tures turned their
attention upon himself, thus enabling Piso to escape despite his
wounds. Piso, reaching the temple of Vesta, was mercifully sheltered
by the verger, who hid him in his lodging. There, no reverence for
this sanctuary but merely his concealment postponed his immediate
death. Eventually, Otho, who was burning to have him killed,[72]
dispatched as special agents, Sulpicius Florus of the British cohorts,
a man whom Galba had recently enfranchised, and Statius Murcus of the
Body Guard. They dragged Piso forth and butchered him on the threshold
of the temple.

FOOTNOTES:

[56] These troops, having no head-quarters in Rome, were put
up in a piazza built by M. Vipsanius Agrippa, and decorated
with paintings of Neptune and of the Argonauts. Cp. ii. 93,
where troops are quartered in collonades or temples.

[57] The term primipilaris denotes one who had been the
centurion commanding the first maniple (pilani) of the first
cohort of a legion. He was an officer of great importance,
highly paid, and often admitted to the general's council.
Otho's expedition to Narbonese Gaul (chap. 87) was commanded
by two such 'senior centurions'.

[58] See chap. 6, note 11.

[59] See chap. 6.

[60] Nero was meditating an Ethiopian campaign when the revolt
of Vindex broke out. Cp. chap. 6.

[61] Probably the colours of the different maniples as
distinct from the standards of the cohorts.

[62] Cp. chap. 6.

[63] Freedmen who had curried favour with Nero. Polyclitus was
sent to inquire into Suetonius Paulinus' administration of
Britain after the revolt of Boadicea in A.D. 61. Vatinius was
a deformed cobbler from Beneventum who became a sort of court
buffoon, and acquired great wealth and bad influence.

[64] The cohort on guard seem to have been in mufti, without
helmets and shields or their military cloaks, but armed with
swords and javelins.

[65] The legionaries armed themselves with lances (_hastae_),
and the auxiliaries with javelins (_pila_).

[66] The word _basilica_ refers to the buildings round the
Forum, used for legal, financial, and commercial purposes.
Most of them had cloisters.

[67] The Parthian royal family: Vologaesus was king of
Parthia, and his brother Pacorus viceroy of