No More Learning

He has recalled from exile the man whose avarice and
sour temper he judged most like his own. You witnessed for yourselves,
my comrades, the extraordinary storm which signified Heaven's
abhorrence at that ill-starred adoption. The Senate and People of Rome
feel the same. They are counting on your courage. You alone can give
strength to the right policy: it is powerless without you, however
good it be. It is not to war and danger that I call you. All the
troops are with us. That single plain-clothes cohort[64] is no longer
a defence to Galba, but a hindrance. When once they have caught sight
of you, when once they come to take their orders from me, the only
quarrel between you will be who can do most to put me in their debt.
There is no room for delay in plans which cannot be commended until
they are put into action. '

Otho then gave orders to open the arsenal. The soldiers immediately
seized their arms in such haste that all the ordinary distinctions of
the service were neglected: neither Guards nor Legionaries carried
their own arms:[65] in the confusion they took the helmets and shields
of the auxiliaries. There were no tribunes or centurions to encourage
them: each man followed his own lead, and the rascals found their
chief incentive in the consternation of the loyal. As the riot 39
increased, Piso, alarmed by the din of their shouts, which could be
heard even in the city, had overtaken Galba, who had meanwhile left
the palace and was approaching the Forum. Marius Celsus had also
brought back no good news.
Some were for returning to the palace,
others for seeking the shelter of the Capitol, many for seizing the
Rostra. The majority merely disagreed with other people's proposals,
and, as so often happens in these disasters, the best course always
seemed the one for which it was now too late. It is said that Laco,
without Galba's knowledge, proposed the assassination of Titus Vinius,
either with the idea that his execution would be a sop to the
soldiers, or because he believed him Otho's accomplice, or, as a last
alternative, hatred may have been his motive. However, the time and
the place both bred scruples; when killing once begins it is difficult
to set a limit: besides, their plans were upset by the arrival of
terrified messengers, by the continual desertion of their supporters,
and by a general waning of enthusiasm even among those who at first
had been the keenest to display their loyalty and courage.

Galba was driven hither and thither by the tide of the surging 40
mob. The temples and public buildings[66] were crowded with
spectators, who viewed a sorry scene. No shouts came from the crowd:
astonishment was on their faces, and their ears open to every sound.
There was neither uproar nor quiet, but the silence of strong emotion
and alarm. However, a report reached Otho that the populace was
arming. He bade his men fly headlong to forestall the danger. Off went
the Roman soldiers as if they were going to drag Vologaesus or Pacorus
from the ancestral throne of the Arsacids[67]--and not to butcher
their own emperor, a helpless old man. Armed to the teeth, they broke
at a full gallop into the Forum, scattering the populace and trampling
senators under foot. Neither the sight of the Capitol nor the sanctity
of the temples towering above them, nor the thought of Roman emperors
past and to come, could avail to deter them from committing that crime
which the next successor always avenges.

Seeing the armed ranks now close at hand, the standard-bearer of 41
the cohort on guard over Galba[68]--tradition says his name was
Atilius Vergilio--tore off the medallion of Galba[69] and flung it to
the ground. This signal clearly showed that all the troops were for
Otho: the people fled from the deserted Forum and swords were drawn
against any who lingered. Near 'Lake Curtius'[70] Galba was
precipitated from his chair by the panic-stricken haste of the bearers
and flung to the ground.