Massacre of the Sailors Outside Rome (AD 68)

Outside Rome, according to Plutarch five kilometers from the gates, sailors whom Nero had made legionaries blocked Galba’s way. They demanded an eagle and standards. Galba sent cavalry against them. Dio reports seven thousand dead and the survivors decimated (64.3); Tacitus writes of thousands of unarmed men (Histories 1.6). His entry into the city terrified Rome.