By C. Suetonius Tranquillus; To which are added, his Lives of the
Grammarians, Rhetoricians, and Poets.
Translation by Alexander Thomson, M.D.; Revised and corrected by T.Forester, Esq., A.M.
Annotation of text copyright ©2007 David Trumbull, Agathon Associates. All Rights Reserved.
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Otho, c.A.D. 32-69; ruled A.D. 69
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A. SALVIUS OTHO.
I. The ancestors of Otho were originally of the town of Ferentum, of an
ancient and honourable family, and, indeed, one of the most considerable in
Etruria. His grandfather, M. Salvius Otho (whose father was a Roman knight, but
his mother of mean extraction, for it is not certain whether she was free-born),
by the favour of Livia Augusta, in whose house he had his education, was made a
senator, but never rose higher than the praetorship. His father, Lucius Otho,
was by the mother's side nobly descended, allied to several great families, and
so dearly beloved by Tiberius, and so much resembled him in his features, that
most people believed Tiberius was his father. He behaved with great strictness
and severity, not only in the city offices, but in the pro-consulship of Africa,
and some extraordinary commands in the army. He had the courage to punish with
death some soldiers in Illyricum, who, in the disturbance attempted by Camillus,
upon changing their minds, had put their generals to the sword, as promoters of
that insurrection against Claudius. He ordered the execution to take place in
the front of the camp, and under his own eyes; though he knew they had been
advanced to higher ranks in the army by Claudius, on that very account. By this
action he acquired fame, but lessened his favour at court; which, however, he
soon recovered, by discovering to Claudius a design upon his life, carried on by
a Roman knight, and which he had learnt from some of his slaves. For
the senate ordered a statue of him to be erected in the palace; an honour which
had been conferred but upon very few before him. And Claudius advanced him to
the dignity of a patrician, commending him, at the same time, in the highest
terms, and concluding with these words: "A man, than whom I don't so much
as wish to have children that should be better." He had two sons by a very noble
woman, Albia Terentia, namely; Lucius Titianus, and a younger called Marcus, who
had the same cognomen as himself. He had also a daughter, whom he contracted to
Drusus, Germanicus's son, before she was of marriageable age.
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II. The emperor Otho was born upon the fourth of the calends of May [28th
April], in the consulship of Camillus Aruntius and Domitius Aenobarbus.
He was from his earliest youth so riotous and wild,
that he was often severely scourged by his father. He was said to run about in
the night-time, and seize upon any one he met, who was either drunk or too
feeble to make resistance, and toss him in a blanket.
After his father's death, to make his court the more
effectually to a freedwoman about the palace, who was in great favour, he
pretended to be in love with her, though she was old, and almost decrepit.
Having by her means got into Nero's good graces, he soon became one of the
principal favourites, by the congeniality of his disposition to that of the
emperor or, as some say, by the reciprocal practice of mutual pollution. He had
so great a sway at court, that when a man of consular rank was condemned for
bribery, having tampered with him for a large sum of money, to procure his
pardon; before he had quite effected it, he scrupled not to introduce him into
the senate, to return his thanks.
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III. Having, by means of this woman, insinuated himself into all the
emperor's secrets, he, upon the day designed for the murder of his mother,
entertained them both at a very splendid feast, to prevent suspicion. Poppaea
Sabina, for whom Nero entertained such a violent passion that he had taken her
from her husband /1/ and entrusted her to him, he received, and went through
the form of marrying her. And not satisfied with obtaining her favours, he loved
her so extravagantly, that he could not with patience bear Nero for his rival.
It is certainly believed that he not only refused admittance to those who were
sent by Nero to fetch her, but that, on one occasion, he shut him out, and
kept him standing before the door, mixing prayers and menaces in vain, and
demanding back again what was entrusted to his keeping. His pretended marriage,
therefore, being dissolved, he was sent lieutenant into Lusitania. This
treatment of him was thought sufficiently severe, because harsher proceedings
might have brought the whole farce to light, which, notwithstanding, at last
came out, and was published to the world in the following distich:—
Cur Otho mentitus sit, quaeritis, exul honore?
Uxoris moechus caeperat esse suae.
You ask why Otho's banish'd? Know, the cause
Comes not within the verge of vulgar laws.
Against all rules of fashionable life,
The rogue had dared to sleep with his own wife.
He governed the province in quality of quaestor for ten years, with singular
moderation and justice.
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IV. As soon as an opportunity of revenge offered, he readily joined in
Galba's enterprises, and at the same time conceived hopes of obtaining the
imperial dignity for himself. To this he was much encouraged by the state of the
times, but still more by the assurances given him by Seleucus, the astrologer,
who, having formerly told him that he would certainly out-live Nero, came to him
at that juncture unexpectedly, promising him again that he should succeed to the
empire, and that in a very short time. He, therefore, let slip no opportunity of
making his court to every one about him by all manner of civilities. As often as
he entertained Galba at supper, he distributed to every man of the cohort which
attended the emperor on guard, a gold piece; endeavouring likewise to oblige the
rest of the soldiers in one way or another. Being chosen an arbitrator by one
who had a dispute with his neighbour about a piece of land, he bought it, and
gave it him; so that now almost every body thought and said, that he was the
only man worthy of succeeding to the empire.
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V. He entertained hopes of being adopted by Galba, and expected it every day.
But finding himself disappointed, by Piso's being preferred before him, he
turned his thoughts to obtaining his purpose by the use of violence; and to this
he was instigated, as well by the greatness of his debts, as by resentment
at Galba's conduct towards him. For he did not conceal his conviction, "that he
could not stand his ground unless he became emperor, and that it signified
nothing whether he fell by the hands of his enemies in the field, or of his
creditors in the Forum." He had a few days before squeezed out of one of the
emperor's slaves a million of sesterces for procuring him a stewardship; and
this was the whole fund he had for carrying on so great an enterprise. At first
the design was entrusted to only five of the guard, but afterwards to ten
others, each of the five naming two. They had every one ten thousand sesterces
paid down, and were promised fifty thousand more. By these, others were drawn
in, but not many; from a confident assurance, that when the matter came to the
crisis, they should have enough to join them.
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VI. His first intention was, immediately after the departure of Piso, to
seize the camp, and fall upon Galba, whilst he was at supper in the palace; but
he was restrained by a regard for the cohort at that time on duty, lest he
should bring too great an odium upon it; because it happened that the same
cohort was on guard before, both when Caius [Caligula] was slain, and Nero deserted. For
some time afterwards, he was restrained also by scruples about the omens, and by
the advice of Seleucus. Upon the day fixed at last for the enterprise, having
given his accomplices notice to wait for him in the Forum near the temple of
Saturn, at the gilded mile-stone /2/,
he went in the morning to pay his respects to Galba;
and being received with a kiss as usual, he attended him at sacrifice, and heard
the predictions of the augur. A freedman of his, then bringing him word that
the architects were come, which was the signal agreed upon, he withdrew, as if
it were with a design to view a house upon sale, and went out by a back-door of
the palace to the place appointed. Some say he pretended to be seized with an
ague fit, and ordered those about him to make that excuse for him, if he was
inquired after. Being then quickly concealed in a woman's litter, he made the
best of his way for the camp. But the bearers growing tired, he got out, and
began to run. His shoe becoming loose, he stopped again, but being immediately
raised by his attendants upon their shoulders, and unanimously saluted by the
title of EMPEROR, he came amidst auspicious acclamations and drawn swords into
the Principia in the camp; all who met him joining in the cavalcade,
as if they had been privy to the design. Upon this, sending some soldiers to
dispatch Galba and Piso, he said nothing else in his address to the soldiery, to
secure their affections, than these few words: "I shall be content with whatever
ye think fit to leave me."
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VII. Towards the close of the day, he entered the senate, and after he had
made a short speech to them, pretending that he had been seized in the streets,
and compelled by violence to assume the imperial authority, which he designed to
exercise in conjunction with them, he retired to the palace. Besides other
compliments which he received from those who flocked about him to congratulate
and flatter him, he was called Nero by the mob, and manifested no intention of
declining that cognomen. Nay, some authors relate, that he used it in his
official acts, and the first letters he sent to the governors of
provinces. He suffered all his images and statues to be replaced, and restored
his procurators and freedmen to their former posts. And the first writing which
he signed as emperor, was a promise of fifty millions of sesterces to finish the
Golden-house /3/. He is said to have been greatly frightened that night
in his sleep, and to have groaned heavily; and being found, by those who came
running in to see what the matter was, lying upon the floor before his bed, he
endeavoured by every kind of atonement to appease the ghost of Galba, by which
he had found himself violently tumbled out of bed. The next day, as he was
taking the omens, a great storm arising, and sustaining a grievous fall, he
muttered to himself from time to time:
Ti gar moi kai makrois aulois;
What business have I the loud trumpets to sound!
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VIII. About the same time, the armies in Germany took an oath to Vitellius as
emperor. Upon receiving this intelligence, he advised the senate to send thither
deputies, to inform them, that a prince had been already chosen; and to persuade
them to peace and a good understanding. By letters and messages, however, he
offered Vitellius to make him his colleague in the empire, and his son-in-law.
But a war being now unavoidable, and the generals and troops sent forward by
Vitellius, advancing, he had a proof of the attachment and fidelity of the
pretorian guards, which had nearly proved fatal to the senatorian order. It had
been judged proper that some arms should be given out of the stores, and
conveyed to the fleet by the marine troops. While they were employed in fetching
these from the camp in the night, some of the guards suspecting treachery,
excited a tumult; and suddenly the whole body, without any of their officers at
their head, ran to the palace, demanding that the entire senate should be put to
the sword; and having repulsed some of the tribunes who endeavoured to
stop them, and slain others, they broke, all bloody as they were, into the
banquetting room, inquiring for the emperor; nor would they quit the place until
they had seen him. He now entered upon his expedition against Vitellius with
great alacrity, but too much precipitation, and without any regard to the
ominous circumstances which attended it. For the Ancilia
had been taken out of the temple of Mars, for the usual
procession, but were not yet replaced; during which interval it had of old been
looked upon as very unfortunate to engage in any enterprise. He likewise set
forward upon the day when the worshippers of the Mother of the gods
begin their lamentations and wailing. Besides these,
other unlucky omens attended him. For, in a victim offered to Father Dis,
he found the signs such as upon all other occasions
are regarded as favourable; whereas, in that sacrifice, the contrary intimations
are judged the most propitious. At his first setting forward, he was stopped by
inundations of the Tiber; and at twenty miles' distance from the city, found the
road blocked up by the fall of houses.
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IX. Though it was the general opinion that it would be proper to protract the
war, as the enemy were distressed by famine and the straitness of their
quarters, yet he resolved with equal rashness to force them to an engagement as
soon as possible; whether from impatience of prolonged anxiety, and in the hope
of bringing matters to an issue before the arrival of Vitellius, or because he
could not resist the ardour of the troops, who were all clamorous for battle. He
was not, however, present at any of those which ensued, but stayed behind at
Brixellum. He had the advantage in three slight engagements, near
the Alps, about Placentia, and a place called Castor's;
but was, by a fraudulent stratagem of the enemy,
defeated in the last and greatest battle, at Bedriacum.
For, some hopes of a conference being given, and the
soldiers being drawn up to hear the conditions of peace declared, very
unexpectedly, and amidst their mutual salutations, they were obliged to stand to
their arms. Immediately upon this he determined to put an end to his life, more,
as many think, and not without reason, out of shame, at persisting in a struggle
for the empire to the hazard of the public interest and so many lives, than from
despair, or distrust of his troops. For he had still in reserve, and in full
force, those whom he had kept about him for a second trial of his fortune, and
others were coming up from Dalmatia, Pannonia, and Moesia; nor were the troops
lately defeated so far discouraged as not to be ready, even of themselves, to
run all risks in order to wipe off their recent disgrace.
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X. My father, Suetonius Lenis /4/,
was in this battle, being at that time an
angusticlavian tribune in the thirteenth legion. He used frequently to say, that
Otho, before his advancement to the empire, had such an abhorrence of civil war,
that once, upon hearing an account given at table of the death of Cassius and
Brutus, he fell into a trembling, and that he never would have interfered with
Galba, but that he was confident of succeeding in his enterprise without a war.
Moreover, that he was then encouraged to despise life by the example of a common
soldier, who bringing news of the defeat of the army, and finding that he met
with no credit, but was railed at for a liar and a coward, as if he had run away
from the field of battle, fell upon his sword at the emperor's feet; upon the
sight of which, my father said that Otho cried out, "that he would expose to no
farther danger such brave men, who had deserved so well at his hands." Advising
therefore his brother, his brother's son, and the rest of his friends, to
provide for their security in the best manner they could, after he had embraced
and kissed them, he sent them away; and then withdrawing into a private room by
himself, he wrote a letter of consolation to his sister, containing two sheets.
He likewise sent another to Messalina, Nero's widow, whom he had intended to
marry, committing to her the care of his relics and memory. He then burnt all
the letters which he had by him, to prevent the danger and mischief that might
otherwise befall the writers from the conqueror. What ready money he had, he
distributed among his domestics.
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XI. And now being prepared, and just upon the point of dispatching himself,
he was induced to suspend the execution of his purpose by a great tumult which
had broken out in the camp. Finding that some of the soldiers who were making
off had been seized and detained as deserters, "Let us add," said he, "this
night to our life." These were his very words.
He then gave orders that no violence should be offered to any one; and
keeping his chamber-door open until late at night, he allowed all who pleased
the liberty to come and see him. At last, after quenching his thirst with a
draught of cold water, he took up two poniards, and having examined the points
of both, put one of them under his pillow, and shutting his chamber-door, slept
very soundly, until, awaking about break of day, he stabbed himself under the
left pap. Some persons bursting into the room upon his first groan, he at one
time covered, and at another exposed his wound to the view of the bystanders,
and thus life soon ebbed away. His funeral was hastily performed, according to
his own order, in the thirty-eighth year of his age, and ninety-fifth day of his
reign.
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XII. The person and appearance of Otho no way corresponded to the great
spirit he displayed on this occasion; for he is said to have been of low
stature, splay-footed, and bandy-legged. He was, however, effeminately nice in
the care of his person: the hair on his body he plucked out by the roots; and
because he was somewhat bald, he wore a kind of peruke, so exactly fitted to his
head, that nobody could have known it for such. He used to shave every day, and
rub his face with soaked bread; the use of which he began when the down first
appeared upon his chin, to prevent his having any beard. It is said likewise
that he celebrated publicly the sacred rites of Isis,
clad in a linen garment, such as is used by the
worshippers of that goddess. These circumstances, I imagine, caused the world to
wonder the more that his death was so little in character with his life. Many of
the soldiers who were present, kissing and bedewing with their tears his hands
and feet as he lay dead, and celebrating him as "a most gallant man, and an
incomparable emperor," immediately put an end to their own lives upon the spot,
not far from his funeral pile.
Many of those likewise who were at a distance, upon hearing the news of
his death, in the anguish of their hearts, began fighting amongst themselves,
until they dispatched one another. To conclude: the generality of mankind,
though they hated him whilst living, yet highly extolled him after his death;
insomuch that it was the common talk and opinion, "that Galba had been driven to
destruction by his rival, not so much for the sake of reigning himself, as of
restoring Rome to its ancient liberty."
Here Ends the Life of Otho, from The Twelve Caesars
by Suetonius
Dr. Alexander Thomson,
Essay appended to Suetonius's Otho .
It is remarkable, in the fortune of this emperor, that he owed both his
elevation and catastrophe to the inextricable embarrassments in which he was
involved; first, in respect of pecuniary circumstances, and next, of political.
He was not, so far as we can learn, a follower of any of the sects of
philosophers which justified, and even recommended suicide, in particular cases:
yet he perpetrated that act with extraordinary coolness and resolution; and,
what is no less remarkable, from the motive, as he avowed, of public expediency
only. It was observed of him, for many years after his death, that "none ever
died like Otho."
NOTES.
/1/
See Suetonius, Nero, 35.
/2/
The Milliare Aureum was a pillar of stone set up at the top of the Forum, from
which all the great military roads throughout Italy started, the distances to
the principal towns being marked upon it. Dio (lib. liv.) says that it was
erected by the emperor Augustus, when he was curator of the roads.
/3/
See Suetonius, Nero, 31.
/4/
There was, among Otho's generals, in this battle, another person of the name
of Suetonius, whose cognomen was Paulinus who is mentioned
by Plutarch (Life of Otho, 5);
with whom our author's father must not be confounded.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES.
Plutarch, Life of Otho.
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