The members of the Body Guard dispersed.  The rest of the cohort 31 paid some heed to his speech.  Aimlessly, as happens in moments of confusion, they seized their standards, without as yet any fixed plan, and not, as was afterwards believed, to cloak their treachery.  Marius Celsus had been dispatched to the picked detachments of the Illyrian army, which were quartered in the Vipsanian arcade,[56] while instructions had been given to two senior centurions,[57] Amullius Serenus and Domitius Sabinus, to summon the German troops from the Hall of Liberty.  They distrusted the legion of marines, who had been alienated by Galba’s butchery of their comrades on his entry into Rome.[58] Three officers of the guards, Cetrius Severus, Subrius Dexter, and Pompeius Longinus, also hurried to the camp in the hope that the mutiny was still in its early stages and might be averted by good advice before it came to a head.  The soldiers attacked Subrius and Cetrius with threats and forcibly seizing Longinus disarmed him, because he had not come in virtue of his military rank, but simply as one of Galba’s private friends; and for his loyalty to his master the rebels disliked him all the more.  The marines without any hesitation joined the guards.  The Illyrian draft[59] drove Celsus away at the point of their javelins.  The German detachments[59] wavered for some time.  They were still in poor condition physically, and inclined to be passive.  Nero had dispatched them as an advance-guard to Alexandria;[60] the long voyage back again had damaged their health, and Galba had spared no expense in looking after them.

The whole populace of Rome was now crowding into the palace 32 together with a good sprinkling of slaves.  With discordant shouts they demanded the death of Otho and the doom of the conspirators.  They might have been in the circus or the theatre, clamouring for entertainment.  There was neither sense nor sincerity in their behaviour.  They were quite ready on the same day to clamour for the opposite with equal zeal.  But it is an established custom to flatter any emperor with unbridled cheering and meaningless enthusiasm.  Meanwhile Galba was torn between two opinions.  Titus Vinius maintained that they ought to remain within the palace, employ the slaves to offer resistance and block up all the doors, instead of going out to face the angry troops.  ‘This will give time,’ he urged, ’for the disloyal to repent and the loyal to unite their forces.  Crimes demand haste, good counsels profit by delay.  Besides, if need be, we shall have the same chance of leaving the palace later:  if we leave and repent of it, it will not be in our power to return.’