Galba

12 Caesars: vol 7 Galba

The Project Gutenberg EBook The Lives Of The Caesars, by Suetonius,
V7 #7 in our series by C. Suetonious Tranquillus
Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the
copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing
this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook.
This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project
Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the
header without written permission. Please read the "legal small print,"
and other information about the eBook and Project Gutenberg at the
bottom of this file. Included is important information about your
specific rights and restrictions in how the file may be used. You can
also find out about how to make a donation to Project Gutenberg, and
how to get involved.
**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts**
**EBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since
1971**
*****These EBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers*****
Title: The Lives Of The Twelve Caesars, Volume 7. [GALBA]
Author: C. Suetonius Tranquillus
Release Date: August, 2004 [EBook #6392] [Yes, we are more than
one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on December 3,
2003]
Edition: 10
Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIVES OF
THE CAESARS, SUETONIUS, V7 ***

This eBook was produced by Tapio Riikonen and David Widger


THE LIVES OF THE TWELVE CAESARS
By C. Suetonius Tranquillus;
To which are added,
HIS LIVES OF THE GRAMMARIANS, RHETORICIANS, AND
POETS.
The Translation of Alexander Thomson, M.D.
revised and corrected by T.Forester, Esq., A.M.

(400)
SERGIUS SULPICIUS GALBA.
I. The race of the Caesars became extinct in Nero; an event
prognosticated by various signs, two of which were particularly
significant. Formerly, when Livia, after her marriage with Augustus,
was making a visit to her villa at Veii [639], an eagle flying by, let drop
upon her lap a hen, with a sprig of laurel in her mouth, just as she had
seized it. Livia gave orders to have the hen taken care of, and the sprig
of laurel set; and the hen reared such a numerous brood of chickens,
that the villa, to this day, is called the Villa of the Hens [640]. The
laurel groves flourished so much, that the Caesars procured thence the
boughs and crowns they bore at their triumphs. It was also their
constant custom to plant others on the same spot, immediately after a
triumph; and it was observed that, a little before the death of each
prince, the tree which had been set by him died away. But in the last
year of Nero, the whole plantation of laurels perished to the very roots,
and the hens all died. About the same time, the temple of the Caesars
[641] being struck with lightning, the heads of all the statues in it fell
off at once; and Augustus's sceptre was dashed from his hands.

II. Nero was succeeded by Galba [642], who was not in the remotest
degree allied to the family of the Caesars, but, without doubt, of very
noble extraction, being descended from a great and ancient family; for
he always used to put amongst his other titles, upon the bases of his
statues, his being great-grandson to Q. Catulus Capitolinus. And when
he came to (401) be emperor, he set up the images of his ancestors in
the hall [643] of the palace; according to the inscriptions on which, he
carried up his pedigree on the father's side to Jupiter; and by the
mother's to Pasiphae, the wife of Minos.
III. To give even a short account of the whole family, would be tedious.
I shall, therefore, only slightly notice that branch of it from which he
was descended. Why, or whence, the first of the Sulpicii who had the
cognomen of Galba, was so called, is uncertain. Some are of opinion,
that it was because he set fire to a city in Spain, after he had a long time
attacked it to no purpose, with torches dipped in the gum called
Galbanum: others said he was so named, because, in a lingering disease,
he made use of it as a remedy, wrapped up in wool: others, on account
of his being prodigiously corpulent, such a one being called, in the
language of the Gauls, Galba; or, on the contrary, because he was of a
slender habit of body, like those insects which breed in a sort of oak,
and are called Galbae. Sergius Galba, a person of consular rank [644],
and the most eloquent man of his time, gave a lustre to the family.
History relates, that, when he was pro-praetor of Spain, he perfidiously
put to