Galba entered Rome. Had he shown himself open-handed, he might easily have won men’s hearts; but he gave offence on every side. He partly protected Nero’s companions from public animadversion, and partly punished them. Then he behaved like a miser. Economy was certainly necessary; but he overdid it, as he gave no donation whatever to the prætorians, and a very niggardly one to the troops which he had brought with him. He moreover displayed hatred and mistrust towards the prætorians, although he had dismissed his own soldiers, except a few whom he billeted in the city. The prætorians, being ten thousand strong, were masters of his life; so that he ought to have driven them out, and decimated them as accomplices in the cruelties of Nero. The most powerful person in the city, to the disgrace of the age, was M. Salvius Otho; a man without any illustrious ancestry, whose station was entirely owing to Nero’s favour; a coxcomb of the then world in the most disgusting sense, and this implied much more depravity in ancient times than in our days; the associate of many of the profligacies of Nero:—cruelty, however, cannot be laid to his charge with certainty. He was rich, pleasing, what is called amiable; and he had that affable manner, which could not but have the greatest influence upon the minds of the prætorians. These therefore saw in him the man who could make up to them for Nero, whom they began to miss more and more. Galba, who already knew that the German troops on the Upper Rhine under Cæcina and Fabius Valens had become mutinous, and would not acknowledge him, tried to strengthen himself by adopting Calpurnius Piso, a distinguished young Roman. But that choice was an unfortunate one, as Piso had nothing to recommend him, but his high descent and his spotless character. Had not Galba been weakened by old age, his government might have become quite praiseworthy; but he lost the affection of all good men, not only by his avarice, but also because justice was shamefully abused and sold under his name by his favourites Vinius, Laco, and Icelus. Otho had reckoned on being himself adopted; whatever choice therefore Galba might have made, it would have been his ruin, if it were not Otho: yet the old soldier had after all too much love for his country to choose him. By dint of deep dissimulation, Otho got the prætorians to declare themselves at the moment when he wanted to call upon them. This was done. The city being at that time quite open, the prætorians marched in, and went straight to the forum. Galba, who had appeared in person with Piso to restore tranquillity, was stabbed before the German troops could have been moved into the town; and Otho was proclaimed emperor.

The senate was still respectable enough to abhor this election; but yet nothing better was to be looked for from Vitellius, whom the troops on the German frontier had proclaimed: he was by far the more vulgar and worthless of the two. His beastly gluttony alone distinguished him; and it is quite inconceivable, how Galba could have given him the chief command of the troops in Germany. He had a sort of popularity from his father, who had been thrice consul and likewise censor: the latter must have been a goodnatured man; for though he disgraced himself by the most abject flattery to Claudius, he was an enemy to no one, and therefore enjoyed the favour of the people. This favour passed on to the son, who, however, spent the whole of his life in brutal sensuality and vulgarity. He was at that time already fifty-seven years old, nor could he be said to have made a better use of his youth: it is very likely that Cæcina and Valens merely wished to put him forward for the moment, as, they might afterwards get him out of the way, and decide which of them should succeed to the throne. Vitellius was profusely liberal to the soldiers: he flattered them by granting them everything, while old Galba wanted to allow them nothing but what was absolutely necessary. He marched forth against Italy; the quickness with which he approached shows the readiness with which the Roman soldiers could move, and also the excellence of the high roads. Otho raised an army; Vitellius met with resistance on the frontiers from the legions in Mœsia and Pannonia, who thought it presumptuous in the German troops to try and force an emperor upon them. On these therefore Otho could rely, and likewise on the armies in the East, where at that time there had been as yet no rising. Italy was then the most defenceless part of the whole empire, there being hardly any troops there but the prætorians: with these Otho took the field. Cæcina and Valens had already passed the Alps, before Otho with his hastily collected force had reached the Po. The first battle was in favour of his cause. Otho ought now to have protracted the war, as he had much greater resources and far more money, and he could also reckon on getting reinforcements; but to his misfortune, he resolved upon giving battle near Bedriacum, in the neighbourhood of Cremona, and there he was worsted. All was not, however, lost; yet Otho made up his mind to put an end to his life, telling those who survived him, to make their peace with the conqueror as they best could. People generally look upon this as the act of a noble-minded man, who does not wish blood to be shed for his honour; which is the view which Tacitus also seems to take: I cannot see anything in it but the act of a most effeminate soul, for which the effort of a long struggle, the suspense between fear and hope, is the hardest lot to bear. Such characters are not unseldom met with: as, for instance, persons who are very fond of money, will often rather forego a great deal, than bring upon themselves the worry of a troublesome lawsuit. Juvenal looks upon Otho’s deed with just as little respect. Nor has Tacitus in his heart thought higher of Otho than he really deserves; for we must indeed consider that when a great writer describes a truly tragical act, it may easily happen that he does it with an emotion which is widely different from his moral judgment. Otho died in his thirty-seventh year, on the ninety-fifth day after his proclamation. Galba had reigned seven or eight months.

Vitellius took possession of Rome, and of the palace of the Cæsars; and giving himself the appearance of an avenger of Galba, although he had himself rebelled against him, he caused upwards of a hundred prætorians to be put to death. Yet, leaving aside his contemptible character, things did not at first go on as badly as had been expected. Soon, however, (A. D. 70.) his tranquillity was disturbed by the news of the rising of the Mœsian legions: these were to have come to the aid of Otho, and had wished to do so; and they were now commanded by a most ambitious tribune, Antonius Primus. At the same time, he was informed that the Syrian and the Parthian legions, the former under T. Flavius Vespasianus, the latter under Licinius Mucianus, refused to acknowledge him. Yet both of these last-named insurrections were far off; both armies also had enough to do, the one with the Parthians, the other with the Jews, and they could not leave the country where they were without leaving the frontiers open to the inroads of the enemy. It is also quite inconceivable to me, how the legions could have been withdrawn from the Rhine to Italy, without the barbarians attacking the frontiers. There are some traces of treaties having been concluded; but that treaties should have been made at all, is the very thing which we cannot understand: it would seem that since the times of Caligula a peaceful intercourse had sprung up, and that the Germans had lost every longing for an offensive war. The tract of country between the Upper Rhine and the Upper Danube, may even then have been Roman, although the ditch with the rampart and palisades (limes) was not dug till a later period.

T. Flavius Vespasianus, who, with all his faults must be looked upon as the instaurator rei publicæ, was at that time engaged in the Jewish war. There is a dark stain upon him, which cannot be washed away; but otherwise his faults are very pardonable. The rebellion of the Jews had, even as early as the reign of Claudius, been stirred up by ill usage and usurpation. There are few struggles which so deserve the attention of posterity as this: I should like, on account of its awful greatness, to tell it at full length; but time forbids, and also what is most momentous in it belongs rather to Jewish than to Roman history. I refer you to Josephus, whose book, in spite of its many defects of language, is one of the most interesting historical works that have been left to us of antiquity. I also class it with Cæsar’s Commentaries among the most instructive, owing to the light which it throws on the tactics of the Romans, and their method of besieging places. Josephus was a Pharisee, and this he cannot throw off;—not such a bad one indeed as those of the gospel; but still the leaven of the Pharisees is in him;—besides which, he has an unbearable national vanity, to gratify which he distorts many a fact in the earlier history; this we can scarcely term anything else than falsifying. His numbers bespeak eastern magniloquence; they are evidently impossible. Everywhere he shows himself an Asiatic, notwithstanding all his Greek learning: for with the exception of some ever recurring mistakes, he writes very good Greek. He is generally spoken of as Flavius Josephus; and no doubt he was called Titus Flavius Josephus after the emperor who gave him his liberty and the Roman citizenship.

Vespasian was then with a strong army in Judæa, where the Jews were making a desperate and heroic resistance. He was of low origin: his grandfather was the first of his race who had somewhat risen from obscurity, and not being vain, he had no illustrious pedigree forged for him. He himself, being then in his sixtieth year, had passed through the evil times of Caligula, Claudius, and Nero, during which he had to put up with many a hardship: he had shared in the slavery of the world, and occasionally had to play the part of an involuntary slave. As a distinguished officer, he had risen step by step without a stain of cruelty or injustice upon him; which is so much the more to his honour, as he was so very fond of money. The cradle of his race was Nursia in the high Sabine mountains, whence also Sertorius came; there the old Italian stock had been preserved purest: to both of these applies Fronto’s expression Nursina durities. In the Roman army, he was generally known and respected.

Mucianus in Syria belonged to one of the highest Roman families, the Licinii, and he was also descended from the Mucii: yet he knew that high birth had lost its influence; besides which, he was effeminate, and had tact enough to feel that he was inferior to Vespasian: they were very different men. After having formerly been on bad terms, Mucianus now held out his hand to the stern, harsh Vespasian. Mucianus, without being bad, had caught the vices of his set; he had little ambition, and deemed it wiser to be under an emperor of his own choice. Vespasian, on the other hand, was free from the faults of the great world, having rather the virtues which are peculiar to the lower classes: he had acknowledged Galba; but after his death he began to think of taking the throne for himself, being conscious that he was fit for it. Yet there was no need for him to decide in the matter himself, as Antonius Primus, with the Mœsian legions, encountered and defeated the army of the generals of Vitellius near Cremona. In Rome, the insurrection had likewise already broken out. Here Vespasian’s brother, T. Flavius Sabinus, was præfect; and his younger son, Domitian, was kept as a sort of hostage. Against these Vitellius was at first irritated; then he was frightened, and wished to capitulate; after the battle of Cremona especially, he was quite mild: but when afterwards different symptoms showed themselves, he again veered round and wanted to arrest them. They fled to the Capitol, which, however, was taken, and for the second time since Sylla, burned to ashes: Domitian had a very narrow escape. At Rome, the anarchy was complete. When in those days a man wanted to descend from his throne, he was not able to save his life; for there were no convents then, as in the Byzantine period. Vespasian’s party had been gradually forming; and it gained strength owing to the successes of the victorious army, which straightway marched to Rome, where the maddest excesses were now committed on both sides. The conquerors took possession of the city without meeting with any resistance, and Vitellius was murdered.