1Nevertheless the legions of Lower Germany were sworn in for Galba with the customary oath on the first of January, with much hesitation and few voices from the senior centurions, the rest in silence, each waiting for the boldness of his neighbour, by that nature inborn in mortals to follow quickly what they are reluctant to begin. 1But within the legions themselves there was a difference of feeling: the men of the First and Fifth were so unruly that some threw stones at Galba's images: the Fifteenth and Sixteenth legions, daring nothing beyond murmurs and threats, were looking round for the start of an outbreak. 1But in the upper army the Fourth and Twenty-second legions, quartered in the same winter camp, on the very day of the first of January smash Galba's images, the Fourth more readily, the Twenty-second hesitantly, then in agreement.
1And so as not to seem to cast off reverence for the empire, they invoked in their oath the now obsolete names of the senate and the Roman people, while none of the legates or tribunes made any effort for Galba, and some, as happens in an uproar, made trouble more conspicuously. 1Yet no one spoke in the manner of a public address or from the tribunal; 1for there was as yet no one to whom it could be credited.