when once the rumour began to leak
out an attempt at suppression only resulted in spreading it.

The tenth of January was a dreary wet day, and an extraordinary 18
storm of thunder and lightning showed the displeasure of Providence.
Such phenomena were regarded in old days as a sign for the suspension
of public business, but they did not deter Galba from proceeding to
the camp. Either he disregarded such things as the result of pure
chance or else he felt that the blows of fate may be foretold but not
forestalled. He addressed a crowded assembly of the soldiers with true
imperial brevity, stating simply that in adopting Piso he was
following the example of the sainted Augustus, and the old military
custom whereby each man chose another.[44] He was afraid that by
suppressing the news of the German rebellion he might only seem to
exaggerate the danger, so he voluntarily declared that the Fourth and
Twenty-second legions had been led by a few traitors into seditious
murmurings but no further, and would soon return to their allegiance.
He made no attempt to enhance his words either by eloquence or
largess. However, the tribunes and centurions and those of the
soldiers who stood nearest to him gave well-sounding answers. The rest
were sorry and silent, for the war seemed to have lost them the
largess that had always been usual even in peace. Everybody agrees
that they could have been won over had the parsimonious old emperor
made the least display of generosity. He was ruined by his strict
old-fashioned inflexibility, which seems too rigorous for these
degenerate days.

From the camp they proceeded to the senate, and Galba's speech to 19
its members was no fuller or finer than to the soldiers. Piso spoke
graciously, and there was no lack of support in the senate. Many
wished him well. Those who did not were the more effusive. The
majority were indifferent, but displayed a ready affability, intent on
their private speculations without thought of the country's good. No
other public action is reported of Piso during the four days which
intervened between his adoption and assassination.

FOOTNOTES:

[32] i.e. the emperor's finance agent in the province of
Belgica.

[33] Cp. chap. 6.

[34] A gold signet-ring was the sign of a free-born Roman
knight. Its grant to freedmen was an innovation of which
Tacitus disapproved.

[35] Tacitus here follows the story told by S