Vitellius
Aulus Vitellius Germanicus (
September 24,
15 â€"
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.
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. Vitellius was the son of
Lucius Vitellius, who had been
consul and governor of
Syria under
Tiberius. Vitellius the son 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.
Far from being ambitious or scheming, he was lazy and self-indulgent, fond of eating and drinking, and 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
Primus of Alexandria, 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.
Vitellius is also an antagonist in Simon Scarrow's "Eagle" novels, based around Vespasian and his legion's exploits during the Conquest of Britannia.
Primary sources
*
Life of Vitellius (Suetonius; English translation and Latin original)
*
Cassius Dio, Book 64Secondary Sources
*
Vitellius Large biography
*Biography on
De Imperatoribus Romanis
