Galba
Γάλβα, the name of a patrician family of the Sulpicia gens.
2. Ser. Sulpicius Galba, was elected curule aedile in B. C. 208, and three years later he was one of the ambassadors that were sent to Asia to solicit the friendship of Attalus in the impending war between the Romans and Philip of Macedonia. In 203, he was elected pontiff in the place of Q. Fabius Maximus, and in this capacity he died in B. C. 198. (Liv. 27.21, 29.11, 30.26, 32.7.)
3. C. Sulpicius Galba was elected pontifex in B. C. 201, in the place of T. Manlius Torquatus, but died as early as B. C. 198. (Liv. 30.39, 32.7.)
4. Ser. Sulpicius Galba was curule aedile in B. C. 188, in which year he dedicated twelve gilt shields in the temple of Hercules, out of the fines which he and his colleague had exacted. In the year following he was appointed praetor urbanus, and supported M. Fulvius in his demand of a triumph. In B. C. 185, he was a candidate for the consulship, but without success. (Liv. 38.35, 42, 39.5, 32.)
5. C. Sulpicius Galba was praetor urbanus in B. C. 171. (Liv. 42.28, 31.)
6. Ser. Sulpicius, SER. F. Galba was tribune of the soldiers, and belonged to the second legion in Macedonia, under Aemilius Paullus, to whom he was personally hostile. After the conquest of Perseus, B. C. 167, when Aemilius had returned to Rome, Galba endeavoured to prevent a triumph being conferred upon the former; but he did not succeed, although his efforts created considerable sensation. He was praetor in B. C. 151, and received Spain as his province, where a war was carried on against the Celtiberians. On his arrival there he hastened to the relief of some Roman subjects who were hard pressed by the Lusitanians. Galba succeeded so far as to put the enemy to flight; but as, with his exhausted and undisciplined army, he was incautious in their pursuit, the Lusitanians turned round, and a fierce contest ensued, in which 7000 Romans fell. Galba then collected the remnants of his army and his allies, and took up his winter-quarters at Conistorgis. In the spring of B. C. 150, he again marched into Lusitania, and ravaged the country. The Lusitanians sent an embassy to him, declaring that they repeated of having violated the treaty which they had concluded with Atilius, and promised henceforth to observe it faithfully. The mode in which Galba acted on that occasion is one of the most infamous and atrocious acts of treachery and cruelty that occur in history. He received the ambassadors kindly, and lamented that circumstances, especially the poverty of their country, should have induced then to revolt against the Romans. He promised them fertile lands if they would remain faithful allies of Rome. He induced them, for this purpose, to, leave their homes, and assemble in three hosts, with their women and children, in the three places which he fixed upon, land in which lie himself would inform each host what territory they were to occupy. When they were assembled in the manner he had prescribed, he went to the first body, commanded them to surrender their arms, surrounded them with a ditch, and then sent his armed soldiers into the place, who forthwith massacred them all. In the same manner he treated the second and third hosts. Very few of the Lusitanians escaped from the bloody scene; but among the survivors was Viriathus, destined one day to be the avenger of the wrong done to his countrymen. Appian states that Galba, although he was very wealthy, was extremely niggardly, and that he did not even scruple to lie or perjure himself, provided he could thereby gain pecuniary advantages. In the year following, .when he had returned to Rome, the tribune, T. Scribonius Libo, brought a charge against him for the outrage he had committed on the Lusitanians; and Cato, then 85 years old, attacked him most unsparingly in the assembly of the people. Galba, although a man of great oratorical power himself, had nothing to say in his own justification; but bribery, and the fact of his bringing his own children and the orphan child of a relative before the people, and imploring mercy, procured his acquittal. Notwithstanding this occurrence, however, he was afterwards made consul for the year B. C. 144, with L. Aurelius Cotta. The two consuls disputed in the senate as to which of them was to undertake the command against Viriathus in Spain : great dissension prevailed also in the senate; but it was resolved in the end, that neither should be sent to Spain, and that Q. Fabius Maximus Aemilianus, the consul of the year before, should continue to command the army in Spain. He must have survived the year B. C. 138, for in that year he spoke for the publicani. (Cic. Brut. 22.) Cicero speaks of his talent as an orator in terms of high praise, and calls him the first among the Romans whose oratory was what it should be. He seems to have been a man of learning; his oratory had great power, which was increased by his passionate gesticulation during delivery. Cicero found his orations more oldfashioned than those of Laelius and Scipio, and says, that for this reason they were seldom mentioned in his time. (Appian, Hispan. 58, 59, 60; Liv. 45.35, 36, Epit. 49; Suet. Galb. 3; Oros. 4.20; V. Max. 8.1.2, 7.1; Plut. Cat. Ma. 15; Nepos, Cat. 3; Gel. 1.12, 23, 13.24 ; Cic. de Orat. 1.10, 13, 53, 60, 2.2, 65, 3.7, Brut. 22, 23, 24, 33, 86, 97, Orat. 30, ad Att. 12.5, pro Muren. 28, Tuscul. 1.3, Acad. ii. 16, de Re Publ. 3.30, ad Herenn. 4.5; Fronto, Epist. p. 85, ed. Rom.; Meyer, Fraym. Orat. Rom. pp. 120, &c., 164, &c.)
7. Ser. Sulpicius, SER. F. SER. N. Galba, a son of No. 6, succeeded Calpurnius Piso as praetor in Spain, and was consul in B. C. 108; and in 100, during the disturbances of Appuleius Saturninus, he took up arms to defend the republic against the revolutionists. (Appian, Hispua. 99 ; J. Obseq. 100; Cic. pro Rab. perd. 7.)
8. C. Sulpicius, SER. F. Galba, apparently a son of No. 6, and son-in-law of P. Crassus Mucianus, was quaestor in B. C. 120. During the transactions with Jugurtha he was accused of having been bribed by the Nunidian, and was condemned in B. C. 110 by a lex Mamilia. Cicero states that C. Sulpicius Galba enjoyed great favour with his contemporaries for his father's sake. His defence against the charge of being bribed by Jugurtha was read by Cicero when yet a boy, and delighted him so much that he learned it by heart. At the time of his condemnation he belonged to the college of pontiffs, and was the first priest that was ever condemned at Rome by a judicium publicam. (Cic. Brut. 26, 33, 34, de Orat. 1.56.)
9. P. Sulpicius Galba was appointed one of the judices in the case of Verres B. C. 70, but was rejected by Verres. Cicero calls him an honest, but severe judge, and says that he was to enter on some magistracy that same year. He seems to be the same as the Galba who was one of the competitors of Cicero for the consulship. In B. C. 57 he is mentioned as pontifex, and in 49 as augur. Whether he is the same as the Galba who served as legate under Sulla in the war against Mithridates must remain uncertain. (Cic. in Verr. 1.7, 10, de Petit. Cons. 2, ad Att. 1.1, 9.9, de Harusp. Resp. 6; Ascon. in Cic. in Tog. cand. p. 82 ; Appian, App. Mith. 43.)
10. Ser. SULPICIUS GALBA, a grandson of No. 6, and great-grandfather of the emperor Galba. He was sent by Caesar at the beginning of his Gallic campaign, in B. C. 58, against the Nantuates, Veragri and Seduni, and defeated them; but he, nevertheless, led his army back into the country of the Allobrogians. In B. C. 54 he was praetor urbanus. In B. C. 49 he was a candidate for the consulship; but, to the annoyance of his friend J. Caesar, he was not elected. He was a friend of Decimus Brutus and Cicero; and in the war of Mutina, of which he himself gives an account in a letter to Cicero still extant (ad Fam. 10.30), he commanded the legio Martia. (Caes. Gal. 3.1, 6, 8.50; D. C. 37.48, 39.5, 65 ; Cic. Fam. 6.18, 11.18, Philip. 13.16; V. Max. 6.2.11.) According to Suetonius (Galba, 3; comp. Appian, App. BC 2.113), he was one of the conspirators against the life of J. Caesar.
11. Sulpicius Galba, a son of No. 10, and grandfather of the emperor Galba, was a man devoted to literary pursuits, and never rose to a higher office in the state than the praetorship. He was the author of an historical work which Suetotonius calls mulliplex nec incuriosa historia. The nature of this work is unknown. (Suet. Galb. 3.)
12. C. Sulpicius Galba, a son of No. 11, and father of the emperor Galba. He was consul in A. D. 22, with D. Haterius Agrippa. He was humpbacked, and an orator of moderate power. He was married to Mummia Achaica, a great granddaughter of Mummius, the destroyer of Corinth. After her death he married Livia Ocellina, a wealthy and beautiful woman. By his former wife he had two sons, Caius and Servius. The former of them is said by Suetonius (Galb. 3) to have made away with himself, because Tiberius would not allow him to enter on his proconsulship ; but as it is not known that he ever was consul, it is more probable that Suetonius is mistaken, and that what he relates of the son Caius applies to his father, C. Sulpicius Galba, who, according to Tacitus (Tac. Ann. 6.40), put an end to himself in A. D. 36. [L.S]
To which of the preceding P. Galbae the following coin belongs is doubtful. It has on the obverse a female head, and on the reverse a culter, a simpuvium, and a secespita, with P. GALB. AED. CUR.
a Roman emperor, who reigned from June, A. D. 68 to January, A. D. 69. He was descended from the family of the Galbae, a branch of the patrician Sulpicia Gens, but had no connection with the family of Augustus, which became extinct by the death of Nero. He was a son of Sulpicius Galba [Galba, No. 12] and Mummia Achaica, and was born in a villa near Terracina, on the 24th of December, B. C. 3. Livia Ocellina, a relative of Livia, the wife of Augustus, and the second wife of Galba's father, adopted young Ser. Sulpicius Galba, who on this account altered his name into L. Livius Ocella, which he bore down to the time of his elevation. Both Augustus and Tiberius are said to have told him, that one day he would be at the head of the Roman world, from which we must infer that he was a young man of more than ordinary talents. His education appears to have been the same as that of other young nobles of the time, and we know that he paid some attention to the study of the law. He married Lepida, who bore him two sons, but both Lepida and her children died, and Galba never married again, although Agrippina, afterwards the wile of Claudius, did all she could to win his attachment. He was a man of great wealth, and a favourite of Livia, the wife of Augustus, through whose influence he obtained the consulship. She also left him a considerable legacy, of which, however, he was deprived by Tiberius. He was invested with the curule offices before attaining the legitimate age. After his praetorship, in A. D. 20, he had the administration of the province of Aquitania. In A. D. 33 he was raised to the consulship on the recommendation of Livia Drusilla, and after this he distinguished himself in the administration of the province of Gaul, A. D. 39, where he carried on a successful war against the Germans, and restored discipline among the troops. The Germans had invaded Gaul, but after severe losses they were compelled by Galba to return to their own country. On the death of Caligula many of his friends urged him on to take possession of the imperial throne, but he preferred living in a private station, and Claudius, the successor of Caligula, felt so grateful to him for this moderation, that he received him into his suite, and showed him very great kindness and attention. In A. D. 45 and 46,, Galba was entrusted with the administration of the province of Africa, which was at the time disturbed by the licentiousness of the Roman soldiers and by the incursions of the neighbouring barbarians. He restored peace, and managed the affairs of the province with great strictness and care, and on his return he was honoured with the ornamenta triumphalia, and with the dignity of three priesthoods ; he became a member of the college of the Quindecimviri, of the sodales Titii, and of the Augustales. In the reign of Nero he lived for several years in private retirement, for fear of becoming, like many others, the victim of the tyrant's suspicion, until, in B. C. 61, Nero gave him Hispania Tarraconensis as his province, where he remained for a period of eight years. In maintaining discipline among his troops, his strictness at first bordered upon cruelty, for the severest punishments were inflicted for slight offences, but during the latter period of his administration he became indolent, for fear, it is said, of attracting the attention of Nero, but more probably as a naturai consequence of old age. IIn A. D. 68, when the insurrection of C. Julius Vindex broke out in Gaul, and Vindex called upon the most distinguished men in the other provinces to join him, he also sent messengers to Galba, whom he looked upon as the most eminent among the generals of the time, and whom he had destined in his mind as the successor of Nero. Index accordingly exhorted him to vindicate the rights of oppressed humanity. Galba, who was at the same time informed that some officers in Spain had received secret orders from Nero to murder him, resolved at once to take the perilous step, and place himself at the head of the Roman world, although he was already upwards of severity years old. He assembled his troops, excited their sympathy for those who had been murdered by Nero, and was at once proclaimed imperator by the soldiers. He himself, however, at first professed to act only as the legate of the Roman senate and people. he began to organise his army in Spain, instituted a kind of senate which was to act as his council, and made all preparations for a war against Nero. Some of his soldiers, however, soon began to repent, and as he was engaged in suppressing this spirit among his own men, he received the intelligence of the fall of Vindex, who in despair had put an end to himself. Being thus deprived of his principal supporter, Galba withdrew to Clunia, a small town of his province, and was on the point of following the example of Vindex. But things suddenly took a different turn. Nymphidius Sabinus, prefect of the praetorians at Rome, created an insurrection there, and some of the friends of Galba, by making munificent promises in his name, succeeded in winning the troops for him. Nero was murdered. Galba now took the title of Caesar, and, accompanied by Salvius Otho, the governor of Lusitania, he went to Rome, where ambassadors soon arrived from all parts of the empire to do homage to Galba as the lawful sovereign.
Galba by this time seems to have lost the good qualities that distinguished his earlier years : a report of his severity and avarice had preceded him to Rome; and it soon became manifest that the accounts of his avarice were not exaggerated. Instead of doing all he could to win the favour of the soldiers, who had only just become aware of the fact that they had it in their power to dispose of the sovereignty, and that they might depose him just as they had raised him, he made several unpopular changes in the army at Rome, and punished with severity those who opposed his measures. The large donatives which his friends had promised in his name were not given, and various rumours about his niggardly and miserly character were sedulously spread at Rome, and increased the discontent. Some of his arrangements were wise enough; and had he not been the victim of avarice, the common foible of old age, and been able to part with some of his treasures, he might have maintained himself on the throne, and the Roman world would probably not have had much reason to complain. In addition to this, he was completely under the sway of three favourites, T. Vinius, Cornelius Laco, and Icelus; and the arbitrary manner in which he acted under their influence showed that the times were little better than they had been under Nero. His unpopularity with all classes daily increased, and more especially among the soldiers. The first open outbreak of discontent was among the legions of Germany, which sent word to the Praetorians at Rome, that they disliked the emperor created in Spain, and that one should be elected who was approved of by all the legions. Similar outbreaks occurred in Africa. Galba, apparently blind to the real cause of the discontent, and attributing it to his old age and his having no heir, adopted Piso Licinianus, a noble young Roman, who was to be his coadjutor and successor. But even this act only increased his unpopularity; for he presented his adopted son to the senate and the soldiers, without giving to the latter the donatives customary on such occasions. Salvius Otho, who had hoped to be adopted by Galba, and had been strongly recommended by T. Vinius, now secretly formed a conspiracy among the troops. The insurrection broke out six days after the adoption of Piso Licinianus. Galba at first despaired, and did not know what to do, but at last he took courage, and went out to meet the rebels; but as he was carried across the forum in a sedan-chair, a troop of horsemen, who had been waiting for his arrival, rushed forward and cut him down, near the Lacus Curtius, where his body was left, until a common soldier, who passed by, cut off his head, and carried it to Otho, who had in the mean time been proclaimed emperor by the praetorians and legions. His remains were afterwards buried by one Argius in his own garden. A statue of his, which the senate erected on the spot where he had been murdered, was afterwards destroyed by Vespasian, who believed that Galba had sent assassins into Judaea to murder him. (Tac. Hist. 1.1_42; D. C. 64.1_6; Suet. Galba ; Plut. Gulba ; Aurel. Vict. De Cues. 6; Eutrop. 7.10; Niebuhr, Lect. on the Hist. of Rome, vol. ii. p. 226, ed. L. Schmitz.) [L.S]
COIN OF Galba. The reverse represents a Corona Civica, and is therefore accompanied with the inscription OB C. S., that is, ob cives servatos.
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…ad Caesarem de deditione mittunt et petentibus Remis ut conservarentur impetrant. Caesar, obsidibus acceptis primis civitatis atque ipsius Galbae regis duobus filiis armisque omnibus ex oppido traditis, in deditionem Suessiones accipit exercitumque in Bellovacos ducit. Qui cum…
Julius Caesar, Gallic War
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…totius Galliae potentissimum, qui cum magnae partis harum regionum, tum etiam Britanniae imperium obtinuerit ; nunc esse regem Galbam ad hunc propter iustitiam prudentiamque summam totius belli omnium voluntate deferri ; oppida habere numero XII, polliceri milia armata…
Julius Caesar, Gallic War
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…quod ei viro succedendum esset, verecunde et dubitanter recepisse. Vnum quasi comperendinatus medium diem fuisse, quem totum Galbam in consideranda causa componendaque posuisse ; et cum cognitionis dies esset et ipse Rutilius rogatu sociorum domum ad Galbam mane…
M. Tullius Cicero, Brutus
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…ac debilis, hastili nixus et animi vim et infirmitatem corporis ostenderet, cum L. Metellus, Ser. Galba, C. Serranus, P. Rutilius, C. Fimbria, Q. Catulus omnesque qui tum erant…
Cicero, pro Rabirio Perduellionis Reo
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…M. Octavius. At vero M. Aemilius Lepidus, qui est Porcina dictus, isdem temporibus fere quibus Galba, sed paulo minor natu et summus orator est habitus et fuit, ut apparet ex orationibus, scriptor sane…
M. Tullius Cicero, Brutus
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…quod melius putent dicere se posse quam scribere, quod peringeniosis hominibus neque satis doctis plerumque contingit, ut ipsi Galbae. quem fortasse vis non ingeni solum sed etiam animi et naturalis quidam dolor dicentem incendebat efficiebatque ut et incitata…
M. Tullius Cicero, Brutus
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…intersit inter perspicua et inania eadem ratio est somniorum. num censes Ennium, cum in hortis cum Ser. Galba vicino suo ambulavisset, dixisse visus sum mihi cum Galba ambulare at cum somniavit ita narravit visus Homerus adesse poeta…
M. Tullius Cicero, Lucullus
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…patefieri volebat. Huic permisit, si opus esse arbitraretur, uti in his locis legionem hiemandi causa conlocaret. Galba secundis aliquot proeliis factis castellisque compluribus eorum expugnatis, missis ad eum undique legatis obsidibusque datis et pace facta ,…
Julius Caesar, Gallic War
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…rogationem in Galbam privilegi similem ferente, summa senectute, ut ante dixi, M. Cato legem suadens in Galbam multa dixit ; quam orationem in Origines suas rettulit, paucis ante quam mortuus est an diebus an mensibus .…
M. Tullius Cicero, Brutus
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…. Quid multa magna exspectatione, plurimis audientibus, coram ipso Laelio sic illam causam tanta vi tantaque gravitate dixisse Galbam ut nulla fere pars orationis silentio praeteriretur. Itaque multis querelis multaque miseratione adhibita socios omnibus approbantibus illa die quaestione…
M. Tullius Cicero, Brutus
(1) Sergius, an orator anterior to Cicero. While holding the government of Spain, he treacherously murdered 30,000 Lusitanians. Having been accused for this by Cato the Censor, he was about to be condemned, when he wrought upon the feelings of the people by embracing before them his two sons, still quite young, an act which saved him (Cic. Orat. i. 53). In the year b. c. 144 he was consul.
(2) Gaius Sulpicius, a Roman lawyer, father of the emperor. He was consul in A.D. 22.
(3) Servius Sulpicius, born in the reign of Augustus, of a patrician family. He served with distinction in Germany, and was afterwards proconsul, first in Africa, and subsequently in Hispania Tarraconensis, in which office he gained a reputation for justice and moderation. He was still in Spain when Iulius Vindex, the proconsul of Upper Gaul, rose against Nero. Galba joined Vindex, and Otho, governor of Lusitania, followed his example. The assembled multitudes saluted Galba as emperor and Augustus; but he declared that he was acting only as the lieutenant of the Senate and people of Rome, in order to put an end to the disgraceful tyranny of Nero. The Praetorian Guards soon after, having revolted against Nero, proclaimed Galba, and the Senate acknowledged him as emperor. Galba hastened from Spain to Rome, where he began by calling to account those favourites of Nero who had enriched themselves by proscriptions and confiscations and by the extraordinary prodigality of that emperor; but it was found that most of them had already dissipated their ill-gotten wealth. Galba, or, rather, the intimates who governed him, then proceeded against the purchasers of their property, and confiscations became again the order of the day. The new emperor, at the same time, exercised great parsimony in his administration, and endeavoured to enforce strict discipline among the soldiers, who had been used to the prodigality and license of the previous reign. Being past seventy years of age, Galba, on this and other accounts, soon became the object of popular dislike and ridicule, and revolts against him broke out in various quarters, several of which were put down and punished severely. Galba thought of strengthening himself by adopting Piso Licinianus, a young patrician of considerable personal merit, as Caesar and his successor; upon which Otho, who had expected to be the object of his choice, formed a conspiracy among the Guards, who proclaimed him emperor. Galba, unable to walk, caused himself to be carried in a litter, hoping to suppress the mutiny; but, at the appearance of Otho's armed partisans, his followers left him, and even the litter-bearers threw the old man down and ran away. Some of the legionaries came up and put Galba to death, after a reign of only seven months, counting from the time of Nero's death, A.D. 68. Galba was seventy-two years old when he was taken off. He was succeeded by Otho ( Galba; Hist. i. 4 foll.; Dio Cass. lxiii. 29, lxiv. 1 foll.).