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 divine.  He had always been the kind of man that would spend his time in taverns and gaming houses, over dancers and charioteers.  Incalculable were the sums he spent on such pursuits, and the consequence was that he had many creditors.  Now, when he attained to so great authority, his wantonness only increased, and his expenditures went on most of the day and night alike.  He was insatiate in filling himself, yet kept constantly vomiting what he ate, apparently living on the mere passage of food.  Yet that was what enabled him to hold out; for his fellow banqueters fared very badly. [He was always inviting numbers of the foremost men to his table and he was frequently entertained at their houses.]