The Lives of the Twelve Caesars
By C. Suetonius Tranquillus;
The Translation of Alexander Thomson, M.D. revised and corrected by T.Forester, Esq., A.M.
Julius Caesar | Augustus | Tiberius | Caligula | Claudius | Nero | Galba | Otho | Vitellius | Vespasian | Titus | Domitian
Galba Notes and Footnotes
Galba was, for a private man, the most wealthy of any who had ever aspired to the imperial dignity. He valued himself upon his being descended from the family of the Servii, but still more upon his relation to Quintus Catulus Capitolinus, celebrated for integrity and virtue. He was likewise distantly related to Livia, the wife of Augustus; by whose interest he was preferred from the station which he held in the palace, to the dignity of consul; and who left him a great legacy at her death. His parsimonious way of living, and his aversion to all superfluity or excess, were construed into avarice as soon as he became emperor; whence Plutarch observes, that the pride which he took in his temperance and economy was unseasonable. While he endeavoured to reform the profusion in the public expenditure, which prevailed in the reign of Nero, he ran into the opposite extreme; and it is objected to him by some historians, that he maintained not the imperial dignity in a degree consistent even with decency. He was not sufficiently attentive either to his own security or the tranquillity of the state, when he refused to pay the soldiers the donative which he had promised them. This breach of faith seems to be the only act in his life that affects his integrity; and it contributed more to his ruin than even the odium which he incurred by the open venality and rapaciousness of his favourites, particularly Vinius.Footnotes:
[639] Veii; see the note, NERO, c. xxxix.[640] The conventional term for what is most commonly known as,
"The Laurel, meed of mighty conquerors, And poets sage,"--Spenser's Faerie Queen.
is retained throughout the translation. But the tree or shrub which had this distinction among the ancients, the Laurus nobilis of botany, the Daphne of the Greeks, is the bay-tree, indigenous in Italy, Greece, and the East, and introduced into England about 1562. Our laurel is a plant of a very different tribe, the Prunes lauro-cerasus, a native of the Levant and the Crimea, acclimated in England at a later period than the bay.
[641] The Temple of the Caesars is generally supposed to be that dedicated by Julius Caesar to Venus genitrix, from whom the Julian family pretended to derive their descent. See JULIUS, c. lxi.; AUGUSTUS, c. ci.
[642] A.U.C. 821.
[643] The Atrium, or Aula, was the court or hall of a house, the entrance to which was by the principal door. It appears to have been a large oblong square, surrounded with covered or arched galleries. Three sides of the Atrium were supported by pillars, which, in later times, were marble. The side opposite to the gate was called Tablinum; and the other two sides, Alae. The Tablinum contained books, and the records of what each member of the family had done in his magistracy. In the Atrium the nuptial couch was erected; and here the mistress of the family, with her maid-servants, wrought at spinning and weaving, which, in the time of the ancient Romans, was their principal employment.
[644] He was consul with L. Aurelius Cotta, A.U.C. 610.
[645] A.U.C. 604.
[646] A.U.C. 710.
[647] A.U.C 775.
[648] A.U.C. 608.
[649] Caius Sulpicius Galba, the emperor's brother, had been consul A.U.C. 774.
[650] A.U.C. 751.
[651] Now Fondi, which, with Terracina, still bearing its original name, lie on the road to Naples. See TIBERIUS, cc. v. and xxxix.
[652] Livia Ocellina, mentioned just before.
[653] A.U.C. 751.
[654] The widow of the emperor Augustus.
[655] Suetonius seems to have forgotten, that, according to his own testimony, this legacy, as well as those left by Tiberius, was paid by Caligula. "Legata ex testamento Tiberii; quamquam abolito, sed et Juliae Augustae, quod Tiberius suppresserat, cum fide, ac sine calumnia repraesentate persolvit." CALIG. c. xvi.
[656] A.U.C. 786.
[657] Caius Caesar Caligula. He gave the command of the legions in Germany to Galba.
[658] "Scuto moderatus;" another reading in the parallel passage of Tacitus is scuto immodice oneratus, burdened with the heavy weight of a shield.
[659] It would appear that Galba was to have accompanied Claudius in his expedition to Britain; which is related before, CLAUDIUS, c. xvii.
[660] It has been remarked before, that the Cantabria of the ancients is now the province of Biscay.
[661] Now Carthagena.
[662] A.U.C. 821.
[663] Now Corunna.
[664] Tortosa, on the Ebro.
[665] "Simus," literally, fiat-nosed, was a cant word, used for a clown; Galba being jeered for his rusticity, in consequence of his long retirement. See c. viii. Indeed, they called Spain his farm.
[666] The command of the pretorian guards.
[667] In the Forum. See AUGUSTUS, c. lvii.
[668] II. v. 254.
[669] A.U.C. 822.
