A focus upon the Latin and English time references in The Twelve Caesars by Suetonius.

Otho

Two different translations of the same text:

Otho set gaily out on his campaign, but haste prevented him from paying sufficient attention to the omens. The sacred shields used by the Leaping Priests had not yet been returned to the Temple of Mars – traditionally a bad sign – and this was 24 March, the day when the worshippers of the Goddess Cybele began their annual lamentation. Besides, the auspices were most unfavourable: at a sacrifice offered to Pluto the victim’s intestines had a healthy look, which was exactly what they should not have had. Otho’s departure was, moreover, delayed by a flooding of the Tiber; and at the twentieth milestone he found the road blocked by the ruins of a collapsed building. (Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus, The Twelve Caesars, translated by Robert Graves, London, The Folio Society, MCMLXIV, p. 263.)

VIII. About the same time, the armies in Germany took an oath to Vitellius as emperor. Upon receiving this intelligence, he advised the senate to send thither deputies, to inform them, that a prince had been already chosen; and to persuade them to peace and a good understanding. By letters and messengers, however, he offered Vitellius to make him his colleague in the empire, and his son-in-law. But a war being now unavoidable, and the generals and troops sent forward by Vitellius, advancing, he had a proof of the attachment and fidelity of the pretorian guards, which had nearly proved fatal to the senatorian order. It had been judged proper that some arms should be given out of the stores, and conveyed to the fleet by the marine troops. While they were employed in fetching these from the camp in the night, some of the guards suspecting treachery, excited a tumult; and suddenly the whole body, without any of their officers at their head, ran to the palace, demanding that the entire senate should be put to the sword; and having repulsed some of the tribunes who endeavoured to stop them, and slain others, they broke, all bloody as they were, into the banquetting room, inquiring for the emperor; nor would they quit the place until they had seen him. He now entered upon his expedition against Vitellius with great alacrity, but too much precipitation, and without any regard to the ominous circumstances which attended it.

For the Ancilia¹ had been taken out of the temple of Mars, for the usual procession, but were not yet replaced; during which interval it had of old been looked upon as very unfortunate to engage in any enterprise. He likewise set forward upon the day when the worshippers of the Mother of the gods² begin their lamentations and wailing. Besides these, other unlucky omens attended him, For, in a victim offered to Father Dis,³ he found the signs such as upon all other occasions are regarded as favourable; whereas, in that sacrifice, the contrary intimations are judged the most propitious. At his first setting forward, he was stopped by inundations of the Tiber; and at twenty miles' distance from the city, found the road blocked up by the fall of houses.

¹ The Ancile was a round shield, said to have fallen from heaven in the reign of Numa, and supposed to be the shield of Mars. It was kept with great care in the sanctuary of the temple, as a symbol of the perpetuity of the Roman empire; and that it might not be stolen, eleven others were made exactly similar to it.

² This ideal personage, who has been mentioned before, AUGUSTUS, c. lxviii., was the goddess of Cybele, the wife of Saturn, called also Rhea, Ops, Vesta, Magna, Mater, c. She was painted as a matron, crowned with towers, sitting in a chariot drawn by lions. A statue of her, brought from Pessinus in Phrygia to Rome, in the time of the second Punic war, was much honoured there. Her priests, called the Galli and Corybantes, were eunuchs; and worshipped her with the sound of drums, tabors, pipes, and cymbals. The rites of this goddess were disgraced by great indecencies.

³ Otherwise called Orcus, Pluto, Jupiter Infernus, and Stygnis. He was the brother of Jupiter, and king of the infernal regions. His wife was Proserpine, the daughter of Ceres, whom he carried off as she was gathering flowers in the plains of Enna, in Sicily. The victims offered to the infernal gods were black: they were killed with their faces bent downwards; the knife was applied from below, and the blood was poured into a ditch.

(C. Suetonius Tranquillus, The Lives of the Caesars (ed. Alexander Thomson,) otho 8)

VIII. Sub idem uero tempus Germaniciani exercitus in Vitelli uerba iurarant. quod ut comperit, auctor senatui fuit mittendae legationis, quae doceret electum iam principem, quietem concordiamque suaderet; et tamen per internuntios ac litteras consortem imperii generumque se Vitellio optulit. uerum haud dubio bello iamque ducibus et copiis, quas Vitellius praemiserat, appropinquantibus animum fidemque erga se praetorianorum paene internecione amplissimi ordinis expertus est. [2] [et] placuerat per classiarios arma transferri remittique nauibus; ea cum in castris sub noctem promerentur, insidias quidam suspicati tumultum

excitauerunt; ac repente omnes nullo certo duce in Palatium cucurrerunt caedem senatus flagitantes, repulsisque tribunorum qui inhibere temptabant, nonnullis et occisis, sic ut erant cruenti, ubinam imperator esset requirentes perruperunt in triclinium usque nec nisi uiso destiterunt.

[3] Expeditionem autem inpigre atque etiam praepropere incohauit, nulla ne religionum quidem cura, sed et motis necdum conditis ancilibus, quod antiquitus infaustum habetur, et die, quo cultores deum Matris lamentari et plangere incipiunt, praeterea aduersissimis auspiciis. nam et uictima Diti patri caesa litauit, cum tali sacrificio contraria exta potiora sint, et primo egressu inundationibus Tiberis retardatus ad uicensimum etiam lapidem ruina aedificiorum praeclusam uiam offendit.

(C. Suetonius Tranquillus, De Vita Caesarum (ed. Maximilian Ihm) otho 8.1)

Apparently the Tiber is known to flood at any time of the year but…:

“The Tiber's most powerful scourge is the winter flood. With all their engineering skills, the early Romans could not mollify their liquid god, though the Emperor Tiberius considered diverting the river to the west, bypassing Rome altogether. The plan was abandoned when citizens complained that it would "diminish the pride" of Father Tiber.” (Features by Michael Griffin)

Vitellius

III. He died of palsy, the day after his seizure with it, leaving behind him two sons, whom he had by a most excellent and respectable wife, Sextilia. He had lived to see them both consuls, the same year and during the whole year also; the younger succeeding the elder for the last six months.¹ The senate honoured him after his decease with a funeral at the public expense and with a statue in the Rostra, which had this inscription upon the base: "One who was stedfast in his loyalty to his prince." The emperor Aulus Vitellius, the son of this Lucius, was born upon the eighth of the calends of October [24th September], or, as some say, upon the seventh of the ides of September [7th September], in the consulship of Drusus Caesar and Norbanus Flaccus.² (C. Suetonius Tranquillus, The Lives of the Caesars (ed. Alexander Thomson,) vit. 3)

¹ A.U.C. 801

² A. U. C. 767; being the year after the death of the emperor Augustus; from whence it appears that Vitellius was seventeen years older than Otho.

III. decessit paralysi altero die quam correptus est, duobus filiis superstitibus, quos ex Sestilia probatissima nec ignobili femina editos consules uidit, et quidem eodem ambos totoque anno, cum maiori minor in sex menses successisset. defunctum senatus publico funere honorauit, item statua pro rostris cum hac inscriptione: pietatis immobilis erga principem.

[2] A. Vitellius L. filius imperator natus est VIII. Kal. Oct., uel ut quidam VII. Id. Sept., Druso Caesare Norbano Flacco cons. genituram eius praedictam a mathematicis ita parentes exhorruerunt, ut pater magno opere semper contenderit, ne qua ei prouincia uiuo se committeretur, mater et missum ad legiones et appellatum imperatorem pro afflicto statim lamentata sit. pueritiam primamque adulescentiam Capreis egit inter Tiberiana scorta, et ipse perpetuo spint[he]riae cognomine notatus existimatusque corporis gratia initium et causa incrementorum patri fuisse; (C. Suetonius Tranquillus, De Vita Caesarum (ed. Maximilian Ihm) vit. 3.1)

XI. At last he entered the City with trumpets sounding, in his general's cloak, and girded with his sword, amidst a display of standards and banners; his attendants being all in the military habit, and the arms of the soldiers unsheathed. Acting more and more in open violation of all laws, both divine and human, he assumed the office of Pontifex Maximus, upon the day of the defeat at the Allia; ¹ ordered the magistrates to be elected for ten years of office; and made himself consul for life. To put it out of all doubt what model he intended to follow in his government of the empire, he nmade his offerings to the shade of Nero in the midst of the Campus Martius, and with a full assembly of the public priests attending him. And at a solemn entertainment, he desired a harper who pleased the company much, to sing something in praise of Domitius; and upon his beginning some songs of Nero's, he started up in presence of.the whole assembly, and could not refrain from applauding him, by clapping his hands. (C. Suetonius Tranquillus, The Lives of the Caesars (ed. Alexander Thomson,) vit. 11)

¹ A dies non fastus, an unlucky day in the Roman calendar, being the anniversary of the great defeat by the Gauls on the river Allia, which joins the Tiber about five miles from Rome. This disaster happened on the 16th of the calends of August (7th July).

XI. urbem denique ad classicum introiit paludatus ferroque succinctus, inter signa atque uexilla, sagulatis comitibus ac detectis commilitonum armis.

[2] Magis deinde ac magis omni diuino humanoque iure neglecto Alliensi die pontificatum maximum cepit, comitia in decem annos ordinauit seque perpetuum consulem. et ne cui dubium foret, quod exemplar regendae rei p. eligeret, medio Martio campo adhibita publicorum sacerdotum frequentia inferias Neroni dedit ac sollemni conuiuio citharoedum placentem palam admonuit, ut aliquid et de dominico diceret, incohantique Neroniana cantica primus exultans etiam plausit. (C. Suetonius Tranquillus, De Vita Caesarum (ed. Maximilian Ihm) vit.

11.1)

” The date of the battle was July 18. On the Julian calendar it would be closer to July 2.” (The Roman Battles)

Date of the Battle of the Allia: On July 18 c. 390 or c. 387 B.C. (ab.ut)

He was enraged against them, because, after his proclamation by which he commanded all astrologers to quit Rome, and Italy also, before the calends [the first] of October, a bill was immediately posted about the city, with the following words :-" TAKE NOTICE:¹ The Chaldaeans also decree that Vitellius Germanicus shall be no more, by the day of the said calends." (C. Suetonius Tranquillus, The Lives of the Caesars (ed. Alexander Thomson,) vit. 14)

[4] nullis tamen infensior quam uernaculis et mathematicis, ut quisque deferretur, inauditum capite puniebat exacerbatus, quod post edictum suum, quo iubebat intra Kal. Oct. urbe Italiaque mathematici excederent, statim libellus propositus est, et Chaldaeos dicere, bonum factum, ne Vitellius Germanicus intra eundem Kalendarum diem usquam esset. (C. Suetonius Tranquillus, De Vita Caesarum (ed. Maximilian Ihm) vit. 14.1)

Two different translations of the same text:

“In the eighth month of Vitellius’s reign… When Vespasian’s forces converged on Rome, he sent against them the troops… But on the following day… The soldiers put him through the torture before… they dragged his body to the Tiber with a hook and threw it in” (Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus, The Twelve Caesars, translated by Robert Graves, London, The Folio Society, MCMLXIV, p. 276-278.)

XV. In the eighth month of his reign, the troops both in Moesia and Pannonia revolted from him; as did likewise, of the armies beyond sea, those in Judaea and Syria, some of which swore allegiance to Vespasian as emperor in his own presence, and others in his absence. (C. Suetonius Tranquillus, The Lives of the Caesars (ed. Alexander Thomson,) vit. 15)

XV. Octauo imperii mense desciuerunt ab eo exercitus Moesiarum atque Pannoniae, item ex transmarinis Iudaicus et Syriaticus, ac pars in absentis pars in praesentis Vespasiani uerba iurarunt. ad retinendum ergo ceterorum hominum studium ac fauorem nihil non publice priuatimque nullo adhibito modo largitus est. dilectum quoque ea condicione in urbe egit, ut uoluntariis non modo missionem post uictoriam, sed etiam ueteranorum iustaeque militiae commoda polliceretur. (C. Suetonius Tranquillus, De Vita Caesarum (ed. Maximilian Ihm) vit. 15.1)

XVIII. He perished with his brother and son, ¹ in the fifty-seventh year of his age,² and verified the prediction of those who, from the omen which happened to him at Vienne, as before related,³ foretold that he would be made prisoner by some man of Gaul. (C. Suetonius Tranquillus, The Lives of the Caesars (ed. Alexander Thomson,) vit. 18)

“XVIII. Periit cum fratre et filio anno uitae septimo quinquagesimo;” (C. Suetonius Tranquillus, De Vita Caesarum (ed. Maximilian Ihm) vit. 18.1)

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