While the numismatic evidence demonstrates that those who rose against Nero agreed in recognizing the ultimate authority of the 'Roman Senate and People', the literary sources suggest that it was not clear from the start that Vindex would win the support of Galba, or of anyone else. Although Galba kept back evidence of Vindex's intentions from Nero's procurators, he was sceptical of Vindex's chances of success. It was Titus Vinius Rufinus, the commander of the Sixth Legion (currently the only legion stationed in Spain), who pointed out that if Nero's opponents did not all rally round Vindex now, the frightened and angry emperor would subsequently find it easy to deal with them one by one.
Galba was acclaimed as 'Caesar' by his troops at the regular gubernatorial assizes held at New Carthage on 2 or 3 April. He immediately rejected the imperial title, which soldiers had no right to bestow, but called himself'Legate of the Roman Senate and People'. There was some opposition: the proconsul of Baetica, Obultronius Sabinus, and his legate, Cornelius Marcellus, had to be executed. Apart from Titus Vinius, Galba was sure of the support of the quaestor Caecina Alienus, who took over the government of Baetica, and in particular the legate of Lusitania, Marcus Salvius Otho. Between them, the three governors controlled most of the empire's resources of precious metals. Otho had for many years been an associate of the young Nero. Almost nine years before, Nero had sent him to Lusitania as governor in order to facilitate his own access to Otho's wife Poppaea. Poppaea was now dead; Otho had nothing to lose from Nero's overthrow, and much to gain. Galba would be seventy in December, and had no son to succeed him in the imperial office, while Otho was thirty-seven, and available as Galba's supporter and successor.
Nero had heard of Vindex's rebellion at Naples. He was not unduly concerned at news of unrest in Gaul, but Galba would have some chance of winning recognition as Caesar; his defection changed the picture completely. It confirmed that no governors could be trusted any longer.
Petronius Turpilianus, who had proved so loyal in the suppression of Piso's conspiracy, was sent to northern Italy to assemble an army, to include the Fourteenth Legion and a new one raised from the marines at Misenum. As a deterrent to others, Galba's estates in Italy were confiscated; Galba retaliated by auctioning off the property of the domus Caesaris in Spain, using the proceeds to raise a second legion from Roman citizens in Spain, the Seventh Galbiana. Its legionary eagle was formally presented on 10 June. Galba appointed as its commander a man from Tolosa, Antonius Primus; he had been expelled from the Senate in a.d. 6i for helping to forge a will, probably before reaching the praetorship, and exiled to Marseilles. As one of Nero's exiles — and almost certainly an acquaintance of Vindex - he had immediately given his support to Galba.
Primus, Otho, Vinius and Alienus had made it clear that they were deserting Nero in favour of Galba. Others who played an important part in Nero's overthrow did not make their intentions so clear, either to contemporaries or to us. At some point in a.d. 68, the legate of the Third Legion in north Africa, Clodius Macer, threw off the authority of the government in Rome, deposed the proconsul of Africa, and raised an additional legion, which he called I Macriarta Liberatrix. A denarius, probably from Carthage, describes him not as emperor but simply as 'Propraetor of Africa' (it also carries the letters S[enatus] C[onsu/toJ). Galba had to use force to suppress Macer. We are told that members of Nero's household went to Macer in Africa and urged him to resist Galba; that may have been before or after Nero's death and Galba's recognition by the Senate in June. But Rome experienced a considerable shortfall of grain well before Nero's death; and that suggests that Macer had rejected Nero's authority, and prevented corn-ships from leaving Carthage for Italy, soon after he heard of Vindex's rebellion. Macer may have thought that by starving Rome, he could persuade the Senate to recognize that it was he, not Galba, who had the power to be Nero's successor.2
The actions of the legate commanding the upper Rhine army, Verginius Rufus, are even more difficult to interpret. We must assume that Rufus, like his colleagues, had been approached by Vindex. When Vindex offered Galba the support of Gaul, he claimed to have 100,000 soldiers to put at his disposal; since Vindex's own provincial levies only came to 20,000 men, this can only mean that he thought that some at least of the Rhine legions, and their commanders, would support his coup. On the other hand, it is also possible that Rufus stayed loyal to Nero. Tacitus says explicitly that the Rhine legions stood by Nero and the Caesars longer than other armies did.
Rufus mobilized his legions and marched south west through the 2 Macer coins: Sutherland 1987 (в 558) ch. 4a; GCN 73; cf. MW 24.
Franche Comte in the direction of central Gaul. When he heard of Rufus' march, Vindex was attempting unsuccessfully to reduce Lyons, which remained loyal to Nero out of gratitude for recent favours; he broke off the siege, marched towards Rufus, and met him at Vesontio, probably towards the end of May. There followed a battle in which Vindex's levies were defeated by the Rhine legions, superior in numbers, weapons and training; the only option left to Vindex was suicide. Soon (but not necessarily immediately) after the battle, Rufus was acclaimed emperor; he rejected the offer (or several such offers). Many years later, the epitaph on his tomb stated that 'after Vindex's defeat, he laid claim to the imperial power not on his own behalf but on that of the fatherland'.
Since the 1950s, the consensus amongst scholars - following the account given by Cassius Dio — has been that the Battle of Vesontio was a mistake. Vindex and Rufus were co-conspirators who had arranged to combine their forces and then to march on Italy together in support of Galba. Unfortunately, when Vindex's largely Gaulish levies met the legionaries from the Rhine, the resentment which the two groups felt for one another resulted in unexpected violence which the respective commanders could not contain. Similar uncontrolled violence by Roman troops during the campaigns of the following year suggests that this is not impossible. On this interpretation, the Rhine legions may have hated the Gauls and their upstart leader, but that does not mean that they were loyal to Nero; indeed, having flexed their muscles at Vesontio, they offered to put their own commander in Nero's place.
If Vindex was indeed certain of Rufus' support for himself and Galba, it is curious that he should have marched north to meet Rufus at Vesontio instead of waiting for his army at Lyons or Vienne. It is more likely that Vindex feared that Rufus and the Rhine army would stand by Nero. As for Rufus, he may well have destroyed Vindex on Nero's behalf; but very soon after the battle news reached Gaul that Nero had lost his nerve and killed himself. It was now essential for Rufus to hide the fact that he and his soldiers had supported Nero and destroyed Galba's allies, artd it was perhaps only then that the Rhine legions acclaimed Rufus as an imperial candidate - not as an alternative to Nero, but as an alternative to Galba, who would not (and did not) look kindly upon what they had done to Vindex.3
Rufus was certainly not acting in association with Galba; Galba later separated him from his army in order to give him the 'honour' of accompanying him on his journey to Rome. The immediate effect of the news of Rufus' destruction of Vindex was to make Galba withdraw to his base at Clunia, where he is said to have contemplated suicide himself. It was later asserted that he erroneously thought that Rufus had betrayed him; he may rather have feared that the Rhine legions would impose their own candidate, or that their victory would allow Nero to reestablish his authority.
Rufus' victory at Vesontio turned out to be irrelevant to the final issue, since early in June Nero had lost his nerve and effectively abandoned the administration of affairs. We do not know enough about the exact chronology of events that year to be able to say whether he had heard of Vindex's defeat, or of the Rhine army's attempt to acclaim Rufus. He may have suspected the loyalty of Turpilianus' army in northern Italy. A plan to flee to Egypt led Nymphidius Sabinus, who in Tigellinus' continued illness commanded the praetorian guard, to promise them a donative of 30,000 sesterces each if they broke their oath of loyalty to Nero, on the grounds that their emperor had already abandoned them. The Senate's role was to confirm that Nero no longer had the authority to govern, and to decide who in fact had that authority. On 9 June (or possibly 11) it declared Nero an enemy of the Roman people, recognized Galba as Caesar, acclaimed him as Augustus, and voted him imperial powers. Nero, realizing that the only support he had left was that of certain members of his household staff (and, perhaps, of the Roman plebs), committed suicide; his last words — 'what a creative artist I have been' - show how much more interested he was in his public image than in governing. Galba's freedman Icelus was released from custody and travelled to Clunia in a mere seven days to inform the new emperor of the events in the capital.