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by C. Suetonius Tranquillus

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Title: M. Salvius Otho (Otho)
The Lives Of The Twelve Caesars, Volume 8.

Author: C. Suetonius Tranquillus

Release Date: December 14, 2004 [EBook #6393]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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Produced by Tapio Riikonen and David Widger

THE LIVES
OF
THE TWELVE CAESARS

By
C. Suetonius Tranquillus;

To which are added,

HIS LIVES OF THE GRAMMARIANS, RHETORICIANS, AND POETS.

The Translation of
Alexander Thomson, M.D.

revised and corrected by
T.Forester, Esq., A.M.

A. SALVIUS OTHO.

(416)

I. The ancestors of Otho were originally of the town of Ferentum, of an
ancient and honourable family, and, indeed, one of the most considerable
in Etruria. His grandfather, M. Salvius Otho (whose father was a Roman
knight, but his mother of mean extraction, for it is not certain whether
she was free-born), by the favour of Livia Augusta, in whose house he had
his education, was made a senator, but never rose higher than the
praetorship. His father, Lucius Otho, was by the mother's side nobly
descended, allied to several great families, and so dearly beloved by
Tiberius, and so much resembled him in his features, that most people
believed Tiberius was his father. He behaved with great strictness and
severity, not only in the city offices, but in the pro-consulship of
Africa, and some extraordinary commands in the army. He had the courage
to punish with death some soldiers in Illyricum, who, in the disturbance
attempted by Camillus, upon changing their minds, had put their generals
to the sword, as promoters of that insurrection against Claudius. He
ordered the execution to take place in the front of the camp [670], and
under his own eyes; though he knew they had been advanced to higher ranks