of their gifts and
ornaments, and to have exchanged brass and tin for gold and silver. [703]

VI. He took to wife Petronia, the daughter of a man of consular rank,
and had by her a son named Petronius, who was blind of an eye. The
mother being willing to appoint this youth her heir, upon condition that
he should be released from his father's authority, the latter discharged
him accordingly; but shortly after, as was believed, murdered him,
charging him with a design upon his life, and pretending that he had,
from consciousness of his guilt, drank the poison he had prepared for his
father. Soon afterwards, he married Galeria Fundana, the daughter of a
man of pretorian rank, and had by her both sons and daughters. Among the
former was one who had such a stammering in his speech, that he was
little better than if he had been dumb.

VII. He was sent by Galba into Lower Germany [704], contrary to his
expectation. It is supposed that he was assisted in procuring this
appointment by the interest of Titus Junius, a man of great influence at
that time; whose friendship he had long before gained by favouring the
same set of charioteers with him in the Circensian games. But Galba
openly declared that none were less to be feared than those who only
cared for their bellies, and that even his enormous appetite must be
satisfied with the plenty of that province; so that it is evident he was
selected for that government more out of contempt than kindness. It is
certain, that when he was to set out, he had not money for the expenses
of his journey; he being at that time so much straitened in his
circumstances, that he was obliged to put his wife and children, whom he
left at Rome, into a poor lodging which he hired for them, in order that
he might let his own house for the remainder of the year; and he pawned a
pearl taken from his mother's ear-ring, to defray his expenses on the
road. A crowd of creditors who were waiting to stop him, and amongst
them the people of Sineussa and Formia, whose taxes he had converted to
his own use, he eluded, by alarming them with the apprehension of false
accusation. He had, however, sued a certain freedman, who was clamorous
in demanding a debt of him, under pretence that he had kicked him; which
action he would not withdraw, until he had wrung from the freedman fifty
thousand sesterces. Upon his arrival in the province, the army, (432)
which was disaffected to Galba, and ripe for insurrecti