Otho next tried to win over the municipalities and provincial 78 towns by similar bribes.  At the colonies of Hispalis and Emerita[172] he enrolled new families of settlers, granted the franchise to the whole community of the Lingones,[173] and made over certain Moorish towns as a gift to the province of Baetica.  Cappadocia and Africa were also granted new privileges, as showy as they were short-lived.  All these grants are excused by the exigences of the moment and the impending crisis, but he even found time to remember his old amours and passed a measure through the senate restoring Poppaea’s statues.[174] He is believed also to have thought of celebrating Nero’s memory as a means of attracting public sympathy.  Some persons actually erected statues of Nero, and there were times when the populace and the soldiers, by way of enhancing his fame and dignity, saluted him as Nero Otho.  However, he refused to commit himself.  He was ashamed to accept the title, yet afraid to forbid its use.

While the whole of Rome was intent upon the civil war, foreign 79 affairs were neglected.  Consequently a Sarmatian tribe called the Rhoxolani,[175] who had cut up two cohorts of auxiliaries in the previous winter, now formed the still more daring scheme of invading Moesia.  Inspirited by success, they assembled nearly 9,000 mounted men, all more intent on plunder than on fighting.  While they were riding about aimlessly without any suspicion of danger, they were suddenly attacked by the Third legion[176] and its native auxiliaries.  On the Roman side everything was ready for a battle:  the Sarmatians were scattered over the country; some in their greed for plunder were heavily laden, and their horses could scarcely move on the slippery roads.  They were caught in a trap and cut to pieces.  It is quite extraordinary how all a Sarmatian’s courage is, so to speak, outside himself.  Fighting on foot, no one is more cowardly; but their cavalry charge would break almost any troops.  On this occasion it was raining and the ground was greasy with thaw; their pikes and their long swords, needing both hands to wield, were useless; their horses slipped and they were encumbered by the heavy coat of mail which all their chiefs and nobles wear.  Being made of iron plates and a very hard kind of leather, it is impenetrable to blows, but most inconvenient for any one who is knocked down by a charge of the enemy and tries to get up.  Besides, they sank into the deep, soft snow.  The Roman soldiers in their neat leather jerkins, armed with javelin and lance, and using, if need be, their light swords, sprang on the unarmed Sarmatians (they never carry shields) and stabbed them at close quarters.  A few, surviving the battle, hid themselves in the marshes, and there perished miserably from the severity of the winter and their wounds.  When the news of this reached Rome, Marcus Aponius, the governor of Moesia, was granted a triumphal statue,[177] while the commanding officers of the legions, Fulvius Aurelius, Tettius Julianus, and Numisius Lupus, received the insignia of consular rank.  Otho was delighted and took all the credit to himself, as if he had been the successful general, and had himself employed his officers and armies to enlarge the empire.