Tacitus: The Histories, Volumes I and II | Page 6

senate's
satisfaction. Respectable citizens, who were attached as clients or
freedmen to the great families, and had seen their patrons condemned
or exiled, now revived their hopes. The lowest classes, who had grown
familiar with the pleasures of the theatre and the circus, the most
degraded of the slaves, and Nero's favourites who had squandered their
property and lived on his discreditable bounty, all showed signs of
depression and an eager greed for news.
The troops in the city[10] had long been inured to the allegiance 5 of
the Caesars, and it was more by the pressure of intrigue than of their
own inclination that they came to desert Nero. They soon realized that
the donation promised in Galba's name was not to be paid to them, and
that peace would not, like war, offer opportunity for great services and
rich rewards. Since they also saw that the new emperor's favour had
been forestalled by the army which proclaimed him, they were ripe for
revolution and were further instigated by their rascally Praefect

Nymphidius Sabinus, who was plotting to be emperor himself. His
design was as a matter of fact detected and quashed, but, though the
ringleader was removed, many of the troops still felt conscious of their
treason and could be heard commenting on Galba's senility and avarice.
His austerity--a quality once admired and set high in soldiers'
estimation--only annoyed troops whose contempt for the old methods
of discipline had been fostered by fourteen years of service under Nero.
They had come to love the emperors' vices as much as they once
reverenced their virtues in older days. Moreover Galba had let fall a
remark, which augured well for Rome, though it spelt danger to himself.
'I do not buy my soldiers,' he said, 'I select them.' And indeed, as things
then stood, his words sounded incongruous.
FOOTNOTES:
[9] Probably those who owned one million sesterces, the property
qualification for admission to the senate.
[10] This includes 'The Guards' (_cohortes praetoriae_) and 'The City
Garrison' (_cohortes urbanae_), and possibly also the cohortes vigilum,
who were a sort of police corps and fire brigade.
GALBA'S POSITION
Galba was old and ill. Of his two lieutenants Titus Vinius was the 6
vilest of men and Cornelius Laco the laziest. Hated as he was for
Vinius' crimes and despised for Laco's inefficiency, between them
Galba soon came to ruin. His march from Spain was slow and stained
with bloodshed. He executed Cingonius Varro, the consul-elect, and
Petronius Turpilianus, an ex-consul, the former as an accomplice of
Nymphidius, the latter as one of Nero's generals. They were both
denied any opportunity of a hearing or defence--and might as well have
been innocent. On his arrival at Rome the butchery of thousands of
unarmed soldiers[11] gave an ill omen to his entry, and alarmed even
the men who did the slaughter. The city was filled with strange troops.
A legion had been brought from Spain,[12] and the regiment of marines
enrolled by Nero still remained.[11] Moreover there were several
detachments from Germany, Britain, and Illyricum,[13] which had been

selected by Nero, dispatched to the Caspian Pass[14] for the projected
war against the Albanians, and subsequently recalled to aid in crushing
the revolt of Vindex.[15] These were all fine fuel for a revolution, and,
although their favour centred on nobody in particular, there they were
at the disposal of any one who had enterprise.
It happened by chance that the news of the death of Clodius Macer 7
and of Fonteius Capito arrived in Rome simultaneously. Macer,[16]
who was undoubtedly raising a disturbance in Africa, was put to death
by the imperial agent Trebonius Garutianus, acting under Galba's
orders: Capito[17] had made a similar attempt in Germany and was
killed by two officers, Cornelius Aquinus and Fabius Valens, without
waiting for instructions. While Capito had a foul reputation for
extortion and loose living, some people yet believed that he had
withheld his hand from treason. His officers, they supposed, had urged
him to declare war, and, when they could not persuade him, had gone
on to charge him falsely with their own offence,[18] while Galba from
weakness of character, or perhaps because he was afraid to inquire too
far, approved what had happened for good or for ill, since it was past
alteration. At any rate both executions were unpopular. Now that Galba
was disliked, everything he did, whether right or wrong, made him
more unpopular. His freedmen were all-powerful: money could do
anything: the slaves were thirsting for an upheaval, and with so elderly
an emperor were naturally expecting to see one soon. The evils of the
new court were those of the old, and while equally oppressive were not
so easily excused. Even Galba's age seemed comic and despicable to a
populace that was used