Let Vitellius be victor, since this has pleased the gods; and let the lives of his soldiers also be spared, since this pleases me.

" [Sidenote:15] At the close of this speech he retired into his apartments and after sending some messages to his intimate friends and some to Vitellius in their behalf he burned all the letters which anybody had written to him containing hostile statements about Vitellius, not wanting them to serve as damaging evidence against anybody.

" [Sidenote:15] At the close of this speech he retired into his apartments and after sending some messages to his intimate friends and some to Vitellius in their behalf he burned all the letters which anybody had written to him containing hostile statements about Vitellius, not wanting them to serve as damaging evidence against anybody.

Vitellius's excess in banquets, in his home, in furniture, in his almost absurd magnificence (chapters 2-5).

The adherents of Vitellius are conquered in battle (chapters 11-14).

Wavering on the part of Vitellius: the Capitol is burned in the course of a siege by Sabinus (chapters 16, 17).

News of the death of Otho was brought to him [Vitellius] while in Gaul.

For the time being he sent Mucianus to Italy against Vitellius, while he himself, after taking a look at affairs in Syria and entrusting to others the conduct of the war against the Jews, proceeded to Egypt.

[Sidenote:10] Vitellius when he heard about it remained where he was and went on with his luxurious living even to the extent of arranging gladiatorial combats.

Then they removed the images of Vitellius from their standards and took an oath that they would be governed by Vespasian.

But, after the meeting had broken up and they had retired to their tents, they changed their minds and suddenly gathering excitedly in force with great outcry they again saluted Vitellius as emperor and imprisoned Alienus for having betrayed them, and they paid no heed to his consular office.

On the following day, when Primus through messengers tried to induce them to come to terms, the soldiers of Vitellius sent a return message to him urging that he espouse the cause of Vitellius.

But what is there surprising about this, considering that when the women of the city in the course of the night brought food and drink to give to the soldiers of Vitellius, the latter after eating and drinking themselves passed the supplies on to their antagonists?

The followers of Vitellius, suspecting that Mucianus had arrived, underwent a revulsion of feeling, and panic-stricken at the shout took to flight.

Sabinus and Atticus they arrested and sent them to Vitellius.

All the behavior for which they censured Vitellius and his followers, behavior which they pretended was the cause of the war between them, they themselves repeated, slaying great numbers.

Then he wounded Vitellius and killed himself.

However, Vitellius did not die of the wound but was haled to the prison, as were also his statues, while many amusing and many disgraceful remarks were made about them.

The son of Vitellius, too, perished soon after his father, notwithstanding that Vitellius had killed no relative either of Otho or of Vespasian.

Are there any modern portraits more familiar than the pensive, wedge-like head of Augustus, with his sharp-cut lips and nose,or the dull phiz of Hadrian, with his hair combed down over his low forehead,or the vain, perking face of Lucius Verus, with his thin nose, low brow, and profusion of curls,or the brutal bull head of Caracalla,or the bestial, bloated features of Vitellius?

Of the Roman Emperors, almost every one of whom perpetrated the most barbarous atrocities, Vitellius seems to have been the only one who cruelly exercised his power from the outset.

I therefore have no hesitation in asserting, that the Watling Street Way is a Roman road, and probably planned and formed by Vespasian, the celebrated Roman general in Britain, who named this road in compliment to the emperor, Vitellius, Vitellii Strata Via, Watling Street Way.

" The same author, in his Life of Vitellius, seems to strengthen or rather establish the conjecture of its being the Vitellii Strata Via, for he says, (chapter 1,) "indicia, stirpis (Vitelliorum) diu mansisse, Viam Vitelliam ab Janiculo ad mare usque, item coloniam ejusdem nominis."

From the abovementioned extracts, it seems not improbable that one of the thirty battles mentioned by Suetonius, might have been fought during the time the Romans were forming this road through the Forest of Arden, which extended from Henley, in Warwickshire, to Market Harborough, in Leicestershire; and that it was called in compliment to Vitellius, the Vitellian Way, afterwards corrupted to the Watling Way.

Vitellius had great weight and influence in the reign of Claudius; Vespasian at that time paid his court to the favourite, and also to Narcissus, the emperor's freedman.