Monday, August 15, 2011

The Twevle Caesars - page 256, Galba

Galba heard about this message [from the troops dissatisfied with his ascension after Nero's death and calling for the royal guards to put someone else on the throne] and, thinking that he was being criticized for his childlessness rather than his senility, singled out from the crowd at one of his morning receptions a handsome and well-bred young man, Piso Frugi Licinianus, to whom he had already show great favour, and appointed him perpetual heir to his name and property.


Galba was one of the unfortunate emperors who ruled for less than a year, from June 68 A.D. to January 69 A.D., which was known as the Year of Four Emperors. He never really got a chance to establish a real reign, and most people besides historians have probably never heard of him. It didn't help his legacy that he was without children and had to rely on a hasty selection to pick a successor, a selection that angered one Marcus Salvius Otho, who wanted to be Galba's heir himself and who replaced him as emperor.

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