The Year of the Four Emperors: Three Civil Wars and More Foreign Exchange

Galba ascended to the throne after Nero committed suicide.
Galba, the governor of Hispania, came to power with the support of both the Senate and the army, but he lost the people's support due to his excessive stinginess, and the legions in various places refused to swear allegiance.
In the end, Galba is brutally murdered in a rebellion led by Otto, who was thirsting for power.

After removing Galba, Otho won the hearts of the people and ascended to the throne as emperor, but his army was defeated by the Germanic legions led by Vitellius.
Otto takes his own life to prevent further civil war.
Tacitus describes Otho as having 'earned himself as much fame by his dishonour as by his most shameful actions, and by his other honourable ones'.

Vitellius, who entered Rome later, was a man who respected Nero.
Vitellius cruelly purged those who sided with Otho, and ruined the government by indulging in even more hedonism than Nero.
However, the era of Vitellius ended when Vespasian, who was occupied with the Jewish War in the eastern provinces, marched on Rome.
When Rome was captured, soldiers dragged Vitellius, who was hiding alone in the palace, and tortured and executed him in the streets of Rome.

Finally, Vespasian came to power and established a dynasty.
The Histories describe in detail the Battle of Bedriacum, where his army clashed with Vitellius's forces.
After being defeated in battle, Vitellius's army fled to Cremona, a historic city in northern Italy, and laid siege to it. Vespasian's army captured the city, burned it, and massacred its inhabitants.
This is where the horrors of the civil war are revealed.

The empire's cracks spread to the periphery

“Once upon a time the Gauls occupied the city of Rome, but Jupiter’s abode remained unharmed and the empire endured.
But this fateful fire is a sign of Heaven's wrath, a sign that He is handing over the rule of the human world to the people beyond the Alps."
_Volume 4, page 379

Emboldened by the Roman civil war, the Batavian army deserted the Roman legions and plotted a rebellion.
The Batavi were a Germanic tribe who had long served in the Roman army and had built up a reputation for trust.
Cybilis, the leader of the Batavi, saw through the Roman army's military weakness and inspired the surrounding Germans and Gauls to rise up in a large-scale uprising.
The Batavi rebellion was not a simple riot.
It was an event that caused the Roman army to collapse several times and virtually destroyed the western border of the empire.
Even within the Roman army, defections and betrayals were rampant, and Rome was too preoccupied with civil war to respond immediately.

The Jewish War, which lasted from 66 AD, was the most fierce rebellion in the eastern provinces.
The Jews revolted under the oppression of the Roman governor, and Rome dispatched Vespasian to suppress them.
After he was crowned emperor and headed to Rome, his son Titus continued the war.
In his Histories, Tacitus described in detail the history of the Jews, their unique religious rites, and even the defenses of the walls of Jerusalem.

A political drama that questions the essence of politics, power, and history.

“The crowd stood as spectators beside the fighting soldiers, cheering and applauding as if a game were being played in a stadium.
If one side collapsed and the soldiers hid in the shops or fled to some house, the crowd demanded that they be dragged out and killed.”
_Volume 3, page 314

Tacitus believed that historians should abandon flattery and rebellion against those in power.
Although he confessed that he had entered public office by the grace of Vespasian, he viewed even the victors of the civil war with a sharp critical eye.
The arrogance of those in power, the superficiality of the people, and the true face of the power struggle are revealed without hiding in the sharp writing style.

"History" is not simply a record of war, but a political drama woven from the rise and fall of power, the dark side of human nature, and the intertwining of the empire's center and periphery.
Tacitus, while calling the reigns of Nerva and Trajan “rarely blessed times,” did not hide his pessimism about men and power.

"History" goes beyond a single period in ancient Rome and makes us think simultaneously about power, the masses, and the fate of the empire.
The new political landscape in which provincial legions created emperors, the rebellions spreading like wildfire in the frontiers, and the power struggles within Rome overlap with the various political turmoils in world history today.
The simultaneous weakening of the empire, both internally and externally, reveals that the world's peripheries are not simply quiet peripheries.
The prosperity of a great power can be shaken at any time by internal divisions or external challenges.
As a witness of his time and an impartial historian, Tacitus questions the nature of politics, power, and history.