three legions in the Moesian army, had been sent to the assistance of
Otho. While they were upon their march, news came that he had been
defeated, and had put an end to his life; notwithstanding which they
continued their march as far as Aquileia, pretending that they gave no
credit to the report. There, tempted by the opportunity which the
disorder of the times afforded them, they ravaged and plundered the
country at discretion; until at length, fearing to be called to an
account on their return, and punished for it, they resolved upon choosing
and creating an emperor. "For they were no ways inferior," they said,
"to the army which made Galba emperor, nor to the pretorian troops which
had set up Otho, nor the army in Germany, to whom Vitellius owed his
elevation." The names of all the consular lieutenants, therefore, being
taken into consideration, and one objecting to one, and another to
another, for various reasons; at last some of the third legion, which a
little before Nero's death had been removed out of Syria into Moesia,
extolled Vespasian in high terms; and all the rest assenting, his name
was immediately inscribed on their standards. The design was
nevertheless quashed for a time, the troops being brought to submit to
Vitellius a little longer.

However, the fact becoming known, Tiberius Alexander, governor of Egypt,
first obliged the legions under his command to swear obedience to
Vespasian as their emperor, on the calends [the 1st] of July, which was
observed ever after as the day of his accession to the empire; and upon
the fifth of the ides of the same month [the 28th July], the army in
Judaea, where he then was, also swore allegiance to him. What
contributed greatly to forward the affair, was a copy of a letter,
whether real or counterfeit, which was circulated, and said to have been
written by Otho before his decease to Vespasian, recommending to him in
the most urgent terms to avenge his death, and entreating him to come to