Galba

It was Nymphidius Sabinus, prefect of the court guard along with Tigellinus, as I have already stated,[*](Probably in the lost Life of Nero.) who, when Nero’s case was altogether desperate, and it was clear that he was going to run away to Egypt, persuaded the soldiery, as though Nero were no longer there but had already fled, to proclaim Galba emperor,

and promised as largess seventy-five hundred drachmas apiece for the court, or praetorian, guards, as they were called, and twelve hundred and fifty drachmas[*](Plutarch uses the Greek word drachma for the corresponding Roman denarius, a silver coin about equivalent to the franc. But a Roman writer would reckon by sestertii, the sestertius being worth about a quarter of the denarius.) for those in service outside of Rome, a sum which it was impossible to raise without inflicting ten thousand times more evils upon the world than those inflicted by Nero.

This promise was at once the death of Nero, and soon afterwards of Galba: the one the soldiers abandoned to his fate in order to get their reward, the other they killed because they did not get it. Then, in trying to find someone who would give them as high a price, they destroyed themselves in a succession of revolts and treacheries before their expectations were satisfied. Now, the accurate and circumstantial narration of these events belongs to formal history; but it is my duty also not to omit such incidents as are worthy of mention in the deeds and fates of the Caesars.

That Sulpicius Galba was the richest private person who ever came to the imperial throne, is generally admitted; moreover, his connection with the noble house of the Servii gave him great prestige, although he prided himself more on his relationship to Catulus, who was the foremost man in his time in virtue and reputation, even if he gladly left to others the exercise of greater power.

Galba was also somehow related to Livia, the wife of Augustus Caesar, and therefore, at the instance of Livia, he was made consul[*](In 33 A.D.) by the emperor. We are told also that he commanded an army in Germany with distinction, and that when he was pro-consul of Africa,[*](In 45 A.D.) he won such praise as few have done. But his simple and contented way of living, the sparing hand with which he dealt out money, always avoiding excess, were counted unto him, when he became emperor, as parsimony, so that the reputation which he bore for moderation and self-restraint was an insipid sort of thing.