Vitellius

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Vitellius
Emperor of the Roman Empire
Image:Bust of the Roman Emperor Vitellius.jpg
Bust of Vitellius, from Museo Nazionale della Civiltà Romana, Rome
Reign	17 April, 69 – 22 December, 69
Full name	Aulus Vitellius Germanicus
Born	24 September, 15
Died	22 December, 69
	Rome
Predecessor	Otho
Successor	Vespasian
Dynasty	None
Father	Lucius Vitellius
Mother	Sextilia

Aulus Vitellius Germanicus (September 24, 15 – December 22, 69) was Roman Emperor from April 17, 69 to December 22 of the same year, one of the emperors in the "Year of the Four Emperors" (the others being Galba, Otho, and Vespasian). He was the son of Lucius Vitellius and his wife Sextilia, and had one brother, Lucius Vitellius the younger.

Contents 1 Life 1.1 Pre-throne career 1.2 As emperor 2 In fiction 3 Sources 4 External links 4.1 Primary sources 4.2 Secondary Sources

Life

Pre-throne career

He was consul in 48, and (perhaps in 60-61) proconsul of Africa, in which capacity he is said to have acquitted himself with credit. At the end of 68 Galba, to the general astonishment, selected him to command the army of Germania Inferior, and here Vitellius made himself popular with his subalterns and with the soldiers by outrageous prodigality and excessive good nature, which soon proved fatal to order and discipline.

As emperor

He owed his elevation to the throne to Caecina and Valens, commanders of two legions on the Rhine. Through these two men a military revolution was speedily accomplished; they refused to renew their vows of allegiance to Emperor Galba on January 1, 69, and early in 69 Vitellius was proclaimed emperor at Colonia Agrippinensis (Cologne) More accurately, he was proclaimed emperor of the armies of Germania Inferior and Superior. The armies of Gaul, Brittania and Raetia sided with them shortly afterwards. By the time that they marched on Rome, however, it was Otho, and not Galba, whom they had to confront.

In fact, he was never acknowledged as emperor by the entire Roman world, though at Rome the Senate accepted him and decreed to him the usual imperial honours. He advanced into Italy at the head of a licentious and rough soldiery, and Rome became the scene of riot and massacre, gladiatorial shows and extravagant feasting. To reward his victorious legionaries, Vitellius disbanded the existing Praetorian Guard and installed his own men instead.

In July 69, Vitellius learnt that the armies of the eastern provinces had proclaimed a rival emperor; their commander, Titus Flavius Vespasianus. As soon as it was known that the armies of the East, Dalmatia, and Illyricum had declared for Vespasian, Vitellius, deserted by many of his adherents, would have resigned the title of emperor.

It is said that he awaited Vespasian's army at Mevania. It was said that the terms of resignation had actually been agreed upon with Marcus Antonius Primus, the commander of the sixth legion serving in Pannonia and one of Vespasian’s chief supporters, but the praetorians refused to allow him to carry out the agreement, and forced him to return to the palace, when he was on his way to deposit the insignia of empire in the Temple of Concord. On the entrance of Vespasian's troops into Rome he was dragged out of some miserable hiding-place (according to Tacitus a door-keeper's lodge), driven to the fatal Gemonian stairs, and there struck down. His body was thrown into the Tiber. "Yet I was once your emperor," were the last and, as far as we know, the noblest words of Vitellius.

During his brief administration Vitellius showed indications of a desire to govern wisely, but he was completely under the control of Valens and Caecina, who for their own ends encouraged him in a course of vicious excesses which threw his better qualities into the background.

In fiction

Vitellius is also an antagonist in Simon Scarrow's "Eagle" novels, based around Vespasian and his legion's exploits during the Conquest of Britannia.

Sources

The surviving sources, particularly Suetonius' Lives of the Twelve Caesars, give an unfavourable picture of Vitellius; however it should be remembered that Suetonius' father was an army officer who had fought for Otho and against Vitellius at the first Battle of Bedriacum.

Far from being ambitious or scheming, he was lazy and self-indulgent, fond of eating and drinking, and was considered to be an obese glutton, eating banquets four times a day. Sources report that one banquet included 2,000 fish and 4,000 birds, and that his favorite dishes included pike livers, pheasant brains, and flamingo tongues — which rare ingredients he would send the Roman navy to procure. It was even said that he starved his own mother to death.

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