de instauranda societate hoc etiam magno opere oravit, ut Neronis memoria coleretur. Denique cum post viginti annos adulescente me exstitisset condicionis incertae qui se Neronem esse iactaret, tam favorabile nomen eius apud Parthos fuit, ut vehementer adiutus et vix redditus sit.

Parthians, when he sent envoys to the senate to renew his alliance, earnestly begged this too, that honour be paid to the memory of Nero. In fact, twenty years later, when I was a young man, a person of obscure origin appeared, who gave out that he was Nero," and the name was still in such favour with the Parthians that they supported him vigorously and surrendered him with great reluctance.

a

In 88, Terentius Maximus by name; another pseudoNero had appeared in 70; see Tac. Hist. 2. 8.

BOOK VII

GALBA, OTHO, AND VITELLIUS

LIBER VII

GALBA OTHO VITELLIUS

GALBA

I. PROGENIES Caesarum in Nerone defecit: quod futurum compluribus quidem signis, sed vel evidentissimis duobus apparuit. Liviae olim post Augusti statim nuptias Veientanum suum revisenti praetervolans aquila gallinam albam ramulum lauri rostro tenentem, ita ut rapuerat, demisit in gremium; cumque nutriri alitem, pangi ramulum placuisset, tanta pullorum suboles provenit, ut hodieque ea villa "ad Gallinas" vocetur, tale vero lauretum, ut triumphaturi Caesares inde laureas decerperent; fuitque mos triumphantibus, alias confestim eodem loco pangere; et observatum est sub cuiusque obitum arborem ab ipso institutam elanguisse. Ergo novissimo Neronis anno et silva omnis exaruit radicitus, et quidquid ibi gallinarum erat interiit. Ac subinde tacta de caelo Caesarum aede capita omnibus simul statuis deciderunt, Augusti etiam sceptrum e manibus excussum est.

a Nero was the last who bore the name because of connection with the family of Augustus; after him it became a designation of rank. "The Hen Roost." Those which they Pliny, N.H. 15. 136 f.

carried in their triumph, according to d No such temple is known.