1'I shall claim for myself no nobility or modesty; 1for there is no need to recount virtues in comparison with Otho. 1His vices, the only things he boasts of, overturned the empire, even when he was playing the emperor's friend. 1Was it by his bearing and gait, or by that womanish finery of his, that he would deserve the empire? 1They are deceived on whom extravagance imposes under the guise of generosity: he will know how to squander, he will not know how to give. 1Debauchery now, and revels, and gatherings of women are what he turns over in his mind: these he thinks the rewards of the principate, whose lust and pleasure would be his alone, the shame and disgrace everyone's; 1for no one has ever exercised by good means an empire sought by crime.
1The consent of the human race named Galba Caesar, and Galba, with your consent, named me. 1If the state, the senate and the people are empty names, it is still your concern, fellow soldiers, that the worst men should not make the emperor. 1A mutiny of legions against their commanders has been heard of at times: your loyalty and reputation have remained unharmed to this day. 1Even Nero deserted you, not you Nero. 1Are fewer than thirty turncoats and deserters, whom no one would tolerate choosing a centurion or tribune for themselves, to assign the empire? 1Do you admit the precedent, and by keeping quiet make the crime common to all?
1This licence will spread to the provinces, and the outcome of the crimes will fall on us, that of the wars on you. 1Nor is more given for the murder of an emperor than to the innocent; rather, you will receive from us a donative for loyalty just as from others for the crime.'