1Meanwhile, from a small beginning, from which nothing was feared, a mutiny arose that almost brought the city to destruction. 1Otho had ordered the Seventeenth cohort to be summoned from the colony of Ostia to the city; 1the task of arming it was given to Varius Crispinus, a tribune of the praetorians. 1He, so as to carry out his orders unhindered while the camp was quiet, orders the armoury to be opened and the cohort's wagons to be loaded as night was coming on. 1The hour grew into suspicion, the motive into a charge, the desire for quiet into an uproar, and the sight of weapons among drunken men stirred a craving for them.
1The soldiers grumble and accuse the tribunes and centurions of treachery, as though the households of senators were being armed for Otho's destruction, some ignorant and heavy with wine, all the worst eager for a chance of plunder, the mass, as usual, eager for any new disturbance; 1and night had removed the obedience of the better men. 1The tribune who resisted the mutiny and the strictest of the centurions they cut down; 1weapons were seized, swords drawn; 1mounted on horses, they make for the city and the Palatine.