(416)
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 [670],
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 [671],
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 (417) 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.
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 [672].
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 [673].
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.
