Produced by Tapio Riikonen and David Widger
By
C. Suetonius Tranquillus;
To which are added,
The Translation of
Alexander Thomson, M.D.
revised and corrected by
T.Forester, Esq., A.M.
(416)
I. The ancestors of Otho were originally of the town of Ferentum, of anancient and honourable family, and, indeed, one of the most considerablein Etruria. His grandfather, M. Salvius Otho (whose father was a Romanknight, but his mother of mean extraction, for it is not certain whethershe was free-born), by the favour of Livia Augusta, in whose house he hadhis education, was made a senator, but never rose higher than thepraetorship. His father, Lucius Otho, was by the mother's side noblydescended, allied to several great families, and so dearly beloved byTiberius, and so much resembled him in his features, that most peoplebelieved Tiberius was his father. He behaved with great strictness andseverity, not only in the city offices, but in the pro-consulship ofAfrica, and some extraordinary commands in the army. He had the courageto punish with death some soldiers in Illyricum, who, in the disturbanceattempted by Camillus, upon changing their minds, had put their generalsto the sword, as promoters of that insurrection against Claudius. Heordered the execution to take place in the front of the camp [670], andunder his own eyes; though he knew they had been advanced to higher ranksin the army by Claudius, on that very account. By this action heacquired fame, but lessened his favour at court; which, however, he soonrecovered, by discovering to Claudius a design upon his life, carried onby a Roman knight [671], and which he had learnt from some of his slaves.For the senate ordered a statue of him to be erected in the palace; anhonour which had been conferred but upon very few before him. AndClaudius advanced him to the dignity of a patrician, commending him, atthe same time, in the highest terms, and concluding with these words: "Aman, than whom I don't so (417) much as wish to have children that shouldbe better." He had two sons by a very noble woman, Albia Terentia,namely; Lucius Titianus, and a younger called Marcus, who had the samecognomen as himself. He had also a daughter, whom he contracted toDrusus, Germanicus's son, before she was of marriageable age.
II. The emperor Otho was born upon the fourth of the calends of May[28th April], in the consulship of Camillus Aruntius and DomitiusAenobarbus [672]. He was from his earliest youth so riotous and wild,that he was often severely scourged by his father. He was said to runabout in the night-time, and seize upon any one he met, who was eitherdrunk or too feeble to make resistance, and toss him in a blanket [673].After his father's death, to make his court the more effectually to afreedwoman about the palace, who was in great favour, he pretended to bein love with her, though she was old, and almost decrepit. Having by hermeans got into Nero's good graces, he soon became one of the principalfavourites, by the congeniality of his disposition to that of the emperoror, as some say, by the reciprocal practice of mutual pollution. He hadso great a sway at court, tha