No More Learning

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 to the young Nero and compared the emperors, as
such people will, in point of looks and personal attraction.

FOOTNOTES:

[11] i. e. the marines, whom Nero had formed into a reserve
force (Legio I Adiutrix). They had met Galba at the Mulvian
Bridge, probably with a petition for service in the Line.

[12] Legio VII Galbiana, sent later to Pannonia.

[13] Illyricum included all the Danube provinces.

[14] The Pass of Dariel over the centre of the Caucasus. The
Albanians lay to the east of its southern end, on the
south-west coast of the Caspian.

[15] Vindex, Pro-praetor in the Lyons division of Gaul, had
revolted against Nero early in the year 68 and offered his
support to Galba, then governor of the Tarragona division of
Spain.