These are in his eyes the
prerogatives
of the throne.
Tacitus
But for the sake of my adoptive father, of the senate, and of the
whole empire, I deplore the thought that we may have to-day either to
die or--what for good men is as wretched--to kill. In the recent
revolution our comfort was that Rome was spared the sight of blood,
and the transfer was effected without disturbance. We thought that my
adoption would be a safeguard against an outbreak of civil war even
after Galba's death.
'I will make no claims to rank or respectability. To compare 30
myself with Otho, I need not recite my virtues. His vices are all he
has to be proud of. They ruined the empire, even when he was only
playing the part of an emperor's friend. Why should he deserve to be
emperor? For his swaggering demeanour? For his effeminate costume?
Extravagance imposes on some people. They take it for liberality. They
are wrong. He will know how to squander money, but not how to give it
away. His mind is full of lechery and debauchery and intrigues with
women.
These are in his eyes the prerogatives of the throne. And the
pleasure of his vices would be all his, the blushes of shame would be
ours. No man has ever ruled well who won the throne by bad means.
'The whole Roman world agreed to give Galba the title of Caesar. Galba
with your approval gave that title to me. Even if the "country", the
"senate", the "people", are empty terms, it is to your interest, my
fellow soldiers, to see that it is not the rascals who create an
emperor. From time to time one hears of the legionaries being in
mutiny against their generals. But your good faith and your good name
have stood to this day unimpaired. It was not you who deserted Nero:
he deserted you. Are you going to allow less than thirty deserters and
renegades to bestow the crown? Why! no one would tolerate their
choosing so much as a centurion or a tribune for themselves. Are you
going to allow this precedent, and by your acquiescence make their
crime your own? You will soon see this lawless spirit spreading to the
troops abroad, and in time the treason will recoil on us and the war
on you. Besides, innocence wins you as much as the murder of your
emperor: you will get from us as large a bounty for your loyalty as
you would from others for your crime. '
The members of the Body Guard dispersed.
