Editing Vitellius (section)

==Emperor==

===Administration===
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[[Suetonius]], whose father had fought for [[Otho]] at [[Battle of Bedriacum|Bedriacum]], gives an unfavourable account of Vitellius' brief administration: he describes him as unambitious and notes that Vitellius showed indications of a desire to govern wisely, but that Valens and Caecina encouraged him in a course of vicious excesses which threw his better qualities into the background.<ref name="EB1911"/> He is even reported to have starved his own mother to death—to fulfill a prophecy by a [[woman of the Chatti|Chattian seeress]] that he would rule longer if his mother died first; alternatively there is a report that his mother asked for poison to commit suicide—a request he granted.<ref>Suetonius, "Vitellius" Chapter 14</ref> Suetonius additionally remarks that Vitellius' besetting sins were luxury and cruelty.<ref>Suetonius "Vitellius" Chapters 13–14</ref> Other writers, namely [[Tacitus]] and [[Cassius Dio]], disagree with some of Suetonius' assertions, even though their own accounts are scarcely positive ones.

Despite his short reign he made two important government contributions which outlasted him. [[Tacitus]] describes them both in his [[Histories (Tacitus)|''Histories'']]:
* Vitellius ended the practice of centurions selling furloughs and exemptions of duty to their men, a change Tacitus describes as being adopted by 'all good emperors'.
* He also expanded the offices of the Imperial administration beyond the imperial pool of freedmen, allowing those of the [[Equites]] to take up positions in the Imperial civil service.

Vitellius also banned astrologers from Rome and Italy on 1 October 69. Some astrologers responded to his decree by anonymously publishing a decree of their own: "Decreed by all astrologers in blessing on our State Vitellius will be no more on the appointed date." In response, Vitellius executed any astrologers he came across.<ref>Tamsyn Barton, ''Ancient Astrology'', pp. 47–48.</ref>{{Better source needed|date=April 2025}}

Furthermore, Vitellius continued Otho's policies in regard to Nero's memory, in that he honored the dead emperor and sacrificed to his spirit. He also had Nero's songs performed in public, and attempted to imitate Nero, who remained extremely popular among the lower classes of the Roman Empire.{{sfnp|Varner|2017|p=238}}

===Reputation===
Suetonius is particularly responsible for giving Vitellius the reputation of being an obese glutton, using [[Vomiting#Emetics|emetics]] so as to be able to indulge in banquets four times a day, and often having himself invited over to a different noble's house for each one. One of the most famous of these feasts was offered Vitellius by his brother Lucius, <blockquote>at which, it is said, there were served up no less than two thousand choice fishes, and seven thousand birds. Yet even this supper he himself outdid, at a feast which he gave upon the first use of a dish which had been made for him, and which, for its extraordinary size, he called "The Shield of Minerva". In this dish there were tossed up together the livers of [[Northern pike|pike]], the brains of pheasants and peacocks, with the tongues of flamingos, and the entrails of [[lamprey]]s, which had been brought in ships of war as far as from [[Parthia]] and the [[Strait of Gibraltar|Spanish Straits]].<ref>Suetonius, "Vitellius", chapter 13</ref> </blockquote>A noted gourmet of that time, [[Marcus Gavius Apicius]], named after the emperor a less exotic dish of peas or broad beans mashed with sweet and sour ingredients.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Albala |first=Ken |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9cWvAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA44 |title=Beans: A History |date=2007 |publisher=Berg |isbn=978-1-84788-341-4 |page=44}}</ref> [[Edward Gibbon]], in ''[[The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire]]'', refers to "the beastly Vitellius" among "the unworthy successors of Augustus", adding in a footnote:<blockquote>Vitellius consumed in mere eating at least six millions of our money, in about seven months. It is not easy to express his vices with dignity, or even decency. Tacitus fairly calls him a hog; but it is by substituting for a coarse word a very fine image.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Gibbon |first=Edward |title=The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire |publisher=The Modern Library |year=2013|orig-date=1896|pages=79|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DMp8zPPBAesC&pg=PA79}}</ref></blockquote>

===Challenges===
In July 69, Vitellius learned that the armies of the eastern provinces had proclaimed a rival emperor: their commander, [[Vespasian|Titus Flavius Vespasianus]]. As soon as it was known that the armies of the East, [[Dalmatia (Roman province)|Dalmatia]], and [[Illyricum (Roman province)|Illyricum]] had declared for Vespasianus, Vitellius sent several legions under Caecina to prevent the Eastern armies from entering Italy, but Caecina, dissatisfied with Vitellius's poor administration, attempted without success to defect to Vespasian. This undermined the morale of the Vitellian legions, and they were decisively defeated at the [[Second Battle of Bedriacum]]. Fabius Valens was then sent by Vitellius to rally supporting armies in Gaul, but forces loyal to Vespasian captured and executed him soon after. Vitellius, now deserted by many of his adherents, prepared to abdicate the title of emperor.<ref name="EB1911"/>

===Abdication and death===
[[File:Rochegrosse Vitellius traîné dans les rues de Rome par la populace, 1883.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|Vitellius dragged through the streets of Rome, [[Georges Rochegrosse]] (1883)]]
Tacitus' ''Histories'' state that Vitellius awaited Vespasian's army at [[Mevania]]. The terms of abdication 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. However, as he was on his way to deposit the insignia of empire in the [[Temple of Concord]], the Praetorian Guard refused to allow him to carry out the agreement, and forced him to return to the palace.<ref name="EB1911"/>

On the entrance of Vespasian's troops into Rome, Vitellius' supporters (mostly civilians) organized heavy resistance, resulting in a brutal battle. Entrenched on the city's buildings, they threw stones, javelins, and tiles on Vespasian's soldiers who consequently suffered heavy casualties in the [[Urban warfare|urban fighting]]. Cassius Dio claims that 50,000 people died in the battle for Rome.{{sfnp|Kelly|2007|pp=169, 171}} Large parts of the city were destroyed, including the [[Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus]].{{sfnp|Varner|2017|p=250}} Vitellius was eventually dragged out of a hiding-place (according to [[Tacitus]] a door-keeper's lodge), driven to the fatal [[Gemonian stairs]], and there struck down by Vespasian's supporters. "Yet I was once your emperor," were his last words. His body was thrown into the Tiber according to [[Suetonius]]; [[Cassius Dio]]'s account is that Vitellius was beheaded and his head paraded around Rome, and his wife attended to his burial. His brother and son were also killed.

Suetonius, in writing of Vitellius' execution, offers his physical description: "...He was in fact abnormally tall, with a face usually flushed from hard drinking, a huge belly, and one thigh crippled from being struck once by a four-horse chariot, when he was in attendance on [[Caligula|Gaius]] as he was driving..."<ref>Suetonius, "Vitellius" Chapter 17</ref>

Years before there was a prediction that he would fall into the power of a man from [[Gaul]]. Marcus Antonius Primus was from [[Toulouse]] in Gaul, and his nickname was Becco which means "rooster's beak": Gallus means both "a cock" and "a Gaul".<ref>[https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Suetonius/12Caesars/Vitellius*.html Suetonius "Vitellius" Chapter 18]</ref>