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Otho
Augustus
Bust depicting Otho, Houston Museum of Natural Science
Emperor of the Roman Empire
Reign	15 January 69 – 16 April 69 (3 months)
Predecessor	Galba
Successor	Vitellius
Born	Marcus Salvius Otho 28 April 32 Ferentium, Italy
Died	16 April 69(69-04-16) (aged 36) Brescello
Spouse	Poppaea Sabina (forced by Nero to divorce her)
Regnal name Imperator Marcus Salvius Otho Caesar Augustus[1]
Dynasty	Year of Four Emperors
Father	Lucius Otho
Mother	Terentia Albia

Otho (/ˈoʊθoʊ/; Latin: Marcus Salvius Otho Caesar Augustus;^[2][3] 28 April 32^[4] – 16 April 69 AD) was Roman emperor for three months, from 15 January to 16 April 69 AD. He was the second emperor of the Year of the Four Emperors.

A member of a noble Etruscan family, Otho was initially a friend and courtier of the young emperor Nero until he was effectively banished to the governorship of the remote province of Lusitania in 58 AD following his wife Poppaea Sabina's affair with Nero. After a period of moderate rule in the province, he allied himself with Galba, the governor of neighbouring Hispania Tarraconensis, during the revolts of 68 AD. Accompanying Galba on his march to Rome, he aspired to succeed the aged emperor, but revolted and murdered Galba on being passed over for the succession.

Inheriting the problem of the rebellion of Vitellius, commander of the army in Germania Inferior, Otho led a sizeable force which met Vitellius' army at the Battle of Bedriacum. After initial fighting resulted in 40,000 casualties, and a retreat of his forces, Otho committed suicide rather than fight on and Vitellius was proclaimed emperor.

Birth and lineage

Otho belonged to an ancient and noble Etruscan family, descended from the princes of Etruria and settled at Ferentinum (currently Ferento, near Viterbo) in Etruria.

Adulthood

The future emperor appears first as one of the most reckless and extravagant of the young nobles who surrounded Nero.^[5] This friendship was brought to an end in 58 AD because of his wife, the noblewoman Poppaea Sabina. Otho introduced his beautiful wife to the emperor upon Poppaea's insistence, who then began an affair that would eventually lead to her premature death. After securely establishing this position as his mistress, she divorced Otho and had the emperor send him away as governor to the remote province of Lusitania (which is now parts of both modern Portugal and Extremadura, Spain).

Otho remained in Lusitania for the next 10 years, administering the province with a moderation unusual at the time.^[5] In 68 AD, when his neighbor the future emperor Galba, the governor of Hispania Tarraconensis, rose in revolt against Nero, Otho accompanied him to Rome. Resentment at the treatment he had received from Nero may have impelled him to this course, but to this motive was added before long that of personal ambition.

Galba was childless and far advanced in years, and Otho, encouraged by the predictions of astrologers, aspired to succeed him. He came to a secret agreement with Titus Vinius, Galba's favourite, agreeing to marry Vinius' daughter in exchange for his support. However, in January 69 AD, his hopes were dashed by Galba's formal adoption of Lucius Calpurnius Piso Licinianus, whom Galba previously had named a recipient in his will.

Overthrow of Emperor Galba

After this, Otho decided to strike a bold blow. Desperate as was the state of his finances, due to his previous extravagance, he found the money needed to purchase the services of some 23 soldiers of the Praetorian Guard. On the morning of 15 January, only five days after Galba adopted Piso, Otho attended as usual to pay his respects to Galba, and then hastily excused himself on account of private business and hurried from the Palatine Hill to meet his accomplices. He was then escorted to the Praetorian camp, where, after a few moments of surprise and indecision, he was saluted as imperator.

With an imposing force he returned to the Roman Forum, and at the foot of the Capitoline Hill encountered Galba, who, alarmed by rather vague rumors of treachery, was making his way through a dense crowd of wandering citizens towards the barracks of the guard. The cohort that was on duty at the Palatine, which had accompanied the emperor, instantly deserted him. Galba, his newly adopted son Piso, and others were brutally murdered by the Praetorians. Titus Vinius tried to run away, calling out that Otho had not ordered him killed, but was run through with a spear.^[6] Cornelius Laco was banished to an island where he was later murdered by soldiers of Otho. Icelus Martianus was also executed.^[7] The Former Commander of the Praetorian Guard Tigellinus was obliged to commit suicide. The brief struggle over, Otho returned in triumph to the camp, and on the same day was invested by the senators with the name of Augustus, the tribunician power and the other dignities belonging to the principate.

Otho had owed his own success to the resentment felt by the Praetorian guards and the rest of the army at Galba's refusal to pay the promised gold to the ones who supported his accession to the throne. The population of the city was also unhappy with Galba and cherished the memory of Nero. Otho's first acts as emperor showed that he was not unmindful of these facts.

Decline and fall

Otho

Aureus of Otho.

He accepted, or appeared to accept, the cognomen of Nero conferred upon him by the shouts of the populace, whom his comparative youth and the effeminacy of his appearance reminded of their lost favourite. Nero's statues were again set up, his freedmen and household officers reinstalled (including the young castrated boy Sporus whom Nero had taken in marriage and Otho also would live intimately with^[8][9]), and the intended completion of the Golden House announced.

At the same time the fears of the more sober and respectable citizens were allayed by Otho's liberal professions of his intention to govern equitably, and by his judicious clemency towards Aulus Marius Celsus, consul-designate, a devoted adherent of Galba. Otho soon realized that it was much easier to overthrow an emperor than rule as one: according to Suetonius^[10] Otho once remarked that "Playing the Long Pipes is hardly my trade" (i.e., undertaking something beyond one's ability to do so).

War with Vitellius

Otho by Robert Van Voerst after Titian.

Any further development of Otho's policy was checked once Otho had read through Galba's private correspondence and realized the extent of the revolution in Germany, where several legions had declared for Vitellius, the commander of the legions on the lower Rhine River, and were already advancing upon Italy. After a vain attempt to conciliate Vitellius by the offer of a share in the Empire, Otho, with unexpected vigor, prepared for war. From the much more remote provinces, which had acquiesced in his accession, little help was to be expected, but the legions of Dalmatia, Pannonia and Moesia were eager in his cause, the Praetorian cohorts were in themselves a formidable force and an efficient fleet gave him the mastery of the Italian seas.

The fleet was at once dispatched to secure Liguria, and on 14 March Otho, undismayed by omens and prophecies, started northwards at the head of his troops in the hopes of preventing the entry of Vitellius' troops into Italy. But for this he was too late, and all that could be done was to throw troops into Placentia and hold the line of the Po. Otho's advanced guard successfully defended Placentia against Aulus Caecina Alienus, and compelled that general to fall back on Cremona, but the arrival of Fabius Valens altered the aspect of affairs.

Vitellius' commanders now resolved to bring on a decisive battle, the Battle of Bedriacum, and their designs were assisted by the divided and irresolute counsels which prevailed in Otho's camp. The more experienced officers urged the importance of avoiding a battle until at least the legions from Dalmatia had arrived. However, the rashness of the emperor's brother Titianus and of Proculus, prefect of the Praetorian Guards, added to Otho's feverish impatience, overruled all opposition, and an immediate advance was decided upon.

Otho remained behind with a considerable reserve force at Brixellum on the southern bank of the Po. When this decision was taken, Otho's army already had crossed the Po and were encamped at Bedriacum (or Betriacum), a small village on the Via Postumia, and on the route by which the legions from Dalmatia would naturally arrive.

Leaving a strong detachment to hold the camp at Bedriacum, the Othonian forces advanced along the Via Postumia in the direction of Cremona. At a short distance from that city they unexpectedly encountered the Vitellian troops. The Othonians, though taken at a disadvantage, fought desperately, but finally were forced to fall back in disorder upon their camp at Bedriacum. There on the next day the victorious Vitellians followed them, but only to come to terms at once with their disheartened enemy, and to be welcomed into the camp as friends.

Death

More unexpected still was the effect produced at Brixellum by the news of the battle. Otho was still in command of a formidable force: The Dalmatian legions had reached Aquileia and the spirit of his soldiers and their officers was unbroken. He was resolved to accept the verdict of the battle that his own impatience had hastened. In a dignified speech, he bade farewell to those about him, declaring: "It is far more just to perish one for all, than many for one",^[11] and then retiring to rest soundly for some hours. Early in the morning he stabbed himself in the heart with a dagger, which he had concealed under his pillow, and died as his attendants entered the tent.

Otho's ashes were placed within a modest monument. He had reigned only three months. His funeral was celebrated at once as he had wished. A plain tomb was erected in his honour at Brixellum, with the simple inscription Diis Manibus Marci Othonis. His 91-day reign would be the shortest until that of Pertinax, whose reign lasted 86 days in 193 during the tumultuous Year of the Five Emperors.

Reasons for suicide

It has been thought that Otho's suicide was committed in order to steer his country from the path to civil war. Just as he had come to power, many Romans learned to respect Otho in his death. Few could believe that a renowned former companion of Nero had chosen such an honourable end. Tacitus wrote that some of the soldiers committed suicide beside his funeral pyre "because they loved their emperor and wished to share his glory". ^[12]

Writing during the reign of the Emperor Domitian (AD 81–96), the Roman poet Martial expressed his admiration for Otho's choice to spare the empire from civil war through sacrificing himself:

Although the goddess of civil warfare was still in doubt,

And soft Otho had perhaps still a chance of winning,

He renounced fighting that would have cost much blood,

And with sure hand pierced right through his breast.

By all means let Cato in his life be greater than Caesar himself;

In his death was he greater than Otho?^[13]

Physical appearance

Suetonius, in The Lives of the Caesars, comments on Otho's appearance and personal hygiene.

He is said to have been of moderate height, splay-footed and bandy-legged, but almost feminine in his care of his person. He had the hair of his body plucked out, and because of the thinness of his locks wore a wig so carefully fashioned and fitted to his head, that no one suspected it. Moreover, they say that he used to shave every day and smear his face with moist bread, beginning the practice with the appearance of the first down, so as never to have a beard.

Juvenal, in a passage in the Satire II dealing with homosexuality, specifically mentions Otho as being vain, looking at himself in the mirror before going into battle, and "plaster[ing] his face with dough" in order to look good.

References

• 
   This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Otho, Marcus Salvius" . Encyclopædia Britannica. 20 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 365–366.
  

External links

Wikisource has original text related to this article: Life of Otho by Plutarch

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Otho.

Primary sources

• 
  Life of Otho (Suetonius; English translation and Latin original)


• 
  Life of Otho (Plutarch; English translation)


• Cassius Dio, Book 63


• 
  Tacitus, Histories (esp. 1.12, 1.21–90)

Secondary material

• Biography on De Imperatoribus Romanis
  


• 
  Otho entry in historical sourcebook by Mahlon H. Smith


• Otho by Plutarch


• Juvenal; Satire II


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