continuance; and to bestow them only on those who were unwilling to
accept them, and had refused them. All the grants of Nero he recalled,
saving only the tenth part of them. For this purpose he gave a
commission to fifty Roman knights; with orders, that if players or
wrestlers had sold what had been formerly given them, it should be
exacted from the purchasers, since the others, having, no doubt, spent
the money, were not in a condition to pay. But on the other hand, he
suffered his attendants and freedmen to sell or give away the revenue of
the state, or immunities from taxes, and to punish the innocent, or
pardon criminals, at pleasure. Nay, when the Roman people were very
clamorous for the punishment of Halotus and Tigellinus, two of the (411)
most mischievous amongst all the emissaries of Nero, he protected them,
and even bestowed on Halotus one of the best procurations in his
disposal. And as to Tigellinus, he even reprimanded the people for their
cruelty by a proclamation.

XVI. By this conduct, he incurred the hatred of all orders of the
people, but especially of the soldiery. For their commanders having
promised them in his name a donative larger than usual, upon their taking
the oath to him before his arrival at Rome; he refused to make it good,
frequently bragging, "that it was his custom to choose his soldiers, not
buy them." Thus the troops became exasperated against him in all
quarters. The pretorian guards he alarmed with apprehensions of danger
and unworthy treatment; disbanding many of them occasionally as
disaffected to his government, and favourers of Nymphidius. But most of
all, the army in Upper Germany was incensed against him, as being
defrauded of the rewards due to them for the service they had rendered in
the insurrection of the Gauls under Vindex. They were, therefore, the
first who ventured to break into open mutiny, refusing upon the calends
[the 1st] of January, to take any oath of allegiance, except to the