Galba

Suetonius

De Vita Caesarum

Galba

I. THE race of the Caesars ended with Nero
[Nero was the last who bore the name because of connection with the family of
Augustus; after him it became a designation of rank]. That this would be so
was shown by many portents and especially by two very significant ones. Years before,
as Livia was returning to her estate near Veii, immediately after her marriage with
Augustus [38 B.C.E.], an eagle which flew by dropped into her lap a white
hen, holding in its beak a sprig of laurel, just as the eagle had carried it off.
Livia resolved to rear the fowl and plant the sprig. Whereupon such a great brood
of chickens was hatched that to this day the villa is called Ad Gallinas
[“The Hen-Roost”], and such a grove of laurel sprang up, that the Caesars
gathered their laurels from it when they were going to celebrate triumphs. Moreover,
it was the habit of those who triumphed to plant other branches at once in that
same place, and it was observed that just before the death of each of them the tree
which he had planted withered. Now in Nero’s last year the whole grove died from
the root up, as well as all the hens. Furthermore, when shortly afterwards the Temple
of the Caesars was struck by lightning, the heads fell from all the statues at the
same time, and his scepter, too, was dashed from the hand of Augustus.

II. Nero was succeeded by Galba [68 C.E.],
who was related in no degree to the house of the Caesars, although unquestionably
of noble origin and of an old and powerful family; for he always added to the inscriptions
on his statues that he was the great-grandson of Quintus Catulus Capitolinus, and
when he became emperor he even displayed a family tree in his hall in which he carried
back his ancestry on his father’s side to Jupiter and on his mother’s to Pasiphae,
the wife of Minos.

III. It would be a long story to give in detail
his illustrious ancestors and the honorary inscriptions of the entire race, but
I shall give a brief account of his immediate family [That is, of those Sulpicii
who bore the surname “Galba”]. It is uncertain who was the first of the Sulpicii
to bear the surname Galba, why he assumed it, and whence it was derived. Some think
that it was because after having for a long time unsuccessfully besieged a town
in Hispania, he at last set fire to it by torches smeared with galbanum
[The gum of a Syrian plant; see Pliny, Nat. Hist. 12.126]; others because
during a long illness he made constant use of galbeum, that is to say of
remedies wrapped in wool, still others, because he was a very fat man, such as the
Gauls term galba, or because he was, on the contrary, as slender as the
insects called galbae, which breed in oak trees. The family acquired distinction
from Servius Galba, who became consul [146 B.C.E.] and was decidedly the
most eloquent speaker of his time. This man, they say, was the cause of the war
with Viriathus [150-136 B.C.E.], because while governing Hispania as propraetor,
he treacherously massacred thirty thousand of the Lusitanians. His grandson had
been one of Caesar’s lieutenants in Gallia, but angered because his commander caused
his defeat for the consulship, he joined the conspiracy with Brutus and Cassius,
and was consequently condemned to death by the Pedian law [See Nero, iii.1].
From him were descended the grandfather and the father of the emperor Galba. The
former, who was more eminent for his learning than for his rank—for he did not
advance beyond the grade of praetor—published a voluminous and painstaking history.
The father attained the consulship [22 C.E.], and although he was short
of stature and even hunchbacked, besides being only an indifferent speaker, was
an industrious pleader at the bar. He married Mummia Achaica, the granddaughter
of Catulus and great-granddaughter of Lucius Mummius who destroyed Corinth; and
later Livia Ocellina, a very rich and beautiful woman, who, however, is thought
to have sought marriage with him because of his high rank, and the more eagerly
when, in response to her frequent advances, he took off his robe in private and
showed her his deformity, so as not to seem to deceive her by concealing it. By
Achaica he had two sons, Gaius and Servius. Gaius, who was the elder, left Rome
after squandering the greater part of his estate, and committed suicide because
Tiberius would not allow him to take part in the allotment of the provinces in his
year [That is, after his consulship. Tiberius doubtless suspected him of a desire
to enrich himself at the expense of the provincials; cf. Tib. xxxii.2, at the end].

IV. The emperor Servius Galba was born in
the consulship of Marcus Valerius Messala and Gnaeus Lentulus, on the ninth day
before the Kalends of January [December 24, 3 B.C.E.], in a country house
situated on a hill near Tarracina, on the left as you go towards Fundi. Adopted
by his stepmother Livia, he took her name and the surname Ocella, and also changed
his forename; for he used Lucius, instead of Servius, from that time until he became
emperor. It is well known that when he was still a boy and called to pay his respects
to Augustus with others of his age, the emperor pinched his cheek and said in Greek:
“You too, child, will have a nibble at this power of mine.” Tiberius too, when he
heard that Galba was destined to be emperor, but in his old age, said: “Well, let
him live then, since that does not concern me.” Again, when Galba’s grandfather
was busy with a sacrifice for a stroke of lightning [The usual procedure, to
avert the evil omen], and an eagle snatched the intestines from his hand and
carried them to an oak full of acorns, the prediction was made that the highest
dignity would come to the family, but late; whereupon he said with a laugh: “Very
likely, when a mule has a foal” [Proverbial for “never”, like the Greek Kalends;
see Aug. lxxxvii.1]. Afterwards when Galba was beginning his revolt, nothing
gave him so much encouragement as the foaling of a mule, and while the rest were
horrified and looked on it as an unfavorable omen, he alone regarded it as most
propitious, remembering the sacrifice and his grandfather’s saying. When he assumed
the gown of manhood, he dreamt that Fortune said that she was tired of standing
before his door, and that unless she were quickly admitted she would fall a prey
to the first comer. When he awoke, opening the door of the hall, he found close
by the threshold a bronze statue of Fortune more than a cubit high. This he carried
in his arms to Tusculum, where he usually spent the summer, and consecrated it in
a room of his house; and from that time on he honored it with monthly sacrifices
and a yearly vigil. Even before he reached middle life, he persisted in keeping
up an old and forgotten custom of his country, which survived only in his own household,
of having his freedmen and slaves appear before him twice a day in a body, greeting
him in the morning and bidding him farewell at evening, one by one.

V. Among other liberal studies he applied
himself to the law. He also assumed a husband’s duties [To marry and rear a
family was regarded as one of the duties of a good citizen], but after losing
his wife Lepida and two sons whom he had by her, he remained a widower. And he could
not be tempted afterwards by any match, not even with Agrippina, who no sooner lost
Domitius by death than she set her cap for Galba so obviously, even before the death
of his wife, that Lepida’s mother scolded her roundly before a company of matrons
and went so far as to slap her. He showed marked respect to Livia Augusta, to whose
favor he owed great influence during her lifetime and by whose last will he almost
became a rich man; for he had the largest bequest among her legatees, one of fifty
million sesterces. But because the sum was designated in figures and not written
out in words, Tiberius, who was her heir, reduced the bequest to five hundred thousand,
and Galba never received even that amount.

VI. He began his career of office before the
legal age, and in celebrating the games of the Floralia in his praetorship he gave
a new kind of exhibition, namely of elephants walking the rope [cf. Nero, xi.2].
Then he governed the province of Aquitania for nearly a year, and soon afterwards
held a regular consulship [That is to say, entering office on January 1, and
with his colleague, L. Cornelius Sulla, giving his name to the year] for six
months [33 C.E.]; and it chanced that in this office he succeeded Gnaeus
Domitius, the father of Nero, and was succeeded by Salvius Otho, the father of the
emperor Otho, a kind of omen of what happened later, when he became emperor between
the reigns of the sons of these two men. Appointed governor of Upper Germania by
Gaius Caesar [Arkenberg: I.e., Caligula] in the room of Gaetulicus, the
day after he appealed before the legions, he put a stop to their applause at a festival
which chanced to fall at that time, by issuing a written order to keep their hands
under their cloaks; and immediately this verse was bandied about the camp:

“Soldiers, learn to play the soldier; ’tis Galba, not Gaetulicus.”
With equal strictness he put a stop to the requests for furloughs. He got both the
veterans and the new recruits into condition by plenty of hard work, speedily checked
the barbarians, who had already made inroads even into Gallia, and when Gaius arrived
[See Calig. xliii-xliv], Galba and his army made such a good impression,
that out of the great body of troops assembled from all the provinces none received
greater commendation or richer rewards. Galba particularly distinguished himself,
while directing the military maneuvers shield in hand, by actually running for twenty
miles close beside the emperor’s chariot [cf., Calig. xxvi.2].

VII. When the murder of Gaius was announced,
although many urged Galba to take advantage of the opportunity, he preferred quiet.
Hence he was in high favor with Claudius, became one of his staff of intimate friends,
and was treated with such consideration that the departure of the expedition to
Britannia was put off because Galba was taken with a sudden illness, of no great
severity. He governed Africa for two years with the rank of proconsul, being specially
chosen [Except in special cases, the governors were appointed by lot from among
those who were eligible] to restore order in the province, which was disturbed
both by internal strife and by a revolt of the barbarians. And he was successful,
owing to his insistence on strict discipline and his observance of justice even
in trifling matters. When provisions were very scarce during a foray and a soldier
was accused of having sold for a hundred denarii a modius of wheat [The modius
was 8.75 liters] which was left from his rations, Galba gave orders that when
the man began to lack food, he should receive aid from no one; and he starved to
death. On another occasion when he was holding court and the question of the ownership
of a beast of burden was laid before him, as the evidence on both sides was slight
and the witnesses unreliable, so that it was difficult to get at the truth, he ruled
that the beast should be led with its head muffled up to the pool where it was usually
watered, that it should then be unmuffled, and should belong to the man to whom
it returned of its own accord after drinking.

VIII. His services in Africa at that time,
and previously in Germania, were recognized by the triumphal regalia and three priesthoods,
for he was chosen a member of the Fifteen [See Jul. lxxix.3], of the brotherhood
of Titius [The sodales Titii were an ancient priesthood of uncertain origin.
The tradition arose that they were established to keep up the ancient Sabine worship,
and named from Titus Tatius], and of the priests of Augustus [see Claud.
vi.2]. After that he lived for the most part in retirement until about the
middle of Nero’s reign, never going out even for recreation without taking a million
sesterces in gold with him in a second carriage [So as to be able to leave the
country on short notice]; until at last, while he was staying in the town of
Fundi, Hispania Tarraconensis was offered him [60 C.E.]. And it fell out
that as he was offering sacrifice in a public temple after his arrival in the province,
the hair of a young attendant who was carrying an incense-box suddenly turned white
all over his head, and there were some who did not hesitate to interpret this as
a sign of a change of rulers and of the succession of an old man to a young one;
that is to say, of Galba to Nero. Not long after this lightning struck a lake of
Cantabria and twelve axes were found there, an unmistakable token of supreme power.

IX. For eight years he governed the province
in a variable and inconsistent manner. At first he was rigorous and energetic and
even over-severe in punishing offences; for he cut off the hands of a money-lender
who carried on his business dishonestly and nailed them to his counter; crucified
a man for poisoning his ward, whose property he was to inherit in case of his death;
and when the man invoked the law and declared that he was a Roman citizen, Galba,
pretending to lighten his punishment by some consolation and honor, ordered that
a cross much higher than the rest and painted white be set up, and the man transferred
to it. But he gradually changed to sloth and inaction, not to give Nero any cause
for jealousy, and as he used to say himself, because no one could be forced to render
an account for doing nothing. As he was holding the assizes at Nova Carthago [Arkenberg:
modern Cartagena], he learned of the rebellion of the Gallic provinces through an
urgent appeal for help from the governor of Aquitania; then came letters from Vindex,
calling upon him to make himself the liberator and leader of mankind. So without
much hesitation he accepted the proposal, led by fear as well as by hope. For he
had intercepted despatches ordering his own death, which had been secretly sent
by Nero to his agents. He was encouraged too, in addition to most favorable auspices
and omens, by the prediction of a young girl of high birth, and the more so because
the priest of Jupiter at Clunia, directed by a dream, had found in the inner shrine
of his temple the very same prediction, likewise spoken by an inspired girl two
hundred years before. And the purport of the verses was that one day there would
come forth from Hispania the ruler and lord of the world.

X. Accordingly, pretending that he was going
to attend to the manumitting of slaves, he mounted the tribunals, on the front of
which he had set up as many images as he could find of those who had been condemned
and put to death by Nero; and having by his side a boy of noble family, whom he
had summoned for that very purpose from his place of exile hard by in the Balearic
Isles, he deplored the state of the times; being thereupon hailed as emperor, he
declared that he was their governor, representing the Senate and People of Rome
[Instead of the emperor, as before]. Then proclaiming a holiday, he enrolled
from the people of the province into legions and auxiliaries in addition to his
former force of one legion, two divisions of cavalry, and three cohorts. But from
the oldest and most experienced of the nobles he chose a kind of Senate, to whom
he might refer matters of special importance whenever it was necessary. He also
chose young men of the ordo equester, who were to have the title of volunteers
[Evocati were soldiers who, after serving their time, were invited to continue
their service. It is here an honorary title] and keep guard before his bed
chamber in place of the regular soldiers, without losing their right to wear the
gold ring. He also sent proclamations broadcast throughout the province, urging
all men individually and collectively to join the revolution and aid the common
cause in every possible way. At about this same time, during the fortification of
a town which he had chosen as the seat of war, a ring of ancient workmanship was
found, containing a precious stone engraved with a Victory and a trophy. Immediately
afterwards a ship from Alexandria loaded with arms arrived at Dertosa without a
pilot, without a single sailor or passenger, removing all doubt in anyone’s mind
that the war was just and holy and undertaken with the approval of the gods. Then
suddenly and unexpectedly the whole plan was almost brought to naught. One of the
two divisions of cavalrymen, repenting of its change of allegiance, attempted to
desert Galba as he was approaching his camp, and was with difficulty prevented.
Some slaves too, whom one of Nero’s freedmen had given Galba with treachery in view,
all but slew him as he was going to the bath through a narrow passageway. In fact
they would have succeeded, had they not conjured one another not to miss the opportunity
and so been questioned as to what the opportunity was to which they referred; for
when they were put to the torture, a confession was wrung from them.

XI. To these great perils was added the death
of Vindex, by which he was especially panic-stricken and came near taking his own
life, in the belief that all was lost. But when some messengers came from the city,
reporting that Nero was dead and that all the people had sworn allegiance to him,
he laid aside the title of governor and assumed that of Caesar. He then
began his march to Rome in a general’s cloak with a dagger hanging from his neck
in front of his breast; and he did not resume the toga until he had overthrown those
who were plotting against him, Nyrnphidius Sabinus, prefect of the Praetorian Guard
at Rome, in Germania and Africa the governors Fonteius Capito and Clodius Macer.

XII. His double reputation for cruelty and
avarice had gone before him; men said that he had punished the cities of the Hispanic
and Gallic provinces which had hesitated about taking sides with him by heavier
taxes and some even by the razing of their walls, putting to death the governors
and imperial legati along with their wives and children. Further, that
he had melted down a golden crown of fifteen pounds weight, which the people of
Tarraco had taken from their ancient temple of Jupiter and presented to him, with
orders that the three ounces which were found lacking be exacted from them. This
reputation was confirmed and even augmented immediately on his arrival in the city.
For having compelled some marines whom Nero had made regular soldiers to return
to their former position as rowers, upon their refusing and obstinately demanding
an eagle and standards, he not only dispersed them by a cavalry charge, but even
decimated them. He also disbanded a cohort of Germans, whom the previous Caesars
had made their body-guard and had found absolutely faithful in many emergencies,
and sent them back to their native country without any rewards, alleging that they
were more favorably inclined towards Gnaeus Dolabella, near whose gardens they had
their camp. The following tales too were told in mockery of him, whether truly or
falsely [Doubtless many of them were false or exaggerated. Galba’s frugality
was naturally regarded as stinginess by a people accustomed to a princeps like Nero;
see Nero, xxxi.1]: that when an unusually elegant dinner was set before him,
he groaned aloud; that when his duly appointed steward presented his expense account,
he handed him a dish of beans in return for his industry and carefulness; and that
when the flute player Canus greatly pleased him, he presented him with five denarii,
which he took from his own purse with his own hand [Plutarch, Galba, xvi., gives
the story quite a different aspect, saying that the gift was of gold pieces, and
that Galba said that it came from his own pocket, and not from the public funds].

XIII. Accordingly his coming was not so welcome
as it might have been, and this was apparent at the first performance in the theater:
for when the actors of an Atellan farce began the familiar lines “Here comes Onesimus
from his farm” all the spectators at once finished the song in chorus and repeated
it several times with appropriate gestures, beginning with that verse.

XIV. Thus his popularity and prestige were
greater when he won, than while he ruled the empire, though he gave many proofs
of being an excellent princeps; but he was by no means so much loved for those qualities
as he was hated for his acts of the opposite character. He was wholly under the
control of three men, who were commonly known as his tutors because they lived with
him in the palace and never left his side. They were Titus Vinius, one of his generals
in Hispania, a man of unbounded covetousness; Cornelius Laco, advanced from the
position of judge’s assistant to that of prefect of the Guard and intolerably haughty
and indolent; and his own freedman Icelus, who had only just before received the
honor of the gold ring and the surname of Marcianus, yet already aspired to the
highest office open to the ordo equester. To these brigands, each with
his different vice, he so entrusted and handed himself over as their tool, that
his conduct was far from consistent; for now he was more exacting and niggardly
and now more extravagant and reckless than became a princeps chosen by
the people and of his time of life. He condemned to death divers distinguished men
of both orders on trivial suspicions without a trial. He rarely granted Roman citizenship,
and the privileges of threefold paternity to hardly one or two, and even to those
only for a fixed and limited time. When the jurors petitioned that a sixth division
be added to their number, he not only refused, but even deprived them of the privilege
granted by Claudius, of not being summoned for court duty in winter and at the beginning
of the year.

XV. It was thought too that he intended to
limit the offices open to senators and equites to a period of two years, and to
give them only to such as did not wish them and declined them. He had all the grants
of Nero revoked, allowing only a tenth part to be retained; and he exacted repayment
with the help of fifty Roman equites, stipulating that even if the actors
and athletes had sold anything that had formerly been given them, it should be taken
away from the purchasers, in case the recipient had spent the money and could not
repay it. On the other hand, there was nothing that he did not allow his friends
and freedmen to sell at a price or bestow as a favor, taxes and freedom from taxation,
the punishment of the guiltless and impunity for the guilty. Nay more, when the
Roman people called for the punishment of Halotus and Tigellinus, the most utterly
abandoned of all Nero’s creatures, not content with saving their lives, he honored
Halotus with a very important stewardship and in the case of Tigellinus even issued
an edict rebuking the people for their cruelty

XVI. Having thus incurred the hatred of almost
all men of every class, he was especially detested by the soldiers; for although
their officers [According to Plutarch (Galba, 2), it was Nymphidius Sabinus,
Prefect of the Praetorian Guard, who made this promise] had promised them a
larger gift than common when they swore allegiance to Galba in his absence, so far
from keeping the promise, he declared more than once that it was his habit to levy
troops, not buy them; and on this account he embittered the soldiers all over the
empire. The praetorians he filled besides with both fear and indignation by discharging
many of them from time to time as under suspicion of being partisans of Nymphidius.
But loudest of all was the grumbling of the army in Upper Germania, because it was
defrauded of the reward for its services against the Gauls and Vindex. Hence, they
were the first to venture on mutiny, refusing on the Kalends of January to swear
allegiance to anyone save the Senate, and at once resolving to send a deputation
to the Praetorians with the following message: that the emperor created in Hispania
did not suit them and the Guard must choose one who would be acceptable to all the
armies.

XVII. When this was reported to Galba, thinking
that it was not so much his age as his lack of children that was criticized, he
picked out Piso Frugi Licinianus from the midst of the throng at one of his morning
receptions, a young man of noble birth and high character, who had long been one
of his special favorites and always named in his will as heir to his property and
his name. Calling him son, he led him to the Praetorian camp and adopted him before
the assembled soldiers. But even then he made no mention of largess, thus making
it easier for Marcus Salvius Otho to accomplish his purpose within six days after
the adoption.

XVIII. Many prodigies in rapid succession
from the very beginning of his reign had foretold Galba’s end exactly as it happened.
When victims were being slain to right and left all along his route in every town
[As he was on his way to Rome], an ox, maddened by the stroke of an axe,
broke its bonds and charged the emperor’s chariot, and as it raised its feet, deluged
him with blood. And as Galba dismounted, one of his guards, flushed forward by the
crowd, almost wounded him with his lance. Again, as he entered the city, and later
the palaces, he was met by a shock of an earthquake and a sound like the lowing
of kine. There followed even clearer signs. He had set apart from all the treasure
a necklace fashioned of pearls and precious stones, for the adornment of his image
of Fortuna at Tusculum. This on a sudden impulse he consecrated to the Capitoline
Venus, thinking it worthy of a more August position. The next night Fortuna appeared
to him in his dreams, complaining of being robbed of the gift intended for her and
threatening in her turn to take away what she had bestowed. When Galba hastened
in terror to Tusculum at daybreak to offer expiatory sacrifices because of the dream
and sent on men to make preparations for the ceremony he found on the altar nothing
but warm ashes and beside it an old man dressed in black, holding the incense in
a glass dish and the wine in an earthen cup [The fire should have been blazing
brightly and a youth clad in white should have carried the incense in a proper box,
and the wine in a more costly and appropriate vessel]. It was also remarked
that as he was sacrificing on the Kalends of January the garland fell from his head,
and that as he took the auspices, the sacred chickens flew away. As he was on the
point of addressing the soldiers on the day of the adoption [Of Piso],
his camp chair, through the forgetfulness of his attendants, was not placed on the
tribunal as is customary, and in the Senate his curule chair was set wrong side
foremost.

XIX. As he was offering sacrifice on the morning
before he was killed, a soothsayer warned him again and again to look out for danger,
since assassins were not far off. Not long after this he learned that Otho held
possession of the Camp [of the Praetorian Guard], and when several advised
him to proceed there as soon as possible—for they said that he could win the day
by his presence and prestige—he decided to do no more than hold his present position
and strengthen it by getting together a guard of the legionaries, who were encamped
in many different quarters of the city. He did, however, put on a linen cuirass,
though he openly declared that it would afford little protection against so many
swords. But he was lured out by false reports, circulated by the conspirators to
induce him to appear in public; for when a few rashly assured him that the trouble
was over, that the rebels had been overthrown, and that the rest were coming in
a body to offer their congratulations, ready to submit to all his orders, he went
out to meet them with so much confidence, that when one of the soldiers boasted
that he had slain Otho, he asked him, “On whose authority?” and then he went on
as far as the Forum. There the horsemen who had been bidden to slay him, spurring
their horses through the streets and dispersing the crowd of civilians, caught sight
of him from a distance and halted for a moment. Then they rushed upon him again
and butchered him, abandoned by his followers.

XX. Some say that at the beginning of the
disturbance he cried out, “What mean you, fellow soldiers? I am yours and you are
mine,” and that he even promised them largesse. But the more general account is,
that he offered them his neck without resistance, urging them to do their duty and
strike, since it was their will. It was very surprising that none of those present
tried to lend aid to their emperor, and that all who were sent for treated the summons
with contempt except a company of German troops. These, because of his recent kindness
in showing them great indulgence when they were weakened by illness, flew to his
help, but through their unfamiliarity with the city took a roundabout way and arrived
too late. He was killed beside the Lake of Curtius [In the Forum] and was
left lying just as he was, until a common soldier, returning from a distribution
of grain, threw down his load and cut off the head. Then, since there was no hair
by which to grasp it, he put it under his robe, but later thrust his thumb into
the mouth and so carried it to Otho. He handed it over to his servants and camp-followers,
who set it on a lance and paraded it about the camp with jeers, crying out from
time to time, “Galba, you Cupid, exult in your vigor!” The special reason for this
saucy jest was, that the report had gone abroad a few days before, that when someone
had congratulated him on still looking young and vigorous, he replied: “As yet my
strength is unimpaired” [Iliad, 5.254; Odyss., 21.426]. From these it was
bought by a freedman of Patrobius Neronianus for a hundred pieces of gold and thrown
aside in the place where his patron had been executed by Galba’s order. At last,
however, his steward Argivus consigned it to the tomb with the rest of the body
in Galba’s private gardens on the Aurelian Road.

XXI. He was of average height, very bald,
with blue eyes and a hooked nose. His hands and feet were so distorted by gout that
he could not endure a shoe for long, unroll a book, or even hold one.

The flesh on his left side too had grown out and hung down
to such an extent, that it could with difficulty be held in place by a bandage.

XXII. It is said that he was a heavy eater
and in winter time was in the habit of taking food even before daylight, while at
dinner he helped himself so lavishly that he would have the leavings which remained
in a heap before him passed along and distributed among the attendants who waited
on him. He was more inclined to unnatural desire, and in gratifying it preferred
full-grown, strong men. They say that when Icelus, one of his old-time favorites,
brought him news in Hispania of Nero’s death, he not only received him openly with
the fondest kisses, but begged him to prepare himself without delay and took him
one side.

XXIII. He met his end in the seventy-third
year of his age and the seventh month of his reign [69 C.E.]. The Senate,
as soon as it was allowed to do so, voted him a statue standing upon a column adorned
with the beaks of ships, in the part of the Forum where he was slain; but Vespasian
annulled this decree, believing that Galba had sent assassins from Hispania to Judaea,
to take his life.

Source:

From: J. C. Rolfe, ed., Suetonius, 2 Vols., The Loeb
Classical Library (London: William Heinemann, and New York: The MacMillan Co., 1914),
II.191-227.

Scanned by: J. S. Arkenberg, Dept. of History, Cal. State Fullerton.
Prof. Arkenberg may have modernized the text.