Birthday Greetings # 37

Happy birthday to Otho, Roman emperor.  Having written the first sentence I'm at a bit of a loss as to how to continue.  Otho was emperor of those parts of the empire that bothered to pay attention to him for a couple of months in the year AD 69 which a few months (and a couple more emperors) later would become famous as "the Year of the Four Emperors".

Having irritated everybody so badly that even he noticed Nero had committed suicide (with the assistance of a slave since he didn't have the guts to do it himself).  In his place a bloke named Galba who had been harmlessly governing Hispania Tarraconensis appointed himself emperor.  Galba would have been wise to take a closer look at the governor of neighbouring Lusitania who joined him on his trip to Rome.

Said governor was our boy Otho.  Otho had got the job of governor in quite a traditional manner, Nero had appointed him to get him out of Rome while Nero slept with his wife.  Since his only reputation up until that point was as one of Nero's party boys it probably surprised him as much as anyone else when he turned out to be reasonably good at the job.  As his wife had divorced him and married Nero (who kicked her to death while she was pregnant) Otho certainly felt that he owed Nero no favours and he supported Galba.  Since Galba was old and childless he may well have felt that he was in a good position to inherit the empire when Galba laid down life's weary burden.  Technically, he was correct.

Galba got to Rome and proceeded to annoy everybody.  Most importantly from our point of view "everybody" included the Praetorian Guard.  When Galba adopted a young man as his heir Otho realised his hopes were in peril.  For once this easy going, overly relaxed young man moved swiftly.  A quiet chat with the praetorians, the handing over of all the cash he could lay his hands on, a quick acclamation in the praetorian camp, the brutal beating to death of Galba and his adoptive son in the street and suddenly Otho was emperor.  See kids, that's how its done.

So, Otho was now emperor; he moved into the palace, took over Nero's catamite who was still hanging around and settled down to rule.  The praetorians loved him because he paid them (one of their major beefs with Galba was that he refused to bribe them), the population of Rome loved him because of his association with Nero (it was principally the ruling class that didn't like Nero) and the ruling class were impressed with the signs he gave that he didn't actually intend to rule like Nero.  So far so good.  Unfortunately that's as far as good went.  Leafing through Galba's paperwork Otho discovered that there was another rebellion going on.  The legions on the Rhine had declared one of their officers, a guy named Vitellius, as emperor and he was currently engaged in marching on Rome.

Otho pulled together the troops that were near him and marched to meet them.  He was advised to wait, his principal support came from legions based further away.  They were coming but he should have waited until they arrived before he joined battle.  Instead he won a minor victory against Vitellius' advance guard and it seems to have gone to his head.  He marched his army against the Rhine legions.  Splitting his force he sent part of it across the Po River to the village of Bedriacum while he held a reserve at Brixellum (I have no idea where either place is but the mention of the Po River indicates northern Italy which is good enough for a biography of this calibre).  The Battle of Bedriacum was hard fought but the Othonian forces were defeated.  All need not have been lost.  Otho still had a significant force under his command and his reinforcements were due any day but he seems to have decided that the game wasn't worth it.

With a quote that Mr Spock from Star Trek would have been proud of he said it was far better for one to die for many than for many to die for one.  He then stabbed himself with a dagger (no slave needed to guide his trembling hand).  During his life he never really shook off the tag of being Nero's good time boy but a lot of people found a new respect for him in the manner of his death.  Which didn't stop the empire ripping itself apart in another civil war because before Vitellius had rinsed Otho's perfume off the throne news came in that another general named Vespasian had also formally applied for the position of emperor.