Otho

Also known as: Marcus Otho · Family: Roman Empire · Role: Roman officer and claimant to the throne · First appears: Histories I.9-13

As a young man, Otho endeared himself to Nero by imitating his vices, and Nero later entrusted him with Poppaea Sabina while planning to remove Octavia. When Nero grew jealous, he sent Otho to Lusitania under cover of a governorship. Otho was popular there and became one of the first to join Galba’s party, where he was a distinguished officer and a friend of Galba; his friendship with Titus Vinius also prompted gossip that he might marry Vinius’s daughter.

After Ptolemy persuaded him that he would ascend the throne, Otho began working against Galba. He bought Cocceius Proculus’s disputed farm and gave him the whole property, bribed the soldiers guarding Galba, and placed his freedman Onomastus in charge of a conspiracy involving Barbius Proculus and Veturius. On January 15, the soldiers acclaimed him emperor and carried him away from the Temple of Saturn. His seizure of power ended Galba’s authority; Otho then sent agents against Galba and Piso Licinianus, while pretending to arrest Marius Celsus in order to save him. After Galba and Piso were killed, he took the throne: “OTHO ON THE THRONE.”

As emperor, Otho secured the Senate’s grant of tribunician powers, the title of Augustus, and imperial prerogatives. He punished Laco and Marcianus Icelus, but pardoned Marius Celsus, reconciled with him, and appointed him a general. He restored several senators, restored Poppaea’s statues, entrusted the city to his brother Salvius Titianus, and relied in military affairs on Licinius Proculus, Suetonius Paulinus, Marius Celsus, and Annius Gallus. His cause was supported in the East by Vespasian and Mucianus, but Vitellius became his rival, and their armies entered a civil war for the empire.

Otho’s forces initially won engagements and held several provinces, but his party declined after he withdrew to Brixellum and ordered his generals to attack. The Othonians were defeated at Bedriacum and surrendered under Vitellius’s terms. Rather than expose his armies to another battle, Otho ordered his supporters to leave, destroyed petitions praising himself or insulting Vitellius, and at daybreak killed himself with a dagger. His death ended his claim, though former Othonian legions later repudiated Vitellius at Aquileia; afterward, Otho’s fleet ravaged Intemelium, killing Agricola’s mother and plundering her estate.