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Suetonius describes Otho's family, and their history and nobility. And just as Suetonius had done with prior caesars, he includes a list of omens regarding Otho's reign and suicide. Suetonius spends most of the book describing the ascension of Otho, his suicide, and the other usual topics.
Otho was born on 28 April AD 32. His grandfather Marcus had been a senator, and Claudius granted patrician status to Otho's father Lucius Salvius Otho. [4] [5]Suetonius, in The Lives of the Caesars, comments on Otho's appearance and personal hygiene.
Marcus Salvius Otho was a member to the Salvia gens. His father is described by Suetonius as an Eques (knight) of Etruscan descent whose ancestors came from Ferentinum and were descended from the princes of Etruria. His mother is not named and stated as being of lowly origin, [1] and may not even have been freeborn. [2]
It is certain that Suetonius came from a family of moderate social position, that his father, Suetonius Laetus, [3] was a tribune belonging to the equestrian order (tribunus angusticlavius) in Legio XIII Gemina, and that Suetonius was educated when schools of rhetoric flourished in Rome.
In 69, during the year of civil wars that followed the death of Nero (see Year of Four Emperors), he was one of Otho's senior generals and military advisors. [16] He and Aulus Marius Celsus defeated Aulus Caecina Alienus, one of Vitellius's generals, near Cremona, but Suetonius would not allow his men to follow up their advantage and was accused of treachery as a result. [17]
Otho took his own life the next day, and Vitellius was appointed emperor by the Senate on 19 April. The new emperor had little support outside of his veterans from the German legions, though. When Vespasian, legate of Syria , made his bid known, he received the allegiance of the legions of the Danube as well as many former supporters of Galba ...
Otho had once been married to Poppaea, until Nero had forced their divorce. Otho reigned for three months until his suicide after the Battle of Bedriacum . His victorious rival, Vitellius , intended to use Sporus as a victim in a public entertainment: a fatal "re-enactment" of the Rape of Proserpina at a gladiator show .
Like his predecessor, Otho, Vitellius attempted to rally public support to his cause by honoring and imitating Nero who remained popular in the empire. Originally from Campania, likely from Nuceria Alfaterna, [6] he was born to the Vitellia gens, a relatively obscure family in ancient Rome.