taken and perished (chapters 20, 21).

How a brother and son of Vitellius met their fate (chapter 22).

DURATION OF TIME.

(Galba (II) and T. Vinius Coss.): A.D. 69 = a.u. 822, from January 15th.
The following _Consules Suffecti_ took office:

On the Calends of March--T. Virginius Rufus, Vopiscus Pompeius.

On the Calends of May--Caelius Sabinus, T. Flavins Sabinus.

On the Calends of July--T. Arrius Antoninus, P. Marius Celsus (II).

On the Calends of September--C. Fabius Valens, A. Alienus Caecinna (also
Roscius Regulus, as Caecinna was condemned on the last day of October).

On the Calends of November--Cn. Caecilius Simplex, C. Quintius Atticus.

[Sidenote: A.D. 69 (a.u. 822)] [Sidenote:--1--] The population of Rome
when it heard of the downfall of Otho naturally transferred its allegiance
immediately. Otho, whom people previously praised and for whose victory
they prayed, they now abused as an enemy, and Vitellius, upon whom they
had been invoking curses, they praised and declared emperor. So truly
there is nothing constant in human affairs. Those who flourish most and
those who are lowliest alike choose unstable standards, and construct
their praises and their censures, their honors and their degradations to
conform to the accidents of their situation.

News of the death of Otho was brought to him [Vitellius] while in Gaul.
There he was joined by his wife and child, whom he placed on a platform
and saluted as Germanicus and imperator, though the boy was only six years
old.

[Vitellius witnessed gladiatorial combats at Lugdunum and again at
Cremona, as if the crowds of men who had perished in the battles and were
even then exposed unburied to the elements did not suffice. He beheld the
slain with his own eyes, for he traversed all the ground where they lay
and gloated over the spectacle as if he were still in the moment of
victory; and not even after that did he order them to be buried.] Upon
reaching Rome and adjusting affairs to suit him, he issued a bulletin
banishing the astrologers and commanding them by this particular day
(mentioning a given date) to leave the whole country of Italy. They by
night put up in turn another document, in which they announced that he
should lose his life by the day on which he actually died. So accurate was
their previous knowledge of what should come to pass.

[Sidenote:--2--] Vitellius was fond of luxury and licentiousness and cared
for nothing else human or divi