ose. Marcianus Icelus, as being one
of his own freedmen,[77] he sentenced to public execution.

Thus the day was spent in crimes, and worst of all was the joy 47
they caused. The senate was summoned by the urban praetor.[78] The
other magistrates all vied in flattery. The senators arrived
post-haste. They decreed to Otho the powers of the tribunate, the
title of Augustus, and all the imperial prerogatives. Their unanimous
object was to blot out all recollection of former insults; but, as
these had been hurled equally from all sides, they did not, as far as
any one could see, stick in his memory. Whether he had forgotten them
or only postponed punishment, his reign was too short to show. He was
then carried through the still reeking Forum among the piles of dead
bodies to the Capitol, and thence to the palace. He granted permission
to burn and bury the bodies of his victims. Piso's wife Verania and
his brother Scribonianus laid out his body, and this was done for
Vinius by his daughter Crispina. They had to search for the heads and
buy them back from the murderers, who had preserved them for sale.

FOOTNOTES:

[72] According to Plutarch, when they brought Otho Galba's
head, he said, 'That's nothing: show me Piso's.'

[73] i.e. the legion of marines--Prima Adiutrix. Cp. chap. 6, &c.

[74] i.e. in command of the _cohortes vigilum_. Cp. chap. 5,
note 10.

[75] Vespasian's elder brother. He continued to hold the
office under Vitellius (ii. 63).

[76] See chap. 42, note 71.

[77] As a _libertus Caesaris_ he passed into Otho's hands with
the rest of the palace furniture.

[78] The consuls Galba and Vinius (chap. 1), were both dead.

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

Piso was in his thirty-first year. His reputation was better than 48
his fortune. His brothers had been executed, Magnus by Claudius,
Crassus by Nero.[79] He himself after being long in exile was a Caesar
for four days. Hastily adopted in preference to his elder brother,[80]
the only advantage he reaped was to be killed first.

Titus Vinius in his fifty-seven years had displayed strange contrasts
of character. His father belonged to a family of praetorian rank; his
mother's father was one of the proscribed.[81] A scandal marked his
first military service under the general Calvisius Sabinus.[82] The
general's wife suffered from a suspicious desire to inspect the
arrangements of the camp