While he was in this plight the Roman people were going wild with delight and offering whole oxen in sacrifice. Some carried small liberty caps, and they voted to Galba the rights pertaining to the imperial office. For Nero himself they instituted a search in all directions and for some time were at a loss to know whither he could have betaken himself. When they finally learned, they sent horsemen to dispose of him. He, then, perceiving that they were drawing near, commanded his companions to kill him. As they refused to obey, he uttered a groan and said:
"I alone have neither friend nor foe."
By this time the horsemen were close at hand, and so he killed himself, uttering that far-famed sentence:
"Jupiter, what an artist perishes in me!"
And as he lingered in his agony Epaphroditus dealt him a finishing stroke. He had lived thirty years and nine months, out of which he had ruled thirteen years and eight months. Of the descendants of Aeneas and of Augustus he was the last, as was plainly indicated by the fact that the laurels planted by Livia and the breed of white chickens perished somewhat before his death.
There was no one who might not hope to lay hands on the sovereignty in a time of so great confusion.
Rufus visited Galba and could obtain from him no important privileges, unless one reckons the fact that a man who had frequently been hailed as emperor was allowed to live. Among the rest of mankind, however, he had acquired a great name, greater than if he had accepted the sovereignty, for refusing to receive it.
Galba, now that Nero had been destroyed and the senate had voted him the imperial authority and Rufus had made advances to him, plucked up courage. However, He did not adopt the name "Caesar," until envoys of the senate had paid him a visit. Nor had he hitherto inscribed the name "emperor" in any document.
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