Galba | Page 7

adorn his
statue of Fortune at Tusculum. But it suddenly occurring to him that it
deserved a more august place, he consecrated it to the Capitoline Venus;
and next night, he dreamt that Fortune appeared to him, complaining
that she had been defrauded of the present intended her, and threatening
to resume what she had given him. Terrified at this denunciation, at
break of day he sent forward some persons to Tusculum, to make
preparations for a sacrifice which might avert the displeasure of the
goddess; and when he himself arrived at the place, he found nothing
but some hot embers upon the altar, and an old man in black standing
by, holding a little incense in a glass, and some wine in an earthern pot.
It was remarked, too, that whilst he was sacrificing upon the calends of

January, the chaplet fell from his head, and upon his consulting the
pullets for omens, they flew away. Farther, upon the day of his
adopting Piso, when he was to harangue the soldiers, the seat which he
used upon those occasions, through the neglect of his attendants, was
not placed, according to custom, upon his tribunal; and in the
senate-house, his curule chair was set with the back forward.
XIX. The day before he was slain, as he was sacrificing in the morning,
the augur warned him from time to time to be upon his guard, for that
he was in danger from assassins, and that they were near at hand. Soon
after, he was informed, that Otho was in possession of the pretorian
camp. And though most of his friends advised him to repair thither
immediately, (413) in hopes that he might quell the tumult by his
authority and presence, he resolved to do nothing more than keep close
within the palace, and secure himself by guards of the legionary
soldiers, who were quartered in different parts about the city. He put on
a linen coat of mail, however, remarking at the same time, that it would
avail him little against the points of so many swords. But being tempted
out by false reports, which the conspirators had purposely spread to
induce him to venture abroad--some few of those about him too hastily
assuring him that the tumult had ceased, the mutineers were
apprehended, and the rest coming to congratulate him, resolved to
continue firm in their obedience--he went forward to meet them with so
much confidence, that upon a soldier's boasting that he had killed Otho,
he asked him, "By what authority?" and proceeded as far as the Forum.
There the knights, appointed to dispatch him, making their way through
the crowd of citizens, upon seeing him at a distance, halted a while;
after which, galloping up to him, now abandoned by all his attendants,
they put him to death.
XX. Some authors relate, that upon their first approach he cried out,
"What do you mean, fellow-soldiers? I am yours, and you are mine,"
and promised them a donative: but the generality of writers relate, that
he offered his throat to them, saying, "Do your work, and strike, since
you are resolved upon it." It is remarkable, that not one of those who
were at hand, ever made any attempt to assist the emperor; and all who
were sent for, disregarded the summons, except a troop of Germans.
They, in consideration of his late kindness in showing them particular
attention during a sickness which prevailed in the camp, flew to his aid,

but came too late; for, being not well acquainted with the town, they
had taken a circuitous route. He was slain near the Curtian Lake [667],
and there left, until a common soldier returning from the receipt of his
allowance of corn, throwing down the load which he carried, cut off his
head. There being upon it no hair, by which he might hold it, he hid it
in the bosom of his dress; but afterwards thrusting his thumb into the
mouth, he carried it in that manner to Otho, who gave it to the drudges
and slaves who attended the soldiers; and they, fixing it upon the (414)
point of a spear, carried it in derision round the camp, crying out as
they went along, "You take your fill of joy in your old age." They were
irritated to this pitch of rude banter, by a report spread a few days
before, that, upon some one's commending his person as still florid and
vigorous, he replied,
Eti moi menos empedoi estin. [668] My strength, as yet, has suffered
no decay.
A freedman of Petrobius's, who himself had belonged to Nero's family,
purchased the head from them at the price of a hundred gold pieces,
and threw it into the place where, by Galba's order, his patron had been