§5inter liberales disciplinas attendit et iuri.
Among the liberal studies he applied himself also to law.
dedit et matrimonio operam; uerum amissa uxore Lepida duobusque ex ea filiis remansit in caelibatu neque sollicitari ulla condicione amplius potuit, ne Agrippinae quidem, quae uiduata morte Domiti maritum quoque adhuc necdum caelibem Galbam adeo omnibus sollicitauerat modis, ut in conuentu matronarum correpta iurgio atque etiam manu pulsata sit a matre Lepidae.
He also gave attention to marriage; but after losing his wife Lepida and his two sons by her, he remained in celibacy, nor could he be tempted by any condition anymore, not even by Agrippina, who, widowed by the death of Domitius, had solicited Galba, while he was still married and not yet a widower, in every possible way, so that in an assembly of matrons she was roundly scolded and even slapped by the mother of Lepida.
Obseruauit ante omnis Liuiam Augustam, cuius et uiuae gratia plurimum ualuit et mortuae testamento paene ditatus est; sestertium namque quingenties praecipuum inter legatarios habuit, sed quia notata, non perscripta erat summa, herede Tiberio legatum ad quingenta reuocante, ne haec quidem accepit.
Above all others he respected Livia Augusta, by whose favor he had great influence during her lifetime, and by whose will after her death he was almost enriched; for he was left a special legacy of fifty million sesterces among the legatees, but because the sum was written in figures and not spelled out in words, with Tiberius as heir reducing the legacy to five hundred thousand, he did not receive even this.
§6Honoribus ante legitimum tempus initis praetor commissione ludorum Floralium nouum spectaculi genus elephantos funambulos edidit; exim prouinciae Aquitaniae anno fere praefuit; mox consulatum per sex menses ordinarium gessit, euenitque ut in eo ipse †L. Domitio patri Neronis, ipsi Saluius Otho pater Othonis succederet, uelut praesagium insequentis casus, quo medius inter utriusque filios extitit imperator.
Having entered upon public offices before the legal age, as praetor, at the celebration of the Floralia games, he exhibited a new kind of spectacle, tightrope-walking elephants; thereafter he governed the province of Aquitania for nearly a year; soon afterwards he held the regular consulship for six months, and it happened that in this office he himself succeeded Lucius Domitius, the father of Nero, and was succeeded by Salvius Otho, the father of Otho, as if a presage of what was to follow, in which he stood as emperor mid-way between the sons of both.
A Gaio Caesare in locum Gaetulici substitutus, postridie quam ad legiones uenit, sollemni forte spectaculo plaudentes inhibuit data tessera, ut manus paenula continerent; statimque per castra iactatum est:
disce miles militare: Galba est, non Gaetulicus. pari seueritate interdixit commeatus peti.
Having been substituted for Gaetulicus by Gaius Caesar, the day after he came to the legions, at a regular festival, by giving a watchword, he stopped those who were applauding, warning them to keep their hands inside their cloaks; and immediately this saying went around the camp: “Learn to soldier, soldier: it's Galba, not Gaetulicus.” With equal severity he forbade the asking for leave of absence.
ueteranum ac tironem militem opere assiduo corroborauit matureque barbaris, qui iam in Galliam usque proruperant, coercitis, praesenti quoque Gaio talem et se et exercitum approbauit, ut inter innumeras contractasque ex omnibus prouinciis copias neque testimonium neque praemia ampliora ulli perciperent; ipse maxime insignis, quod campestrem decursionem scuto moderatus, etiam ad essedum imperatoris per uiginti passuum milia cucurrit.
He strengthened both veteran and recruit soldiers by constant labor, and having quickly checked the barbarians, who had already broken through as far as Gaul, he approved both himself and his army to Gaius, who was present, in such a way that among the countless forces assembled from all the provinces, none received higher commendation or greater rewards; he himself was especially conspicuous because, directing a field maneuver shield in hand, he even ran for twenty miles beside the chariot of the emperor.
§7Caede Gai nuntiata multis ad occasionem stimulantibus quietem praetulit.
When the assassination of Gaius was announced, although many urged him to seize the opportunity, he preferred quiet.
per hoc gratissimus Claudio receptusque in cohortem amicorum tantae dignationis est habitus, ut cum subita ei ualitudo nec adeo grauis incidisset, dilatus sit expeditionis Britannicae dies.
For this reason, being most acceptable to Claudius and received into the cohort of his friends, he was held in such high esteem that when a sudden and not very serious illness befell him, the date of the British expedition was postponed.
Africam pro consule biennio optinuit extra sortem electus ad ordinandam prouinciam et intestina dissensione et barbarorum tumultu inquietam; ordinauitque magna seueritatis ac iustitiae cura etiam in paruulis rebus.
He governed Africa as proconsul for two years, being chosen without the lot to restore order to a province troubled both by internal dissension and the revolt of the barbarians; and he restored order with great attention to severity and justice, even in trifling matters.
militi, qui per expeditionem artissima annona residuum cibariorum tritici modium centum denariis uendidisse arguebatur, uetuit, simul atque indigere cibo coepisset, a quoquam opem ferri; et is fame extabuit.
In the case of a soldier who was charged with having sold, during an expedition and in a time of extreme scarcity of provisions, a remaining peck of his wheat rations for a hundred denarii, he forbade anyone to give him help as soon as he began to lack food; and the man wasted away from hunger.
at in iure dicendo cum de proprietate iumenti quaereretur, leuibus utrimque argumentis et testibus ideoque difficili coniectura ueritatis, ita decreuit ut ad lacum, ubi adaquari solebat, duceretur capite inuoluto atque ibidem reuelato eius esset, ad quem sponte se a potu recepisset.
Furthermore, in administering justice, when a dispute arose over the ownership of a beast of burden, and since the arguments and witnesses on both sides were weak, making the truth difficult to conjecture, he decreed that it should be led with its head covered to the pool where it was accustomed to be watered, and that its head being uncovered there, it should belong to the person to whom it spontaneously returned after drinking.
§8Ob res et tunc in Africa et olim in Germania gestas ornamenta triumphalia accepit et sacerdotium triplex, inter quindecimuiros sodalesque Titios item Augustales cooptatus; atque ex eo tempore prope ad medium Neronis principatum in secessu plurimum uixit, ne ad gestandum quidem umquam iter ingressus quam ut secum uehiculo proximo decies sestertium in auro efferret, donec in oppido Fundis moranti Hispania Tarraconensis oblata est.
On account of his achievements both then in Africa and formerly in Germany, he received triumphal decorations and a threefold priesthood, being co-opted into the college of the fifteen commissioners, the Titiian sodality, and also the Augustales; and from that time until almost the middle of Nero's principate, he lived mostly in retirement, never even starting on a journey for recreation without carrying with him in the next carriage ten hundred thousand sesterces in gold, until, while he was staying in the town of Fundi, Tarraconensian Spain was offered to him.
acciditque, ut cum prouinciam ingressus sacrificaret, intra aedem publicam puero e ministris acerram tenenti capillus repente toto capite canesceret, nec defuerunt qui interpretarentur significari rerum mutationem successurumque iuueni senem, hoc est ipsum Neroni.
And it happened that, when he was offering sacrifice upon entering the province, inside a public temple the hair of one of the boys among the attendants who was holding the incense-box suddenly turned entirely gray on his head, nor were there wanting those who interpreted this as signifying a change of affairs, and that an old man would succeed a young one, that is, himself to Nero.
non multo post in Cantabriae lacum fulmen decidit repertaeque sunt duodecim secures, haud ambiguum summae imperii signum.
Not long afterwards a thunderbolt fell into a lake of Cantabria, and twelve axes were found, a by no means ambiguous sign of supreme power.