then ran into the
porter's lodge, tying the dog before the door, and piling up against it
the bed and bedding.

XVII. By this time the forerunners of the enemy's army had broken into
the palace, and meeting with nobody, searched, as was natural, every
corner. Being dragged by them out of his cell, and asked "who he was?"
(for they did not recognize him), "and if he knew where Vitellius was?"
he deceived them by a falsehood. But at last being discovered, he begged
hard to be detained in custody, even were it in a prison; pretending to
have something to say which concerned Vespasian's security.
Nevertheless, he was dragged half-naked into the Forum, with his hands
tied behind him, a rope about his neck, and his clothes torn, amidst the
most contemptuous abuse, both by word and deed, along the Via Sacra; his
head being held back by the hair, in the manner of condemned criminals,
and the point of a sword put under his chin, that he might hold up his
face to public view; some of the mob, meanwhile, pelting him with dung
and mud, whilst others called him "an incendiary and glutton." They also
upbraided him with the defects of his person, for he was monstrously
tall, and had a face usually very red with hard-drinking, a large belly,
and one thigh weak, occasioned by a chariot running against him, as he
was attending upon Caius [716], while he was driving. At length, upon
the Scalae Gemoniae, he was tormented and put to death in lingering
tortures, and then dragged by a hook into the Tiber.

XVIII. He perished with his brother and son [717], in the fifty-seventh
year of his age [718], and verified the prediction of those who, from the
omen which happened to him at Vienne, as before related [719], foretold
that he would be made prisoner by some man of Gaul. For he was seized by
Antoninus Primus, a general of the adverse party, who was born at
Toulouse, and, when a boy, had the cognomen of Becco [720], which
signifies a cock's beak.

* * * * * *

(440) After the extinction of the race of the Caesars, the possession of
the imperial power became extremely precarious; and great influence in
the army was the means which now invariably led to the throne. The
soldiers having arrogated to themselves the right of nomination, they
either unanimously elected one and the same person, or different parties
supporting the interests of their respective favourites, there arose
between them a contention, whic