1Galba's body, long neglected and abused with many outrages under the licence of darkness, was buried by Argius, his steward, one of his former slaves, in a humble grave in his private gardens. 1His head, fixed on a pole and mangled by sutlers and camp servants before the tomb of Patrobius (a freedman of Nero who had been punished by Galba), was found only on the following day and joined to the body, already cremated. 1Such was the end of Servius Galba, who in seventy-three years had lived through the reigns of five emperors with good fortune, and was happier under another's rule than his own. 1His family had ancient nobility and great wealth; he himself had a middling character, free of vices rather than endowed with virtues.
1He was neither careless of reputation nor one to advertise himself; 1not covetous of other men's money, sparing of his own, miserly with the state's; 1towards his friends and freedmen, when he chanced upon good ones, indulgent beyond reproach; if they were bad, blind to the point of fault. 1But the distinction of his birth and the fear of the times served as a cloak, so that what was sloth was called wisdom. 1While in the prime of life he was renowned for military distinction in the Germanies. 1As proconsul he governed Africa with moderation, and, when already older, Nearer Spain with equal justice, seeming greater than a private citizen while he was one, and by universal consent capable of ruling, had he not ruled.