Aulus Didius Gallus Fabricius Veiento was an adept in the art of political survival. In AD 62, early in Nero's reign, he was impeached, while Praetor, as the author of 'Codicilli ', mock wills which libelled priests and senators. During Domitian's reign he was active as a 'delator' (informer), while according to Pliny the Younger (Letters, 4.22.4) his appearance as a guest at the table of the emperor Nerva enraged the more respectable guests
mentioned in Juvenal, Satire 4, line 127:
- non cedit Veiento, sed ut fanaticus oestro
- percussus, Bellona, tuo divinat et "ingens
- omen habes" inquit "magni clarique triumphi.
- regem aliquem capies, aut de temone Britanno
- excidet Arviragus. peregrina est belua, cernis
- erectas in terga sudes?" hoc defuit unum
- Fabricio, patriam ut rhombi memoraret et annos.
which translates as:
- "Veiento is not to be outdone, but, as if he were a priest inspired by the spirit of Bellona [goddess of war], prophesies, and says: 'You have a mighty omen of a great and glorious triumph. You will capture some king, or Arviragus will fall out of his British chariot. It's a foreign monster — see the spines sticking up on its back?' "
Fabricius failed only to describe the turbot's age and native land.
