he would succeed Nero. And not long after, a thunderbolt falling into a
lake in Cantabria [660], twelve axes were found in it; a manifest sign of
the supreme power.

IX. He governed the province during eight years, his administration
being of an uncertain and capricious character. At first he was active,
vigorous, and indeed excessively severe, in the punishment of offenders.
For, a money-dealer having committed some fraud in the way of his
business, he cut off his hands, and nailed them to his counter. Another,
who had poisoned an orphan, to whom he was guardian, and next heir to the
estate, he crucified. On this delinquent imploring the protection of the
law, and crying out that he was a Roman citizen, he affected to afford
him some alleviation, and to mitigate his punishment, by a mark of
honour, ordered a cross, higher than usual, and painted white, to be
erected for him. But by degrees he gave himself up to a life of
indolence and inactivity, from the fear of giving Nero any occasion of
jealousy, and because, as he used to say, "Nobody was obliged to render
an account of their leisure hours." He was holding a court of justice on
the circuit at New Carthage [661], when he received intelligence of the
insurrection in Gaul [662]; and while the lieutenant of Aquitania was
soliciting his assistance, letters were brought from Vindex, requesting
him "to assert the rights of mankind, and put himself at their head to
relieve them from the tyranny of Nero." Without any long demur, he
accepted the invitation, from a mixture of fear and hope. For he had
discovered that private orders had been sent by Nero to his procurators
in the province to get (407) him dispatched; and he was encouraged to the
enterprise, as well by several auspices and omens, as by the prophecy of
a young woman of good, family. The more so, because the priest of
Jupiter at Clunia [663], admonished by a dream, had discovered in the
recesses of the temple some verses similar to those in which she had