Plutarch: Lives of the noble Grecians and Romans
persuaded into compliance. Tidings came immediately to Galba in
the Palatium, whilst the priest was still present and the
sacrifices at hand, so that persons who were most entirely
incredulous about such things, and most positive in their
neglect of them, were astonished, and began to marvel at the
divine event. A multitude of all sorts of people now began to
run together out of the forum; Vinius and Laco and some of
Galba's freedmen drew their swords and placed themselves beside
him; Piso went forth and addressed himself to the guards on duty
in the court; and Marius Celsus, a brave man, was dispatched to
the Illyrian legion, stationed in what is called the Vipsanian
chamber, to secure them.
Galba now consulting whether he should go out, Vinius dissuaded
him, but Celsus and Laco encouraged him by all means to do so,
and sharply reprimanded Vinius. But on a sudden a rumor came
hot that Otho was slain in the camp; and presently appeared one
Julius Atticus, a man of some distinction in the guards, running
up with his drawn sword, crying out that he had slain Caesar's
enemy; and pressing through the crowd that stood in his way, he
presented himself before Galba with his bloody weapon, who,
looking on him, demanded, "Who gave you your orders?" And on
his answering that it had been his duty and the obligation of
the oath he had taken, the people applauded, giving loud
acclamations, and Galba got into his chair and was carried out
to sacrifice to Jupiter, and so to show himself publicly. But
coming into the forum, there met him there, like a turn of wind,
the opposite story, that Otho had made himself master of the
camp. And as usual in a crowd of such a size, some called to
him to return back, others to move forward; some encouraged him
to be bold and fear nothing, others bade him be cautious and
distrust. And thus whilst his chair was tossed to and fro, as
it were on the waves, often tottering, there appeared first
horse, and straightaway heavy-armed foot, coming through
Paulus's court, and all with one accord crying out, "Down with
this private man." Upon this, the crowd of people set off
running, not to fly and disperse, but to possess themselves of
the colonnades and elevated places of the forum, as it might be
to get places to see a spectacle. And as soon as Atillius
Vergilio knocked down one of Galba's statues, this was taken as
the declaration of war, and they sent a discharge of darts upon
Galba's litter, and, missing their aim, came up and attacked him
nearer hand with their naked swords. No man resisted or offered
to stand up in his defense, save one only, a centurion,
Sempronius Densus, the single man among so many thousands that
the sun beheld that day act worthily of the Roman empire, who,
though he had never received any favor from Galba, yet out of
bravery and allegiance endeavored to defend the litter. First,
lifting up his switch of vine, with which the centurions correct
the soldiers when disorderly, he called aloud to the aggressors,
charging them not to touch their emperor. And when they came
upon him hand to hand, he drew his sword, and made a defense for
a long time, until at last he was cut under the knees and
brought to the ground.
Galba's chair was upset at the spot called the Lacus Curtius,
where they ran up and struck at him as he lay in his corslet.
He, however, offered his throat, bidding them "Strike, if it be
for the Romans' good." He received several wounds on his legs
and arms, and at last was struck in the throat, as most say, by
one Camurius, a soldier of the fifteenth legion. Some name
Terentius, others Lecanius; and there are others that say it was
Fabius Falulus, who, it is reported, cut off the head and
carried it away in the skirt of his coat, the baldness making it
a difficult thing to take hold of. But those that were with him
would not allow him to keep it covered up, but bade him let
everyone see the brave deed he had done; so that after a while
he stuck upon the lance the head of the aged man that had been
their grave and temperate ruler, their supreme priest and
consul, and, tossing it up in the air, ran like a bacchanal,
twirling and flourishing with it, while the blood ran down the
spear. But when they brought the head to Otho,
"Fellow-soldiers," he cried out, "this is nothing, unless you
show me Piso's too," which was presented him not long after.
The young man, retreating upon a wound received, was pursued by
one Murcus, and slain at the temple of Vesta. Titus Vinius was
also dispatched, avowing himself to have been privy to the
conspiracy against Galba by calling out that they were killing
him contrary to Otho's pleasure. However, they cut off his
head, and Laco's too, and brought them to Otho, requesting a
boon.
And as Archilochus says --
When six or seven lie breathless on the ground,
'Twas I, 'twas I, say thousands, gave the wound.
Thus many that had no share in the murder wetted their hands and
swords in blood, and came and showed them to Otho, presenting
memorials suing for a gratuity. Not less than one hundred and
twenty were identified afterwards from their written petitions;
all of whom Vitellius sought out and put to death. There came
also into the camp Marius Celsus, and was accused by many voices
of encouraging the soldiers to assist Galba, and was demanded to
death by the multitude. Otho had no desire for this, yet,
fearing an absolute denial, he professed that he did not wish to
take him off so soon, having many matters yet to learn from him;
and so committed him safe to the custody of those he most
confided in.
Forthwith a senate was convened, and as if they were not the
same men, or had other gods to swear by, they took that oath in
Otho's name which he himself had taken in Galba's and had
broken; and withal conferred on him the titles of Caesar and
Augustus; whilst the dead carcasses of the slain lay yet in
their consular robes in the marketplace. As for their heads,
when they could make no other use of them, Vinius's they sold to
his daughter for two thousand five hundred drachmas; Piso's was
begged by his wife Verania; Galba's they gave to Patrobius's
servants; who when they had it, after all sorts of abuse and
indignities, tumbled it into the place where those that suffer
death by the emperor's orders are usually cast, called
Sessorium. Galba's body was conveyed away by Priscus Helvidius
by Otho's permission, and buried in the night by Argius, his
freedman.
Thus you have the history of Galba, a person inferior to few
Romans, either for birth or riches, rather exceeding all of his
time in both, having lived in great honor and reputation in the
reigns of five emperors, insomuch that he overthrew Nero rather
by his fame and repute in the world than by actual force and
power. Of all the others that joined in Nero's deposition, some
were by general consent regarded as unworthy, others had only
themselves to vote them deserving of the empire. To him the
title was offered, and by him it was accepted; and simply
lending his name to Vindex's attempt, he gave to what had been
called rebellion before, the name of a civil war, by the
presence of one that was accounted fit to govern. And,
therefore, as he considered that he had not so much sought the
position as the position had sought him, he proposed to command
those whom Nymphidius and Tigellinus had wheedled into
obedience, no otherwise than Scipio formerly and Fabricius and
Camillus had commanded the Romans of their times. But being now
overcome with age, he was indeed among the troops and legions an
upright ruler upon the antique model; but for the rest, giving
himself up to Vinius, Laco, and his freedmen, who made their
gain of all things, no otherwise than Nero had done to his
insatiate favorites, he left none behind him to wish him still
in power, though many to compassionate his death.
OTHO
The new emperor went early in the morning to the capitol, and
sacrificed; and, having commanded Marius Celsus to be brought,
he saluted him, and with obliging language desired him rather to
forget his accusation than remember his acquittal; to which
Celsus answered neither meanly nor ungratefully, that his very
crime ought to recommend his integrity, since his guilt had been
his fidelity to Galba, from whom he had never received any
personal obligations. Upon which they were both of them admired
by those that were present, and applauded by the soldiers.
In the senate, Otho said much in a gentle and popular strain.
He was to have been consul for part of that year himself, but he
gave the office to Virginius Rufus, and displaced none that had
been named for the consulship by either Nero or Galba. Those
that were remarkable for their age and dignity he promoted to
the priest-hoods; and restored the remains of their fortunes,
that had not yet been sold, to all those senators that were
banished by Nero and recalled by Galba. So that the nobility
and chief of the people, who were at first apprehensive that no
human creature, but some supernatural penal, or vindictive power
had seized the empire, began now to flatter themselves with
hopes of a government that smiled upon them thus early.
Besides, nothing gratified or gained the whole Roman people more
than his justice in relation to Tigellinus. It was not seen how
he was in fact already suffering punishment, not only by the
very terror of retribution which he saw the whole city requiring
as a just debt, but with several incurable diseases also; not to
mention those unhallowed frightful excesses among impure and
prostituted women, to which, at the very close of life, his lewd
nature clung, and in them gasped out, as it were, its last;
these, in the opinion of all reasonable men, being themselves
the extremest punishment, and equal to many deaths. But it was
felt like a grievance by people in general that he continued yet
to see the light of day, who had been the occasion of the loss
of it to so many persons, and such persons, as had died by his
means. Wherefore Otho ordered him to be sent for, just as he
was contriving his escape by means of some vessels that lay
ready for him on the coast near where he lived, in the
neighborhood of Sinuessa. At first he endeavored to corrupt the
messenger, by a large sum of money, to favor his design; but
when he found this was to no purpose, he made him as
considerable a present, as if he had really connived at it, only
entreating him to stay till he had shaved; and so took that
opportunity, and with his razor dispatched himself.
And while giving the people this most righteous satisfaction of
their desires, for himself he seemed to have no sort of regard
for any private injuries of his own. And at first, to please
the populace, he did not refuse to be called Nero in the
theater, and did not interfere when some persons displayed
Nero's statues to public view. And Cluvius Rufus says,
imperial letters, such as are sent with couriers, went into
Spain with the name of Nero affixed adoptively to that of Otho;
but as soon as he perceived this gave offense to the chief and
most distinguished citizens, it was omitted.
After he had begun to model the government in this manner, the
paid soldiers began to murmur, and endeavored to make him
suspect and chastise the nobility, either really out of a
concern for his safety, or wishing, upon this pretense, to stir
up trouble and warfare. Thus, whilst Crispinus, whom he had
ordered to bring him the seventeenth cohort from Ostia, began to
collect what he wanted after it was dark, and was putting the
arms upon the wagons, some of the most turbulent cried out that
Crispinus was disaffected, that the senate was practicing
something against the emperor, and that those arms were to be