Vitellius

Vitellius was emperor for eight months in the year of the four emperors, and is remembered chiefly for eating. Born in AD 15, he was the son of a man who had been consul three times and censor, and who was famous for flattery — he is said to have kept one of Claudius's freedwoman's slippers under his toga and kissed it periodically. The son made his career the same way: charioteering with Caligula, dice with Claudius, and admiring Nero's singing. Galba nonetheless appointed him to command the army of Lower Germany in AD 68, reportedly on the reasoning that a man who cared only for his dinner would be no threat. The legions of the Rhine proclaimed him in January AD 69, having refused to swear to Galba. Otho meanwhile murdered Galba at Rome, and Vitellius's generals Caecina and Valens beat Otho at Bedriacum in April; Otho killed himself, and Vitellius entered Rome in July. He toured the battlefield afterwards and remarked that a dead enemy smells sweet, and a dead fellow-citizen sweeter. His reign was undistinguished. Suetonius describes banquets three or four times a day sustained by emetics, and a dish of pike livers, pheasant brains, flamingo tongues and lamprey milt requiring ships to fetch the ingredients. The eastern legions proclaimed Vespasian that July. Vitellius attempted to abdicate and was prevented by his own troops. He was dragged through the streets with a blade under his chin, killed at the Gemonian stairs, and thrown into the Tiber. Suetonius, who had every reason to repeat the worst, is close enough to the events that some of it may be true.

• Lived: 15 CE – 69 CE
• Nationality: Roman
• Roles: ruler