni centurionesque circumsistunt, abiectis militiae insignibus otium et salutem flagitantes.

Maniple by maniple the prefects Licinius Proculus and Plotius Firmus addressed them, each according to his own nature more mildly or more harshly. The end of the speech was this: that 5,000 coins should be counted out to each soldier; then Otho dared to enter the camp. And the tribunes and centurions surrounded him, having thrown down the insignia of military service, demanding repose and safety.

sensit invidiam miles et compositus in obsequium auctores seditionis ad supplicium ultro postulabat.

The soldiery sensed the resentment, and, composed to obedience, were of their own accord demanding the authors of the sedition for punishment.

[83] Otho, quamquam turbidis rebus et diversis militum animis, cum optimus quisque remedium praesentis licentiae posceret, vulgus et plures seditionibus et ambitioso imperio laeti per turbas et raptus facilius ad civile bellum impellerentur, simul reputans non posse principatum scelere quaesitum subita modestia et prisca gravitate retineri, sed discrimine urbis et periculo senatus anxius, postremo ita disseruit: "neque ut adfectus vestros in amorem mei accenderem, commilitones, neque ut animum ad virtutem cohortarer (utraque enim egregie supersunt), sed veni postulaturus a vobis temperamentum vestrae fortitudinis et erga me modum caritatis. tumultus proximi initium non cupiditate vel odio, quae multos exercitus in discordiam egere, ac ne detrectatione quidem aut formidine periculorum: nimia pietas vestra acrius quam considerate excitavit; nam saepe honestas rerum causas, ni iudicium adhibeas, perniciosi exitus consequuntur. imus ad bellum.

[83] Otho, although with affairs turbulent and the soldiers’ minds at variance—since every best man was demanding a remedy for the present license, while the crowd and the majority, rejoicing in seditions and in an ambitious imperium, were more easily driven into civil war through riots and rapine—at the same time considering that a principate sought by crime could not be retained by sudden modesty and ancient gravity, yet, anxious at the crisis of the city and the peril of the senate, finally discoursed thus: "Not that I might inflame your affections into love of me, fellow-soldiers, nor that I might exhort your spirit to virtue (for both are superabundantly present), but I have come to ask from you a tempering of your fortitude and, toward me, a measure of affection. The beginning of the most recent tumult did not arise from greed or hatred, which have driven many armies into discord, nor even from shrinking from or dread of dangers: your excessive pietas roused you more keenly than advisedly; for often honorable causes of actions, unless you apply judgment, are followed by pernicious outcomes. We are going to war.

num omnis nuntios palam audiri, omnia consilia cunctis praesentibus tractari ratio rerum aut occasionum velocitas patitur? tam nescire quaedam milites quam scire oportet: ita se ducum auctoritas, sic rigor disciplinae habet, ut multa etiam centuriones tribunosque tantum iuberi expediat. si cur iubeantur quaerere singulis liceat, pereunte obsequio etiam imperium intercidit.

Does the rationale of affairs or the velocity of opportunities permit that all messages be heard openly, that all counsels be handled with everyone present? It behooves soldiers as much to be ignorant of certain things as to know them: such is the standing of commanders’ authority, such the rigor of discipline, that it is expedient for many matters to be ordered to centurions and tribunes only. If it be allowed each individual to ask why they are commanded, with obedience perishing, the command itself is cut off.

an et illic nocte intempesta rapientur arma? unus alterve perditus ac temulentus (neque enim pluris consternatione proxima insanisse crediderim) centurionis ac tribuni sanguine manus imbuet, imperatoris sui tentorium inrumpet?"

or will arms be snatched up there too in the dead of night? will one or two, lost and temulent (for I would not believe that more have gone mad from the recent consternation), stain their hands with the blood of a centurion and a tribune, burst into their emperor’s tent?"

[84] "Vos quidem istud pro me: sed in discursu ac tenebris et rerum omnium confusione patefieri occasio etiam adversus me potest. si Vitellio et satellitibus eius eligendi facultas detur, quem nobis animum, quas mentis imprecentur, quid aliud quam seditionem et discordiam optabunt? ne miles centurioni, ne centurio tribuno obsequatur, ut confusi pedites equitesque in exitium ruamus.

[84] "You indeed do that on my behalf: but in the running to and fro and in the darkness and in the confusion of all things an opportunity can be laid open even against me. If to Vitellius and his satellites the faculty of choosing be given, what spirit for us, what dispositions will they imprecate—what else will they opt for than sedition and discord? namely, that the soldier not be obedient to the centurion, nor the centurion to the tribune, so that, in confusion, infantry and cavalry alike may rush into destruction.

parendo potius, commilitones, quam imperia ducum sciscitando res militares continentur, et fortissimus in ipso discrimine exercitus est qui ante discrimen quietissimus. vobis arma et animus sit: mihi consilium et virtutis vestrae regimen relinquite. paucorum culpa fuit, duorum poena erit: ceteri abolete memoriam foedissimae noctis.

By obeying rather, comrades-in-arms, than by questioning the commands of leaders, military affairs are maintained; and the army is bravest in the very crisis which before the crisis is most quiet. Let arms and spirit be yours: leave to me the counsel and the regimen of your virtue. It was the fault of a few, the punishment shall be of two: the rest of you, abolish the memory of the most shameful night.

nec illas adversus senatum voces ullus usquam exercitus audiat. caput imperii et decora omnium provinciarum ad poenam vocare non hercule illi, quos cum maxime Vitellius in nos ciet, Germani audeant. ulline Italiae alumni et Romana vere iuventus ad sanguinem et caedem depoposcerit ordinem, cuius splendore et gloria sordis et obscuritatem Vitellianarum partium praestringimus?

nor let any army anywhere listen to those voices against the senate. To call the head of the Empire and the ornaments of all the provinces to punishment—not, by Hercules, even those Germans whom Vitellius is at this very moment setting upon us would dare. Would any alumni of Italy and truly Roman youth have demanded the order to blood and slaughter, by whose splendor and glory we bedazzle the filth and obscurity of the Vitellian faction?

nationes aliquas occupavit Vitellius, imaginem quandam exercitus habet, senatus nobiscum est: sic fit ut hinc res publica, inde hostes rei publicae constiterint. quid? vos pulcherrimam hanc urbem domibus et tectis et congestu lapidum stare creditis?

Vitellius has occupied some nations, he has a certain image of an army, the senate is with us: thus it comes about that here stands the commonwealth, there stand the enemies of the commonwealth. What? Do you believe that this most beautiful city stands by houses and roofs and by a heaping-together of stones?

muta ista et inanima intercidere ac reparari promisca sunt: aeternitas rerum et pax gentium et mea cum vestra salus incolumitate senatus firmatur. hunc auspicato a parente et conditore urbis nostrae institutum et a regibus usque ad principes continuum et immortalem, sicut a maioribus accepimus, sic posteris tradamus; nam ut ex vobis senatores, ita ex senatoribus principes nascuntur."

those mute and inanimate things are matters of the common lot—to perish and to be repaired; the eternity of affairs and the peace of nations and my safety together with yours are made firm by the unimpaired state of the Senate. Let us hand this down to posterity, instituted under auspices by the parent and founder of our city, and continued from the kings down to the princes, and immortal, just as we received it from our ancestors; for as out of you senators are born, so out of senators princes are born."

[85] Et oratio ad perstringendos mulcendosque militum animos et severitatis modus (neque enim in pluris quam in duos animadverti iusserat) grate accepta compositique ad praesens qui coerceri non poterant. non tamen quies urbi redierat: strepitus telorum et facies belli, [et] militibus ut nihil in commune turbantibus, ita sparsis per domos occulto habitu, et maligna cura in omnis, quos nobilitas aut opes aut aliqua insignis claritudo rumoribus obiecerat: Vitellianos quoque milites venisse in urbem ad studia partium noscenda plerique credebant: unde plena omnia suspicionum et vix secreta domuum sine formidine. sed plurimum trepidationis in publico, ut quemque nuntium fama attulisset, animum vultumque conversis, ne diffidere dubiis ac parum gaudere prosperis viderentur.

[85] And the oration, both for lashing and for mollifying the soldiers’ spirits, and the moderation of severity (for he had ordered that punishment be inflicted on no more than two), were gratefully received, and those who could not be coerced were composed for the present. Yet quiet had not returned to the city: the clatter of weapons and the aspect of war, [and] although the soldiers disturbed nothing in common, nevertheless they were scattered through houses in concealed garb; and there was a malicious vigilance upon all whom nobility or wealth or some conspicuous renown had exposed to rumors. Many also believed that Vitellian soldiers had come into the city to learn the party allegiances; whence everything was full of suspicions, and scarcely the secrets of homes were without fear. But the greatest trepidation was in public—whenever rumor had brought any report, with mind and face turned accordingly, lest they seem to distrust doubtful news and to rejoice too little in favorable ones.

coacto vero in curiam senatu arduus rerum omnium modus, ne contumax silentium, ne suspecta libertas; et privato Othoni nuper atque eadem dicenti nota adulatio. igitur versare sententias et huc atque illuc torquere, hostem et parricidam Vitellium vocantes, providentissimus quisque vulgaribus conviciis, quidam vera probra iacere, in clamore tamen et ubi plurimae voces, aut tumultu verborum sibi ipsi obstrepentes.

but when indeed the senate had been convened in the Curia, the conduct of all matters was arduous: lest there be contumacious silence, lest liberty be suspect; and in the case of Otho, lately a private man and saying the same things, the same adulation had been noted. therefore they kept turning their opinions and twisting them hither and thither, calling Vitellius an enemy and a parricide; the most provident each stuck to vulgar revilings, some cast true reproaches—yet in a clamor, and where the voices were very many, they either, by the tumult of words, drowned themselves out.

[86] Prodigia insuper terrebant diversis auctoribus vulgata: investibulo Capitolii omissas habenas bigae, cui Victoria institerat, erupisse cella Iunonis maiorem humana speciem, statuam divi Iulii in insula Tiberini amnis sereno et immoto die ab occidente in orientem conversam, prolocutum in Etruria bovem, insolitos animalium partus, et plura alia rudibus saeculis etiam in pace observata, quae nunc tantum in metu audiuntur. sed praecipuus et cum praesenti exitio etiam futuri pavor subita inundatione Tiberis, qui immenso auctu proruto ponte sublicio ac strage obstantis molis refusus, non modo iacentia et plana urbis loca, sed secura eius modi casuum implevit: rapti e publico plerique, plures in tabernis et cubilibus intercepti. fames in vulgus inopia quaestus et penuria alimentorum.

[86] Portents, moreover, were terrifying, spread abroad by diverse authorities: in the vestibule of the Capitol the reins had fallen from the two-horse chariot upon which Victory had stood; from the cella of Juno there burst forth a figure greater than human in appearance; the statue of the deified Julius, on a clear and windless day, on the island of the Tiber river, was turned from west to east; in Etruria a bull spoke; there were unusual births of animals; and many other things which in rude ages were observed even in peace, but now are heard only in fear. But the chief dread—bringing present destruction and fear for the future as well—was a sudden inundation of the Tiber, which, with immense increase, the Sublician Bridge having been broken down and by the wreckage of obstructing structures dammed back and poured in reflux, filled not only the low-lying and level places of the city, but even those secure from such accidents: many were snatched away in public, more were caught in shops and bedrooms. Famine among the common people through lack of earnings and scarcity of provisions.

corrupta stagnantibus aquis insularum fundamenta, dein remeante flumine dilapsa. utque primum vacuus a periculo animus fuit, id ipsum quod paranti expeditionem Othoni campus Martius et via Flaminia iter belli esset obstructum fortuitis vel naturalibus causis in prodigium et omen imminentium cladium vertebatur.

the foundations of the apartment houses were corrupted by the stagnant waters, then, as the river flowed back, collapsed. and as soon as the mind was free from danger, that very fact—that for Otho, preparing an expedition, the Campus Martius and the Via Flaminia, the route of war, had been obstructed by fortuitous or natural causes—was being turned into a prodigy and an omen of impending calamities.

[87] Otho lustrata urbe et expensis bello consiliis, quando Poeninae Cottiaeque Alpes et ceteri Galliarum aditus Vitellianis exercitibus claudebantur, Narbonensem Galliam adgredi statuit classe valida et partibus fida, quod reliquos caesorum ad pontem Mulvium et saevitia Galbae in custodia habitos in numeros legionis composuerat, facta et ceteris spe honoratae in posterum militiae. addidit classi urbanas cohortis et plerosque e praetorianis, viris et robur exercitus atque ipsis ducibus consilium et custodes. summa expeditionis Antonio Novello, Suedio Clementi primipilaribus, Aemilio Pacensi, cui ademptum a Galba tribunatum reddiderat, permissa.

[87] Otho, the city having been lustrated and the counsels for war weighed, since the Poenine and Cottian Alps and the other approaches of Gaul were being closed by the Vitellian armies, decided to attack Narbonensian Gaul with a strong fleet loyal to his party, because he had formed the survivors of those cut down at the Mulvian Bridge and those kept in custody by Galba’s savagery into the rolls of a legion, and had also given to the rest a hope of honored service in the future. He added to the fleet the urban cohorts and most from the Praetorians—men, the very strength of the army, and, for the leaders themselves, both counsel and guards. The overall command of the expedition was entrusted to Antonius Novellus, Suedius Clemens, both primipilares, and to Aemilius Pacensis, to whom he had restored the tribunate taken away by Galba.

curam navium Moschus libertus retinebat ad observandam honestiorum fidem immutatus. peditum equitumque copiis Suetonius Paulinus, Marius Celsus, Annius Gallus rectores destinati, sed plurima fides Licinio Proculo praetorii praefecto. is urbanae militiae impiger, bellorum insolens, auctoritatem Paulini, vigorem Celsi, maturitatem Galli, ut cuique erat, criminando, quod facillimum factu est, pravus et callidus bonos et modestos anteibat.

the care of the ships Moschus, a freedman, retained, unchanged, to watch over the good faith of the more honorable. Over the forces of infantry and cavalry Suetonius Paulinus, Marius Celsus, and Annius Gallus were designated as commanders, but the greatest confidence was placed in Licinius Proculus, prefect of the praetorians. He, energetic in urban service, unacquainted with wars, by criminating the authority of Paulinus, the vigor of Celsus, and the maturity of Gallus, each as it belonged to each—which is the easiest thing to do—being depraved and crafty, was getting ahead of the good and modest.

[88] Sepositus per eos dies Cornelius Dolabella in coloniam Aquinatem, neque arta custodia neque obscura, nullum ob crimen, sed vetusto nomine et propinquitate Galbae monstratus. multos e magistratibus, magnam consularium partem Otho non participes aut ministros bello, sed comitum specie secum expedire iubet, in quis et Lucium Vitellium, eodem quo ceteros cultu, nec ut imperatoris fratrem nec ut hostis. igitur motae urbis curae; nullus ordo metu aut periculo vacuus.

[88] Cornelius Dolabella was set aside during those days in the colony of Aquinum, under neither close nor hidden custody, on account of no crime, but pointed out by his ancient name and by his kinship to Galba. Otho orders many from the magistrates, a great part of the consulars, not as participants or ministers in the war, but to attend him with the semblance of companions; among whom also Lucius Vitellius, in the same attire as the rest, neither as the emperor’s brother nor as an enemy. Therefore the city’s anxieties were stirred; no order was free from fear or peril.

primores senatus aetate invalidi et longa pace desides, segnis et oblita bellorum nobilitas, ignarus militiae eques, quanto magis occultare et abdere pavorem nitebantur, manifestius pavidi. nec deerant e contrario qui amibitione stolida conspicua arma, insignis equos, quidam luxuriosos apparatus conviviorum et inritamenta libidinum ut instrumentum belli mercarentur. sapientibus quietis et rei publicae cura; levissimus quisque et futuri improvidus spe vana tumens; multi adflicta fide in pace anxii, turbatis rebus alacres et per incerta tutissimi.

the foremost men of the senate, enfeebled by age and slothful through long peace; a nobility sluggish and forgetful of wars; the equestrian order ignorant of soldiery—the more they strove to conceal and to bury their fear, the more manifestly timorous they were. nor were they lacking, on the contrary, who with fatuous ambition would buy conspicuous arms, distinguished horses—some even the luxurious apparatus of banquets and the stimulants of lusts as if instruments of war. for the wise there were quiet counsels and a care for the commonwealth; the lightest-minded, improvident of the future, swelled with empty hope; many, their confidence afflicted, were anxious in peace, but when affairs were disturbed, they were brisk, and through uncertainties safest.

[89] Sed vulgus et magnitudine nimia communium curarum expers populus sentire paulatim belli mala, conversa in militum usum omni pecunia, intentis alimentorum pretiis, quae motu Vindicis haud perinde plebem attriverant, secura tum urbe et provinciali bello, quod inter legiones Galliasque velut externum fuit. nam ex quo divus Augustus res Caesarum composuit, procul et in unius sollicitudinem aut decus populus Romanus bellaverat; sub Tiberio et Gaio tantum pacis adversa [ad] rem publicam pertinuere; Scriboniani contra Claudium incepta simul audita et coercita; Nero nuntiis magis et rumoribus quam armis depulsus: tum legiones classesque et, quod raro alias, praetorianus urbanusque miles in aciem deducti, Oriens Occidensque et quicquid utrimque virium est a tergo, si ducibus aliis bellatum foret, longo bello materia. fuere qui proficiscenti Othoni moras religionemque nondum conditorum ancilium adferrent: aspernatus est omnem cunctationem ut Neroni quoque exitiosam; et Caecina iam Alpes transgressus extimulabat.

[89] But the common crowd and the people, exempt from the common cares by the excessive magnitude of the state, began little by little to feel the evils of war: with all money diverted to the use of the soldiers, the prices of provisions strained; which things, at the uprising of Vindex, had not to the same degree worn down the plebs, the city being then secure and the war provincial, which between the legions and the Gauls was, as it were, external. For from the time when the deified Augustus composed the affairs of the Caesars, the Roman People had warred far away and to the anxiety or the glory of one man; under Tiberius and Gaius only the adversities of peace pertained to the commonwealth; the attempts of Scribonianus against Claudius were no sooner heard than suppressed; Nero was driven off more by messages and rumors than by arms. Then legions and fleets, and—what seldom otherwise—the praetorian and urban soldiery were led into the battle-line; the Orient and the Occident, and whatever strength there is on either side at the rear: had the fighting been with other commanders, there was matter for a long war. There were those who, as Otho was setting out, brought delays and a religious scruple about the ancilia not yet stored away; he spurned all procrastination as ruinous even to Nero; and Caecina, now having crossed the Alps, was goading him on.

[90] Pridie idus Martias commendata patribus re publica reliquias Neronianarum sectionum nondum in fiscum conversas revocatis ab exilio concessit, iustissimum donum et in speciem magnificum, sed festinata iam pridem exactione usu sterile. mox vocata contione maiestatem urbis et consensum populi ac senatus pro se attollens, adversum Vitellianas partis modeste disseruit, inscitiam potius legionum quam audaciam increpans, nulla Vitellii mentione, sive ipsius ea moderatio, seu scriptor orationis sibi metuens contumeliis in Vitellium abstinuit, quando, ut in consiliis militiae Suetonio Paulino et Mario Celso, ita in rebus urbanis Galeri Trachali ingenio Othonem ut credebatur; et erant qui genus ipsum orandi noscerent, crebro fori usu celebre et ad implendas populi auris latum et sonans. clamor vocesque vulgi ex more adulandi nimiae et falsae: quasi dictatorem Caesarem aut imperatorem Augustum prosequerentur, ita studiis votisque certabant, nec metu aut amore, sed ex libidine servitii: ut in familiis, privata cuique stimulatio, et vile iam decus publicum.

[90] On the day before the Ides of March, the commonwealth having been commended to the Fathers, he granted to those recalled from exile the remnants of the Neronian auctions not yet converted into the fisc, a most just gift and in appearance magnificent, but, because of the long-ago hurried exaction, sterile in use. Soon, a contio having been called, exalting on his own behalf the majesty of the city and the consensus of people and senate, he spoke with modesty against the Vitellian party, reproving rather the ignorance of the legions than their audacity, with no mention of Vitellius—whether that was his own moderation, or the writer of the speech, fearing for himself, abstained from contumelies against Vitellius—since, as in the counsels of warfare Suetonius Paulinus and Marius Celsus, so in urban affairs Otho, as was believed, was guided by the ingenium of Galerius Trachalus; and there were those who recognized the very genus of orating, made famous by frequent use of the forum and broad and sonorous to fill the people’s ears. The clamor and voices of the crowd, excessive and false in the custom of adulation: as though they were accompanying Dictator Caesar or Emperor Augustus, so they strove with zeal and vows—not from fear or love, but from a libido of servitude: as in households, each man’s private goad, and the public honor now cheap.

profectus Otho quietem urbis curasque imperii Salvio Titiano fratri permisit.

Setting out, Otho entrusted the quiet of the city and the cares of the empire to his brother, Salvius Titianus.