Otho, M. Salvius in Harpers Dictionary

A Roman emperor from Jan. 15 to April 16, A.D. 69, who was born in 32. He was one of the companions of Nero in his debaucheries; but when the emperor took possession of his wife, the beautiful but profligate Poppaea Sabina, Otho was sent as governor to Lusitania, which he administered with credit during the last ten years of Nero's life. Otho attached himself to Galba, when he revolted against Nero, in the hope of being adopted by him, and succeeding to the Empire. But when Galba adopted L. Piso, on the tenth of January, 69, Otho formed a conspiracy against Galba, and was proclaimed emperor by the soldiers at Rome, who put Galba to death. Meantime, Vitellius had been proclaimed emperor at Cologne by the German troops on the third of January. When this news reached Otho, he marched into the north of Italy to oppose the generals of Vitellius. He at first won several victories over Caecina, the general of Vitellius, but his army was defeated by Caecina and Valens in a decisive battle near Bedriacum, whereupon he put an end to his own life at Brixellum, in the thirty-seventh year of his age. His life is given by Suetonius and Plutarch.