The Twelve Caesars

by Robert Graves

  10. Accordingly, Galba took his place on the Tribunal, as though going about the business of freeing slaves, but before him were ranged statues and pictures of Nero’s prominent victims. A young aristocrat, recalled from exile in the near-by Balearic Islands for this occasion, stood near while Galba deplored the present state of the Empire. Galba was at once hailed as Commander-in-Chief, and accepted the honour; announcing that he would now govern all Spain in the name of the Roman Senate and people. He closed the courts, and began raising regular troops and militia from the native population to increase his existing command of one legion, two squadrons of cavalry, and three unattached infantry battalions. Next, he chose the most distinguished and intelligent Spaniards available as members of a provincial senate, to which matters of State importance could always be referred. He also picked certain young knights, instead of ordinary troops to guard his sleeping quarters, and although these ranked as volunteer infantrymen they still wore the gold rings proper to their condition. Then he called upon all Spanish provincials to unite energetically in the common cause of rebellion. At about this time a ring of ancient design was discovered in the fortifications of the city that he had chosen as his headquarters; the engraved gem represented Victory raising a trophy. Soon afterwards an Alexandrian ship drifted into Tortosa, loaded with arms, but neither helmsman, crew, nor passengers were found aboard her—which left no doubt in anyone’s mind that this must be a just and righteous war, favoured by the gods.

  Suddenly, however, without the least warning, Galba’s rebellion nearly collapsed. As he approached the station where one of his cavalry troops was quartered, the men felt a little ashamed of their defection and tried to go back on it; Galba kept them at their posts only by a great effort. Again, he was nearly murdered on his way to the baths: he had to pass down a narrow corridor lined by a company of slaves whom an Imperial freedman had presented to him—obviously with some treachery in view. But while they plucked up their courage by urging one another ‘not to miss this opportunity’, someone took the trouble to ask: ‘What opportunity?’ Later they confessed under torture.

  11. Galba’s embarrassments were increased by the death of Vindex, a blow so heavy that it almost turned him to despair and suicide. Presently, however, messengers arrived from Rome with the news that Nero, too, was dead, and that the citizens had all sworn obedience to himself; so he dropped the title of Governor-general and assumed that of Caesar. He now wore an imperial cloak, with a dagger hanging from his neck, and did not put on a gown again until he had accounted first for Nymphidius Sabinus, Commander of the City Guards, and then for Fonteius Capito and Clodius Macer, who commanded respectively in Germany and Africa, and were plotting further trouble.

  12. Stories of Galba’s cruelty and greed preceded him; he was said to have punished townships that had been slow to receive him by levying huge taxes and even dismantling their fortifications; to have executed not only local officials and administrators, but their families too; and, when the Tarragonians offered him a golden crown from the ancient Temple of Juppiter, described as weighing 15 lb, to have melted this down and made them supply the three ounces needed to tip the scales at the advertised weight. Galba more than confirmed this reputation on his entry into Rome. He sent back to rowing duty some sailors whom Nero had turned into marines; and when they stubbornly insisted on their right to the Imperial Eagle and appropriate badges, ordered his cavalry to charge them; then had them lined up against a wall, and every tenth man cut down. Galba also disbanded Nero’s German guards, who had served several previous emperors and proved consistently loyal; repatriating them without a bounty on the grounds that they had shown excessive devotion to Dolabella by camping close to his estate. Other anecdotes to his discredit, possibly true, possibly false, went the rounds: when an especially lavish dinner was set before him he had groaned aloud; when presented with the usual abstract of Treasury accounts, he had rewarded the Treasurer’s scrupulous labours with a bowlful of beans; and, delighted by Canus’s performance on the flute, he had drawn the magnificent sum of five denarii from his purse and pressed them on him.

  13. Galba’s accession was not entirely popular, as became obvious at the first theatrical show he attended. This was an Atellan farce, in which occurred the well-known song ‘Here comes Onesimus, down from the farm…’ The whole audience took up the chorus with fervour, repeating that particular line over and over again.

  14. His power and prestige were far greater while he was assuming control of the Empire than afterwards: though affording ample proof of his capacity to rule, he won less praise for his good acts than blame for his mistakes. Three Palace officials, nicknamed ‘the Imperial nursemaids’, always hovered around Galba; he seemed to be tied to their apron-strings. These were the greedy Titus Vinius, his late superior in Spain; the intolerably arrogant and stupid Cornelius Laco, an ex-assessor and Commander of the Guards; and his own freedman Icelus who, having recently acquired the surname of Marcianus and the right to wear a gold ring, now had his eye on the highest appointment available to a man of his rank, namely Laco’s. Galba let himself be so continuously guided by these experts in vice that he was far less consistent in his behaviour—at one time meaner and more bitter, at another more wasteful and indulgent—than an elected leader had any right to be in the circumstances.

  He sentenced men of all ranks to death without trial on the scantiest evidence, and seldom granted applications for Roman citizenship. Nor would he concede the prerogatives which could, in law, be enjoyed by every father of three children, except to an occasional claimant; and then for a limited period only. When the judges recommended the formation of a sixth judicial division, Galba was not content simply to turn this down, but cancelled the privilege, which Claudius had allowed them, of being excused court duties in the winter months or during the April New Year celebrations.

  15. It was generally believed that he intended to restrict all official appointment, both for knights and senators, to two-year periods, and choose only men who either did not want them or could be counted on to refuse. He annulled all Nero’s awards, letting the beneficiaries keep no more than a tenth part, enlisting the help of fifty knights to ensure that his order was obeyed, and ruling that if any actor or other performer had sold one of Nero’s gifts, spent the money, and was unable to refund it, the missing sum must be recovered from the buyers. Yet he denied his friends and freedmen nothing, with or without payment—immunity from taxes, an innocent party sentenced here, a culprit excused there. Moreover, when a popular demand arose for the punishment of Halotus and Tigellinus, undoubtedly the vilest of all Nero’s assistants, Galba not only protected their lives but gave Halotus a lucrative post and published an imperial edict charging the people with undeserved hostility towards Tigellinus.

  16. Thus he outraged all classes at Rome; but the most virulent hatred of him smouldered in the Army. Though a larger bonus than usual had been promised soldiers who had pledged their swords to Galba before his arrival in the City, he would not honour this commitment, but announced: ‘It is my custom to levy troops, not to buy them.’ This remark infuriated the troops everywhere; and he earned the Guards’ particular resentment by his dismissal of a number of them suspected of being in Nymphidius’s pay. The loudest grumbling came from camps in Greater Germany, where the men claimed that they had not been rewarded for their share in Virginius Rufus’s operations against Vindex. These, the first Roman troops bold enough to withhold their allegiance, refused on January 1st to take any oath except in the name of the Senate; informing the Guards, by messenger, that they were thoroughly at odds with this Spanish-appointed Emperor, and would the Guards please choose one who deserved the approval of the Army as a whole;

  17. Galba heard about this message and, thinking that he was being criticized for his childlessness rather than his senility, singled out from a group of his courtiers a handsome and well-bred voting man, Piso Frugi Lucianus, to whom he had already shown great favour, and appointed him perpetual heir to h
is name and property. Calling him ‘my son’, he led Piso into the Guards’ camp, and there formally and publicly adopted him—without, however, mentioning the word ‘bounty’, and thus giving Otho an excellent opportunity for his coup d’état five days later.

  18. A succession of signs had been portending Galba’s end in accurate detail. During his march on Rome people were being slaughtered right and left whenever he passed through a town; and once an ill-timed axe blow made a frenzied ox break its harness and charge Galba’s chariot, rearing up and drenching him with blood. Then, as he climbed out, one of his runners, pushed by the mob, nearly wounded him with a spear. When Galba first entered the City, and again when he took over the Palace, a slight earthquake shock was felt, and a sound arose as of bulls bellowing. Clearer presages followed. Galba had set aside from his treasures a pearl-mounted collar and certain other jewels, which were to decorate the Goddess Fortune’s shrine at Tusculum. But, impulsively deciding that they were too good for her, he consecrated them to Capitoline Venus instead. The very next night Fortune complained to him in a dream that she had been robbed of a gift intended for herself, and threatened to take back what she had already given him. At dawn, Galba hurried in terror towards Tusculum to expiate the fault revealed by his dream, having sent outriders ahead to prepare sacrifices; but when he arrived, found only warm ashes on the altar and an old black-cloaked fellow offering incense in a glass bowl, and wine in an earthenware cup—whereas decency called for a white-robed boy with a chalice and thurible of precious metal. It was noticed, too, that while he was sacrificing on the Kalends of January his garland fell off, and that the sacred chickens flew away when he went to read the auspices. Again, before Galba addressed the troops on the subject of Piso’s adoption, his aide forgot to set a camp chair on the Tribunal; and in the Senate House his curule seat was discovered to be facing the wall.

  19. When attending an early morning sacrifice, Galba was now repeatedly warned by a soothsayer to expect danger—murderers were about. Soon afterwards news came that Otho had seized the Guards’ camp. Though urged to hurry there in person, because his rank and presence could carry the day, Galba stayed where he was, bent on rallying to his standard the legionaries scattered throughout the City. He did, indeed, put on a linen corselet, but remarked that it would afford small protection against so many swords. Meanwhile, some of his supporters rashly assured him that peace had been made and the rebels arrested—their troops were on the way to surrender and pledge loyal allegiance. Completely deceived, Galba went forward to meet them in the utmost confidence. When a soldier claimed with pride to have killed Otho, he snapped: ‘On whose authority?’ and hurried on to the Forum. There a party of cavalrymen, clattering through the City streets and dispersing the mob, recognized him. These were his appointed assassins. They reined in for a moment, then charged at the solitary figure and cut him down.

  20. Just before his death Galba is said to have shouted out: ‘What is all this, comrades? I am yours, you are mine!’ and gone so far as to promise the bounty; but, according to the more usual account, he realized the soldiers’ intention, bared his neck and encouraged them to kill him. Oddly enough, no one present made any attempt at rescue, and all the Guards summoned to rally around him turned a deaf ear. A single company of Germans alone rushed to his assistance because he had once treated them with kindness while they were convalescents; not knowing the City well, however, they took a wrong turning, and arrived too late.

  Galba was murdered beside the Cutian pool, and left lying just as he fell. A private soldier returning from the grain issue set down his load and decapitated Galba’s body. He could not carry the head by the hair—this will be explained shortly—but stuffed it in his cloak; and presently brought it to Otho with his thumb thrust into the mouth. Otho handed the trophy to a crowd of servants and camp-boys, who stuck it on a spear and carried it scornfully round the camp chanting at intervals:

  ‘Galba, Galba, Cupid Galba,

  Please enjoy your vigour still!’

  Apparently Galba had enraged them by quoting Homer to someone who congratulated him on his robust appearance:

  So far my vigour undiminished is.

  A former freedman of Patrobius Neronianus bought the head for 100 gold pieces, but only to hurl it to the ground exactly where Patrobius had been murdered at Galba’s orders. In the end the Imperial steward Argivus removed it, with the trunk, to the tomb in Galba’s private gardens which lay beside the Aurelian Way.

  21. The following is a physical account of Servius Sulpicius Galba:

  Height: medium.

  Hair: none.

  Eyes: blue.

  Nose: hooked.

  Hands and Feet: twisted by arthritis or some such disease, which made him unable to manage parchment scrolls or wear shoes.

  Body: badly ruptured on the right side, requiring a truss for support.

  He was a heavy eater, in winter always breakfasting before daylight; and with a habit, at dinner, of passing on accumulated leavings to his attendants. A homosexual invert, he showed a decided preference for mature, sturdy men. It is said that when Icelus, one of his trusty bedfellows, brought the news of Nero’s death, Galba showered him with kisses and begged him to undress without delay; whereupon intimacy took place.

  22. Galba died at the age of seventy-three, before he had reigned seven months. The Senate at once voted that a column decorated with ships’ beaks should be set up in the Forum to accommodate his statue and mark the spot where he had fallen. Vespasian, however, subsequently vetoed this decree; he was convinced that Galba had sent agents from Spain to Judaea with orders for his assassination.

  VIII

  OTHO

  The seat of Otho’s ancient and distinguished family was the city of Ferentium; they could trace their origins back to an Etruscan royal house. His grandfather, Marcus Salvius Otho, the son of a Roman knight and a peasant girl—she may not even have been free-born—owed his place in the Senate, where he never rose above praetor’s rank, to the influence of his protectress Livia Augusta. He made a brilliant marriage; but his son, Lucius Otho, was generally supposed to be a bastard of his patron Tiberius, whom he closely resembled. This Lucius (father of the Emperor) had the reputation of being a strict disciplinarian, whether during his magistracies at Rome or his proconsulship in Africa, or when on special military missions. In Illyricum he went so far as to preside over the execution of those soldiers who, repenting of having been led by their officers to join Camillus’s rebellion,84 killed them; though he knew well enough that the Emperor Claudius himself had rewarded these same men with promotion for the act. Lucius Otho’s rough justice may have preserved his reputation, yet it certainly put him out of favour at Court until, by extorting information from a group of slaves, he contrived to uncover a plot against the Emperor’s life. Thereupon the Senate paid Lucius the unique honour of setting up his statue in the Palace; and Claudius, in raising him to patrician rank, is said to have panegyrized him as ‘one whose loyalty I can hardly dare hope that my children will emulate.’ Alba Terentia, his nobly-born wife, bore him two sons: the elder named Lucius Titanius, and the younger Marcus Otho, like his grandfather; also a daughter, who was betrothed in her girlhood to Germanicus’s son Drusus.

  2. Otho, the Emperor-to-be, was born on 25 April 32 A.D. while Camillus Arruntius and Domitius Ahenobarbus were Consuls. His early wildness earned him many a beating from his father; he is said to have been in the habit of wandering about the City at night and tossing in a blanket any drunk or disabled person who crossed his path. After his father’s death he advanced his fortunes by a pretended passion for an influential freedwoman at Court, though she was almost on her last legs; with her help he insinuated himself into the position of Nero’s leading favourite. This may have happened naturally enough, since Nero and Otho were birds of a feather, yet it has quite often been suggested that their relationship was decidedly unnatural. Be that as it may, Otho grew so powerful that he did not think twice before bringing one
of his own protégés, a Consul found guilty of extortion, back into the Senate House, and there thanking the Senators in anticipation for the pardon that they were to grant him, having accepted an immense bribe.

  3. As Nero’s confidant he had a finger in all his schemes, and on the day chosen by the Emperor for murdering his own mother, threw everyone off the scent by inviting them both to an exceptionally elegant luncheon party. Otho was asked to become the protector of Poppaea Sabina—who had been taken by Nero from her husband to be his mistress—and they went through a form of marriage together. However, he not only enjoyed Poppaea, but conceived so deep a passion for her that he would not tolerate even Nero as a rival; we have every reason to believe the story of his rebuffing, first, the messengers sent by Nero to fetch Poppaea, and then Nero himself, who was left on the wrong side of the bedroom door, alternately threatening and pleading for his rights in the lady. Fear of scandal alone kept Nero from doing more than annul the marriage and banish Otho to Lusitania as its Governor-general. So the following lampoon went the rounds: