Editing Vitellius (section)

===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>