ἱστορίαι Historiai
Tac. Hist. 1.6 The Histories, Tacitus; served verbatim
Titus Vinius and Cornelius Laco, one the most worthless, the other the most spiritless of mankind, were ruining the weak old Emperor, who had to bear the odium of such crimes and the scorn felt for such cowardice. Galba's progress had been slow and blood-stained. Cingonius Varro, consul elect, and Petronius Turpilianus, a man of consular rank, were put to death; the former as an accomplice of Nymphidius, the latter as one of Nero's generals. Both had perished without hearing or defence, like innocent men. His entry into the capital, made after the slaughter of thousands of unarmed soldiers, was most ill-omened, and was terrible even to the executioners. As he brought into the city his Spanish legion, while that which Nero had levied from the fleet still remained, Rome was full of strange troops. There were also many detachments from Germany, Britain, and Illyria, selected by Nero, and sent on by him to the Caspian passes, for service in the expedition which he was preparing against the Albani, but afterwards recalled to crush the insurrection of Vindex. Here there were vast materials for a revolution, without indeed a decided bias towards any one man, but ready to a daring hand.

The Greek stands ready in the workroom; the English is served. Both faces will read together.

← Tac. Hist. 1.5 contents Tac. Hist. 1.7 →

Filed here — the addresses this episode attests; counted by the house’s first pass
Emperor — a candidate entry

The Histories, Tacitus — translated by Alfred John Church & William Jackson Brodribb, 1864
Perseus Digital Library — Tacitus, The Histories (Church & Brodribb translation) · Alfred John Church & William Jackson Brodribb (Macmillan, 1864, per the TEI header's own imprint); Perseus Project digital edition
license: public-domain (the Church & Brodribb translation, 1864); Perseus digital edition CC BY-SA, attribution recorded per ops/corpus-staging/SOURCES.md pattern