Page:Tacitus Histories Fyfe (1912) Vol1.djvu/43

Rh of Piso. He also alleged fears for his safety, by way of whetting his ambition. ' I proved a nuisance to Nero,' he would say, 'and can scarcely expect the compliment of a second exile to Lusitania. Besides, monarchs always hate and suspect the man who is mentioned as " next to the throne ". This was what did me harm with the old emperor, and it will weigh still more with the youthful Piso, who is naturally savage and has been exasperated by a long period of exile. It would be easy to kill me. I must do and dare while Galba's authority is on the wane and Piso's not yet established. These times of change suit big enterprises ; inaction is more deadly than daring ; there is no call for delay. Death is the natural end for all alike, and the only difference is between fame and oblivion afterwards. Seeing that the same end awaits the innocent and the guilty, a man of spirit should at least deserve his fate.'

Otho's character was by no means so effeminate as his person. His intimate freedmen and slaves, who were allowed a licence unusual in private households, dangled before him the baits for which he was greedy : the luxuries of Nero's Court, the marriages he could make, the adulteries he could commit, and all the other imperial pleasures. They were his, they pointed out, if he would bestir himself ; it was shameful to lie quiet and leave them to others. He was also incited by the astrologers, who declared that their study of the stars pointed to great changes and a year 1 Cp. chap. 13.