who bought the support of the praetorian
guards for Galba. The Senate followed their lead, and Nero, who had fled
from Rome, had himself killed by a faithful freedman. With him ends the
Julio-Claudian dynasty.

V. THE FIRST WAR OF THE LEGIONS OR THE YEAR OF THE FOUR EMPERORS, 68-69 A.
D.

*The power of the army.* The year 68-69 witnessed the accession of four
emperors, each the nominee of the soldiery. And, while up to this time the
praetorians had exercised the right of acclamation in the name of the army
as a whole, now the legions stationed on the various frontiers asserted
for themselves the same privilege. As Tacitus expresses it, the fatal
secret of the empire was discovered, namely, that the princeps could be
nominated elsewhere than in Rome. Although the principate may be said to
have been founded by the universal consent of the Roman world,
nevertheless, from its inception the power of the princeps had rested
directly upon his military command, and the civil war of 68-69 showed how
completely the professional army was master of the situation.

*Galba, 68 A. D.* Galba, who succeeded Nero, was a man of good family but
moderate attainments and soon showed himself unable to maintain his
authority. That he would have been held "fit to rule, had he not ruled,"
is the judgment of Tacitus. He had never been enthusiastically supported
by the Rhine legions nor the praetorians, and his severity in maintaining
discipline, added to his failure to pay the promised donative, completely
alienated the loyalty of the guards. At the news that the troops in Upper
and Lower Germany had declared for Aulus Vitellius, legate of the latter
province (1 Jan., 69), Galba sought to strengthen his position by adopting
as his son and destined successor, Lucius Calpurnius Piso, a young man of
high birth but no experience. By this step he offended Marcus Salvius
Otho, the onetime husband of Nero's wife Poppaea Sabina, who had been one
of Galba's staunch adherents and hoped to succeed him. Otho now won over
the disgruntled praetorian guards who slew Galba and Piso, and proclaimed
Otho Imperator.

*Otho, Jan.-April, 69.* The Senate acquiesced in their decision but not so
the legions of Vitellius which were already on the march to Italy. They
crossed the Alps without opposition but were checked by the forces of Otho
at Bedriacum, north of the Po. Without waiting for the arrival of
reinforcements from