Hist. 1.7.1Forte congruerat ut Clōdiī Macrī et Fontēī Capitōnis caedēs nūntiārentur.It happened by chance that the killings of Clodius Macer and Fonteius Capito were reported together. Hist. 1.7.1Macrum in Āfricā haud dubiē turbantem Trebōnius Garutianus prōcūrātor iussū Galbae, Capitōnem in Germāniā, cum similia coeptāret, Cornēlius Aquīnus et Fabius Valēns lēgātī legiōnum interfēcerant antequam iubērentur.Macer, who was undoubtedly stirring up trouble in Africa, had been killed by the procurator Trebonius Garutianus on Galba's orders; Capito, in Germany, when he was attempting similar things, by Cornelius Aquinus and Fabius Valens, commanders of legions, before they were ordered. Hist. 1.7.1Fuēre quī crēderent Capitōnem ut avāritiā et libīdine foedum ac maculōsum ita cōgitātiōne rērum novārum abstinuisse, sed ā lēgātīs bellum suādentibus, postquam impellere nequīverint, crīmen ac dolum ultrō compositum, et Galbam mōbilitāte ingeniī, an nē altius scrūtārētur, quōquō modō ācta, quia mūtārī nōn poterant, comprobāsse.There were those who believed that Capito, though foul and stained with avarice and lust, had nevertheless refrained from thoughts of revolution, but that a charge and a plot had been deliberately concocted by the legates who were urging him to war, after they had failed to drive him to it, and that Galba, from fickleness of character or so as not to look too deeply, had approved what had been done, however it was done, since it could not be changed.
Hist. 1.7.1Cēterum utraque caedēs sinistre accepta, et invīsō semel prīncipī seu bene seu male facta parem invidiam adferēbant.Both killings, however, were badly received, and for an emperor once hated, his deeds, good or bad, brought equal odium. Hist. 1.7.1Vēnālia cūncta, praepotentēs lībertī, servōrum manūs subitīs avidae et tamquam apud senem festīnantēs, eademque novae aulae mala, aequē gravia, nōn aequē excūsāta.Everything was for sale, the freedmen all-powerful, the slaves' hands greedy for sudden gains and in haste, as with an old master; and the new court had the same evils as the old, just as grievous, but not equally excused. Hist. 1.7.1Ipsa aetās Galbae inrīsuī ac fastīdiō erat adsuētīs iuventae Nerōnis et imperātōrēs fōrmā ac decōre corporis, ut est mōs vulgī, comparantibus.Galba's very age was an object of ridicule and disgust to men used to Nero's youth, who compared emperors, as the crowd does, by their looks and physical grace.