Galba was hurried to and fro with every movement of the surging
crowd; the halls and temples all around were thronged with spectators of
this mournful sight. Not a voice was heard from the people or even from the
rabble. Everywhere were terror-stricken countenances, and ears turned to
catch every sound. It was a scene neither of agitation nor of repose, but
there reigned the silence of profound alarm and profound indignation. Otho
however was told that they were arming the mob. He ordered his men
to hurry on at full speed, and
to anticipate the danger. Then did Roman soldiers rush forward like men who
had to drive a Vologeses or Pacorus from the ancestral throne of the
Arsacidæ, not as though they were hastening to murder their aged and
defenceless Emperor. In all the terror of their arms, and at the full speed
of their horses, they burst into the Forum, thrusting aside the crowd and
trampling on the Senate. Neither the sight of the Capitol, nor the sanctity
of the overhanging temples, nor the thought of rulers past or future, could
deter them from committing a crime, which any one succeeding to power must
avenge.
