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sERGIUS SULPICIUS GALBA. 5O7aar, mi thout a Chariot attending him, in whicli there vias a million os sesterces in gold, untii at last Hispania Ta raconensis was offered him, at that time living in the town of Fundi. Aster his arrival in the province, whilst he wasat sacrifice in a temple, a boy who attended with a censer, heca me ali on a sudden grey-headed. This lucident
IX. He go verned the province during eight years, with great variety and uiastea lineisi os conducto; being at sirstbrisc, and indeed excessively severe in the punishment of delinquenis. For a banher having Committe i tome fraudin the way of his business, he cui off his han is, and nailed them to his table. An other Who had polsoned an
Orphan, to Whom he was guardian, and neYt heir to thoestate, he crucifred. When this delinquent implored the protection of the law, and cried o ut that he was a RomancitiZen, as is he intended to com fori hi in under his amiction, and alleviate his punishment, by a mark of honor conferre t iapon him, he ordei ed him a neue cros , higherthan usual, and whi tened. By degrees hc gave himselfup to a life os indole iace and inactivi ty, frona the fear ofgiving Nero any occasion of jealou sy, and because. as laeus ed to say, No body was obliged to be accountable sor tant of bus1ness. V Wlails f he was h dding the astiges at New Carthage, he received advice of tiae insurrection in Gaulupon whicli account the lie utenant of Aquita in solici ted his assistance ; but letters were so on aster brought him frona VindeX, requesting of him to assest the rights of nuin Lind, and put himself. at illeir head to relieve themfrom
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srom the tyranny of Nero. V Without demurring long upon the subjeci , he complied with the invitation, si ona amixture os fear and liope. For he had discovered that private orders had been sent by Nero to his procurators in the province to get hi in dispalched ; and he was encou-raged to the enterprise, as well by severat auspices and Omens, as by the prophecy of a young Woman of good quality ; and the more so, because the priest of Jupiter at Clunia, by intimation given him in a di eam, had disco-vercd in the inner part of the temple the very fame verses Him those in hich she had deli vered her prophecy ;which had likewise been ultered by another VOung WOman, inspired about two hundred years be fore. The import of the verses was, That in time, Spatii should give theworid a Iord and master. X. Mounting the bench therefore, under preteiace of satting for the manumising of :saves, having set up besore hi in the statues of severat who h ad been condemned and put to death by Nero, whilst a nobie youth si ood by, whohad been banislied, and whom he had pui posely sent forfrom one of the neighboring Balearic isses, he lamented the
saluted by the titie oi Emperor, he publicly declared himself
only the Lieuienant of the Senate and peo ple of Rome. Then proclaim ing a vacation, he rai sed Out of the Commonalty of the province legions and auxiliary troops, be-sides his old arm y consisting of one legion , t o bodies of horse, and three single battalions of soot. O ut of the principat men in the army, most considerable sor age and prudence, he formed a Lind of Senate, with whom to ad viscupon ali matters of importance, as Often a S OCCasion
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SERGIUS SULPICIUS GALBA. 5O9cati, sit ould keep guard bes ore his bed-chamber, i stead of the soldiers. He likerui se issued proclamations through-
Out the provinces of the empire, exhorting ali to rise in arietas unanimo usty, and assist the common cause, by allthe ways and means in their po wer. About the fame
time, in fortisving a town, which he had pitched ii pon
frona Rome that Nero was salia, and that ali had talienan oath to him as emperor, he laid asside the titie of Lieu-tenant, and took upon hi in that os Caesar. Ρutting himself upon his march with his generat's cloah on, and a
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not resume the use of the Toga, untii Nymphidius Sabinus, Commander of the guariis at Rome, with the twolieuienanis, Fonteius Capito in Germany, and Claudius Macer in Africa, wlao opposed his establissiment, were ali
suppresse l. XIL A rumor of his crueity and avarice had reachedriae city be re his arrival ; as that he had puniss1ed sonae cities of Spain and Gaul, sor not joining him rea lily, by the imposition of theavy taxes, and some by levelling thei r
the temple of Jupiter, with which he was preseiated by the Tarraconians, he had melled down, and had exacted
froni them three ounces that were wanting in the weight. This report of him was confirmed and enci ea sed, as Monas he entered the to n. For me rowers belonging tome fleet, who had been ta ken into the troops by Nero, he would oblige to return to their former condition ; butthey refusing to comply, and obstinately demanding tocontinue in the service in whicli they were, he not onlydispersed them by a body of horse let loose tapon them,
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Mithout Mundation, I know not: as that, upon me serv-ing up of a hand me supper, he setched a deep groan : that when one of the stewards presented hi in with astori draught of his accounts, he reached hi in froni his table a dissi of op, sor his care and diligence; and when Canus the piper had played much to his satisfaction, he presented him, with his own hand, sive denarii tahen
Venit, io, Simus a villa: See mainose come Dom rural plains ;ali the spectators, with one voice, went on with the rest, repeating and acting the sirst verse severat times over. XIV. He acquired the empire wissi more favor and authority than he managed it, though he nevertheless gave many proose of his being an excellent prince : but thesemere not so grate fui to the people, as his misconduct was offensiive. He was governed by three favorites, who, be- cause they resided at couri, and were Consi antly abouthim, obta ined the name of his paedagogues. These were Titus Vinius his lieuteriant in Spain, a man os a disposition extremely covetous ; Cornelius Laco, Mio, fio m anassessor to the prince, was adu anced to be commander of the guards, a person os intolerable arrogance, as meli asindolence ; his Deedman Icelus, digni fied a litile bes ore with the privilege of wearing the gold ring, and the use
of the Cognomen Martianus, who Uzas noW a Candidate
sor the highest honor within the reach of any person Ofthe
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into the power of those three favorites, who goveri ed in every thing according to the capricious impulse of their vices and tempers, and his authority was so much abused by them, that the tenor of his Conduet was not Very Consistent with itself At one time, he. v as more rigorOUS and frugal, at another, more lavisti and negligent, than heca me a prince who had been chosen by the people, and was so far advanced in years. He condemned soriae menos the sirst rank in the Senatorian and Equesti ian Orders, upon a very sfight suspicion, and without triat. He rare-ly granted the freedom of the city to any one; and the privilege belonging to such as had three child ren, only toone or two; and that with great difficulty, and only fora limited time. When tiae judges petitioned to have a siXthdecvry added to their number, he not only dented them, but abolistaed the vacation which had been granted them for the winter, and the beginning of the year . XV. It was thought that diu likewise intended to reduce the offices held by Senators and men of the Equese
trian Order, to a term of two years' continuance ; and todis posse of them to Done but such as were ianwilling to ac
adhed stom the purchasers, since the others, having, nodo ubi, spent me money, were not in a Condition to pay. But on the other haud, he suffered his attendanis and nee linen to seli or give away the revenue of the state, orim munities frona taxes, and to punish the innocent, or
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ptople were very clamorous for the punishment of Halotus and Tigellinus, two of the mos mischievous amongstali the emissaries of Nero, he protected them, and evendignified Halotus with a conamission for one of the bestprocurations in his disposai. And in favor of Tigellinus, he, by a proclamation, reprimanded the peopte for their
XVI. By this conduct, he incurred the hatred os alios ders of the people, but es pecialty the soldiery. For his
commanders having promised them in his name a donative hipon their taking the oath to hi in besere his arrivalin the city; he refused to malle it good, and now and then Did, that he used to choose his soldiers at pleas ure, not huy them. Thus the soldiers every whcre hec ame asperated against him. The guariis he alai med with apprehensions of danger and uia orthy treaiment ; Cas hiering occasionalty many of them as dilamedi ed to his go Vertament, and favorers of Nymphidius. But mos of all, the ariny in Upper Germany was incensed againsf him, at being defrauded of the rewards due to them sor theservice they had rendered in the insurrection of the Gaulsiinder Vindex. They theres ore first ventured to oppos ethe new enaperor, refusing upon the Calends of Januaryto take an oath to any but the Senate; and immediatelydispalched deputies to the Praetorian troops, to let them know, they did not like the em peror who had been set up in Spatia, ' and to dessire that they would mal echoice of another, such as might meet with the approba tion os ali the armies '
XVII. Upon receiving intelligcnce of this, imagining
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their respedis to him, Piso Frugi Licinianus, a youm onoble descent and fine talenis, for whom he had before contradi ed such a regarit, that he had appotnted him in his will the heir both of his estate and nante. Him he nowstyled his son, and taking hi in to the camp, adopted hi min the presence of an asiembly of troops, but without making any mention os a donative. This circumstanceassorded the better opportuni ty to M. Salvius Otho os ac-
complis hing his design si x days aster the adoption. XVIII. Many rem arkable prodigies, which happened
near wounded hi m with his lance. And upon his entering the City and the palace, he was received with an earlhquake, and a noise like the lowing of catile. These signs os ill- r- tune were followed by sonae that were stili more apparently lach. O ut os ali his treas ure he had culled a necklace ofipearis and jeweis, to adorn vetitii it his image of Fortune at Tusculum. But, on a Ddden, as is it deserved to be dis- posed os in a more august place, he consecrateit it to Venus in the Capitol: and nexi night, he di ea nat that Fortune appeared to him, complaining that 1he had been defrauded of the present intended her, and threatening toresume what she had gi ven him. Ἱ'errified at this de- nunciation, about break of day he sent some persoris be-
fore him to Tusculum, to make preparations for a saCri-
ficu whicli might avert the displeasure of the Goddesse ;
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sERGIUS SULPICIUS GALAA. sis and when he himself arrived at the place, he found nothing but seme liot embers iapon the altar, and an old man
seme wine in an earthen pol. It was remarhed, too, that
whilist he was sacrificing upon the Caleniis of January, his crown seli Dom his head, and upon his consulting the pulluis in the way of augury, they se away. Farther,upon the day of his adopting Piso, when he was toliarangue the soldiris, the seat which he used ii pon those occasions, through the neglect of his attendanis, was notPlaced, according to Custom, upon his tribunal; and in the Senate-house, his curule chair was set With the bach
XIX. The dav be re he was sain, as he was sacrificing in the morning, the Moth- sayer warned hi in no and then to be iapon his guard, for that he was in dangeros being asiastina ted, and that in a s hori time. Soonaster, he was informed, that Otho was in possession of thecamp. And though most of his friends advised hi in torepair thither immedia tely, in hopes that he might quellthe tumuli by his authority and presence, he resolved todo nothing more than keep Close with in the palace, and secure himself by guariis of the legionary soldiers, Whomere encamped in different paris abo ut the town. Heput on a linen coat os de iace, however; rema rhing, at
the fame time, that it would avail hi in litile against thepoints of many sworiis. But be ing tempted out by false rumors, whicli the conspirators had puri os ely spreadio make him venture abroad, so me persons abo ut him too hastily assuring him that the tumult was Ceassed, the mu tineers ali suppressed, and the rest Coming to congratulate him, resolved to continue firm in their obedience; hewent out to itieet them With that asiurance, that tapon a