1But then he put Onomastus, one of his freedmen, in charge of the coming crime, and when Onomastus had brought to him Barbius Proculus, a tesserarius of the bodyguard, and Veturius, an optio of the same, and he had found through varied conversation that they were cunning and bold, he loads them with money and promises, giving them funds to sound out the minds of more men. 1Two common soldiers undertook to transfer the empire of the Roman people, and they transferred it. 1Few were admitted into knowledge of the deed: the wavering minds of the rest they spur on by various methods, the leading soldiers by suggesting they were suspect for the favours of Nymphidius, the common men and the rest by anger and despair at the donative so often deferred.
1There were some whom the memory of Nero and longing for their former licence inflamed: all alike were alarmed by fear of a change in their service.