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tribune or centurion encouraged them, every man acted on his own impulse and guidance,
and the vilest found their chief incitement in the dejection of the good.
Meanwhile, appalled by the roar of the increasing sedition and by the shouts which reached
the city, Piso had overtaken Galba, who in the interval had quitted the palace, and was
approaching the Forum. Already Marius Celsus had brought back discouraging tidings. And
now some advised that the Emperor should return to the palace, others that he should make
for the Capitol, many again that he should occupy the Rostra, though most did but oppose the
opinions of others, while, as ever happens in these ill-starred counsels, plans for which the
opportunity had slipped away seemed the best. It is said that Laco, without Galba's
knowledge, meditated the death of Vinius, either hoping by this execution to appease the fury
of the soldiers, or believing him to be an accomplice of Otho, or, it may be, out of mere hatred.
The time and the place however made him hesitate; he knew that a massacre once begun is
not easily checked. His plan too was disconcerted by a succession of alarming tidings, and the
desertion of immediate adherents. So languid was now the zeal of those who had at first been
eager to display their fidelity and courage.
Galba was hurried to and fro with every movement of the surging crowd; the halls and temples
all around were thronged with spectators of this mournful sight. Not a voice was heard from
the people or even from the rabble. Everywhere were terror-stricken countenances, and ears
turned to catch every sound. It was a scene neither of agitation nor of repose, but there
reigned the silence of profound alarm and profound indignation. Otho however was told that
they were arming the mob. He ordered his men to hurry on at full speed, and to anticipate the
danger. Then did Roman soldiers rush forward like men who had to drive a Vologeses or
Pacorus from the ancestral throne of the Arsacidae, not as though they were hastening to
murder their aged and defenceless Emperor. In all the terror of their arms, and at the full
speed of their horses, they burst into the Forum, thrusting aside the crowd and trampling on
the Senate. Neither the sight of the Capitol, nor the sanctity of the overhanging temples, nor
the thought of rulers past or future, could deter them from committing a crime, which any one
succeeding to power must avenge.
When this armed array was seen to approach, the standard-bearer of the cohort that escorted
Galba (he is said to have been one Atilius Vergilio) tore off and dashed upon the ground
Galba's effigy. At this signal the feeling of all the troops declared itself plainly for Otho. The
Forum was deserted by the flying populace. Weapons were pointed against all who hesitated.
Near the lake of Curtius, Galba was thrown out of his litter and fell to the ground, through the
alarm of his bearers. His last words have been variously reported according as men hated or
admired him. Some have said that he asked in a tone of entreaty what wrong he had done,
and begged a few days for the payment of the donative. The more general account is, that he
voluntarily offered his neck to the murderers, and bade them haste and strike, if it seemed to
be for the good of the Commonwealth. To those who slew him mattered not what he said.
About the actual murderer nothing is clearly known. Some have recorded the name of
Terentius, an enrolled pensioner, others that of Lecanius; but it is the current report that one
Camurius, a soldier of the 15th legion, completely severed his throat by treading his sword
down upon it. The rest of the soldiers foully mutilated his arms and legs, for his breast was
protected, and in their savage ferocity inflicted many wounds even on the headless trunk.
They next fell on T. Vinius; and in his case also it is not known whether the fear of instant
death choked his utterance, or whether he cried out that Otho had not given orders to slay
him. Either he invented this in his terror, or he thus confessed his share in the conspiracy. His
life and character incline us rather to believe that he was an accomplice in the crime which he
certainly caused. He fell in front of the temple of the Divine Julius, and at the first blow, which
struck him on the back of the knee; immediately afterwards Julius Carus, a legionary, ran him
through the body.
A noble example of manhood was on that day witnessed by our age in Sempronius Densus.
He was a centurion in a cohort of the Praetorian Guard, and had been appointed by Galba to
escort Piso. Rushing, dagger in hand, to meet the armed men, and upbraiding them with their
crime, he drew the attention of the murderers on himself by his exclamations and gestures,
and thus gave Piso, wounded as he was, an opportunity of escape. Piso made his way to the
temple of Vesta, where he was admitted by the compassion of one of the public slaves, who
concealed him in his chamber. There, not indeed through the sanctity of the place or its
worship, but through the obscurity of his hiding-place, he obtained a respite from instant [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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