’Nor in Galba’s successor either is there any hope for you.  Galba 38 has seen to that.  He has recalled from exile the man whose avarice and sour temper he judged most like his own.  You witnessed for yourselves, my comrades, the extraordinary storm which signified Heaven’s abhorrence at that ill-starred adoption.  The Senate and People of Rome feel the same.  They are counting on your courage.  You alone can give strength to the right policy:  it is powerless without you, however good it be.  It is not to war and danger that I call you.  All the troops are with us.  That single plain-clothes cohort[64] is no longer a defence to Galba, but a hindrance.  When once they have caught sight of you, when once they come to take their orders from me, the only quarrel between you will be who can do most to put me in their debt.  There is no room for delay in plans which cannot be commended until they are put into action.’

Otho then gave orders to open the arsenal.  The soldiers immediately seized their arms in such haste that all the ordinary distinctions of the service were neglected:  neither Guards nor Legionaries carried their own arms:[65] in the confusion they took the helmets and shields of the auxiliaries.  There were no tribunes or centurions to encourage them:  each man followed his own lead, and the rascals found their chief incentive in the consternation of the loyal.  As the riot 39 increased, Piso, alarmed by the din of their shouts, which could be heard even in the city, had overtaken Galba, who had meanwhile left the palace and was approaching the Forum.  Marius Celsus had also brought back no good news.  Some were for returning to the palace, others for seeking the shelter of the Capitol, many for seizing the Rostra.  The majority merely disagreed with other people’s proposals, and, as so often happens in these disasters, the best course always seemed the one for which it was now too late.  It is said that Laco, without Galba’s knowledge, proposed the assassination of Titus Vinius, either with the idea that his execution would be a sop to the soldiers, or because he believed him Otho’s accomplice, or, as a last alternative, hatred may have been his motive.  However, the time and the place both bred scruples; when killing once begins it is difficult to set a limit:  besides, their plans were upset by the arrival of terrified messengers, by the continual desertion of their supporters, and by a general waning of enthusiasm even among those who at first had been the keenest to display their loyalty and courage.

Galba was driven hither and thither by the tide of the surging 40 mob.  The temples and public buildings[66] were crowded with spectators, who viewed a sorry scene.  No shouts came from the crowd:  astonishment was on their faces, and their ears open to every sound.  There was neither uproar nor quiet, but the silence of strong emotion and alarm.  However, a report reached Otho that the populace was arming.  He bade his men fly