Lucius Verginius Rufus (1st century AD)
In AD 68 Verginius’s legions routed Vindex’s army at Vesontio. The soldiers called him “Caesar” and “Augustus,” but he had these words erased from the standard and left the choice of emperor to the Senate and People (Cassius Dio 63.25). Dio writes that by refusing he won a greater name than if he had taken power.
In April AD 69 he was in Otho’s camp at Brixellum. After Otho’s death the soldiers again offered him power. According to Plutarch he replied that it would be madness to accept after defeat what he had refused after victory, and slipped out through a back door (Plutarch, Otho 18; Tacitus, Histories 2.51).
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