The end of Nero's reign, resulting from his extravagances and paranoid arrests, differed from the violent end of Caligula's reign in that there was no method of succession in place. While Claudius was certainly an unwanted choice by the Senate to replace Caligula, he did fill the role in a seamless transition that actually turned into a moderately successful reign. With Nero's suicide, knowing that the military revolts of his generals and legions were irreversible, the Principate faced its first dangerous challenge of civil war since the great wars that ended the Republic.
In AD 68, the revolt of Gaius Julius Vindex, governor of Gallia Lugdunensis was the final catalyst that brought the Julio-Claudian line to an end. He was joined in theory by the powerful governor of Hispania Tarraconensis, Servius Sulpicius Galba (Galba never actually offered troops or support to Vindex), but their reasons are unknown. Its been speculated that both Vindex and Galba were on a very long list of targets for Nero's executioners but this is currently impossible to prove. Galba too has sometimes been incorrectly credited with attempting to take it upon himself to restore Augustan principal, but this too ignores some very specific and selfish behavior. Essentially speaking Galba, like the others who followed him, would soon show themselves as men of supreme personal ambition.
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