or Otho compliments
their vanity with the flattering titles of Italiae, Alumni, Romana were
juventus. Tacit. Hist. i. 84.]

[Footnote 9: In the siege of Rome by the Gauls. See Livy, v. 48.
Plutarch. in Camill. p. 143.]

The Praetorians had violated the sanctity of the throne by the atrocious
murder of Pertinax; they dishonored the majesty of it by their
subsequent conduct. The camp was without a leader, for even the praefect
Laetus, who had excited the tempest, prudently declined the public
indignation. Amidst the wild disorder, Sulpicianus, the emperor's
father-in-law, and governor of the city, who had been sent to the camp
on the first alarm of mutiny, was endeavoring to calm the fury of the
multitude, when he was silenced by the clamorous return of the
murderers, bearing on a lance the head of Pertinax. Though history has
accustomed us to observe every principle and every passion yielding to
the imperious dictates of ambition, it is scarcely credible that, in
these moments of horror, Sulpicianus should have aspired to ascend a
throne polluted with the recent blood of so near a relation and so
excellent a prince. He had already begun to use the only effectual
argument, and to treat for the Imperial dignity; but the more prudent of
the Praetorians, apprehensive that, in this private contract, they
should not obtain a just price for so valuable a commodity, ran out upon
the ramparts; and, with a loud voice, proclaimed that the Roman world
was to be disposed of to the best bidder by public auction. [10]

[Footnote 10: Dion, L. lxxiii. p. 1234. Herodian, l. ii. p. 63. Hist.
August p. 60. Though the three historians agree that it was in fact an
auction, Herodian alone affirms that it was proclaimed as such by the
soldiers.]

This infamous offer, the most insolent excess of military license,
diffused a universal grief, shame, and indignation throughout the city.
It reached at length the ears of Didius Julianus, a wealthy senator,
who, regardless of the public calamities, was indulging himself in the
luxury of the table. [11] His wife and his daughter, his freedmen and
his parasites, easily convinced him that he deserved the throne, and
earnestly conjured him to embrace so fortunate an opportunity. The vain
old man hastened to the Praetorian camp, where Sulpicianus was still in
treaty with the guards, and began to bid against him from the foot
of the rampart. The unworthy negotiation was transacted by faithful
emissarie