first withdrew the guard that surrounded Nero, then entered the camp, and
declared Nero an enemy but chose Galba in his place as emperor.

But when he perceived that he had been deserted also by his body-guards
(he happened to be asleep in some garden), he undertook to make his
escape. Accordingly, he assumed shabby clothing and mounted a horse no
better than his attire. Closely veiled he rode while it was yet night
towards an estate of Phao, a Caesarian, in company with the owner of the
place, and Epaphroditus and Sporus. [Sidenote:--28--] While he was on the
way an extraordinary earthquake occurred, so that one might have thought
the whole world was breaking apart and all the spirits of those murdered
by him were leaping up to assail him. Being recognized, they say, in spite
of his disguise by some one who met him he was saluted as emperor;
consequently he turned aside from the road and hid himself in a kind of
reedy place. There he waited till daylight, lying flat on the ground so as
to run the least risk of being seen. Every one who passed he suspected had
come for him; he started at every voice, thinking it to be that of some
one searching for him: if a dog barked anywhere or a bird chirped, or a
bush or twig was shaken by the breeze, he was thrown into a violent
tremor. These sounds would not let him have rest, yet he dared not speak a
word to any one of those that were with him for fear some one else might
hear: but he wept and bewailed his fortune, considering among other things
how he had once stood resplendent in the midst of so vast a retinue and
was now dodging from sight in company with three freedmen. Such was the
drama that Fate had now prepared for him, to the end that he should no
longer represent all other matricides and beggars, but only himself at
last. Now he repented of his haughty insolence, as if he could make one of
his acts undone. Such was the tragedy in which Nero found himself
involved, and this verse constantly ran through his mind: