1At the sight of the armed column close at hand, the standard-bearer of the cohort escorting Galba (they say it was Atilius Vergilio) tore off Galba's image and dashed it to the ground: at that signal the zeal of all the soldiers for Otho became plain, the forum was emptied by the flight of the people, and weapons were drawn against any who hesitated. 1Near the Lake of Curtius, through the panic of his bearers, Galba was flung from his chair and rolled on the ground. 1His last words have been reported variously, according as each man felt hatred or admiration. 1Some say that he asked in supplication what wrong he had deserved, and begged a few days in which to pay the donative: more, that he offered his throat to the assassins of his own accord: let them act and strike, if that seemed in the interest of the state.
1To his killers it made no difference what he said. 1About the assassin there is no clear agreement: some say it was Terentius, a recalled veteran, others Laecanius; 1the commoner report has it that Camurius, a soldier of the Fifteenth Legion, drove his sword in and cut his throat. 1The rest hideously mangled his legs and arms (for his chest was protected); 1most of the wounds were inflicted, out of savagery and cruelty, on a body already headless.