1But before I set out what I have planned, it seems right to go back over the condition of the city, the temper of the armies, the attitude of the provinces, what was strong and what was ailing throughout the whole world, so that not only the incidents and outcomes of events, which are mostly due to chance, but also their reasons and causes may be understood. 1The end of Nero, though welcome in the first rush of rejoicing, had stirred varied emotions not only in the city among the senators or the people or the city garrison, but among all the legions and generals, for a secret of empire had been revealed, that an emperor could be made elsewhere than at Rome.
1But the senators were glad, at once seizing their freedom with greater licence, as was natural towards an emperor who was new and absent; 1the leading knights came next to the senators in their joy; 1the sound part of the people, attached to the great houses, and the clients and freedmen of the condemned and exiled, were roused to hope: the base rabble, used to the circus and the theatres, together with the worst of the slaves, or those who, having squandered their property, were kept by Nero's disgraceful bounty, were gloomy and greedy for rumours.