VI. Filling the great offices before the age required for it by law, during
his praetorship, at the celebration of games in honour of the goddess Flora, he
presented the new spectacle of elephants walking upon ropes. He was then
governor of the province of Aquitania for near a year, and soon afterwards took
the consulship in the usual course, and held it for six months.
It so happened that he succeeded L. Domitius, the
father of Nero, and was succeeded by Salvius Otho, father to the emperor of that
name; so that his holding it between the sons of these two men, looked like a
presage of his future advancement to the empire. Being appointed by Caius Caesar
to supersede Gaetulicus in his command, the day after his joining the legions,
he put a stop to their plaudits in a public spectacle, by issuing an order,
"That they should keep their hands under their cloaks." Immediately upon which,
the following verse became very common in the camp:
Disce, miles, militare: Galba est, non Gaetulicus.
Learn, soldier, now in arms to use your hands,
'Tis Galba, not Gaetulicus, commands.
With equal strictness, he would allow of no petitions for leave of absence
from the camp. He hardened the soldiers, both old and young, by constant
exercise; and having quickly reduced within their own limits the barbarians who
had made inroads into Gaul, upon Caius's coming into Germany, he so far
recommended himself and his army to that emperor's approbation, that, amongst
the innumerable troops drawn from all the provinces of the empire, none met with
higher commendation, or greater rewards from him. He likewise distinguished
himself by heading an escort, with a shield in his hand,
and running at the side of the emperor's chariot
twenty miles together.