Editing Vitellius (section)

===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>