1The power of the principate was divided between Titus Vinius the consul and Cornelius Laco the praetorian prefect; 1and no less influence belonged to Icelus, Galba's freedman, who had been presented with the gold rings and whom they called by the equestrian name Marcianus. 1These men, at odds and each pulling for himself in smaller matters, were split into two factions over the decision on choosing a successor. 1Vinius backed Marcus Otho; Laco and Icelus agreed in favouring not so much any one man as someone else. 1Nor was Galba unaware of the friendship between Otho and Titus Vinius; 1and in the rumours of those who pass over nothing in silence, because Vinius had a widowed daughter and Otho was unmarried, they were marked out as son-in-law and father-in-law.
1I believe concern for the state also occurred to him, which would have been taken from Nero in vain if it were left with Otho. 1For Otho had spent his boyhood carelessly, his youth wantonly, and had won Nero's favour by rivalling his extravagance. 1For that reason Nero had deposited with him, as the confidant of his lusts, Poppaea Sabina, the emperor's harlot, until he could get rid of his wife Octavia. 1Soon, suspecting him in the matter of that same Poppaea, he set him aside in the province of Lusitania under the pretext of a governorship. 1Otho, having governed the province courteously, was the first to go over to Galba's side, was far from idle and, as long as the war lasted, was the most brilliant of those about him; he at once conceived the hope of adoption and grasped at it more eagerly every day, since most of the soldiers favoured him and Nero's court was inclined towards him as one like Nero.