However, Rome found one hero that day. This was Sempronius Densus, 43 a centurion of the Guards, who had been told off by Galba to protect Piso. Drawing his dagger he faced the armed assassins, flinging their treason in their teeth, and by his shouts and gestures turned their attention upon himself, thus enabling Piso to escape despite his wounds. Piso, reaching the temple of Vesta, was mercifully sheltered by the verger, who hid him in his lodging. There, no reverence for this sanctuary but merely his concealment postponed his immediate death. Eventually, Otho, who was burning to have him killed,[72] dispatched as special agents, Sulpicius Florus of the British cohorts, a man whom Galba had recently enfranchised, and Statius Murcus of the Body Guard. They dragged Piso forth and butchered him on the threshold of the temple. FOOTNOTES: [56] These troops, having no head-quarters in Rome, were put up in a piazza built by M. Vipsanius Agrippa, and decorated with paintings of Neptune and of the Argonauts. Cp. ii. 93, where troops are quartered in collonades or temples. [57] The term primipilaris denotes one who had been the centurion commanding the first maniple (pilani) of the first cohort of a legion. He was an officer of great importance, highly paid, and often admitted to the general's council. Otho's expedition to Narbonese Gaul (chap. 87) was commanded by two such 'senior centurions'. [58] See chap. 6, note 11. [59] See chap. 6. [60] Nero was meditating an Ethiopian campaign when the revolt of Vindex broke out. Cp. chap. 6. [61] Probably the colours of the different maniples as distinct from the standards of the cohorts. [62] Cp. chap. 6. [63] Freedmen who had curried favour with Nero. Polyclitus was sent to inquire into Suetonius Paulinus' administration of Britain after the revolt of Boadicea in A.D. 61. Vatinius was a deformed cobbler from Beneventum who became a sort of court buffoon, and acquired great wealth and bad influence. [64] The cohort on guard seem to have been in mufti, without helmets and shields or their military cloaks, but armed with swords and javelins. [65] The legionaries armed themselves with lances (_hastae_), and the auxiliaries with javelins (_pila_). [66] The word _basilica_ refers to the buildings round the Forum, used for legal, financial, and commercial purposes. Most of them had cloisters. [67] The Parthian royal family: Vologaesus was king of Parthia, and his brother Pacorus viceroy of Media Atropatene. [68] Cp. chap. 29. [69] Attached to the pole of the standard.