"Could the vast frame of this empire have stood and preserved
its balance without a directing spirit, I was not unworthy of inaugurating a
republic. As it is, we have been long reduced to a position, in which my age
can confer no greater boon on the Roman people than a good successor,
your youth no greater than a
good emperor. Under Tiberius, Caius, and Claudius, we were, so to speak, the
inheritance of a single family. The choice which begins with us will be a
substitute for freedom. Now that the family of the Julii and the Claudii has
come to an end, adoption will discover the worthiest successor. To be
begotten and born of a princely race is a mere accident, and is only valued
as such. In adoption there is nothing that need bias the judgment, and if
you wish to make a choice, an unanimous opinion points out the man. Let Nero
be ever before your eyes, swollen with the pride of a long line of
Cæsars; it was not Vindex with his unarmed province, it was not myself
with my single legion, that shook his yoke from our necks. It was his own
profligacy, his own brutality, and that, though there had been before no
precedent of an emperor condemned by his own people. We, who have been
called to power by the issues of war, and by the deliberate judgment of
others, shall incur unpopularity, however illustrious our character. Do not
however be alarmed, if, after a movement which has shaken the world, two
legions are not yet quiet. I did not myself succeed to a throne without
anxiety; and when men shall hear of your adoption I shall no longer be
thought old, and this is the only objection which is now made against me.
Nero will always be regretted by the thoroughly depraved; it is for you and
me to take care, that he be not regretted also by the good. To prolong such
advice, suits not this occasion, and all my purpose is fulfilled if I have
made a good choice in you. The most practical and the shortest method of
distinguishing between good and bad measures, is to think what you yourself
would or would not like under another emperor. It is not here, as it is
among nations despotically ruled, that there is a distinct governing family,
while all the rest are slaves. You have to reign over men who cannot bear
either absolute slavery or absolute freedom." This, with more to the same
effect, was said by Galba; he spoke to Piso as if he were creating an
emperor; the others addressed him as if he were an emperor already.
