Otho   

were at supper with Otho, they flew into the palace, and declared
it was a fair opportunity to take off Caesar's enemies at one stroke.
A general alarm ensued of an immediate coming sack of the city. All
were in confusion about the palace, and Otho himself in no small consternation,
being not only concerned for the senators (some of whom had brought
their wives to supper thither), but also feeling himself to be an
object of alarm and suspicion to them, whose eyes he saw fixed on
him in silence and terror. Therefore he gave orders to the prefects
to address the soldiers and do their best to pacify them, while he
bade the guests rise, and leave by another door. They had only just
made their way out, when the soldiers rushed into the room, and called
out, "Where are Caesar's enemies?" Then Otho, standing up on his couch,
made use both of arguments and entreaties, and by actual tears at
last, with great difficulty, persuaded them to desist. The next day
he went to the camp, and distributed a bounty of twelve hundred and
fifty drachmas a man amongst them; then commended them for the regard
and zeal they had for his safety, but told them that there were some
who were intriguing among them, who not only accused his own clemency,
but had also misrepresented their loyalty; and, therefore, he desired
their assistance in doing justice upon them. To which, when they all
consented, he was satisfied with the execution of two only, whose
deaths he knew would be regretted by no one man in the whole army.
Such conduct, so little expected from him, was regarded by some with
gratitude and confidence; others looked upon his behaviour as a course
to which necessity drove him, to gain the people to the support of
the war. For now there were certain tidings that Vitellius had assumed
the sovereign title and authority, and frequent expresses brought
accounts of new accessions to him; others, however, came, announcing
that the Pannonian, Dalmatian, and Moesian legions, with their officers,
adhered to Otho. Ere long also came favourable letters from Mucianus
and Vespasian, generals of two formidable armies, the one in Syria,
the other in Judaea, to assure him of their firmness to his interest:
in confidence whereof he was so exalted, that he wrote to Vitellius
not to attempt anything beyond his post; and offered him large sums
of money and a city, where he might live his time out in pleasure
and ease. These overtures at first were responded to by Vitellius
with equivocating civilities; which soon, however, turned into an
interchange of angry words; and letters passed between the two, conveying
bitter and shameful terms of reproach, which were not false indeed,
for that matter, only it was senseless and ridiculous for each to
assail the other with accusations to which both alike must plead guilty.
For it were hard to determine which of the two had been most profuse,
most effeminate, which was most a novice in military affairs, and
most involved in debt through previous want of means.
As to the prodigies and apparitions that happened about this time,
there were many reported which none could answer for, or which were
told in different ways; but one which everybody actually saw with
their eyes, was the statue, in the capitol, of Victory carried in
a chariot, with the reins dropped out of her hands, as if she were
grown too weak to hold them any longer; and a second, that Caius Caesar's
statue in the island of Tiber, without any earthquake or wind to account
for it, turned round from west to east; and this, they say, happened
about the time when Vespasian and his party first openly began to
put themselves forward. Another incident, which the people in general
thought an evil sign, was the inundation of the Tiber; for though
it happened at a time when rivers are usually at their fullest, yet
such height of water and so tremendous a flood had never been known
before, nor such a destruction of property, great part of the city
being under water, and especially the corn market, so that it occasioned
a great dearth for several days.
But when news was now brought that Caecina and Valens, commanding
for Vitellius, had possessed themselves of the Alps, Otho sent Dolabella
(a patrician, who was suspected by the soldiery of some evil purpose),
for whatever reason, whether it were fear of him or of any one else,