His 22
intimate freedmen and slaves, who were allowed a licence unusual in
private households, dangled before him the baits for which he was
greedy: the luxuries of Nero's Court, the marriages he could make, the
adulteries he could commit, and all the other imperial pleasures. They
were his, they pointed out, if he would bestir himself; it was
shameful to lie quiet and leave them to others. He was also incited by
the astrologers, who declared that their study of the stars pointed to
great changes and a year of glory for Otho. Creatures of this class
always deceive the ambitious, though those in power distrust them.
Probably we shall go on for ever proscribing them and keeping them by
us.[48] Poppaea[49] had always had her boudoir full of these
astrologers, the worst kind of outfit for a royal menage. One of them,
called Ptolemy, had gone with Otho to Spain[50] and foretold that he
would outlive Nero. This came true and Otho believed in him. He now
based his vague conjectures on the computations of Galba's age and
Otho's youth, and persuaded him that he would ascend the throne. But,
though the man had no real skill, Otho accepted the prophecy as if it
was the finger of fate. Human nature always likes to believe what it
cannot understand.
Nor was Ptolemy himself slow to incite his master to crime, to 23
which it is only a short step from such ambitions. But whether his
criminal designs were deliberate or suddenly conceived, it is
impossible to say.
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