Hist. 1.51.1Trepidam urbem ac simul atrōcitātem recentis sceleris, simul veterēs Othōnis mōrēs paventem novus īnsuper dē Vitelliō nūntius exterruit, ante caedem Galbae suppressus ut tantum superiōris Germāniae exercitum dēscīvisse crēderētur.The city was in alarm, dreading at once the atrocity of the recent crime and Otho's old habits, when it was terrified besides by fresh news about Vitellius, which had been suppressed before Galba's murder so that only the army of Upper Germany was believed to have revolted. Hist. 1.51.1Tum duōs omnium mortālium impudīcitiā ignāviā luxuriā dēterrimōs velut ad perdendum imperium fātāliter ēlēctōs nōn senātus modo et eques, Quīs aliqua pars et cūra reī pūblicae, sed vulgus quoque palam maerēre.Then not only the senate and the knights, who had some share in and concern for the state, but the common people too openly lamented that two men, the worst of all mortals in unchastity, sloth and extravagance, had been chosen by fate, as it were, to ruin the empire. Hist. 1.51.1Nec iam recentia saevae pācis exempla sed repetītā bellōrum cīvīlium memoriā captam totiēns suīs exercitibus urbem, vāstitātem Ītaliae, dīreptiōnēs prōvinciārum, Pharsāliam Philippōs et Perusiam ac Mutinam, nota pūblicārum clādium nōmina, loquēbantur.They spoke no longer of the recent examples of a cruel peace, but, recalling the memory of the civil wars, of the city so often captured by its own armies, the devastation of Italy, the plundering of the provinces, Pharsalia, Philippi, Perusia and Mutina, names notorious for public disasters.
Hist. 1.51.1Prope ēversum orbem etiam cum dē prīncipātū inter bonōs certārētur, sed mānsisse G.The world had been all but overturned even when good men contended for the principate, but the empire had survived the victory of Gaius Hist. 1.51.1Iūliō, mānsisse Caesare Augustō victōre imperium;Julius, had survived the victory of Caesar Augustus; Hist. 1.51.1mānsūram fuisse sub Pompeiō Brūtōque rem pūblicam: nunc prō Othōne an prō Vitelliō in templa itūrōs?the republic would have survived under Pompey and Brutus: were they now to go to the temples to pray for Otho or for Vitellius? Hist. 1.51.1Utrāsque impiās precēs, utraque dētestanda vōta inter duōs, quōrum bellō sōlum id scīrēs, dēteriōrem fore quī vīcisset.Impious would be the prayers for either, accursed the vows for either, between two men of whose war you could know only this, that the winner would be the worse. Hist. 1.51.1Erant quī Vespasiānum et arma Orientis augurārentur, et ut potior utrōque Vespasiānus, ita bellum aliud atque aliās clādīs horrēbant.There were some who foresaw Vespasian and the armies of the East, and though Vespasian was better than either, still they shuddered at another war and other disasters.
Hist. 1.51.1Et ambigua dē Vespasiānō fāma, sōlusque omnium ante sē prīncipum in melius mūtātus est.And Vespasian's reputation was ambiguous, and he alone of all the emperors before him was changed for the better.