Vitellius - Roman Emperor: 69 A.D. -
Bronze 21mm (7.1 grams) of Macedonia 69 A.D.
Reference: RPC 1616; SGI 690
ΟΥΙΤΕΛΛΙΟΣ ΓΕΡΜΑΙΚΟΣ ΑΥΤΟΚ, laureate head left.
ΣEBAΣTOΣ MAKEΔONΩN around the Macedonian shield.
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The
Roman province of Macedonia (Latin:
Provincia Macedoniae,
Greek: Επαρχία Μακεδονίας) was
officially established in 146 BC, after the Roman general
Quintus Caecilius Metellus defeated
Andriscus of Macedon, the last
Ancient
King of
Macedon in 148 BC, and after the four client republics ("tetrarchy")
established by Rome in the region were dissolved. The province incorporated
ancient
Macedon,
Epirus,
Thessaly, and parts of
Illyria,
Paeonia and
Thrace.
Aulus Vitellius Germanicus, born Aulus Vitellius and commonly
known
as Vitellius (24 September or 7 September and according to Suetonius, 12
September or 15 September 15 – 22 December 69), was the eighth
Roman Emperor, who reigned from 16 April 69 to 22 December of the same year.
Vitellius acceded to this position following the quick succession of the
previous emperors
Galba and Otho,
in a year of civil war known as the
Year of the Four Emperors. Vitellius was the first to add the honorific
cognomen
Germanicus to his name instead of Caesar upon his accession; the
latter name had fallen into disrepute in many quarters because of the actions of
Nero.
His claim to the throne was soon challenged by legions
stationed in the Eastern provinces, who proclaimed their commander
Vespasian
emperor in his place. War ensued, leading to a crushing defeat for Vitellius at
the
Second Battle of Bedriacum. When he realised his support was wavering,
Vitellius prepared to abdicate in favour of Vespasian, but was executed in Rome
by Flavian forces on December 22 of 69.
Family
He was the son of
Lucius Vitellius Veteris and his wife
Sextilia,
and had one brother,
Claudius Vitellius the Younger.
Suetonius
recorded two different accounts of the origins of the
Vitellius (gens), one making them descendants of past rulers of
Latium, the
other describing them as of lowly origins; Suetonius makes the sensible remark
that both accounts might have been made by either flatterers or enemies of
Vitellius -- except that both were in circulation before Vitellius became
emperor. Suetonius also recorded that when Vitellius was born his horoscope so
horrified his parents that his father tried to prevent Aulus from becoming a
consul.
He married firstly before the year 40 Petronia, daughter of
Publius or Gaius Petronius Pontius Nigrinus, by whom he had a son Aulus
Vitellius Petronianus, the universal heir of his mother and grandfather.
He married secondly circa 50
Galeria Fundana (ca 40 - aft. 69), perhaps the granddaughter of Gaius
Galerius (ca 15 BC - aft. 23), Praefectus Aeg. in 23. They had two
children, a son called Germanicus and an unnamed daughter (b. ca 55). Settipani
and Birley have suggested that this daughter married
Decimus Rupilius Libo Frugi, father
Rupilia Faustina.
[1]
Public
service
Political
and military career
He was
Consul
in 48, and assumed
Proconsul
of
Africa in either 60 or 61, 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.
Bid
for power
He owed his elevation to the throne to
Caecina and
Fabius 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 1
January 69, and early in 69 Vitellis was proclaimed emperor at
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.
Emperor
Administration
Suetonius,
whose father had fought for
Otho at
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.
Vitellius is described as lazy and self-indulgent, fond of eating and drinking,
and an obese glutton, eating banquets four times a day and feasting on rare
foods he would send the Roman navy to procure. For these banquets, he had
himself invited over to a different noble's house for each one. He is even
reported to have starved his own mother to death -- to fulfill a prophecy that
he would rule long if his mother died first. Other writers, namely
Tacitus and
Cassius
Dio, disagree with some of Suetonius' assertions, even though their own
accounts of Vitellus are scarcely positive ones.
Despite his short reign he made two important contributions
to Roman government which outlasted him.
Tacitus
describes them both in his
Histories:
-
Vitellus 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 from 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.[2]
Challenges
In July 69, Vitellius learned 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 Vespasianus, Vitellius, deserted by many of his
adherents, would have resigned the title of emperor.
Resignation
and death
It is said that Vitellius awaited Vespasian's army at
Mevania. It
was said that the terms of resignation 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, 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
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. "Yet I was once your emperor," were
the last and, as far as we know, the noblest words of Vitellius. His brother and
son were also killed.
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