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 largess." 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 might seem 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 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, thou Cupid, exult in thy vigour!" 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." d

a Iliad, 5. 254; Odyss. 21. 426.

Ab iis Patrobii 1 Neroniani libertus centum aureis redemptum eo loco, ubi iussu Galbae animadversum in patronum suum fuerat, abiecit. Sero tandem dispensator Argivus et hoc et ceterum truncum in privatis eius hortis Aurelia via sepulturae dedit. XXI. Statura fuit iusta, capite praecalvo, oculis caeruleis, adunco naso, manibus pedibusque articulari morbo distortissimis, ut neque calceum perpeti nec 2 libellos evolvere aut tenere omnino valeret. Excreverat etiam in dexteriore latere eius caro praependebatque adeo ut aegre fascia substringeretur.

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XXII. Cibi plurimi traditur, quem tempore hiberno etiam ante lucem capere consuerat, inter cenam vero usque eo abundantis,3 ut congestas super manus reliquias circumferri iuberet spargique ad pedes stantibus. Libidinis in mares pronior et eos non nisi praeduros exoletosque; ferebant in Hispania Icelum e veteribus concubinis de Neronis exitu nuntiantem non modo artissimis osculis palam exceptum ab eo, sed ut sine mora velleretur oratum atque seductum.

XXIII. Periit tertio et septuagesimo aetatis anno, imperii mense septimo. Senatus, ut primum licitum est, statuam ei decreverat rostratae columnae super1 Patrobii, 5 (Sabellicus); Patrobil, .

2 nec] ne, M; neque, Gd; the other mss. have nec.

3 abundantis, Graevius; abundanti, ; abundantem, Milan ed. of 1475; abundanter, Gruter.

4 pronior, mss.; pronioris, Stephanus.

"The meaning of this passage is uncertain and the interpretations various; see the long note in the ed. of Baum

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 right 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 favourites, brought him news in Spain 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 69 A.D. year of his age and the seventh month of his reign. The senate, as soon as it was allowed to do so, voted him a statue standing upon a column adorned

garten-Crusius. The meaning of super manus is particularly dark; the most plausible suggestion is that it is equivalent

to ante se.

VOL. II.

stantem in parte Fori, qua trucidatus est; sed decretum Vespasianus abolevit, percussores sibi ex Hispania in Iudaeam submisisse opinatus.

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I. Maiores Othonis orti sunt oppido Ferentio, familia vetere et honorata atque ex principibus Etruriae. Avus M. Salvius Otho, patre equite R., matre humili incertum an ingenua, per gratiam Liviae Augustae, in cuius domo creverat, senator est factus nec praeturae gradum excessit.

Pater L. Otho, materno genere praeclaro multarumque et magnarum propinquitatium, tam carus tamque non absimilis facie Tiberio principi fuit, ut plerique procreatum ex eo crederent. Urbanos honores, proconsulatum Africae et extraordinaria imperia severissime administravit. Ausus etiam est in Illyrico milites quosdam, quod motu Camilli ex paenitentia praepositos suos quasi defectionis adversus Claudium auctores occiderant, capite punire et quidem ante principia se coram, quamvis ob id ipsum promotos in 1 Salvius, Stephanus ; Silvius, .

a Like Maecenas, Otho was Tyrrhena regum progenies; Hor. Odes, 3. 29. 1. b See Claud. xiii. and xxxv. 2.

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 Spain to Judaea, to take his life.

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I. THE ancestors of Otho came from an old and illustrious family in the town of Ferentium and were descended from the princes of Etruria. His grandfather Marcus Salvius Otho, whose father was a Roman knight but whose mother was of lowly origin and perhaps not even free-born, became a senator through the influence of Livia Augusta, in whose house he was reared; but did not advance beyond the grade of praetor.

His father Lucius Otho was of a distinguished family on his mother's side, with many powerful connections, and was so beloved by Tiberius and so like him in appearance, that he was believed by many to be the emperor's son. In the regular offices at Rome, the proconsulate of Africa, and several special military commands he conducted himself with extreme severity. In Illyricum he even had the courage to punish some soldiers with death, because in the rebellion of Camillus, repenting of their defection, they had killed their officers on the ground that they were the ringleaders in the revolt against Claudius; and they were executed in his presence before his headquarters, although he knew that they had been promoted to higher

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