The Histories Book I Galba's Measures of Precaution
by Gaius Cornelius Tacitus
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 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.
