as not in the remotest
degree allied to the family of the Caesars, but, without doubt, of very
noble extraction, being descended from a great and ancient family; for he
always used to put amongst his other titles, upon the bases of his
statues, his being great-grandson to Q. Catulus Capitolinus. And when he
came to (401) be emperor, he set up the images of his ancestors in the
hall [643] of the palace; according to the inscriptions on which, he
carried up his pedigree on the father's side to Jupiter; and by the
mother's to Pasiphae, the wife of Minos.

III. To give even a short account of the whole family, would be tedious.
I shall, therefore, only slightly notice that branch of it from which he
was descended. Why, or whence, the first of the Sulpicii who had the
cognomen of Galba, was so called, is uncertain. Some are of opinion,
that it was because he set fire to a city in Spain, after he had a long
time attacked it to no purpose, with torches dipped in the gum called
Galbanum: others said he was so named, because, in a lingering disease,
he made use of it as a remedy, wrapped up in wool: others, on account of
his being prodigiously corpulent, such a one being called, in the
language of the Gauls, Galba; or, on the contrary, because he was of a
slender habit of body, like those insects which breed in a sort of oak,
and are called Galbae. Sergius Galba, a person of consular rank [644],
and the most eloquent man of his time, gave a lustre to the family.
History relates, that, when he was pro-praetor of Spain, he perfidiously
put to the sword thirty thousand Lusitanians, and by that means gave
occasion to the war of Viriatus [645]. His grandson being incensed
against Julius Caesar, whose lieutenant he had been in Gaul, because he
was through him disappointed of the consulship [646], joined with Cassius
and Brutus in the conspiracy against him, for which he was condemned by
the Pedian law. From him were descended the grandfather and father of
the emperor Galba. The grandfather was more celebrated for his
application to study, than (402) for any figure he made in the
government. For he rose no higher than the praetorship, but published a
large and not uninteresting history. His father attained to the
consulship [647]: he was a short man and hump-backed, but a tolerable
orator, and an industrious pleader. He was twice married: the
first of his wives was Mummia Achaica, daughter of Catulus, and
great-grand-daughte