Their heads were
fixed on poles and carried along with the standards of the cohorts
side by side with the eagle of the legion.
fixed on poles and carried along with the standards of the cohorts
side by side with the eagle of the legion.
Tacitus
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. This was indubitably a sound
reform, which good emperors have since established as a regular custom
in the army. The prefect Laco he pretended to banish to an island, but
on his arrival he was stabbed by a reservist[76] whom Otho had
previously dispatched for that purpose. Marcianus Icelus, as being one
of his own freedmen,[77] he sentenced to public execution.
Thus the day was spent in crimes, and worst of all was the joy 47
they caused. The senate was summoned by the urban praetor. [78] The
other magistrates all vied in flattery. The senators arrived
post-haste. They decreed to Otho the powers of the tribunate, the
title of Augustus, and all the imperial prerogatives. Their unanimous
object was to blot out all recollection of former insults; but, as
these had been hurled equally from all sides, they did not, as far as
any one could see, stick in his memory. Whether he had forgotten them
or only postponed punishment, his reign was too short to show. He was
then carried through the still reeking Forum among the piles of dead
bodies to the Capitol, and thence to the palace. He granted permission
to burn and bury the bodies of his victims. Piso's wife Verania and
his brother Scribonianus laid out his body, and this was done for
Vinius by his daughter Crispina. They had to search for the heads and
buy them back from the murderers, who had preserved them for sale.
FOOTNOTES:
[72] According to Plutarch, when they brought Otho Galba's
head, he said, 'That's nothing: show me Piso's. '
[73] i. e. the legion of marines--Prima Adiutrix. Cp. chap. 6, &c.
[74] i. e. in command of the _cohortes vigilum_. Cp. chap. 5,
note 10.
[75] Vespasian's elder brother. He continued to hold the
office under Vitellius (ii. 63).
[76] See chap. 42, note 71.
[77] As a _libertus Caesaris_ he passed into Otho's hands with
the rest of the palace furniture.
[78] The consuls Galba and Vinius (chap. 1), were both dead.
DRAMATIS PERSONAE
Piso was in his thirty-first year. His reputation was better than 48
his fortune. His brothers had been executed, Magnus by Claudius,
Crassus by Nero. [79] He himself after being long in exile was a Caesar
for four days. Hastily adopted in preference to his elder brother,[80]
the only advantage he reaped was to be killed first.
Titus Vinius in his fifty-seven years had displayed strange contrasts
of character. His father belonged to a family of praetorian rank; his
mother's father was one of the proscribed. [81] A scandal marked his
first military service under the general Calvisius Sabinus. [82] The
general's wife suffered from a suspicious desire to inspect the
arrangements of the camp, which she entered by night disguised in
soldier's uniform. There she brazenly interfered with the guard and
the soldiers on duty, and eventually had the effrontery to commit
adultery in the general's own quarters. The man convicted of
implication in this scandal was Titus Vinius. He was therefore put in
irons by order of Caligula. [83] However, the fortunes of the time soon
changed and he was set at liberty. After mounting the ladder of office
without check, he was as an ex-praetor given the command of a legion,
and proved successful. But soon again he soiled his reputation, and
laid himself under the charge of having been mean enough to steal a
gold cup from Claudius' dinner-table. Claudius gave orders that on the
next day Vinius alone of all his guests should be served on
earthenware. However, as pro-consul, Vinius' government of Narbonese
Gaul was strict and honest. Subsequently his friendship with Galba
brought him into danger. He was bold, cunning, and efficient, with
great power for good or for evil, according to his mood. Vinius' will
was annulled because of his great wealth. Piso was poor, so his last
wishes were respected.
Galba's body lay long neglected, and under cover of darkness was 49
subjected to various insults. Eventually his steward Argius, one of
his former slaves, gave it a humble burial in his private garden. His
head, which the camp-followers and servants had mangled and carried on
a pole, was found next day in front of the tomb of Patrobius (one of
Nero's freedmen whom Galba had executed) and buried with the body
which had already been cremated. Such was the end of Servius Galba,
who for seventy-three years had enjoyed prosperity under five
different emperors, happier in their reign than his own. He came of an
old and noble family and possessed great wealth. His own character was
mediocre, rather free from vices than rich in virtues. Though not
indifferent to fame, he did not court it by advertisement. Not greedy
of other people's money, he was careful of his own, and a miser with
public funds. His attitude towards friends and freedmen, if they were
honest, was one of kindly complaisance; when they were not, he was
culpably blind. But his distinguished origin and the peculiar perils
of the time disguised his apathy, which passed as prudence. [84] In the
flower of his youth he served with distinction in Germany. As
pro-consul he governed Africa wisely, and in later years showed the
same equity in Nearer Spain. [85] When he was a commoner he seemed too
big for his station, and had he never been emperor, no one would have
doubted his ability to reign.
FOOTNOTES:
[79] Cn. Pompeius Magnus was Claudius' son-in-law, and
executed by him 'on a vague charge'. M. Licinius Crassus Frugi
was accused of treason to Nero by Aquilius Regulus, an
informer, whom one of Pliny's friends calls 'the vilest of
bipeds'. Regulus' brother was Vipstanus Messala. Cp. iv. 42.
[80] Scribonianus. Cp. chap. 15
[81] Under the second triumvirate.
[82] He was governor of Pannonia under Caligula.
[83] Sabinus and his wife were prosecuted, and both committed
suicide.
[84] Under Nero, says Tacitus in his Life of Agricola, 'the
wisest man was he who did least. '
[85] He had governed the upper province of Germany under
Caligula; Africa under Claudius; the Tarragona division of
Spain under Nero. In Germany he defeated the Chatti A. D. 41.
THE RISE OF VITELLIUS
The city was in a panic. The alarm aroused by the recent atrocious 50
crime and by Otho's well-known proclivities was further increased by
the fresh news about Vitellius. [86] This news had been suppressed
before Galba's murder, and it was believed that only the army of Upper
Germany had revolted. Now when they saw that the two men in the world
who were most notorious for immorality, indolence, and extravagance
had been, as it were, appointed by Providence to ruin the empire, not
only the senators and knights who had some stake and interest in the
country, but the masses as well, openly deplored their fate. Their
talk was no longer of the horrors of the recent bloody peace: they
reverted to the records of the civil wars, the taking and retaking of
Rome by her own troops, the devastation of Italy, the pillage of the
provinces, the battles of Pharsalia, Philippi, Perusia, and
Mutina,[87] those bywords of national disaster. 'The world was turned
upside down,' they mused, 'even when good men fought for the throne:
yet the Roman Empire survived the victories of Julius Caesar and of
Augustus, as the Republic would have survived had Pompey and Brutus
been victorious. But now--are we to go and pray for Otho or for
Vitellius? To pray for either would be impious. It would be wicked to
offer vows for the success of either in a war of which we can only be
sure that the winner will prove the worse. ' Some cherished hopes of
Vespasian and the armies of the East: he was preferable to either of
the others; still they shuddered at the thought of a fresh war and
fresh bloodshed. Besides, Vespasian's reputation was doubtful. He was
the first emperor who ever changed for the better.
I must now explain the origin and causes of the rising of 51
Vitellius. After the slaughter of Julius Vindex[88] and his whole
force, the troops were in high spirits at the fame and booty they had
acquired. Without toil or danger they had won a most profitable
victory. So they were all for marching against the enemy: plunder
seemed better than pay. They had endured a long and unprofitable
service, rendered the more irksome by the country and climate and by
the strict discipline observed. But discipline, however stern in time
of peace, is always relaxed in civil wars, when temptation stands on
either hand and treachery goes unpunished. Men, armour, and horses
they had in abundance for use and for show. But, whereas before the
war the soldiers only knew the men of their own company or troop, and
the provincial frontier[89] separated the armies, now, having once
joined forces against Vindex, they had gained a knowledge of their own
strength and the state of the province, and were looking for more
fighting and fresh quarrels, calling the Gauls no longer allies, as
before, but 'our enemies' or 'the vanquished'. They had also the
support of the Gallic tribes on the banks of the Rhine, who had
espoused their cause and were now the most eager to rouse them
against 'the Galbians'[90] as they now called them, despising the name
of Vindex. So, cherishing hostility against the Sequani and Aedui,[91]
and against all the other communities in proportion to their wealth,
they drank in dreams of sacking towns and pillaging fields and looting
houses, inspired partly by the peculiar failings of the strong, greed
and vanity, and partly also by a feeling of irritation at the
insolence of the Gauls, who boasted, to the chagrin of the army, that
Galba had remitted a quarter of their tribute and given the franchise
and grants of land to their community. [92] Further fuel was added by a
rumour, cunningly circulated and rashly credited, that there was a
project on foot to decimate the legions and discharge all the most
enterprising centurions. From every side came alarming news and
sinister reports from the city. The colony of Lugdunum[93] was up in
arms, and its stubborn attachment to Nero made it a hotbed of rumour.
But in the camp itself the passions and fears of the soldiers, and,
when once they had realized their strength, their feeling of security,
furnished the richest material for lies and won them easy credence.
In the preceding year,[94] shortly after the beginning of 52
December, Aulus Vitellius had entered the province of Lower Germany
and held a careful inspection of the winter quarters of the legions.
He restored many to their rank, remitted degrading penalties, and
relieved those who had suffered disgrace, acting mainly from ambitious
motives, but partly also upon sound judgement. Amongst other things he
showed impartiality in remedying the injustices due to the mean and
dishonest way in which Fonteius Capito had issued promotions and
reductions. The soldiers did not judge Vitellius' actions as those of
a mere ex-consul: they took him for something more, and, while serious
critics found him undignified,[95] his supporters spoke of his
affability and beneficence, because he showed neither moderation nor
judgement in making presents out of his own money and squandering
other people's. Besides, they were so greedy for power that they took
even his vices for virtues. In both armies there were plenty of quiet,
law-abiding men as well as many who were unprincipled and disorderly.
But for sheer reckless cupidity none could match two of the legionary
legates, Alienus Caecina and Fabius Valens. [96] Valens was hostile to
Galba, because, after unmasking Verginius's hesitation[97] and
thwarting Capito's designs, he considered that he had been treated
with ingratitude: so he incited Vitellius by pointing out to him the
enthusiasm of the troops. 'You,' he would say to him, 'are famous
everywhere, and you need find no obstacle in Hordeonius Flaccus. [98]
Britain will join and the German auxiliaries will flock to your
standard. Galba cannot trust the provinces; the poor old man holds the
empire on sufferance; the transfer can be soon effected, if only you
will clap on full sail and meet your good fortune half-way. Verginius
was quite right to hesitate. He came of a family of knights, and his
father was a nobody. He would have failed, had he accepted the empire:
his refusal saved him. Your father was thrice consul, and he was
censor with an emperor for his colleague. [99] That gives you imperial
dignity to start with, and makes it unsafe for you to remain a private
citizen. '
These promptings stirred Vitellius' sluggish nature to form desires,
but hardly hopes.
Caecina, on the other hand, in Upper Germany, was a handsome 53
youth, whose big build, imperious spirit, clever tongue, and upright
carriage had completely won the hearts of the soldiers. While quaestor
in Baetica[100] he had promptly joined Galba's party, and in spite of
his youth had been given command of a legion. Later he was convicted
of misappropriating public funds, and, on Galba's orders, prosecuted
for peculation. Highly indignant, Caecina determined to embroil the
world and bury his own disgrace in the ruins of his country. Nor were
the seeds of dissension lacking in the army. The entire force had
taken part in the war against Vindex, nor was it until after Nero's
death that they joined Galba's side, and even then they had been
forestalled in swearing allegiance by the detachments of Lower
Germany. Then again the Treviri and Lingones[101] and the other
communities which Galba had punished by issuing harsh edicts and
confiscating part of their territory, were in close communication with
the winter quarters of the legions. They began to talk treason: the
soldiers degenerated in civilian society: it only wanted some one to
avail himself of the offer they had made to Verginius.
Following an ancient custom, the tribe of the Lingones had made a 54
present of a pair of silver hands[102] to the legions as a symbol of
hospitality. Assuming an appearance of squalid misery, their envoys
made the round of the officers' quarters and the soldiers' tents
complaining of their own wrongs and of the rewards lavished on
neighbouring tribes. Finding the soldiers ready to listen, they made
inflammatory allusions to the army itself, its dangers and
humiliation. Mutiny was almost ripe, when Hordeonius Flaccus ordered
the envoys to withdraw, and, in order to secure the secrecy of their
departure, gave instructions to them to leave the camp by night. This
gave rise to an alarming rumour. Many declared that the envoys had
been killed, and that, if they did not look out for themselves, the
leading spirits among the soldiers, who had complained of the present
state of things, would be murdered in the dark, while their comrades
knew nothing about it. So the legions formed a secret compact. The
auxiliaries were also taken into the plot, although at first they had
been distrusted, because their infantry and cavalry had been posted in
camp all round the legion's quarters as though an attack on them were
meditated. However, they soon showed themselves the keener
conspirators. Disloyalty is a better bond for war than it ever proves
in peace.
In Lower Germany, however, the legions on the first of January 55
swore the usual oath of allegiance to Galba, though with much
hesitation. Few voices were heard even in the front ranks; the rest
were silent, each waiting for his neighbour to take some bold step.
Human nature is always ready to follow where it hates to lead.
However, the feelings of the legions varied. The First and Fifth[103]
were already mutinous enough to throw a few stones at Galba's statue.
The Fifteenth and Sixteenth[104] dared not venture beyond muttered
threats, but they were watching to see the outbreak begin. In Upper
Germany, on the other hand, on the very same day, the Fourth and the
Twenty-second legions, who were quartered together,[105] smashed their
statues of Galba to atoms. The Fourth took the lead, the
Twenty-second at first holding back, but eventually making common
cause with them. They did not want it to be thought that they were
shaking off their allegiance to the empire, so in taking the oath they
invoked the long obsolete names of the Senate and People of Rome. None
of the officers made any movement for Galba, and indeed some of them,
as happens in such outbreaks, headed the rebellion. However, nobody
made any kind of set speech or mounted the platform, for there was no
one as yet with whom to curry favour.
The ex-consul Hordeonius Flaccus stood by and watched their 56
treachery. He had not the courage to check the storm or even to rally
the waverers and encourage the faithful. Sluggish and cowardly, it was
mere indolence that kept him loyal. Four centurions of the
Twenty-second legion, Nonius Receptus, Donatius Valens, Romilius
Marcellus, and Calpurnius Repentinus, who tried to protect Galba's
statues, were swept away by the rush of the soldiers and put under
arrest. No one retained any respect for their former oath of
allegiance, or even remembered it; and, as happens in mutinies, they
were all on the side of the majority.
On the night of the first of January a standard-bearer of the Fourth
legion came to Cologne,[106] and brought the news to Vitellius at his
dinner that the Fourth and Twenty-second legions had broken down
Galba's statues and sworn allegiance to the Senate and People of Rome.
As this oath was meaningless, it seemed best to seize the critical
moment and offer them an emperor. Vitellius dispatched messengers to
inform his own troops and generals that the army of the Upper Province
had revolted from Galba; so they must either make war on the rebels
immediately, or, if they preferred peace and unity, make an emperor
for themselves; and there was less danger, he reminded them, in
choosing an emperor than in looking for one.
The quarters of the First legion were nearest at hand, and Fabius 57
Valens was the most enterprising of the generals. On the following day
he entered Cologne with the cavalry of his legion and auxiliaries, and
saluted Vitellius as emperor. The other legions of the province
followed suit, vying with each other in enthusiasm; and the army of
the Upper Province, dropping the fine-sounding titles of the Senate
and People of Rome, joined Vitellius on the third of January, which
clearly showed that on the two previous days they were not really at
the disposal of a republican government. The inhabitants of Cologne
and the Treviri and Lingones, rivalling the zeal of the troops, made
offers of assistance, or of horses or arms or money, each according to
the measure of their strength, wealth, or enterprise. And these
offers came not only from the civil and military authorities, men who
had plenty of money to spare and much to hope from victory, but whole
companies or individual soldiers handed over their savings, or,
instead of money, their belts, or the silver ornaments[107] on their
uniforms, some carried away by a wave of enthusiasm, some acting from
motives of self-interest.
Vitellius accordingly commended the zeal of the troops. He 58
distributed among Roman knights the court-offices which had been
usually held by freedmen,[108] paid the centurions their furlough-fees
out of the imperial purse,[109] and for the most part conceded the
soldiers' savage demands for one execution after another, though he
occasionally cheated them by pretending to imprison their victims.
Thus Pompeius Propinquus,[110] the imperial agent in Belgica, was
promptly executed, while Julius Burdo, who commanded the fleet on the
Rhine, was adroitly rescued. The indignation of the army had broken
out against him, because he was supposed to have intrigued against
Fonteius Capito, and to have accused him falsely.
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. This was indubitably a sound
reform, which good emperors have since established as a regular custom
in the army. The prefect Laco he pretended to banish to an island, but
on his arrival he was stabbed by a reservist[76] whom Otho had
previously dispatched for that purpose. Marcianus Icelus, as being one
of his own freedmen,[77] he sentenced to public execution.
Thus the day was spent in crimes, and worst of all was the joy 47
they caused. The senate was summoned by the urban praetor. [78] The
other magistrates all vied in flattery. The senators arrived
post-haste. They decreed to Otho the powers of the tribunate, the
title of Augustus, and all the imperial prerogatives. Their unanimous
object was to blot out all recollection of former insults; but, as
these had been hurled equally from all sides, they did not, as far as
any one could see, stick in his memory. Whether he had forgotten them
or only postponed punishment, his reign was too short to show. He was
then carried through the still reeking Forum among the piles of dead
bodies to the Capitol, and thence to the palace. He granted permission
to burn and bury the bodies of his victims. Piso's wife Verania and
his brother Scribonianus laid out his body, and this was done for
Vinius by his daughter Crispina. They had to search for the heads and
buy them back from the murderers, who had preserved them for sale.
FOOTNOTES:
[72] According to Plutarch, when they brought Otho Galba's
head, he said, 'That's nothing: show me Piso's. '
[73] i. e. the legion of marines--Prima Adiutrix. Cp. chap. 6, &c.
[74] i. e. in command of the _cohortes vigilum_. Cp. chap. 5,
note 10.
[75] Vespasian's elder brother. He continued to hold the
office under Vitellius (ii. 63).
[76] See chap. 42, note 71.
[77] As a _libertus Caesaris_ he passed into Otho's hands with
the rest of the palace furniture.
[78] The consuls Galba and Vinius (chap. 1), were both dead.
DRAMATIS PERSONAE
Piso was in his thirty-first year. His reputation was better than 48
his fortune. His brothers had been executed, Magnus by Claudius,
Crassus by Nero. [79] He himself after being long in exile was a Caesar
for four days. Hastily adopted in preference to his elder brother,[80]
the only advantage he reaped was to be killed first.
Titus Vinius in his fifty-seven years had displayed strange contrasts
of character. His father belonged to a family of praetorian rank; his
mother's father was one of the proscribed. [81] A scandal marked his
first military service under the general Calvisius Sabinus. [82] The
general's wife suffered from a suspicious desire to inspect the
arrangements of the camp, which she entered by night disguised in
soldier's uniform. There she brazenly interfered with the guard and
the soldiers on duty, and eventually had the effrontery to commit
adultery in the general's own quarters. The man convicted of
implication in this scandal was Titus Vinius. He was therefore put in
irons by order of Caligula. [83] However, the fortunes of the time soon
changed and he was set at liberty. After mounting the ladder of office
without check, he was as an ex-praetor given the command of a legion,
and proved successful. But soon again he soiled his reputation, and
laid himself under the charge of having been mean enough to steal a
gold cup from Claudius' dinner-table. Claudius gave orders that on the
next day Vinius alone of all his guests should be served on
earthenware. However, as pro-consul, Vinius' government of Narbonese
Gaul was strict and honest. Subsequently his friendship with Galba
brought him into danger. He was bold, cunning, and efficient, with
great power for good or for evil, according to his mood. Vinius' will
was annulled because of his great wealth. Piso was poor, so his last
wishes were respected.
Galba's body lay long neglected, and under cover of darkness was 49
subjected to various insults. Eventually his steward Argius, one of
his former slaves, gave it a humble burial in his private garden. His
head, which the camp-followers and servants had mangled and carried on
a pole, was found next day in front of the tomb of Patrobius (one of
Nero's freedmen whom Galba had executed) and buried with the body
which had already been cremated. Such was the end of Servius Galba,
who for seventy-three years had enjoyed prosperity under five
different emperors, happier in their reign than his own. He came of an
old and noble family and possessed great wealth. His own character was
mediocre, rather free from vices than rich in virtues. Though not
indifferent to fame, he did not court it by advertisement. Not greedy
of other people's money, he was careful of his own, and a miser with
public funds. His attitude towards friends and freedmen, if they were
honest, was one of kindly complaisance; when they were not, he was
culpably blind. But his distinguished origin and the peculiar perils
of the time disguised his apathy, which passed as prudence. [84] In the
flower of his youth he served with distinction in Germany. As
pro-consul he governed Africa wisely, and in later years showed the
same equity in Nearer Spain. [85] When he was a commoner he seemed too
big for his station, and had he never been emperor, no one would have
doubted his ability to reign.
FOOTNOTES:
[79] Cn. Pompeius Magnus was Claudius' son-in-law, and
executed by him 'on a vague charge'. M. Licinius Crassus Frugi
was accused of treason to Nero by Aquilius Regulus, an
informer, whom one of Pliny's friends calls 'the vilest of
bipeds'. Regulus' brother was Vipstanus Messala. Cp. iv. 42.
[80] Scribonianus. Cp. chap. 15
[81] Under the second triumvirate.
[82] He was governor of Pannonia under Caligula.
[83] Sabinus and his wife were prosecuted, and both committed
suicide.
[84] Under Nero, says Tacitus in his Life of Agricola, 'the
wisest man was he who did least. '
[85] He had governed the upper province of Germany under
Caligula; Africa under Claudius; the Tarragona division of
Spain under Nero. In Germany he defeated the Chatti A. D. 41.
THE RISE OF VITELLIUS
The city was in a panic. The alarm aroused by the recent atrocious 50
crime and by Otho's well-known proclivities was further increased by
the fresh news about Vitellius. [86] This news had been suppressed
before Galba's murder, and it was believed that only the army of Upper
Germany had revolted. Now when they saw that the two men in the world
who were most notorious for immorality, indolence, and extravagance
had been, as it were, appointed by Providence to ruin the empire, not
only the senators and knights who had some stake and interest in the
country, but the masses as well, openly deplored their fate. Their
talk was no longer of the horrors of the recent bloody peace: they
reverted to the records of the civil wars, the taking and retaking of
Rome by her own troops, the devastation of Italy, the pillage of the
provinces, the battles of Pharsalia, Philippi, Perusia, and
Mutina,[87] those bywords of national disaster. 'The world was turned
upside down,' they mused, 'even when good men fought for the throne:
yet the Roman Empire survived the victories of Julius Caesar and of
Augustus, as the Republic would have survived had Pompey and Brutus
been victorious. But now--are we to go and pray for Otho or for
Vitellius? To pray for either would be impious. It would be wicked to
offer vows for the success of either in a war of which we can only be
sure that the winner will prove the worse. ' Some cherished hopes of
Vespasian and the armies of the East: he was preferable to either of
the others; still they shuddered at the thought of a fresh war and
fresh bloodshed. Besides, Vespasian's reputation was doubtful. He was
the first emperor who ever changed for the better.
I must now explain the origin and causes of the rising of 51
Vitellius. After the slaughter of Julius Vindex[88] and his whole
force, the troops were in high spirits at the fame and booty they had
acquired. Without toil or danger they had won a most profitable
victory. So they were all for marching against the enemy: plunder
seemed better than pay. They had endured a long and unprofitable
service, rendered the more irksome by the country and climate and by
the strict discipline observed. But discipline, however stern in time
of peace, is always relaxed in civil wars, when temptation stands on
either hand and treachery goes unpunished. Men, armour, and horses
they had in abundance for use and for show. But, whereas before the
war the soldiers only knew the men of their own company or troop, and
the provincial frontier[89] separated the armies, now, having once
joined forces against Vindex, they had gained a knowledge of their own
strength and the state of the province, and were looking for more
fighting and fresh quarrels, calling the Gauls no longer allies, as
before, but 'our enemies' or 'the vanquished'. They had also the
support of the Gallic tribes on the banks of the Rhine, who had
espoused their cause and were now the most eager to rouse them
against 'the Galbians'[90] as they now called them, despising the name
of Vindex. So, cherishing hostility against the Sequani and Aedui,[91]
and against all the other communities in proportion to their wealth,
they drank in dreams of sacking towns and pillaging fields and looting
houses, inspired partly by the peculiar failings of the strong, greed
and vanity, and partly also by a feeling of irritation at the
insolence of the Gauls, who boasted, to the chagrin of the army, that
Galba had remitted a quarter of their tribute and given the franchise
and grants of land to their community. [92] Further fuel was added by a
rumour, cunningly circulated and rashly credited, that there was a
project on foot to decimate the legions and discharge all the most
enterprising centurions. From every side came alarming news and
sinister reports from the city. The colony of Lugdunum[93] was up in
arms, and its stubborn attachment to Nero made it a hotbed of rumour.
But in the camp itself the passions and fears of the soldiers, and,
when once they had realized their strength, their feeling of security,
furnished the richest material for lies and won them easy credence.
In the preceding year,[94] shortly after the beginning of 52
December, Aulus Vitellius had entered the province of Lower Germany
and held a careful inspection of the winter quarters of the legions.
He restored many to their rank, remitted degrading penalties, and
relieved those who had suffered disgrace, acting mainly from ambitious
motives, but partly also upon sound judgement. Amongst other things he
showed impartiality in remedying the injustices due to the mean and
dishonest way in which Fonteius Capito had issued promotions and
reductions. The soldiers did not judge Vitellius' actions as those of
a mere ex-consul: they took him for something more, and, while serious
critics found him undignified,[95] his supporters spoke of his
affability and beneficence, because he showed neither moderation nor
judgement in making presents out of his own money and squandering
other people's. Besides, they were so greedy for power that they took
even his vices for virtues. In both armies there were plenty of quiet,
law-abiding men as well as many who were unprincipled and disorderly.
But for sheer reckless cupidity none could match two of the legionary
legates, Alienus Caecina and Fabius Valens. [96] Valens was hostile to
Galba, because, after unmasking Verginius's hesitation[97] and
thwarting Capito's designs, he considered that he had been treated
with ingratitude: so he incited Vitellius by pointing out to him the
enthusiasm of the troops. 'You,' he would say to him, 'are famous
everywhere, and you need find no obstacle in Hordeonius Flaccus. [98]
Britain will join and the German auxiliaries will flock to your
standard. Galba cannot trust the provinces; the poor old man holds the
empire on sufferance; the transfer can be soon effected, if only you
will clap on full sail and meet your good fortune half-way. Verginius
was quite right to hesitate. He came of a family of knights, and his
father was a nobody. He would have failed, had he accepted the empire:
his refusal saved him. Your father was thrice consul, and he was
censor with an emperor for his colleague. [99] That gives you imperial
dignity to start with, and makes it unsafe for you to remain a private
citizen. '
These promptings stirred Vitellius' sluggish nature to form desires,
but hardly hopes.
Caecina, on the other hand, in Upper Germany, was a handsome 53
youth, whose big build, imperious spirit, clever tongue, and upright
carriage had completely won the hearts of the soldiers. While quaestor
in Baetica[100] he had promptly joined Galba's party, and in spite of
his youth had been given command of a legion. Later he was convicted
of misappropriating public funds, and, on Galba's orders, prosecuted
for peculation. Highly indignant, Caecina determined to embroil the
world and bury his own disgrace in the ruins of his country. Nor were
the seeds of dissension lacking in the army. The entire force had
taken part in the war against Vindex, nor was it until after Nero's
death that they joined Galba's side, and even then they had been
forestalled in swearing allegiance by the detachments of Lower
Germany. Then again the Treviri and Lingones[101] and the other
communities which Galba had punished by issuing harsh edicts and
confiscating part of their territory, were in close communication with
the winter quarters of the legions. They began to talk treason: the
soldiers degenerated in civilian society: it only wanted some one to
avail himself of the offer they had made to Verginius.
Following an ancient custom, the tribe of the Lingones had made a 54
present of a pair of silver hands[102] to the legions as a symbol of
hospitality. Assuming an appearance of squalid misery, their envoys
made the round of the officers' quarters and the soldiers' tents
complaining of their own wrongs and of the rewards lavished on
neighbouring tribes. Finding the soldiers ready to listen, they made
inflammatory allusions to the army itself, its dangers and
humiliation. Mutiny was almost ripe, when Hordeonius Flaccus ordered
the envoys to withdraw, and, in order to secure the secrecy of their
departure, gave instructions to them to leave the camp by night. This
gave rise to an alarming rumour. Many declared that the envoys had
been killed, and that, if they did not look out for themselves, the
leading spirits among the soldiers, who had complained of the present
state of things, would be murdered in the dark, while their comrades
knew nothing about it. So the legions formed a secret compact. The
auxiliaries were also taken into the plot, although at first they had
been distrusted, because their infantry and cavalry had been posted in
camp all round the legion's quarters as though an attack on them were
meditated. However, they soon showed themselves the keener
conspirators. Disloyalty is a better bond for war than it ever proves
in peace.
In Lower Germany, however, the legions on the first of January 55
swore the usual oath of allegiance to Galba, though with much
hesitation. Few voices were heard even in the front ranks; the rest
were silent, each waiting for his neighbour to take some bold step.
Human nature is always ready to follow where it hates to lead.
However, the feelings of the legions varied. The First and Fifth[103]
were already mutinous enough to throw a few stones at Galba's statue.
The Fifteenth and Sixteenth[104] dared not venture beyond muttered
threats, but they were watching to see the outbreak begin. In Upper
Germany, on the other hand, on the very same day, the Fourth and the
Twenty-second legions, who were quartered together,[105] smashed their
statues of Galba to atoms. The Fourth took the lead, the
Twenty-second at first holding back, but eventually making common
cause with them. They did not want it to be thought that they were
shaking off their allegiance to the empire, so in taking the oath they
invoked the long obsolete names of the Senate and People of Rome. None
of the officers made any movement for Galba, and indeed some of them,
as happens in such outbreaks, headed the rebellion. However, nobody
made any kind of set speech or mounted the platform, for there was no
one as yet with whom to curry favour.
The ex-consul Hordeonius Flaccus stood by and watched their 56
treachery. He had not the courage to check the storm or even to rally
the waverers and encourage the faithful. Sluggish and cowardly, it was
mere indolence that kept him loyal. Four centurions of the
Twenty-second legion, Nonius Receptus, Donatius Valens, Romilius
Marcellus, and Calpurnius Repentinus, who tried to protect Galba's
statues, were swept away by the rush of the soldiers and put under
arrest. No one retained any respect for their former oath of
allegiance, or even remembered it; and, as happens in mutinies, they
were all on the side of the majority.
On the night of the first of January a standard-bearer of the Fourth
legion came to Cologne,[106] and brought the news to Vitellius at his
dinner that the Fourth and Twenty-second legions had broken down
Galba's statues and sworn allegiance to the Senate and People of Rome.
As this oath was meaningless, it seemed best to seize the critical
moment and offer them an emperor. Vitellius dispatched messengers to
inform his own troops and generals that the army of the Upper Province
had revolted from Galba; so they must either make war on the rebels
immediately, or, if they preferred peace and unity, make an emperor
for themselves; and there was less danger, he reminded them, in
choosing an emperor than in looking for one.
The quarters of the First legion were nearest at hand, and Fabius 57
Valens was the most enterprising of the generals. On the following day
he entered Cologne with the cavalry of his legion and auxiliaries, and
saluted Vitellius as emperor. The other legions of the province
followed suit, vying with each other in enthusiasm; and the army of
the Upper Province, dropping the fine-sounding titles of the Senate
and People of Rome, joined Vitellius on the third of January, which
clearly showed that on the two previous days they were not really at
the disposal of a republican government. The inhabitants of Cologne
and the Treviri and Lingones, rivalling the zeal of the troops, made
offers of assistance, or of horses or arms or money, each according to
the measure of their strength, wealth, or enterprise. And these
offers came not only from the civil and military authorities, men who
had plenty of money to spare and much to hope from victory, but whole
companies or individual soldiers handed over their savings, or,
instead of money, their belts, or the silver ornaments[107] on their
uniforms, some carried away by a wave of enthusiasm, some acting from
motives of self-interest.
Vitellius accordingly commended the zeal of the troops. He 58
distributed among Roman knights the court-offices which had been
usually held by freedmen,[108] paid the centurions their furlough-fees
out of the imperial purse,[109] and for the most part conceded the
soldiers' savage demands for one execution after another, though he
occasionally cheated them by pretending to imprison their victims.
Thus Pompeius Propinquus,[110] the imperial agent in Belgica, was
promptly executed, while Julius Burdo, who commanded the fleet on the
Rhine, was adroitly rescued. The indignation of the army had broken
out against him, because he was supposed to have intrigued against
Fonteius Capito, and to have accused him falsely.
