XVII. Al recibir noticias de esto, imaginando que se le menospreciaba no tanto por su edad como por no tener hijos, eligió inmediatamente de entre un grupo de jóvenes de alta alcurnia que habían venido a presentarle sus respects, a Pisón Frugi Liciniano, un joven de noble cuna y grandes prendas, por quien ya antes había sentido tal predilección que lo había nombrado en su testamento heredero tanto de su patrimonio como de su nombre.
A este lo llamó ahora su hijo y, llevándolo al campamento, lo adoptó en presencia de las tropas reunidas, pero sin hacer mención alguna de un donativo. Esta circunstancia brindó a Marco Salvio Otón una mejor oportunidad de lograr su propósito, seis días después de la adopción.
XVIII. Many remarkable prodigies had happened from the (412) very beginning of his reign, which forewarned him of his approaching fate. In every town through which he passed in his way from Spain to Rome, victims were slain on the right and left of the roads; and one of these, which was a bull, being maddened with the stroke of the axe, broke the rope with which it was tied, and running straight against his chariot, with his fore-feet elevated, bespattered him with blood. Likewise, as he was alighting, one of the guard, being pushed forward by the crowd, had very nearly wounded him with his lance. And upon his entering the city and, afterwards, the palace, he was welcomed with an earthquake, and a noise like the bellowing of cattle. These signs of ill-fortune were followed by some that were still more apparently such. Out of all his treasures he had selected a necklace of pearls and jewels, to adorn his statue of Fortune at Tusculum. But it suddenly occurring to him that it deserved a more august place, he