200
Sulpicius galba.
about Galba’s character, and if we were confined in his history
to the account in Suetonius, who had evidently no clear notion
of characters, and merely relates lively and pleasant anecdotes ;
we should be in considerable difficulty to know what to think
of him. The beginning of Tacitus’ Historiae however throws
some light upon him; and this much is clear, that Galba was
esteemed by the army; that, in his younger years, he had
been a distinguished general, and, considering what men then
were, an unblemished governor of several provinces. But he
had already attained his seventy-first year when he was called
to the throne, and by this time he had come under the influence
of unworthy persons, especially his own freedmen. This kind
of petty courts of freedmen, which arose about and after the
death of Nero, greatly contributed to the depravation of the
character of the Romans. The exasperation against Nero had
spread into the most distant provinces; it was shared by all,
except certain horrible persons who were not few and who
were pleased with his proceedings. When Galba was pro-
claimed emperor, he formed new legions out of the soldiers
that he could muster in his province, both Romans and
Italicans, and set out towards the Alps. According to the
obscure accounts we have, it seems that he acted as if the
Gauls were rebels against the majesty of the Roman senate,
although they had risen under Vindex, only against the
tyrant; hence he allowed his soldiers to plunder the towns in
southern Gaul. Virginius Rufus and his army recognised him
as emperor, and both crossed the Alps by different roads.
Although Nero was surrounded by his praetorians, yet no one
drew a sword in his defence, and he found himself forsaken by
every body, even before the revolted armies arrived. The senate
was roused from its state of servitude ; it defied and despised
the tyrant, as he deserved. He fled from his palace, concealed
himself in the house of one of lɪis freedmen, and with a re-
luctant hand inflicted a deadly wound upon himself. Many
sentences of condemnation were passed upon him and his
memory; but he nevertheless obtained an honourable burial,
A.D. 68.
Galba now entered Rome; and if he had acted only with a
as much as Appius with the Claudii5 and hence we sometimes find Servii Sulpicii
with another praenomen before Servius, which is properly an error, but can be
understood.—N.
M. SALVIUS отпо.
201
little more liberality, things would have gone on well enough;
but he offended all parties. He protected some of Nero’s asso-
ciates against public animadversion, while others were punished.
He was miserly also: economy was certainly necessary, but he
carried it too far. The troops were already accustomed to
receive their donatives, and they had been promised very mu-
nificent ones by the friends of Galba ; but he now gave them
with a niggardly hand. The praetorians received none at all;
he even showed them hatred and mistrust, and yet he dis-
missed his soldiers with the exception of a few whom he
quartered in the city, although he must have known that his
life was in the hands of those 10,000 praetorians. He ought
to have disbanded them, and put to death their seditious leaders
who had taken an active part in the horrors of Nero’s reign;
he should then have formed them into a new corps, or have
abolished them altogether. But he placed himself in the same
situation as the Bourbons, when they threw themselves into
the hands of the army, which did not want them.
M. Salvius Otho, who, to the disgrace of those times, was
the most powerful man in the city, had no illustrious ancestors,
and was a dandy, a character which in antiquity displayed
much worse features than in modern times. He had been the
associate of Nero in many of his vices; and his success in life
was the result of Nero’s favour: but it is doubtful whether he
also took part in the bloodshed in which Nero indulged. He
was rich, and his manners were graceful, or what people call
amiable : his conduct was of that popular kind, which exercised
the greatest influence upon the disposition of the praetorian
cohorts. These men seemed to think that Otho alone could
make up for their Nero whose munificence they began to miss,
and he contrived to strengthen them in this belief. Galba, in
his short reign, had to contend with several insurrections; for
the German troops, under A. Caecina and Fabius Valens on
the upper Rhine, refused to recognise him ; and in these diffi-
culties he endeavoured to strengthen himself by adopting a
young Roman of rank, Piso Licinianus, a person who had no-
thing to boast of, except his noble descent and his unblemished
personal character. But Galba had lost the attachment of all
rational men through his meanness, and the influence of his
freedmen, Vinius, Laco, and Icelus, who in his name made the
most shameful abuse of justice, and sold it for money. Galba