Otho, Sa'lvius
2. L.
Salvius Otho, the son of the preceding, and the father of the emperor Otho, was connected on his mother's side with many of the most distinguished Roman families, and stood so high in the favour of Tiberius and resembled this emperor so strongly in person, that it was supposed by most that he was his son.
He discharged the various public offices at Rome, was consul suffectus in A. D. 33 (Suet.
Galb. 6), obtained the proconsulate of Africa, and administered the affairs of this province, as well as of other extraordinary commands which he held, with great diligence and energy. In A. D. 42 he was sent into Illyricum, where the Roman army had lately rebelled against Claudius. On his arrival he put to death several of the soldiers, who had killed their own officers under the pretext that they had excited them to rebellion, and who had even been rewarded by Claudius for this very act. Such a proceeding, though it might have been necessary to restore the discipline of the troops, gave great umbrage at the imperial court; but Otho soon afterwards regained the favour of Claudius by detecting a conspiracy which had been formed against his life by a Roman eques.
The senate conferred upon him the extraordinary honour of erecting his statue on the Palatine, and Claudius enrolled him among the patricians, adding that he did not wish better children than Otho.
By his wife Albia Tereutina he had two sons and one daughter.
The elder of his sons, Lucius, bore, says Suetonius, the surname of Titianus, but we may conclude from Tacitus (
Tac. Ann. 12.52) and Frontinus (
Aquaed. 13), that He had the cognomen of Otho as well [see below, No. 3]. His younger son, Marcus, was the emperor Otho. His daughter was betrothed, when quite young, to Drusus, the son of Germanicus. (Suet.
Otho, 1;
Tac. Hist. 2.50.)
