Are you going to allow less than thirty
deserters
and
renegades to bestow the crown?
renegades to bestow the crown?
Tacitus
Everybody agrees
that they could have been won over had the parsimonious old emperor
made the least display of generosity. He was ruined by his strict
old-fashioned inflexibility, which seems too rigorous for these
degenerate days.
From the camp they proceeded to the senate, and Galba's speech to 19
its members was no fuller or finer than to the soldiers. Piso spoke
graciously, and there was no lack of support in the senate. Many
wished him well. Those who did not were the more effusive. The
majority were indifferent, but displayed a ready affability, intent on
their private speculations without thought of the country's good. No
other public action is reported of Piso during the four days which
intervened between his adoption and assassination.
FOOTNOTES:
[32] i. e. the emperor's finance agent in the province of
Belgica.
[33] Cp. chap. 6.
[34] A gold signet-ring was the sign of a free-born Roman
knight. Its grant to freedmen was an innovation of which
Tacitus disapproved.
[35] Tacitus here follows the story told by Suetonius in his
life of Otho. In the _Annals_, xiii. 45, 46, Tacitus gives in
detail a more probable version. It is more likely that Poppaea
used Otho as a stepping-stone to Nero's favour than that Otho,
as Suetonius quotes, 'committed adultery with his own wife. '
[36] See chap. 5, note 10.
[37] One of the three Commissioners of Public Revenue
appointed by Nero in A. D. 62 (_Ann. _, xv. 18).
[38] Lucius Calpurnius Piso Frugi Licinianus was the son of M.
Licinius Crassus Frugi, and adopted son of L. Calpurnius Piso
Frugi. His mother, Scribonia, was a descendant of Pompey.
[39] Adoption from one family into another needed in old days
the sanction of the Comitia Curiata. When that assembly became
obsolete, the priests summoned a formal meeting of thirty
lictors, and their sanction of an act of adoption was still
called _lex curiata_. Galba was now _Pontifex maximus_.
[40] Galba belonged to the _Gens Sulpicia_, and was connected
through his mother, Mummia, with Q. Lutatius Catulus, who had
led the senatorial party in the first half of the last
century.
[41] i. e. Galba's great-grandfather had fought for Caesar
against Piso's ancestor, Pompey.
[42] The children of Julia and Agrippa.
[43] Crassus Scribonianus, cp. chap. 47, and iv. 39.
[44] i. e. co-optation, employed in former days to raise a
special contingent for emergencies.
GALBA'S MEASURES OF PRECAUTION
Reports of the German rebellion grew daily more insistent and the
public was always ready to believe any news, provided it was bad.
Accordingly the senate decided that a commission must be sent to the
army in Germany. It was discussed in private whether Piso should go
himself to add dignity to the commission, since he could carry the
authority of the emperor, while the others represented the senate. It
was also proposed to send Laco, the prefect of the Guards, but he
objected. The senate had allowed Galba to nominate the commissioners
and he showed the most miserable indecision, now nominating members,
now excusing them, now making exchanges, yielding always to pressure
from people who wanted to go or to stay at home according as they were
determined by their hopes or their fears. The next question was 20
one of finance. After investigating all possible sources it seemed
most reasonable to recover the revenue from those quarters where the
cause of the deficit lay. Nero had squandered in lavish presents two
thousand two hundred million sesterces. [45] Galba gave instructions
that these monies should be recovered from the individual recipients,
leaving each a tithe of their original gift. However, in each case
there was scarcely a tenth part left, for these worthless spendthrifts
had run through Nero's money as freely as they had squandered their
own: they had no real property or capital left, nothing but the
apparatus of their luxury. Thirty of the knights were entrusted with
the duty of recovering the money. This commission, for which there was
no precedent, proved vastly unpopular owing to the scope of its
authority, and the large number of the victims. Every quarter seemed
beset with sales and brokers and lawsuits. And yet lively satisfaction
was caused by the discovery that the beneficiaries of Nero's bounty
were as poor as the victims of his greed.
At this time several officers were cashiered, Antonius Taurus and
Antonius Naso of the Guards, Aemilius Pacensis of the City Garrison,
and Julius Fronto of the Police. [46] However, this proved no remedy.
The others only began to feel alarmed, thinking that Galba's craft and
timidity had sacrificed a few, while his suspicions rested on them
all.
FOOTNOTES:
[45] About twenty-three million sterling of our money.
[46] i. e. of the cohorts which formed the police and
fire-brigade of the city. See chap. 5, note 10.
THE RISE OF OTHO
Meanwhile Otho had nothing to hope from a peaceful settlement: all 21
his plans demanded a disturbance. Many motives spurred him on: his
extravagance would have ruined a prince, and his poverty have
perplexed a private person: he was angry with Galba and jealous of
Piso. He also alleged fears for his safety, by way of whetting his
ambition. 'I proved a nuisance to Nero,' he would say, 'and can
scarcely expect the compliment of a second exile to Lusitania. [47]
Besides, monarchs always hate and suspect the man who is mentioned as
"next to the throne". This was what did me harm with the old emperor,
and it will weigh still more with the youthful Piso, who is naturally
savage and has been exasperated by a long period of exile. It would be
easy to kill me. I must do and dare while Galba's authority is on the
wane and Piso's not yet established. These times of change suit big
enterprises; inaction is more deadly than daring; there is no call for
delay. Death is the natural end for all alike, and the only difference
is between fame and oblivion afterwards. Seeing that the same end
awaits the innocent and the guilty, a man of spirit should at least
deserve his fate. '
Otho's character was by no means so effeminate as his person. His 22
intimate freedmen and slaves, who were allowed a licence unusual in
private households, dangled before him the baits for which he was
greedy: the luxuries of Nero's Court, the marriages he could make, the
adulteries he could commit, and all the other imperial pleasures. They
were his, they pointed out, if he would bestir himself; it was
shameful to lie quiet and leave them to others. He was also incited by
the astrologers, who declared that their study of the stars pointed to
great changes and a year of glory for Otho. Creatures of this class
always deceive the ambitious, though those in power distrust them.
Probably we shall go on for ever proscribing them and keeping them by
us. [48] Poppaea[49] had always had her boudoir full of these
astrologers, the worst kind of outfit for a royal ménage. One of them,
called Ptolemy, had gone with Otho to Spain[50] and foretold that he
would outlive Nero. This came true and Otho believed in him. He now
based his vague conjectures on the computations of Galba's age and
Otho's youth, and persuaded him that he would ascend the throne. But,
though the man had no real skill, Otho accepted the prophecy as if it
was the finger of fate. Human nature always likes to believe what it
cannot understand.
Nor was Ptolemy himself slow to incite his master to crime, to 23
which it is only a short step from such ambitions. But whether his
criminal designs were deliberate or suddenly conceived, it is
impossible to say. He had long been courting the goodwill of the
soldiers either in the hope of being adopted by Galba or to prepare
the way for treason. On the road from Spain, while the men were
marching or on outpost duty, he would address the veterans by name,
reminding them how he and they had served together under Nero, and
calling them his comrades. He renewed acquaintance with some, asked
after others and helped them with money or influence, frequently
letting fall complaints and ambiguous remarks about Galba, using all
the arts which work upon uneducated minds. The soldiers grumbled
bitterly at the exertions of the march, the shortage of provisions,
and the strict discipline. What they were used to was a journey to the
Campanian Lakes or Greek seaports on board ship;[51] they found it
hard to struggle over the Pyrenees and Alps, and march immense
distances under arms.
While the soldiers were thus already fired with discontent, 24
Maevius Pudens, one of Tigellinus'[52] intimates, added fuel to their
feelings by luring on all who were naturally unstable or in need of
money, or rashly eager for a change. Eventually, whenever Galba dined
with him, Otho went the length of presenting a hundred sesterces to
each of the soldiers on guard, on the pretext that this was instead of
entertaining them. [53] This system of public largess Otho extended by
making presents in confidence to individuals, and such spirit did he
show in bribery that when a member of the Body Guard, Cocceius
Proculus, brought an action to claim part of his neighbour's farm,
Otho bought the whole property out of his own pocket and gave it to
him. He was enabled to do this by the inefficiency of the Prefect
Laco, who was no less blind to notorious than to secret scandals.
Otho then put Onomastus, one of his freedmen, in charge of the 25
projected crime, and Onomastus took into his confidence Barbius
Proculus, an aide-de-camp, and a subaltern named Veturius, both in the
Body Guard. [54] Having assured himself by many interviews that they
were both bold and cunning, Otho proceeded to load them with bribes
and promises, providing them with funds to enable them to test the
feelings of the others. And so a couple of common soldiers took it
upon them to transfer the Roman Empire: and they did it. A very few
were admitted as accomplices. These, by various devices, worked on the
indecision of the others. The non-commissioned officers who had been
promoted by Nymphidius felt themselves under suspicion; the private
soldiers were indignant and in despair at the constant postponement of
Galba's largess; some few were fired by the recollection of Nero's
régime and longed for the days of licence; all in common shared the
fear of being drafted out of the Praetorian Guards.
The infection of treason soon spread to the legions and 26
auxiliaries, whose excitement had been aroused as soon as they heard
that the armies of Germany were wavering in their allegiance. So, as
the disloyal were ready for treason and the loyal shut their eyes,
they at first determined to acclaim Otho as he was returning from
dinner on the night of the fourteenth. However, they hesitated: the
darkness spelt uncertainty, the troops were scattered all over the
town, and unanimity could scarcely be expected from drunken men. They
were not deterred by any affection for their country's honour, which
they were deliberately preparing to stain with its emperor's blood,
but they were afraid that, as Otho was unknown to the majority, some
one else might by mistake be offered to the Pannonian or German
legions and proclaimed emperor. Some evidence of the brewing plot
leaked out, but it was suppressed by the conspirators. Rumours even
reached Galba's ears, but Laco made light of them, being totally
ignorant of soldiers' characters, hostile to any suggestion, however
wise, that was not his own, and extremely obstinate with men who knew
more than he did.
On January 15, as Galba was sacrificing in front of the temple of 27
Apollo, the priest Umbricius declared the omens unfavourable: treason
was impending, and an enemy within the walls. Otho, who was standing
beside Galba, overheard and construed the omen as being from his own
point of view a good one, favourable to his plans. In a few moments
his freedman, Onomastus, announced that the architect and contractors
were waiting to see him. This had been agreed upon as the signal that
the troops were assembling and the conspiracy was ripe. On being asked
where he was going, Otho pretended that he was buying an old property,
but suspected its condition and so had to inspect it first. Thus,
leaning on his freedman's shoulder, he passed through Tiberius' house
into the Velabrum and thence to the Golden Milestone at the foot of
the Temple of Saturn. [55] There thirty-three soldiers of the Body
Guard saluted him as emperor. When he showed alarm at the smallness of
their number they put him hastily into a litter, and, drawing their
swords, hurried him away. About the same number of soldiers joined
them on the way, some accomplices, others merely curious. Some marched
along shouting and flourishing swords; others kept silent, intending
to take their cue from subsequent events.
Julius Martialis was the tribune on duty in the camp. He was so 28
overcome by the magnitude of this unexpected crime and so afraid that
the treason was widespread in the camp, and that he might be killed if
he offered any opposition, that he led most people to suppose he was
in the plot. So, too, the other tribunes and centurions all preferred
present safety to a risky loyalty. In fact the general attitude was
this: few dared to undertake so foul a crime, many wished to see it
done, and everybody was ready to condone it.
FOOTNOTES:
[47] Cp. chap. 13.
[48] Decrees excluding astrologers from Italy had been passed
in B. C. 33, A. D. 16, and again in A. D. 52. Vitellius passed
another. See ii. 62.
[49] Nero's wife. Cp. chap. 13.
[50] i. e. to Lusitania. See chap. 13.
[51] They were 'Guards' who had escorted Nero on his singing
tours through Greece. Perhaps some of them came to meet Galba
on his way from Spain. Otherwise they could not have shared
the toils of this march.
[52] See chap. 72.
[53] The public dinner given in older days by patrons to their
clients had long ago been commuted for a 'tip' (sportula).
Pudens, instead of providing dinner for Galba's guard, sought
their favour by giving them about 17_s. _ apiece.
[54] The English terms do not of course represent the exact
position of these soldiers. The former was one of the
emperor's personal body-guard (speculatores), who received the
watchword (tessera) and passed it round: the latter was one to
whom a centurion had delegated some part of his work.
[55] Plutarch explains this. 'He passed through Tiberius'
house, as it is called, and walked down to the Forum, where
stands the golden pillar to which all the high-roads of Italy
lead. ' The Velabrum lies between the Forum, the Tiber, and the
Aventine.
THE FALL OF GALBA
Meanwhile Galba in total ignorance and intent upon his sacrifices 29
continued to importune the gods of an empire that had already ceased
to be his. First there came a rumour that some one or other of the
senators was being hurried to the camp, then that it was Otho.
Immediately people who had met Otho came flocking in from all quarters
of Rome; some in their terror exaggerated the truth, some minimized
it, remembering even then to flatter. After discussion it was decided
that the temper of the cohort on guard in the palace should be tested,
but not by Galba himself. His authority was held in reserve for more
heroic remedies. The troops were summoned. Piso, standing out on the
steps of the palace, addressed them as follows:
'Fellow soldiers, it is now five days since I was made a Caesar. I
knew nothing of the future nor whether the name was more to be desired
or feared. It now lies with you to decide whether or no my adoption is
to prove a calamity for my house and for my country. In saying this, I
do not dread disaster on my own account. I have known misfortune, and
I am now discovering to the full that prosperity is just as dangerous.
But for the sake of my adoptive father, of the senate, and of the
whole empire, I deplore the thought that we may have to-day either to
die or--what for good men is as wretched--to kill. In the recent
revolution our comfort was that Rome was spared the sight of blood,
and the transfer was effected without disturbance. We thought that my
adoption would be a safeguard against an outbreak of civil war even
after Galba's death.
'I will make no claims to rank or respectability. To compare 30
myself with Otho, I need not recite my virtues. His vices are all he
has to be proud of. They ruined the empire, even when he was only
playing the part of an emperor's friend. Why should he deserve to be
emperor? For his swaggering demeanour? For his effeminate costume?
Extravagance imposes on some people. They take it for liberality. They
are wrong. He will know how to squander money, but not how to give it
away. His mind is full of lechery and debauchery and intrigues with
women. These are in his eyes the prerogatives of the throne. And the
pleasure of his vices would be all his, the blushes of shame would be
ours. No man has ever ruled well who won the throne by bad means.
'The whole Roman world agreed to give Galba the title of Caesar. Galba
with your approval gave that title to me. Even if the "country", the
"senate", the "people", are empty terms, it is to your interest, my
fellow soldiers, to see that it is not the rascals who create an
emperor. From time to time one hears of the legionaries being in
mutiny against their generals. But your good faith and your good name
have stood to this day unimpaired. It was not you who deserted Nero:
he deserted you.
Are you going to allow less than thirty deserters and
renegades to bestow the crown? Why! no one would tolerate their
choosing so much as a centurion or a tribune for themselves. Are you
going to allow this precedent, and by your acquiescence make their
crime your own? You will soon see this lawless spirit spreading to the
troops abroad, and in time the treason will recoil on us and the war
on you. Besides, innocence wins you as much as the murder of your
emperor: you will get from us as large a bounty for your loyalty as
you would from others for your crime. '
The members of the Body Guard dispersed. The rest of the cohort 31
paid some heed to his speech. Aimlessly, as happens in moments of
confusion, they seized their standards, without as yet any fixed plan,
and not, as was afterwards believed, to cloak their treachery. Marius
Celsus had been dispatched to the picked detachments of the Illyrian
army, which were quartered in the Vipsanian arcade,[56] while
instructions had been given to two senior centurions,[57] Amullius
Serenus and Domitius Sabinus, to summon the German troops from the
Hall of Liberty. They distrusted the legion of marines, who had been
alienated by Galba's butchery of their comrades on his entry into
Rome. [58] Three officers of the guards, Cetrius Severus, Subrius
Dexter, and Pompeius Longinus, also hurried to the camp in the hope
that the mutiny was still in its early stages and might be averted by
good advice before it came to a head. The soldiers attacked Subrius
and Cetrius with threats and forcibly seizing Longinus disarmed him,
because he had not come in virtue of his military rank, but simply as
one of Galba's private friends; and for his loyalty to his master the
rebels disliked him all the more. The marines without any hesitation
joined the guards. The Illyrian draft[59] drove Celsus away at the
point of their javelins. The German detachments[59] wavered for some
time. They were still in poor condition physically, and inclined to be
passive. Nero had dispatched them as an advance-guard to
Alexandria;[60] the long voyage back again had damaged their health,
and Galba had spared no expense in looking after them.
The whole populace of Rome was now crowding into the palace 32
together with a good sprinkling of slaves. With discordant shouts they
demanded the death of Otho and the doom of the conspirators. They
might have been in the circus or the theatre, clamouring for
entertainment. There was neither sense nor sincerity in their
behaviour. They were quite ready on the same day to clamour for the
opposite with equal zeal. But it is an established custom to flatter
any emperor with unbridled cheering and meaningless enthusiasm.
Meanwhile Galba was torn between two opinions. Titus Vinius maintained
that they ought to remain within the palace, employ the slaves to
offer resistance and block up all the doors, instead of going out to
face the angry troops. 'This will give time,' he urged, 'for the
disloyal to repent and the loyal to unite their forces. Crimes demand
haste, good counsels profit by delay. Besides, if need be, we shall
have the same chance of leaving the palace later: if we leave and
repent of it, it will not be in our power to return. '
All the others voted for immediate action before the conspiracy 33
gathered strength and numbers. 'Otho,' they argued, 'will soon lose
heart. He crept away by stealth and was introduced in a litter to a
parcel of strangers, and now because we dally and waste time he has
leisure to rehearse his part of emperor. What is the good of waiting
until Otho sets his camp in order and approaches the Capitol, while
Galba peeps out of a window? Are this famous general and his gallant
friends to shut the doors and not to stir a foot over the threshold,
as if they were anxious to endure a siege? Much help may we hope from
slaves, when once the unwieldy crowd loses its unity and their first
indignation, which counts for so much, begins to cool. No, cowardice
is too risky. Or if we must fall, let us meet the danger half-way, and
cover Otho with disgrace, ourselves with honour. '
When Vinius resisted this proposal, Laco, prompted by Icelus,
assailed him with threats, persisting in his private quarrel to the
ruin of his country. Galba without further delay supported those 34
whose plan would look best. However, Piso was first dispatched to the
camp. The young man had a great name, his popularity was still fresh,
and moreover, he disliked Titus Vinius, or, if he did not, Vinius'
enemies hoped he did: it is so easy to believe in hatred. Scarcely had
Piso departed, when there arrived a rumour that Otho had been killed
in the camp. At first it was vague and uncertain, but eventually, as
so often happens with daring lies, people began to assert that they
had been present and seen the deed. Some were glad and some
indifferent, so the news gained easy credence. Many, however, thought
that the report had been concocted and disseminated by friends of
Otho, who now mingled in the crowd and tried to lure Galba out by
spreading this agreeable falsehood. At this point not only the 35
populace and the inexperienced mob but many of the knights and
senators as well broke out into applause and unbridled enthusiasm.
With their fear they had lost their caution. Breaking open the palace
gates they rushed in and presented themselves before Galba,
complaining that they had been forestalled in the task of revenge. All
the cowards who, as events proved, could show no pluck in action,
indulged in excessive heroics and lip-courage. Nobody knew, everybody
talked. At last, for lack of the truth, Galba yielded to the consensus
of error. When he had put on his breastplate he was lifted into a
chair, for he was too old and infirm to stand against the crowds that
kept flocking in. In the palace he was met by Julius Atticus, of the
Body Guard, who displayed a dripping sword and shouted out that he had
killed Otho. 'Comrade,' said Galba, 'who bade you? ' Galba had a
remarkable power of curbing soldiers' presumption, for he was not
afraid of threats nor moved by flattery.
Meanwhile in Otho's camp there was no longer any doubt of the 36
soldiers' unanimity. Such was their enthusiasm that they were not
content with carrying Otho shoulder-high in procession; they placed
him among the standards on the platform, where shortly before a gilt
statue of Galba had stood, and made a ring round him with their
colours. [61] Tribunes and centurions were allowed no approach: the
common soldiers even called out, 'Beware of the officers. ' The whole
camp resounded with confused shouts of mutual encouragement. It was
quite unlike the wavering and spiritless flattery of a civil mob. As
new adherents streamed in, directly a soldier caught sight of one of
them, he grasped him by the hand, flung his arms round him, kept him
at his side, and dictated the oath of allegiance. Some commended their
general to his soldiers, and some the soldiers to their general. Otho,
for his part, was not slow to greet the crowd with outstretched hand
and throw kisses to them. In every way he played the slave to gain a
throne. When the whole legion of the marines had sworn allegiance, he
gained confidence in his strength, and, considering that those whom he
had incited individually needed a few words of general encouragement,
he stood out on the rampart and began as follows:--'In what guise 37
I come forward to address you, Fellow Soldiers, I cannot tell. Dubbed
emperor by you, I dare not call myself a private citizen: yet
"emperor" I cannot say with another on the throne. And what am I to
call you? That too will remain in doubt until it is decided whether
you have here in your camp an enemy or an emperor of Rome. You hear
how they clamour at once for my death and your punishment. So clear is
it that we must fall or stand together. Doubtless Galba--such is his
clemency--has already promised our destruction. Is he not the man who
without the least excuse butchered thousands of utterly innocent
soldiers? [62] I shudder whenever I recall his ghastly entry into the
city, when before the face of Rome he ordered the decimation of the
troops whom at their humble petition he had taken under his
protection. That is Galba's only "victory". These were the auspices
under which he made his entry; and what glory has he brought to the
throne he occupies, save the murder of Obultronius Sabinus and
Cornelius Marcellus in Spain, of Betuus Cilo in Gaul, of Fonteius
Capito in Germany, of Clodius Macer in Africa, of Cingonius on his
march to Rome, of Turpilianus in the city, and of Nymphidius in the
camp? What province is there in the empire that has not been polluted
with massacre? He calls it "salutary correction". For his "remedies"
are what other people call crimes: his cruelty is disguised as
"austerity", his avarice as "economy", while by "discipline" he means
punishing and insulting you. It is but seven months since Nero's
death, and already Icelus alone has embezzled more than all the
depredations of Polyclitus and Vatinius and Aegialus[63] put together.
Why, Vinius would have been less greedy and lawless had he been
emperor himself. As it is, he treats us as his own subjects and
despises us as Galba's. His own fortune alone could provide the
largess which they daily cast in your teeth but never pay into your
pocket.
'Nor in Galba's successor either is there any hope for you. Galba 38
has seen to that. He has recalled from exile the man whose avarice and
sour temper he judged most like his own. You witnessed for yourselves,
my comrades, the extraordinary storm which signified Heaven's
abhorrence at that ill-starred adoption. The Senate and People of Rome
feel the same. They are counting on your courage. You alone can give
strength to the right policy: it is powerless without you, however
good it be. It is not to war and danger that I call you. All the
troops are with us. That single plain-clothes cohort[64] is no longer
a defence to Galba, but a hindrance. When once they have caught sight
of you, when once they come to take their orders from me, the only
quarrel between you will be who can do most to put me in their debt.
There is no room for delay in plans which cannot be commended until
they are put into action. '
Otho then gave orders to open the arsenal. The soldiers immediately
seized their arms in such haste that all the ordinary distinctions of
the service were neglected: neither Guards nor Legionaries carried
their own arms:[65] in the confusion they took the helmets and shields
of the auxiliaries. There were no tribunes or centurions to encourage
them: each man followed his own lead, and the rascals found their
chief incentive in the consternation of the loyal. As the riot 39
increased, Piso, alarmed by the din of their shouts, which could be
heard even in the city, had overtaken Galba, who had meanwhile left
the palace and was approaching the Forum. Marius Celsus had also
brought back no good news. Some were for returning to the palace,
others for seeking the shelter of the Capitol, many for seizing the
Rostra. The majority merely disagreed with other people's proposals,
and, as so often happens in these disasters, the best course always
seemed the one for which it was now too late. It is said that Laco,
without Galba's knowledge, proposed the assassination of Titus Vinius,
either with the idea that his execution would be a sop to the
soldiers, or because he believed him Otho's accomplice, or, as a last
alternative, hatred may have been his motive. However, the time and
the place both bred scruples; when killing once begins it is difficult
to set a limit: besides, their plans were upset by the arrival of
terrified messengers, by the continual desertion of their supporters,
and by a general waning of enthusiasm even among those who at first
had been the keenest to display their loyalty and courage.
Galba was driven hither and thither by the tide of the surging 40
mob. The temples and public buildings[66] were crowded with
spectators, who viewed a sorry scene. No shouts came from the crowd:
astonishment was on their faces, and their ears open to every sound.
There was neither uproar nor quiet, but the silence of strong emotion
and alarm. However, a report reached Otho that the populace was
arming. He bade his men fly headlong to forestall the danger. Off went
the Roman soldiers as if they were going to drag Vologaesus or Pacorus
from the ancestral throne of the Arsacids[67]--and not to butcher
their own emperor, a helpless old man. Armed to the teeth, they broke
at a full gallop into the Forum, scattering the populace and trampling
senators under foot. Neither the sight of the Capitol nor the sanctity
of the temples towering above them, nor the thought of Roman emperors
past and to come, could avail to deter them from committing that crime
which the next successor always avenges.
Seeing the armed ranks now close at hand, the standard-bearer of 41
the cohort on guard over Galba[68]--tradition says his name was
Atilius Vergilio--tore off the medallion of Galba[69] and flung it to
the ground. This signal clearly showed that all the troops were for
Otho: the people fled from the deserted Forum and swords were drawn
against any who lingered. Near 'Lake Curtius'[70] Galba was
precipitated from his chair by the panic-stricken haste of the bearers
and flung to the ground. The accounts of his last words vary according
as they are prompted by hatred or admiration. Some say that he whined
and asked what harm he had deserved, begging for a few days' respite
to pay the troops their largess. The majority say that he offered his
neck to the blow and bade them, 'Come, strike, if it serves the
country's need. ' Whatever he said mattered little to his assassins. As
to the actual murderer there is a difference of opinion. Some say it
was Terentius, a reservist,[71] others that his name was Laecanius.
The most common account is that a soldier of the Fifteenth legion, by
name Camurius, pierced his throat with a sword-thrust. The others
foully mangled his arms and legs (his breast was covered) and with
bestial savagery continued to stab the headless corpse. Then they made
for Titus Vinius. Here, too, there is a doubt whether the fear of 42
imminent death strangled his voice, or whether he called out that they
had no mandate from Otho to kill him. He may have invented this in his
terror, or it may have been a confession of his complicity in the
plot. His whole life and reputation give reason to suppose that he was
an accomplice in the crime of which he was the cause. He was brought
to the ground in front of the temple of Julius by a blow on the knee,
and afterwards a common soldier named Julius Carus ran him through
with a sword.
However, Rome found one hero that day. This was Sempronius Densus, 43
a centurion of the Guards, who had been told off by Galba to protect
Piso. Drawing his dagger he faced the armed assassins, flinging their
treason in their teeth, and by his shouts and gestures turned their
attention upon himself, thus enabling Piso to escape despite his
wounds. Piso, reaching the temple of Vesta, was mercifully sheltered
by the verger, who hid him in his lodging. There, no reverence for
this sanctuary but merely his concealment postponed his immediate
death. Eventually, Otho, who was burning to have him killed,[72]
dispatched as special agents, Sulpicius Florus of the British cohorts,
a man whom Galba had recently enfranchised, and Statius Murcus of the
Body Guard. They dragged Piso forth and butchered him on the threshold
of the temple.
FOOTNOTES:
[56] These troops, having no head-quarters in Rome, were put
up in a piazza built by M. Vipsanius Agrippa, and decorated
with paintings of Neptune and of the Argonauts. Cp. ii. 93,
where troops are quartered in collonades or temples.
[57] The term primipilaris denotes one who had been the
centurion commanding the first maniple (pilani) of the first
cohort of a legion. He was an officer of great importance,
highly paid, and often admitted to the general's council.
Otho's expedition to Narbonese Gaul (chap. 87) was commanded
by two such 'senior centurions'.
[58] See chap. 6, note 11.
[59] See chap. 6.
[60] Nero was meditating an Ethiopian campaign when the revolt
of Vindex broke out. Cp. chap. 6.
[61] Probably the colours of the different maniples as
distinct from the standards of the cohorts.
[62] Cp. chap. 6.
[63] Freedmen who had curried favour with Nero. Polyclitus was
sent to inquire into Suetonius Paulinus' administration of
Britain after the revolt of Boadicea in A. D. 61. Vatinius was
a deformed cobbler from Beneventum who became a sort of court
buffoon, and acquired great wealth and bad influence.
[64] The cohort on guard seem to have been in mufti, without
helmets and shields or their military cloaks, but armed with
swords and javelins.
[65] The legionaries armed themselves with lances (_hastae_),
and the auxiliaries with javelins (_pila_).
[66] The word _basilica_ refers to the buildings round the
Forum, used for legal, financial, and commercial purposes.
Most of them had cloisters.
[67] The Parthian royal family: Vologaesus was king of
Parthia, and his brother Pacorus viceroy of Media Atropatene.
[68] Cp. chap. 29.
[69] Attached to the pole of the standard.
[70] An enclosed pond in the middle of the Forum, supposed to
be the spot where Curtius leapt on horseback into the chasm,
or by others the spot where a Sabine chieftain was engulfed in
the days of Romulus.
[71] The word here used usually means a veteran re-enlisted in
a special corps after his term had expired. It was also
applied at this time in a special sense to a corps of young
knights, who, without losing their status, acted as Galba's
special body-guard in the imperial palace. One of these may
have been the murderer.
OTHO ON THE THRONE
None of his murders pleased Otho so much as this. On Piso's head, 44
as on no other, they say, he gazed with insatiable eyes. This was
possibly the first moment at which he felt relieved of all anxiety,
and free to indulge his glee; or perhaps, in the case of Galba and of
Vinius, the recollection of his treason to the one and of his former
friendship with the other troubled even his unfeeling heart with
gloomy thoughts, whereas, Piso being an enemy and a rival, he
considered it a pious duty to gloat over his murder. Their heads were
fixed on poles and carried along with the standards of the cohorts
side by side with the eagle of the legion. [73] Those who had done the
deed and those who had witnessed it vied with each other in displaying
their bloody hands, all boasting of their share--some falsely, some
truly--as if it were a fine and memorable exploit. Vitellius
subsequently discovered more than 120 petitions demanding rewards for
distinguished services rendered on that day. He gave orders to search
out all the petitioners and put them to death. This was from no
respect for Galba: he merely followed the traditional custom by which
princes secure their present safety and posthumous vengeance.
The senate and people seemed different men. There was a general 45
rush for the camp, every one shouldering his neighbour and trying to
overtake those in front. They heaped insults on Galba, praised the
prudence of the troops, and covered Otho's hand with kisses, their
extravagance varying inversely with their sincerity. Otho rebuffed no
one, and succeeded by his words and looks in moderating the menace of
the soldiers' greed for vengeance. They loudly demanded the execution
of Marius Celsus, the consul-elect, who had remained Galba's faithful
friend to the last. They were as much offended at his efficiency and
honesty as if these had been criminal qualities. What they wanted was
obviously to find a first excuse for plunder and murder and the
destruction of all decent citizens. But Otho had as yet no influence
to prevent crimes: he could only order them. So he simulated anger,
giving instructions for Celsus' arrest, and by promising that he
should meet with a worse penalty, thus rescued him from immediate
death.
The will of the soldiers was now henceforward supreme. The 46
Praetorian Guards chose their own prefects, Plotius Firmus, a man who
had risen from the ranks to the post of Chief of Police,[74] and
joined Otho's side before Galba's fall, and Licinius Proculus, an
intimate friend of Otho, and therefore suspected of furthering his
plans. They made Flavius Sabinus[75] prefect of the city, therein
following Nero's choice, under whom Sabinus had held that post;
besides, most of them had an eye to the fact that he was Vespasian's
brother. An urgent demand arose that the customary fees to centurions
for granting furlough should be abolished, for they constituted a sort
of annual tax upon the common soldier. The result had been that a
quarter of each company could go off on leave or lounge idly about the
barracks, so long as they paid the centurion his fee, nor was there
any one to control either the amount of this impost or the means by
which the soldiers raised the money: highway robbery or menial service
was the usual resort whereby they purchased leisure. Then, again, a
soldier who had money was savagely burdened with work until he should
buy exemption. Thus he soon became impoverished and enervated by
idleness, and returned to his company no longer a man of means and
energy but penniless and lazy. So the process went on. One after
another they became deteriorated by poverty and lax discipline,
rushing blindly into quarrels and mutiny, and, as a last resource,
into civil war. Otho was afraid of alienating the centurions by his
concessions to the rank and file, and promised to pay the annual
furlough-fees out of his private purse.
that they could have been won over had the parsimonious old emperor
made the least display of generosity. He was ruined by his strict
old-fashioned inflexibility, which seems too rigorous for these
degenerate days.
From the camp they proceeded to the senate, and Galba's speech to 19
its members was no fuller or finer than to the soldiers. Piso spoke
graciously, and there was no lack of support in the senate. Many
wished him well. Those who did not were the more effusive. The
majority were indifferent, but displayed a ready affability, intent on
their private speculations without thought of the country's good. No
other public action is reported of Piso during the four days which
intervened between his adoption and assassination.
FOOTNOTES:
[32] i. e. the emperor's finance agent in the province of
Belgica.
[33] Cp. chap. 6.
[34] A gold signet-ring was the sign of a free-born Roman
knight. Its grant to freedmen was an innovation of which
Tacitus disapproved.
[35] Tacitus here follows the story told by Suetonius in his
life of Otho. In the _Annals_, xiii. 45, 46, Tacitus gives in
detail a more probable version. It is more likely that Poppaea
used Otho as a stepping-stone to Nero's favour than that Otho,
as Suetonius quotes, 'committed adultery with his own wife. '
[36] See chap. 5, note 10.
[37] One of the three Commissioners of Public Revenue
appointed by Nero in A. D. 62 (_Ann. _, xv. 18).
[38] Lucius Calpurnius Piso Frugi Licinianus was the son of M.
Licinius Crassus Frugi, and adopted son of L. Calpurnius Piso
Frugi. His mother, Scribonia, was a descendant of Pompey.
[39] Adoption from one family into another needed in old days
the sanction of the Comitia Curiata. When that assembly became
obsolete, the priests summoned a formal meeting of thirty
lictors, and their sanction of an act of adoption was still
called _lex curiata_. Galba was now _Pontifex maximus_.
[40] Galba belonged to the _Gens Sulpicia_, and was connected
through his mother, Mummia, with Q. Lutatius Catulus, who had
led the senatorial party in the first half of the last
century.
[41] i. e. Galba's great-grandfather had fought for Caesar
against Piso's ancestor, Pompey.
[42] The children of Julia and Agrippa.
[43] Crassus Scribonianus, cp. chap. 47, and iv. 39.
[44] i. e. co-optation, employed in former days to raise a
special contingent for emergencies.
GALBA'S MEASURES OF PRECAUTION
Reports of the German rebellion grew daily more insistent and the
public was always ready to believe any news, provided it was bad.
Accordingly the senate decided that a commission must be sent to the
army in Germany. It was discussed in private whether Piso should go
himself to add dignity to the commission, since he could carry the
authority of the emperor, while the others represented the senate. It
was also proposed to send Laco, the prefect of the Guards, but he
objected. The senate had allowed Galba to nominate the commissioners
and he showed the most miserable indecision, now nominating members,
now excusing them, now making exchanges, yielding always to pressure
from people who wanted to go or to stay at home according as they were
determined by their hopes or their fears. The next question was 20
one of finance. After investigating all possible sources it seemed
most reasonable to recover the revenue from those quarters where the
cause of the deficit lay. Nero had squandered in lavish presents two
thousand two hundred million sesterces. [45] Galba gave instructions
that these monies should be recovered from the individual recipients,
leaving each a tithe of their original gift. However, in each case
there was scarcely a tenth part left, for these worthless spendthrifts
had run through Nero's money as freely as they had squandered their
own: they had no real property or capital left, nothing but the
apparatus of their luxury. Thirty of the knights were entrusted with
the duty of recovering the money. This commission, for which there was
no precedent, proved vastly unpopular owing to the scope of its
authority, and the large number of the victims. Every quarter seemed
beset with sales and brokers and lawsuits. And yet lively satisfaction
was caused by the discovery that the beneficiaries of Nero's bounty
were as poor as the victims of his greed.
At this time several officers were cashiered, Antonius Taurus and
Antonius Naso of the Guards, Aemilius Pacensis of the City Garrison,
and Julius Fronto of the Police. [46] However, this proved no remedy.
The others only began to feel alarmed, thinking that Galba's craft and
timidity had sacrificed a few, while his suspicions rested on them
all.
FOOTNOTES:
[45] About twenty-three million sterling of our money.
[46] i. e. of the cohorts which formed the police and
fire-brigade of the city. See chap. 5, note 10.
THE RISE OF OTHO
Meanwhile Otho had nothing to hope from a peaceful settlement: all 21
his plans demanded a disturbance. Many motives spurred him on: his
extravagance would have ruined a prince, and his poverty have
perplexed a private person: he was angry with Galba and jealous of
Piso. He also alleged fears for his safety, by way of whetting his
ambition. 'I proved a nuisance to Nero,' he would say, 'and can
scarcely expect the compliment of a second exile to Lusitania. [47]
Besides, monarchs always hate and suspect the man who is mentioned as
"next to the throne". This was what did me harm with the old emperor,
and it will weigh still more with the youthful Piso, who is naturally
savage and has been exasperated by a long period of exile. It would be
easy to kill me. I must do and dare while Galba's authority is on the
wane and Piso's not yet established. These times of change suit big
enterprises; inaction is more deadly than daring; there is no call for
delay. Death is the natural end for all alike, and the only difference
is between fame and oblivion afterwards. Seeing that the same end
awaits the innocent and the guilty, a man of spirit should at least
deserve his fate. '
Otho's character was by no means so effeminate as his person. His 22
intimate freedmen and slaves, who were allowed a licence unusual in
private households, dangled before him the baits for which he was
greedy: the luxuries of Nero's Court, the marriages he could make, the
adulteries he could commit, and all the other imperial pleasures. They
were his, they pointed out, if he would bestir himself; it was
shameful to lie quiet and leave them to others. He was also incited by
the astrologers, who declared that their study of the stars pointed to
great changes and a year of glory for Otho. Creatures of this class
always deceive the ambitious, though those in power distrust them.
Probably we shall go on for ever proscribing them and keeping them by
us. [48] Poppaea[49] had always had her boudoir full of these
astrologers, the worst kind of outfit for a royal ménage. One of them,
called Ptolemy, had gone with Otho to Spain[50] and foretold that he
would outlive Nero. This came true and Otho believed in him. He now
based his vague conjectures on the computations of Galba's age and
Otho's youth, and persuaded him that he would ascend the throne. But,
though the man had no real skill, Otho accepted the prophecy as if it
was the finger of fate. Human nature always likes to believe what it
cannot understand.
Nor was Ptolemy himself slow to incite his master to crime, to 23
which it is only a short step from such ambitions. But whether his
criminal designs were deliberate or suddenly conceived, it is
impossible to say. He had long been courting the goodwill of the
soldiers either in the hope of being adopted by Galba or to prepare
the way for treason. On the road from Spain, while the men were
marching or on outpost duty, he would address the veterans by name,
reminding them how he and they had served together under Nero, and
calling them his comrades. He renewed acquaintance with some, asked
after others and helped them with money or influence, frequently
letting fall complaints and ambiguous remarks about Galba, using all
the arts which work upon uneducated minds. The soldiers grumbled
bitterly at the exertions of the march, the shortage of provisions,
and the strict discipline. What they were used to was a journey to the
Campanian Lakes or Greek seaports on board ship;[51] they found it
hard to struggle over the Pyrenees and Alps, and march immense
distances under arms.
While the soldiers were thus already fired with discontent, 24
Maevius Pudens, one of Tigellinus'[52] intimates, added fuel to their
feelings by luring on all who were naturally unstable or in need of
money, or rashly eager for a change. Eventually, whenever Galba dined
with him, Otho went the length of presenting a hundred sesterces to
each of the soldiers on guard, on the pretext that this was instead of
entertaining them. [53] This system of public largess Otho extended by
making presents in confidence to individuals, and such spirit did he
show in bribery that when a member of the Body Guard, Cocceius
Proculus, brought an action to claim part of his neighbour's farm,
Otho bought the whole property out of his own pocket and gave it to
him. He was enabled to do this by the inefficiency of the Prefect
Laco, who was no less blind to notorious than to secret scandals.
Otho then put Onomastus, one of his freedmen, in charge of the 25
projected crime, and Onomastus took into his confidence Barbius
Proculus, an aide-de-camp, and a subaltern named Veturius, both in the
Body Guard. [54] Having assured himself by many interviews that they
were both bold and cunning, Otho proceeded to load them with bribes
and promises, providing them with funds to enable them to test the
feelings of the others. And so a couple of common soldiers took it
upon them to transfer the Roman Empire: and they did it. A very few
were admitted as accomplices. These, by various devices, worked on the
indecision of the others. The non-commissioned officers who had been
promoted by Nymphidius felt themselves under suspicion; the private
soldiers were indignant and in despair at the constant postponement of
Galba's largess; some few were fired by the recollection of Nero's
régime and longed for the days of licence; all in common shared the
fear of being drafted out of the Praetorian Guards.
The infection of treason soon spread to the legions and 26
auxiliaries, whose excitement had been aroused as soon as they heard
that the armies of Germany were wavering in their allegiance. So, as
the disloyal were ready for treason and the loyal shut their eyes,
they at first determined to acclaim Otho as he was returning from
dinner on the night of the fourteenth. However, they hesitated: the
darkness spelt uncertainty, the troops were scattered all over the
town, and unanimity could scarcely be expected from drunken men. They
were not deterred by any affection for their country's honour, which
they were deliberately preparing to stain with its emperor's blood,
but they were afraid that, as Otho was unknown to the majority, some
one else might by mistake be offered to the Pannonian or German
legions and proclaimed emperor. Some evidence of the brewing plot
leaked out, but it was suppressed by the conspirators. Rumours even
reached Galba's ears, but Laco made light of them, being totally
ignorant of soldiers' characters, hostile to any suggestion, however
wise, that was not his own, and extremely obstinate with men who knew
more than he did.
On January 15, as Galba was sacrificing in front of the temple of 27
Apollo, the priest Umbricius declared the omens unfavourable: treason
was impending, and an enemy within the walls. Otho, who was standing
beside Galba, overheard and construed the omen as being from his own
point of view a good one, favourable to his plans. In a few moments
his freedman, Onomastus, announced that the architect and contractors
were waiting to see him. This had been agreed upon as the signal that
the troops were assembling and the conspiracy was ripe. On being asked
where he was going, Otho pretended that he was buying an old property,
but suspected its condition and so had to inspect it first. Thus,
leaning on his freedman's shoulder, he passed through Tiberius' house
into the Velabrum and thence to the Golden Milestone at the foot of
the Temple of Saturn. [55] There thirty-three soldiers of the Body
Guard saluted him as emperor. When he showed alarm at the smallness of
their number they put him hastily into a litter, and, drawing their
swords, hurried him away. About the same number of soldiers joined
them on the way, some accomplices, others merely curious. Some marched
along shouting and flourishing swords; others kept silent, intending
to take their cue from subsequent events.
Julius Martialis was the tribune on duty in the camp. He was so 28
overcome by the magnitude of this unexpected crime and so afraid that
the treason was widespread in the camp, and that he might be killed if
he offered any opposition, that he led most people to suppose he was
in the plot. So, too, the other tribunes and centurions all preferred
present safety to a risky loyalty. In fact the general attitude was
this: few dared to undertake so foul a crime, many wished to see it
done, and everybody was ready to condone it.
FOOTNOTES:
[47] Cp. chap. 13.
[48] Decrees excluding astrologers from Italy had been passed
in B. C. 33, A. D. 16, and again in A. D. 52. Vitellius passed
another. See ii. 62.
[49] Nero's wife. Cp. chap. 13.
[50] i. e. to Lusitania. See chap. 13.
[51] They were 'Guards' who had escorted Nero on his singing
tours through Greece. Perhaps some of them came to meet Galba
on his way from Spain. Otherwise they could not have shared
the toils of this march.
[52] See chap. 72.
[53] The public dinner given in older days by patrons to their
clients had long ago been commuted for a 'tip' (sportula).
Pudens, instead of providing dinner for Galba's guard, sought
their favour by giving them about 17_s. _ apiece.
[54] The English terms do not of course represent the exact
position of these soldiers. The former was one of the
emperor's personal body-guard (speculatores), who received the
watchword (tessera) and passed it round: the latter was one to
whom a centurion had delegated some part of his work.
[55] Plutarch explains this. 'He passed through Tiberius'
house, as it is called, and walked down to the Forum, where
stands the golden pillar to which all the high-roads of Italy
lead. ' The Velabrum lies between the Forum, the Tiber, and the
Aventine.
THE FALL OF GALBA
Meanwhile Galba in total ignorance and intent upon his sacrifices 29
continued to importune the gods of an empire that had already ceased
to be his. First there came a rumour that some one or other of the
senators was being hurried to the camp, then that it was Otho.
Immediately people who had met Otho came flocking in from all quarters
of Rome; some in their terror exaggerated the truth, some minimized
it, remembering even then to flatter. After discussion it was decided
that the temper of the cohort on guard in the palace should be tested,
but not by Galba himself. His authority was held in reserve for more
heroic remedies. The troops were summoned. Piso, standing out on the
steps of the palace, addressed them as follows:
'Fellow soldiers, it is now five days since I was made a Caesar. I
knew nothing of the future nor whether the name was more to be desired
or feared. It now lies with you to decide whether or no my adoption is
to prove a calamity for my house and for my country. In saying this, I
do not dread disaster on my own account. I have known misfortune, and
I am now discovering to the full that prosperity is just as dangerous.
But for the sake of my adoptive father, of the senate, and of the
whole empire, I deplore the thought that we may have to-day either to
die or--what for good men is as wretched--to kill. In the recent
revolution our comfort was that Rome was spared the sight of blood,
and the transfer was effected without disturbance. We thought that my
adoption would be a safeguard against an outbreak of civil war even
after Galba's death.
'I will make no claims to rank or respectability. To compare 30
myself with Otho, I need not recite my virtues. His vices are all he
has to be proud of. They ruined the empire, even when he was only
playing the part of an emperor's friend. Why should he deserve to be
emperor? For his swaggering demeanour? For his effeminate costume?
Extravagance imposes on some people. They take it for liberality. They
are wrong. He will know how to squander money, but not how to give it
away. His mind is full of lechery and debauchery and intrigues with
women. These are in his eyes the prerogatives of the throne. And the
pleasure of his vices would be all his, the blushes of shame would be
ours. No man has ever ruled well who won the throne by bad means.
'The whole Roman world agreed to give Galba the title of Caesar. Galba
with your approval gave that title to me. Even if the "country", the
"senate", the "people", are empty terms, it is to your interest, my
fellow soldiers, to see that it is not the rascals who create an
emperor. From time to time one hears of the legionaries being in
mutiny against their generals. But your good faith and your good name
have stood to this day unimpaired. It was not you who deserted Nero:
he deserted you.
Are you going to allow less than thirty deserters and
renegades to bestow the crown? Why! no one would tolerate their
choosing so much as a centurion or a tribune for themselves. Are you
going to allow this precedent, and by your acquiescence make their
crime your own? You will soon see this lawless spirit spreading to the
troops abroad, and in time the treason will recoil on us and the war
on you. Besides, innocence wins you as much as the murder of your
emperor: you will get from us as large a bounty for your loyalty as
you would from others for your crime. '
The members of the Body Guard dispersed. The rest of the cohort 31
paid some heed to his speech. Aimlessly, as happens in moments of
confusion, they seized their standards, without as yet any fixed plan,
and not, as was afterwards believed, to cloak their treachery. Marius
Celsus had been dispatched to the picked detachments of the Illyrian
army, which were quartered in the Vipsanian arcade,[56] while
instructions had been given to two senior centurions,[57] Amullius
Serenus and Domitius Sabinus, to summon the German troops from the
Hall of Liberty. They distrusted the legion of marines, who had been
alienated by Galba's butchery of their comrades on his entry into
Rome. [58] Three officers of the guards, Cetrius Severus, Subrius
Dexter, and Pompeius Longinus, also hurried to the camp in the hope
that the mutiny was still in its early stages and might be averted by
good advice before it came to a head. The soldiers attacked Subrius
and Cetrius with threats and forcibly seizing Longinus disarmed him,
because he had not come in virtue of his military rank, but simply as
one of Galba's private friends; and for his loyalty to his master the
rebels disliked him all the more. The marines without any hesitation
joined the guards. The Illyrian draft[59] drove Celsus away at the
point of their javelins. The German detachments[59] wavered for some
time. They were still in poor condition physically, and inclined to be
passive. Nero had dispatched them as an advance-guard to
Alexandria;[60] the long voyage back again had damaged their health,
and Galba had spared no expense in looking after them.
The whole populace of Rome was now crowding into the palace 32
together with a good sprinkling of slaves. With discordant shouts they
demanded the death of Otho and the doom of the conspirators. They
might have been in the circus or the theatre, clamouring for
entertainment. There was neither sense nor sincerity in their
behaviour. They were quite ready on the same day to clamour for the
opposite with equal zeal. But it is an established custom to flatter
any emperor with unbridled cheering and meaningless enthusiasm.
Meanwhile Galba was torn between two opinions. Titus Vinius maintained
that they ought to remain within the palace, employ the slaves to
offer resistance and block up all the doors, instead of going out to
face the angry troops. 'This will give time,' he urged, 'for the
disloyal to repent and the loyal to unite their forces. Crimes demand
haste, good counsels profit by delay. Besides, if need be, we shall
have the same chance of leaving the palace later: if we leave and
repent of it, it will not be in our power to return. '
All the others voted for immediate action before the conspiracy 33
gathered strength and numbers. 'Otho,' they argued, 'will soon lose
heart. He crept away by stealth and was introduced in a litter to a
parcel of strangers, and now because we dally and waste time he has
leisure to rehearse his part of emperor. What is the good of waiting
until Otho sets his camp in order and approaches the Capitol, while
Galba peeps out of a window? Are this famous general and his gallant
friends to shut the doors and not to stir a foot over the threshold,
as if they were anxious to endure a siege? Much help may we hope from
slaves, when once the unwieldy crowd loses its unity and their first
indignation, which counts for so much, begins to cool. No, cowardice
is too risky. Or if we must fall, let us meet the danger half-way, and
cover Otho with disgrace, ourselves with honour. '
When Vinius resisted this proposal, Laco, prompted by Icelus,
assailed him with threats, persisting in his private quarrel to the
ruin of his country. Galba without further delay supported those 34
whose plan would look best. However, Piso was first dispatched to the
camp. The young man had a great name, his popularity was still fresh,
and moreover, he disliked Titus Vinius, or, if he did not, Vinius'
enemies hoped he did: it is so easy to believe in hatred. Scarcely had
Piso departed, when there arrived a rumour that Otho had been killed
in the camp. At first it was vague and uncertain, but eventually, as
so often happens with daring lies, people began to assert that they
had been present and seen the deed. Some were glad and some
indifferent, so the news gained easy credence. Many, however, thought
that the report had been concocted and disseminated by friends of
Otho, who now mingled in the crowd and tried to lure Galba out by
spreading this agreeable falsehood. At this point not only the 35
populace and the inexperienced mob but many of the knights and
senators as well broke out into applause and unbridled enthusiasm.
With their fear they had lost their caution. Breaking open the palace
gates they rushed in and presented themselves before Galba,
complaining that they had been forestalled in the task of revenge. All
the cowards who, as events proved, could show no pluck in action,
indulged in excessive heroics and lip-courage. Nobody knew, everybody
talked. At last, for lack of the truth, Galba yielded to the consensus
of error. When he had put on his breastplate he was lifted into a
chair, for he was too old and infirm to stand against the crowds that
kept flocking in. In the palace he was met by Julius Atticus, of the
Body Guard, who displayed a dripping sword and shouted out that he had
killed Otho. 'Comrade,' said Galba, 'who bade you? ' Galba had a
remarkable power of curbing soldiers' presumption, for he was not
afraid of threats nor moved by flattery.
Meanwhile in Otho's camp there was no longer any doubt of the 36
soldiers' unanimity. Such was their enthusiasm that they were not
content with carrying Otho shoulder-high in procession; they placed
him among the standards on the platform, where shortly before a gilt
statue of Galba had stood, and made a ring round him with their
colours. [61] Tribunes and centurions were allowed no approach: the
common soldiers even called out, 'Beware of the officers. ' The whole
camp resounded with confused shouts of mutual encouragement. It was
quite unlike the wavering and spiritless flattery of a civil mob. As
new adherents streamed in, directly a soldier caught sight of one of
them, he grasped him by the hand, flung his arms round him, kept him
at his side, and dictated the oath of allegiance. Some commended their
general to his soldiers, and some the soldiers to their general. Otho,
for his part, was not slow to greet the crowd with outstretched hand
and throw kisses to them. In every way he played the slave to gain a
throne. When the whole legion of the marines had sworn allegiance, he
gained confidence in his strength, and, considering that those whom he
had incited individually needed a few words of general encouragement,
he stood out on the rampart and began as follows:--'In what guise 37
I come forward to address you, Fellow Soldiers, I cannot tell. Dubbed
emperor by you, I dare not call myself a private citizen: yet
"emperor" I cannot say with another on the throne. And what am I to
call you? That too will remain in doubt until it is decided whether
you have here in your camp an enemy or an emperor of Rome. You hear
how they clamour at once for my death and your punishment. So clear is
it that we must fall or stand together. Doubtless Galba--such is his
clemency--has already promised our destruction. Is he not the man who
without the least excuse butchered thousands of utterly innocent
soldiers? [62] I shudder whenever I recall his ghastly entry into the
city, when before the face of Rome he ordered the decimation of the
troops whom at their humble petition he had taken under his
protection. That is Galba's only "victory". These were the auspices
under which he made his entry; and what glory has he brought to the
throne he occupies, save the murder of Obultronius Sabinus and
Cornelius Marcellus in Spain, of Betuus Cilo in Gaul, of Fonteius
Capito in Germany, of Clodius Macer in Africa, of Cingonius on his
march to Rome, of Turpilianus in the city, and of Nymphidius in the
camp? What province is there in the empire that has not been polluted
with massacre? He calls it "salutary correction". For his "remedies"
are what other people call crimes: his cruelty is disguised as
"austerity", his avarice as "economy", while by "discipline" he means
punishing and insulting you. It is but seven months since Nero's
death, and already Icelus alone has embezzled more than all the
depredations of Polyclitus and Vatinius and Aegialus[63] put together.
Why, Vinius would have been less greedy and lawless had he been
emperor himself. As it is, he treats us as his own subjects and
despises us as Galba's. His own fortune alone could provide the
largess which they daily cast in your teeth but never pay into your
pocket.
'Nor in Galba's successor either is there any hope for you. Galba 38
has seen to that. He has recalled from exile the man whose avarice and
sour temper he judged most like his own. You witnessed for yourselves,
my comrades, the extraordinary storm which signified Heaven's
abhorrence at that ill-starred adoption. The Senate and People of Rome
feel the same. They are counting on your courage. You alone can give
strength to the right policy: it is powerless without you, however
good it be. It is not to war and danger that I call you. All the
troops are with us. That single plain-clothes cohort[64] is no longer
a defence to Galba, but a hindrance. When once they have caught sight
of you, when once they come to take their orders from me, the only
quarrel between you will be who can do most to put me in their debt.
There is no room for delay in plans which cannot be commended until
they are put into action. '
Otho then gave orders to open the arsenal. The soldiers immediately
seized their arms in such haste that all the ordinary distinctions of
the service were neglected: neither Guards nor Legionaries carried
their own arms:[65] in the confusion they took the helmets and shields
of the auxiliaries. There were no tribunes or centurions to encourage
them: each man followed his own lead, and the rascals found their
chief incentive in the consternation of the loyal. As the riot 39
increased, Piso, alarmed by the din of their shouts, which could be
heard even in the city, had overtaken Galba, who had meanwhile left
the palace and was approaching the Forum. Marius Celsus had also
brought back no good news. Some were for returning to the palace,
others for seeking the shelter of the Capitol, many for seizing the
Rostra. The majority merely disagreed with other people's proposals,
and, as so often happens in these disasters, the best course always
seemed the one for which it was now too late. It is said that Laco,
without Galba's knowledge, proposed the assassination of Titus Vinius,
either with the idea that his execution would be a sop to the
soldiers, or because he believed him Otho's accomplice, or, as a last
alternative, hatred may have been his motive. However, the time and
the place both bred scruples; when killing once begins it is difficult
to set a limit: besides, their plans were upset by the arrival of
terrified messengers, by the continual desertion of their supporters,
and by a general waning of enthusiasm even among those who at first
had been the keenest to display their loyalty and courage.
Galba was driven hither and thither by the tide of the surging 40
mob. The temples and public buildings[66] were crowded with
spectators, who viewed a sorry scene. No shouts came from the crowd:
astonishment was on their faces, and their ears open to every sound.
There was neither uproar nor quiet, but the silence of strong emotion
and alarm. However, a report reached Otho that the populace was
arming. He bade his men fly headlong to forestall the danger. Off went
the Roman soldiers as if they were going to drag Vologaesus or Pacorus
from the ancestral throne of the Arsacids[67]--and not to butcher
their own emperor, a helpless old man. Armed to the teeth, they broke
at a full gallop into the Forum, scattering the populace and trampling
senators under foot. Neither the sight of the Capitol nor the sanctity
of the temples towering above them, nor the thought of Roman emperors
past and to come, could avail to deter them from committing that crime
which the next successor always avenges.
Seeing the armed ranks now close at hand, the standard-bearer of 41
the cohort on guard over Galba[68]--tradition says his name was
Atilius Vergilio--tore off the medallion of Galba[69] and flung it to
the ground. This signal clearly showed that all the troops were for
Otho: the people fled from the deserted Forum and swords were drawn
against any who lingered. Near 'Lake Curtius'[70] Galba was
precipitated from his chair by the panic-stricken haste of the bearers
and flung to the ground. The accounts of his last words vary according
as they are prompted by hatred or admiration. Some say that he whined
and asked what harm he had deserved, begging for a few days' respite
to pay the troops their largess. The majority say that he offered his
neck to the blow and bade them, 'Come, strike, if it serves the
country's need. ' Whatever he said mattered little to his assassins. As
to the actual murderer there is a difference of opinion. Some say it
was Terentius, a reservist,[71] others that his name was Laecanius.
The most common account is that a soldier of the Fifteenth legion, by
name Camurius, pierced his throat with a sword-thrust. The others
foully mangled his arms and legs (his breast was covered) and with
bestial savagery continued to stab the headless corpse. Then they made
for Titus Vinius. Here, too, there is a doubt whether the fear of 42
imminent death strangled his voice, or whether he called out that they
had no mandate from Otho to kill him. He may have invented this in his
terror, or it may have been a confession of his complicity in the
plot. His whole life and reputation give reason to suppose that he was
an accomplice in the crime of which he was the cause. He was brought
to the ground in front of the temple of Julius by a blow on the knee,
and afterwards a common soldier named Julius Carus ran him through
with a sword.
However, Rome found one hero that day. This was Sempronius Densus, 43
a centurion of the Guards, who had been told off by Galba to protect
Piso. Drawing his dagger he faced the armed assassins, flinging their
treason in their teeth, and by his shouts and gestures turned their
attention upon himself, thus enabling Piso to escape despite his
wounds. Piso, reaching the temple of Vesta, was mercifully sheltered
by the verger, who hid him in his lodging. There, no reverence for
this sanctuary but merely his concealment postponed his immediate
death. Eventually, Otho, who was burning to have him killed,[72]
dispatched as special agents, Sulpicius Florus of the British cohorts,
a man whom Galba had recently enfranchised, and Statius Murcus of the
Body Guard. They dragged Piso forth and butchered him on the threshold
of the temple.
FOOTNOTES:
[56] These troops, having no head-quarters in Rome, were put
up in a piazza built by M. Vipsanius Agrippa, and decorated
with paintings of Neptune and of the Argonauts. Cp. ii. 93,
where troops are quartered in collonades or temples.
[57] The term primipilaris denotes one who had been the
centurion commanding the first maniple (pilani) of the first
cohort of a legion. He was an officer of great importance,
highly paid, and often admitted to the general's council.
Otho's expedition to Narbonese Gaul (chap. 87) was commanded
by two such 'senior centurions'.
[58] See chap. 6, note 11.
[59] See chap. 6.
[60] Nero was meditating an Ethiopian campaign when the revolt
of Vindex broke out. Cp. chap. 6.
[61] Probably the colours of the different maniples as
distinct from the standards of the cohorts.
[62] Cp. chap. 6.
[63] Freedmen who had curried favour with Nero. Polyclitus was
sent to inquire into Suetonius Paulinus' administration of
Britain after the revolt of Boadicea in A. D. 61. Vatinius was
a deformed cobbler from Beneventum who became a sort of court
buffoon, and acquired great wealth and bad influence.
[64] The cohort on guard seem to have been in mufti, without
helmets and shields or their military cloaks, but armed with
swords and javelins.
[65] The legionaries armed themselves with lances (_hastae_),
and the auxiliaries with javelins (_pila_).
[66] The word _basilica_ refers to the buildings round the
Forum, used for legal, financial, and commercial purposes.
Most of them had cloisters.
[67] The Parthian royal family: Vologaesus was king of
Parthia, and his brother Pacorus viceroy of Media Atropatene.
[68] Cp. chap. 29.
[69] Attached to the pole of the standard.
[70] An enclosed pond in the middle of the Forum, supposed to
be the spot where Curtius leapt on horseback into the chasm,
or by others the spot where a Sabine chieftain was engulfed in
the days of Romulus.
[71] The word here used usually means a veteran re-enlisted in
a special corps after his term had expired. It was also
applied at this time in a special sense to a corps of young
knights, who, without losing their status, acted as Galba's
special body-guard in the imperial palace. One of these may
have been the murderer.
OTHO ON THE THRONE
None of his murders pleased Otho so much as this. On Piso's head, 44
as on no other, they say, he gazed with insatiable eyes. This was
possibly the first moment at which he felt relieved of all anxiety,
and free to indulge his glee; or perhaps, in the case of Galba and of
Vinius, the recollection of his treason to the one and of his former
friendship with the other troubled even his unfeeling heart with
gloomy thoughts, whereas, Piso being an enemy and a rival, he
considered it a pious duty to gloat over his murder. Their heads were
fixed on poles and carried along with the standards of the cohorts
side by side with the eagle of the legion. [73] Those who had done the
deed and those who had witnessed it vied with each other in displaying
their bloody hands, all boasting of their share--some falsely, some
truly--as if it were a fine and memorable exploit. Vitellius
subsequently discovered more than 120 petitions demanding rewards for
distinguished services rendered on that day. He gave orders to search
out all the petitioners and put them to death. This was from no
respect for Galba: he merely followed the traditional custom by which
princes secure their present safety and posthumous vengeance.
The senate and people seemed different men. There was a general 45
rush for the camp, every one shouldering his neighbour and trying to
overtake those in front. They heaped insults on Galba, praised the
prudence of the troops, and covered Otho's hand with kisses, their
extravagance varying inversely with their sincerity. Otho rebuffed no
one, and succeeded by his words and looks in moderating the menace of
the soldiers' greed for vengeance. They loudly demanded the execution
of Marius Celsus, the consul-elect, who had remained Galba's faithful
friend to the last. They were as much offended at his efficiency and
honesty as if these had been criminal qualities. What they wanted was
obviously to find a first excuse for plunder and murder and the
destruction of all decent citizens. But Otho had as yet no influence
to prevent crimes: he could only order them. So he simulated anger,
giving instructions for Celsus' arrest, and by promising that he
should meet with a worse penalty, thus rescued him from immediate
death.
The will of the soldiers was now henceforward supreme. The 46
Praetorian Guards chose their own prefects, Plotius Firmus, a man who
had risen from the ranks to the post of Chief of Police,[74] and
joined Otho's side before Galba's fall, and Licinius Proculus, an
intimate friend of Otho, and therefore suspected of furthering his
plans. They made Flavius Sabinus[75] prefect of the city, therein
following Nero's choice, under whom Sabinus had held that post;
besides, most of them had an eye to the fact that he was Vespasian's
brother. An urgent demand arose that the customary fees to centurions
for granting furlough should be abolished, for they constituted a sort
of annual tax upon the common soldier. The result had been that a
quarter of each company could go off on leave or lounge idly about the
barracks, so long as they paid the centurion his fee, nor was there
any one to control either the amount of this impost or the means by
which the soldiers raised the money: highway robbery or menial service
was the usual resort whereby they purchased leisure. Then, again, a
soldier who had money was savagely burdened with work until he should
buy exemption. Thus he soon became impoverished and enervated by
idleness, and returned to his company no longer a man of means and
energy but penniless and lazy. So the process went on. One after
another they became deteriorated by poverty and lax discipline,
rushing blindly into quarrels and mutiny, and, as a last resource,
into civil war. Otho was afraid of alienating the centurions by his
concessions to the rank and file, and promised to pay the annual
furlough-fees out of his private purse.
