



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
in the army by Claudius, on that very account.  By this action he
acquired fame, but lessened his favour at court; which, however, he soon
recovered, by discovering to Claudius a design upon his life, carried on
by a Roman knight [671], and which he had learnt from some of his slaves.
For the senate ordered a statue of him to be erected in the palace; an
honour which had been conferred but upon very few before him.  And
Claudius advanced him to the dignity of a patrician, commending him, at
the same time, in the highest terms, and concluding with these words: "A
man, than whom I don't so (417) much as wish to have children that should
be better."  He had two sons by a very noble woman, Albia Terentia,
namely; Lucius Titianus, and a younger called Marcus, who had the same
cognomen as himself.  He had also a daughter, whom he contracted to
Drusus, Germanicus's son, before she was of marriageable age.

II.  The emperor Otho was born upon the fourth of the calends of May
[28th April], in the consulship of Camillus Aruntius and Domitius
Aenobarbus [672].  He was from his earliest youth so riotous and wild,
that he was often severely scourged by his father.  He was said to run
about in the night-time, and seize upon any one he met, who was either
drunk or too feeble to make resistance, and toss him in a blanket [673].
After his father's death, to make his court the more effectually to a
freedwoman about the palace, who was in great favour, he pretended to be
in love with her, though she was old, and almost decrepit.  Having by her
means got into Nero's good graces, he soon became one of the principal
favourites, by the congeniality of his disposition to that of the emperor
or, as some say, by the reciprocal practice of mutual pollution.  He had
so great a sway at court, that when a man of consular rank was condemned
for bribery, having tampered with him for a large sum of money, to
procure his pardon; before he had quite effected it, he scrupled not to
introduce him into the senate, to return his thanks.

III.  Having, by means of this woman, insinuated himself into all the
emperor's secrets, he, upon the day designed for the murder of his
mother, entertained them both at a very splendid feast, to prevent
suspicion.  Poppaea Sabina, for whom Nero entertained such a violent
passion that he had taken her from her husband [674] and entrusted her to
him, he received, and went through the form of marrying her.  And not
satisfied with obtaining her favours, he loved her