Meanwhile Galba in total ignorance and intent upon his
sacrifices 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 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 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 drove Celsus away at the point of their
javelins. The German detachments59 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
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 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 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 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 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 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 Aegialus63 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 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
cohort64 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 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 mob. The temples and public buildings66 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 Arsacids67—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 the cohort on guard over Galba68—tradition
says his name was Atilius Vergilio—tore off the medallion of
Galba69 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 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, 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. , 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.
