The Year of the Four Emperors: Otho and Vitellius - The Pax Romana Podcast 023

On January 15, AD 69, the Praetorian Guard made Otho, legate of the now deceased Galba, the third emperor in less than a year. The military autocracy established by Augustus was developing serious fractures. Nero and then Galba had been assassinated in Rome. The new emperor, Otho, was hardly established. With so much uncertainty at Rome, ongoing conflicts and rebellions in places like Britain, Germany and Judea offered ambitious generals and governors opportunities to earn victories so epic that their soldiers might decide to proclaim them emperor. That is exactly what happened. Primary Sources Referenced: Cassius Dio 64.13.