Who Gave You the Order?

Rome, January 15, AD 69: that morning Emperor Galba makes a sacrifice on the Palatine while a mutiny breaks out in the Guard’s camp. The film ends before anything happens.

Transcript

I killed Otho!

Fellow soldier, who gave you the order?

January fifteenth sixty-nine. That morning the emperor offers sacrifice before the temple of Apollo on the Palatine.

He is over seventy and bald, his hands twisted by gout. He has ruled for seven months.

News of a mutiny comes from the Guard’s camp. Then more news: the rebel is dead.

Senators and equestrians rush into the palace. They are sorry to have missed the vengeance.

The old man dons a linen cuirass. Too weak for the crowd, he is carried in a litter toward the Forum.

Then a guardsman stands before him.