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OTHO
 

is never forthcoming, and is daily cast in your teeth.

And that you might despair of improvement under the successor even of Galba, he has recalled from banishment a man, in his temper dark and gloomy, hardened in avarice, whom he judged the counterpart of himself. You remember, my fellow soldiers, the day on which that adoption was made—a day deformed with storms and tempests, when the warring elements announced the awful displeasure of the gods. The senate and the people are now of one mind. They depend upon your valor. It is your generous ardor that must give vigor to our honorable enterprise. Without your aid the best designs must prove abortive. It is not to a war, nor even to danger, that I am now to conduct you; the armies of Rome are on our side. The single cohort remaining with Galba is composed of citizens, not of soldiers; and they do not stand forth in his defense—they detain him as their prisoner. When they see you advancing in firm array, when my signal is given, the only struggle will be, who may charge my gratitude with the heaviest debt. There is no place for delay in a project which can not be applauded unless it be gone through with successfully.

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