Year of the Four Emperors
Galba
Galba - born 3BC and died AD69 was the first of the Four Emperor's to rule in AD69. However, his stint started 6 months earlier in AD68 when the position of Emperor came his way by luck rather than design. He had supported Julius Vindex's revolt against Nero but cautiously reversing his support after his defeat and suicide. It was only after Nero's suicide and support from a few influential senators including Otho did he decide to march on Rome and take the laurel. He became unpopular ealy in his rule, levying taxes, failing to reward the army that got him to Rome, reducing the power of the senators and falling out with Otho, the latter believing that he rather the Piso should be considered the rightful heir.
Tacitus puts his strictness into some understandable context. Galba wanted to rule and be respected on merit and not subterfuge, conspiracy or bribery. His failure to pay the donative to the army was explained this way. "I choose my soldiers, I do not buy them," [1]. Highminded he may have been but it was somewhat at odds with his own avarice.
Galba's choice of Piso as his successor seems to have been measured and well thought out without pressure or for personal gain. Tacitus gives a long first hand account of his speech to Piso, selecting him as his successor. He believed that Piso would be a staunch defender of Rome and would not allow the empire to fall back under the debauchery that pervaded during Nero's time.
Otho then undertook a conspiracy to assassinate Galba. The thought of yet another long period of exile for too painful. Worse still he believed that if and when things settled dopwn and Otho and Pison consolidated their power, he would be vulnerble to assassination. Therefore he decided to strike before he could be struck.
The conspirators falsely claimed that Otho had been put to death for conspiring against Galba. Galba was confused asking under whose authority Otho had been killed. He realized that this would put him under considerable pressure had the story been true. Some say that Galba was taken a back when the soldiers approached him with their swords drawn. "What do you mean, fellow-soldiers? I am yours, and you are mine [2]. Suetonius says that other writers relate that he was prepared for it. "Do your work, and strike, since you are resolved upon it.". Cassius Dio has Galba as equally perplexed by the attempt on his life. He was killed by a javelin while on his way back to the capitol. Mortally he wounded it said that his last words were "Why, what harm have I done?" [3]
Tacitus account is the more bloodthirsty of the three authors. 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. [4]
For proof of the deed the one of the soldiers severed his head but finding he had no hair to carry him by, stuck the head up his vest and later carried him rather like a bowling ball with his fingers jammed in his mouth. According to Suetonius, once Otho had done a positive id he gave the head to the slaves who stuck it on a spear and ran around the camp grounds with it. Tacitus adds There was, we are told, no death of which Otho heard with greater joy, no head which he surveyed with so insatiable a gaze...The body of Galba lay for a long time neglected, and subjected, through the license which the darkness permitted, to a thousand indignities, till Argius his steward, who had been one of his slaves, gave it a humble burial in his master's private gardens. His head, which the sutlers and camp-followers had fixed on a pole and mangled, was found only the next day in front of the tomb of Patrobius, a freedman of Nero's, whom Galba had executed. It was put with the body, which had by that time been reduced to ashes [5]
Galba inclined to the male sex with a preference for men of his own age. It is said that upon learning that he had succeeded in being hailed Emperor he had sex with his man servant. A homosexual invert, he showed a decided preference for mature, sturdy men. It is said that when Icelus, one of his trusty bed-fellows, brought the news of Nero's death, Galba showered him with kisses and begged him to undress without delay; whereupon intimacy took place. [6]
Otho
Otho came to prominence during Claudius' reign when he discovered a plot to assassinate the emperor. Before that he had been riotous youth according to Suetonius and would catch drunkards and tie them in a blanket. But it was not until his fates intertwined with Nero did he fame reach infamy. It was Otho who married the impossibly beautiful yet cunning Poppaea Sabina who was also desired by Nero. We know that Suetonius played around with the chronology of events to insinute that it was Poppaea who was the main protagonist for disposing of Nero's mother Agrippina. Inreality there was no way a three way affair between Otho, Nero and Poppaea could have lasted without someone being poisoned sooner rather than later. Therefore it is more likely that Nero took up with Poppaea slightly later than Nero. In any case Nero had Otho sent to Lusitania as governor so mthat he could pursue Poppaea without the nuisance of a histbad pooping up from time to time. In any case he seemed to take his poitiing to Lusitania with equanimity and ruled for ten years with a degree of good stewardship and justice. Nonetheless he fell behind Galba during his coup. Nero was out and given Galba's advanced age, believed he would be named successor in time. Disappointing, Galba named Piso and he set about a plot to have Piso and Galba murdered. The plan came to fruition and he was proclaimed emperor with a less than rousing acceptance. I shall be content with whatever ye think fit to leave me [7]. Likewise he pretended to the senate that he had no thought of being proclaimed emperor by them but those upset by Nero's demise rallied to his side and he took over the role although with some genuine sorrow and maybe fear for the way he had taken power. Likewise he acted in a very conciliatory way, although it was not in his nature to be so, in order to try and not alienate Vitellius
However, Rome was still in a midst of a civil war and the proclaimation of Emperor by Otho held little sway with the armies in Germany who advanced their man, Vitellius as the rightful emperor. Otho decided to grab the momentum and put a force together to meet the advancing troops. It is said that upon meeting Vitellius's troops he could have starved them into surrender over a protracted time but he decided to engage instead before Vitellius could join them. Tacitus suggests that it was Rome's most skillful general Suetonius Paullinus who gave this advice. Although Otho's forces had a upper hand in the initial battles, the anti-Otho factions and deliberately put out a weakened army and drew them into a final battle at Bedriacum. Otho had further taken the advice of Suetonius Paullinus that he should redraw from the field so that he could prepare for the running of the empire, Tacitus says That day first gave the death-blow to the party of Otho. Not only did a strong detachment of the Praetorian cohorts, of the bodyguard, and of the cavalry, depart with him, but the spirit of those who remained was broken, for the men suspected their generals, and Otho, who alone had the confidence of the soldiers, while he himself trusted in none but them, had left the generals' authority on a doubtful footing
Tacitus tries to make sense of the ever continuing spiral of civil war, emperors, murders and more civil war. While Galba was the accidental emperor both Otho and Vitellius ardently sought it out for themselves. Vitellius did not so much over throw Otho because he had killed Galba, he would have done it himslef had the opportunity arisen. The motives according to Tacitus are many and contradictory. As generals they had become prosperous, profligate and insolent. There were at the same time patriotic and plunderers. Conquerors and the conquered seldom make good bedfellows so what united the generals was their eagerness to wage war against each other. It mattered little what side you chose to fight on, only that you chose the side that would win.
Tacitus tells us that the roads were piled high with corpses. In fact higher than normal as there were no spoils in this war and no soldiers to ransom. And one point both sides considered a truce to allow the senate to choose an emperor. Suetonius was in favor of such a propostion as he felt that given his success in Britain, they might turn to him as the compromise candidate. The opportunity came and went and the fighting continued.
Otho seemed genuinely distressed by the civil war and committed suicide rather than put his considerable reserve army at Brixellum through another battle. "Would that this news were false, Caesar; for most gladly would I have died hadst thou been victor. As it is, I shall perish in any case, that no one may think that I fled hither to secure my own safety; but as for thee, consider what must be done, since the enemy will be here before long." With these words, he slew himself [8]. He made no demands for his life beyond not wanting the indignity of having his head severed as a pole finial as he had done to Galba. It may be ironic that he did not want the indignities that he meted out to others but it at least should be said that his sacrifice was a genuine attempt to steer Rome away from protracted civil war
Otho lasted as emperor just three months. He was 38 years old.
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Vitellius
| Preceded by Nero Galba Otho Vitellius |
Emperor of Rome AD69 |
Succeeded by Galba Otho Vitellius Vaspasian |
