Histories 1.44

1Our age saw a distinguished man on that day, Sempronius Densus. 1He was a centurion of a praetorian cohort, assigned by Galba to guard Piso; drawing his dagger, he confronted the armed men, reproaching them for their crime, and by turning the assassins on himself, now with his hand, now with his voice, he gave Piso, though wounded, a chance to escape. 1Piso made his way into the temple of Vesta, and, taken in by the compassion of a public slave and hidden in his quarters, was putting off his impending death, not by religion or sacred rites but by concealment, when there arrived, sent by Otho, who was burning for his murder in particular, Sulpicius Florus of the British cohorts, recently granted citizenship by Galba, and Statius Murcus, a soldier of the guard; by them Piso was dragged out and butchered at the doors of the temple.