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Dromo's Den
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[Up] [Dromo's Den] Vitellius Biography VITELLIUS, AULUS (15-69 A.D.). A Roman emperor (January-December 69 A.D.). He was consul in 48 and later served with distinction as proconsul in Africa. He won and kept the favor of Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, Nero, and Galba. Having been made by Galba commander of the legions in lower Germany, Vitellius won over the soldiers by extreme familiarity and liberality, and on Jan. 2, 69, they proclaimed him Emperor. In this the troops in Gaul concurred; and two armies under Valens and Caecina, who had commanded legions on the Rhine, set out for Italy, and soon secured Rome through the overthrow of Otho (q.v.). Vitellius ruled with great moderation, but by his personal depravity and gluttony he lost favor, and the legions of Pannonia and Illyricum, having proclaimed Vespasian (q.v.) Emperor, advanced into Italy under Antonius Primus. The Vitellian troops were decisively defeated on two consecutive days, near Bedriacum, but further south, Vitellius's brother, Lucius, won several victories. Rome, however, was soon in the possession of Antonius Primus. Vitellius was killed, his head carried about Rome, and his body thrown into the Tiber. Consult his Life, by Suetonius; B. W. Henderson, Civil War and Rebellion in the Roman Empire, 69-70 A.D. (London, 1908); and the article "Vitellius, 4," in Friedrich Lübker, Reallexikon des klassischen Altertums, vol. ii (8th ed., Leipzig, 1914). The New International Encyclopaedia, Vol. XXIII (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1920) 209. |