No More Learning

Think of Nero,
swollen with the pride of his long line of royal ancestry. It was not
Vindex with a powerless province at his back, nor I with a single
legion that freed Rome's shoulders of that burden: it was his own
cruelty and profligacy. And that was before there was any precedent
for the conviction of an emperor.

'We have been called to the throne by the swords of those who thought
us worthy. Our high state will not escape the eye of envy. You may be
sure of that. But there is no reason for you to feel alarm because in
this world-wide upheaval a couple of legions have not yet settled
down. I myself did not succeed to a safe and peaceful throne, and,
when once the news of your adoption is spread, I shall cease to be
charged with my advanced age, which is now the only fault they find in
me. The rascals will always miss Nero: you and I have got to see that
good citizens do not miss him too.

'A longer sermon would ill befit the time and I have fulfilled my
purpose, if I have done right in choosing you. The soundest and
easiest criterion of right and wrong policy is to consider what you
would have approved or condemned in another emperor. For Rome is not
like the nations which are ruled by kings, where one house is supreme
and the rest are slaves. Your future subjects are men who cannot
endure the extremes either of bondage or of freedom. '

Galba spoke these words and more to the same effect in the tone of one
creating an emperor: the rest addressed Piso as though he were emperor
already. He is said to have betrayed no sign of amazement or 17
elation either before those who were then present, or later when
everybody's eyes centred upon him.
His language to his emperor and
adoptive father was deeply respectful and he spoke modestly of
himself. He made no change in his expression or bearing, showing
himself more able than anxious to rule. A discussion then took place
whether the adoption should be announced before the people or in the
senate, or in the guards' camp. They decided in favour of the camp, on
the ground that it would be a compliment to the troops, whose goodwill
was hard to win by flattery or bribes, but was by no means to be
despised, if it could be won by good means. Meanwhile the curiosity of
the populace, impatient of any important secret, had brought together
crowds all round the Palace, and when once the rumour began to leak
out an attempt at suppression only resulted in spreading it.

The tenth of January was a dreary wet day, and an extraordinary 18
storm of thunder and lightning showed the displeasure of Providence.
Such phenomena were regarded in old days as a sign for the suspension
of public business, but they did not deter Galba from proceeding to
the camp. Either he disregarded such things as the result of pure
chance or else he felt that the blows of fate may be foretold but not
forestalled. He addressed a crowded assembly of the soldiers with true
imperial brevity, stating simply that in adopting Piso he was
following the example of the sainted Augustus, and the old military
custom whereby each man chose another. [44] He was afraid that by
suppressing the news of the German rebellion he might only seem to
exaggerate the danger, so he voluntarily declared that the Fourth and
Twenty-second legions had been led by a few traitors into seditious
murmurings but no further, and would soon return to their allegiance.
He made no attempt to enhance his words either by eloquence or
largess. However, the tribunes and centurions and those of the
soldiers who stood nearest to him gave well-sounding answers. The rest
were sorry and silent, for the war seemed to have lost them the
largess that had always been usual even in peace. Everybody agrees
that they could have been won over had the parsimonious old emperor
made the least display of generosity. He was ruined by his strict
old-fashioned inflexibility, which seems too rigorous for these
degenerate days.

From the camp they proceeded to the senate, and Galba's speech to 19
its members was no fuller or finer than to the soldiers.