Galba

The litter was upset at the place called Lacus Curtius, and there Galba tumbled out and lay in his corselet, while the soldiers ran up and struck at him. But he merely presented his neck to their swords, saying: Do your work, if this is better for the Roman people."

So, then, after receiving many wounds in his legs and arms, he was slain, as most writers state, by a certain Camurius, of the fifteenth legion. Some, however, ascribe his death to Terentius, others to Lecanius, and others still to Fabius Fabulus, who, they say, cut off Galba’s head and was carrying it wrapped in his cloak, since its baldness made it difficult to grasp;

then, since his companions would not suffer him to hide his deed of valour, but insisted on his displaying it to all eyes, he impaled on his spear and thrust on high the head of an aged man, who had been a temperate ruler, a high priest, and a consul, and ran with it, like a bacchanal,[*](So the Bacchanals with the head of Pentheus (Euripides, Bacchae, 1153 ff).) whirling about often, and brandishing the spear all dripping with blood. But Otho, as they say, when the head was brought to him, cried out: This is nothing, fellow-soldiers; show me the head of Piso.