Otho, M. Salvius
A Roman emperor from Jan. 15 to April 16, A.D. 69, who was born in 32. He was one of the
companions of Nero in his debaucheries; but when the emperor took possession of his wife, the
beautiful but profligate Poppaea Sabina, Otho was sent as governor to Lusitania, which he
administered with credit during the last ten years of Nero's life. Otho attached himself to
Galba, when he revolted against Nero, in the hope of being adopted by him, and succeeding to
the Empire. But when Galba adopted L.
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Otho. (Bust in British Museum.)
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Piso, on the tenth of January, 69, Otho formed a conspiracy against Galba, and was
proclaimed emperor by the soldiers at Rome, who put Galba to death. Meantime, Vitellius had
been proclaimed emperor at Cologne by the German troops on the third of January. When this
news reached Otho, he marched into the north of Italy to oppose the generals of
Vitellius. He at first won several victories over Caecina, the general of Vitellius, but his
army was defeated by Caecina and Valens in a decisive battle near Bedriacum, whereupon he put
an end to his own life at Brixellum, in the thirty-seventh year of his age. His life is given
by Suetonius and Plutarch.
