ROMAN EMPIRE. 



415 



Unman making seme compromise with his rival ; but this offer 

 Kmpir*. being i jet ted, he marched from Rome at the head of 

 a large but undisciplined army. The army of Vitellius, 

 consisting of 70,000 men, was commanded by Valens 

 and Circinn. Vitellius remained in Gaul to bring up 

 the ir>t i.!' his forces; but so great was the desire of 

 both parties to engage, that in the course of three days 

 one battle was fought at Placentia, another near Cre- 

 mona, and a third at Castor, in all which Otlio was suc- 

 cessful. Valens and Cttcina having united their forces, 

 and received fresh supplies, attacked Otho's army near 

 Bedriacum, and, after a well-contested battle, they suc- 

 ceeded in putting it to flight, and pursued the fugi- 

 tives with great slaughter to Bedriacum. Otho, whom 

 his minions would not permit to be present at the bat- 

 tle, waited with great uneasiness for its issue. A soldier, 

 who had escaped from the engagement, brought the 

 first news of it to the emperor ; but when every person 

 ted in discrediting his story, this brave man threw 

 himself upon his sword, and expired at the emperor's 

 {Vet. Otho instantly declared that he would sacrifice 

 no more of such heroes in such a contest, and exhort- 

 ing his followers to yield peaceably to Vitellius, he put 

 an end to his own life. 



After the battle Vitellius was declared emperor by 

 the senate, and having pardoned the adherents of Otho, 

 he travelled to Rome in all the splendour and magni- 

 ficence which he could command. While he was sit- 

 ting in painted galleys, bedecked with garlands and 

 flowers, and feasting on every delicacy which could be 

 commanded, his soldiers were plundering in all direc- 

 tions, and without any restraint. He entered Rome as 

 if it were a conquered city, and the senate and people 

 marched before him as if they had been the prisoners 

 taken in his last battle. After haranguing the senate 

 and the people, and receiving the homage which his 

 liberal promises had drawn forth, he quietly settled 

 himself in his palace, to enjoy the pleasures which his 

 gluttony and luxurious habits had rendered the chief 

 happiness of his life. While the vessel of the state was 

 entrusted to the lowest and vilest management, and the 

 soldiers forgetting the art of war amid their unre- 

 strained debaucheries, Vitellius was regaling himself 

 vith costly viands; and had learned the art of renew- 

 ing the pleasure of his meals, by disgorging the food 

 which had already administered to his appetite. Self- 

 invited he breakfasted with one of his subjects, dined 

 with another, and supped with a third ; and the influ- 

 ence of his courtiers depended on the frequency of their 

 entertainments, and the skill with which they were 

 managed. A dinner which was given to him by his 

 brother Lucius on his arrival in the capital, consisted 

 of 2000 dishes of fish, and 7000 of fowl. One of the 

 dishe?, called the shield of Minerva, was an olio com- 

 pounded of the sounds of the fish named scarri, the 

 brains of woodcocks and pheasants, the tongues of rare 

 birds, and the spawn of lampreys from the Caspian. 



Not content with the gratification of his appetite, 

 Vitellius began to derive pleasure from his cruelties. 

 Even those who were fed with him in the same stall 

 he sacrificed without compunction ; and when he went 

 to see one of his parasites in a raging fever, he put 

 poison into a cup of water, and administered it with 

 his own hands. The monster even avowed that he de- 

 rived pleasure from the torments of his victims. On 

 one occasion, when he had sentenced a father to death, 

 he executed his two sons along with him for bepping 

 the life of their parent; and when a Roman knipht 

 was dragged to execution, and expected to ward off the 



blow, by declaring that he had made the emperor hit Roman 

 heir, Vitellius obtained a fight of the deed, and having 

 found that he was only joint heir with another, he ex- 

 ecuted both, in order that he might obtain the property. 



These intolerable deeds at last roused the abject Ve*ptti*n 

 Romans. The legions of the cast began the revolt ; proclaimed 

 and Vespasian, while he was carrying on the siege of ^P***- 

 Jerusalem, was proclaimed emperor of Rome. The 

 legions in Mocsia and Pannonia declared for Vespasian, 

 and without his own consent he was proclaimed emper- 

 or at Alexandria. Declining the high honour which was 

 thus offered him, Vespasian was compelled by his army 

 to accept of it, and assembling his officers, it was re- 

 solved that his son Titus should conduct the war in 

 Judea; that Mutianus should enter Italy with the 

 greatest number of his legions ; and that Vespasian 

 should levy a new army in the east. 



When Vespasian's army entered Italy under the 

 command of Antonius Primus, Vitellius made consi- 

 derable preparati- ns for resistance. His army, com- 

 manded by Valens and Caecina, met the troops of Ves- 

 pasian near Cremona, and, when a battle was expected, 

 Cfficina went over to Vespasian. The army imprisoned 

 Ctecina, and attacked Antonius ; and the battle, which 

 lasted all night, was renewed in the morning, when, 

 after a sharp conflict, Vitellius's army was defeated ViteUiiu 

 with a loss of 30,000 men. The routed troops, taking defeated, 

 refuge in Cremona, liberated Cascina, and, through his 

 intercession, were forgiven by the conqueror. The 

 approach of Vespasian's army to Rome was opposed by 

 a few troops who guarded the passes of the Appen- 

 nines ; but when Vitellius heard of the revolt of his 

 fleet, lie offered to Vespasian to resign the empire. At 

 this crisis one Sabinus seized the capitol ; but Vitellius's 

 soldiers laid it in ashes, and took Sabinus, who was 

 soon after put to death. 



Antonius, inattentive to the messages and offers of Vi- 

 tellius, advanced towards Rome. He attacked it on 

 three sides, drove the besieged into the city, and slaugh- 

 tered them in great numbers. The wretched and un- 

 principled populace celebrated the riotous least of the 

 Saturnalia, at the time that this bloody drama was per- 

 forming in the city ; and while the besiegers were 

 slaughtering, and slaughtered by turns, the citizens 

 were occupied with drunkenness and feasting. 



Amid this desolation of vice, Vitellius wandered 

 about forsaken even by his slaves. He at last took shelter 

 in some sequestered hiding-place, from which he was 

 soon taken by the victorious enemy. The miserable 

 emperor, in the expectation of protracting his existence, 

 requested that he might be kept in prison till the arri- 

 val of Vespasian, as he had important secret? to com- 

 municate to him. His appeal, however, was in vain. 

 The soldiers binding his hands, and putting a halter 

 round his neck, led him half naked into the forum, 

 loading him with curses and reproaches. They tied 

 his hair backwards, and put the point of his sword be- 

 neath his chin to prevent him from hiding his face. 

 Some threw mud upon him, and others struck him, 

 while some ridiculed the redness of his face, and the 

 magnitude of his belly. Having reached the place of And Killed, 

 execution, they killed him by blows, and, dragging the 

 body through the streets, they tossed it into the Tiber. 

 Thus terminated the eight months reign of Vitellius, 

 when he had reached the 57th year of his age. Availing 

 themselves of the opportunity for plunder, the soldiers 

 pursued the fugitives into houses and temples, and 

 committed every species of cruelty and rapine. 



No sooner, however, did Mutianus, the general of 



