suspend the execution of his purpose by a
great tumult which had broken out in the camp. Finding that some of the
soldiers who were making off had been seized and detained as deserters,
"Let us add," said he, "this night to our life." These were his very
words.

He then gave orders that no violence should be offered to any one; and
keeping his chamber-door open until late at night, he allowed all who
pleased the liberty to come and see him. At last, after quenching his
thirst with a draught of cold water, he took up two poniards, and having
examined the points of both, put one of them under his pillow, and
shutting his chamber-door, slept very soundly, until, awaking about break
of day, he stabbed himself under the left pap. Some persons bursting
into the room upon his first groan, he at one time covered, and at
another exposed his wound to the view of the bystanders, and thus life
soon ebbed away. His funeral was hastily performed, according to his own
order, in the thirty-eighth year of his age, and ninety-fifth day of his
reign. [687]

XII. The person and appearance of Otho no way corresponded to the great
spirit he displayed on this occasion; for he is said to have been of low
stature, splay-footed, and bandy-legged. He was, however, effeminately
nice in the care of his person: the hair on his body he plucked out by
the roots; and because he was somewhat bald, he wore a kind of peruke, so
exactly fitted to his head, that nobody could have known it for such. He
used to shave every day, and rub his face with soaked bread; the use of
which he began when the down first appeared upon his chin, to prevent his
having any beard. It is said likewise that he celebrated publicly the
sacred rites of Isis [688], clad in a linen garment, such as is used by
the worshippers of that goddess. These circumstances, I imagine, caused
the world to wonder the more that his death was so little in character
with his life. Many of the soldiers who were present, kissing and
bedewing with their tears his hands and feet as he lay dead, and
celebrating him as "a most gallant man, and an incomparable emperor,"
immediately put an end to their own lives upon the spot, not far from his
funeral pile.

(426) Many of those likewise who were at a distance, upon hearing the
news of his death, in the anguish of their hearts, began fighting amongst
themselves, until they dispatched one another. To conclude: the
generality of mankind, though