1But Galba, after the news of the German mutiny, although nothing was yet certain about Vitellius, anxious as to where the violence of the armies would break out, and not trusting even the city soldiery, carries out what he thought the only remedy, an election for the empire; 1and having called in, besides Vinius and Laco, Marius Celsus, consul-elect, and Ducenius Geminus, prefect of the city, after a few prefatory words about his own old age, he orders Piso Licinianus to be summoned, whether by his own choice or, as some believed, at the urging of Laco, who had formed a friendship with Piso at the house of Rubellius Plautus; 1but he cunningly supported him as though a stranger, and Piso's good reputation had added weight to his advice.
1Piso, son of Marcus Crassus and Scribonia, noble on both sides, old-fashioned in look and bearing, and austere by a right estimate, was thought rather gloomy by those who interpreted it less kindly: that side of his character, the more it made him suspect to the anxious, the more it pleased the man adopting him.