[4] In the year 62 the emperor Nero appointed Piso, along with Aulus Ducenius Geminus and Pompeius Paullinus, to a commission to manage the public revenues.

The commander of the legion stationed in North Africa, Gaius Calpetanus Rantius Quirinalis Valerius Festus, however, was in secret communication with Vespasian.

Piso avoided showing himself to the crowd, but managed to have the messenger brought to him, and on questioning him found that Mucianus had dispatched him to kill him.

The proconsul ordered the messenger executed and refused to discharge any duties outside the palace, as an attempt to guard against a repeat of the riot.

Although none of the men knew Piso, he was identified for them by Baebius Massa, whom Tacitus described as "a man even then fatal to the good, and destined often to reappear among the course of the sufferings which he had ere long to endure."