After crossing the Mulvian bridge, Vitellius himself had been 89 riding on a conspicuous horse, wearing his sword and general’s uniform, with the senate and people trooping in front of him.  However, as this looked too much like an entry into a captured city, his friends persuaded him to change into civilian dress and walk on foot.  At the head of his column were carried the eagles of four legions, surrounded by the colours belonging to the detachments of four other legions.[428] Next came the standards of twelve regiments of auxiliary horse, then the files of infantry and the cavalry behind them.  Then came thirty-four cohorts of auxiliaries, arranged according to their nationality or the nature of their weapons.  In front of the eagles came the camp prefects and tribunes, and the senior centurions,[429] all dressed in white.  The other centurions marched each at the head of his company, glittering with their armour and decorations.  Gaily, too, shone the soldiers’ medals[430] and their chains of honour.  It was a noble spectacle, an army worthy of a better emperor.  Thus Vitellius entered the Capitol, where he embraced his mother and conferred on her the title of Augusta.

On the following day Vitellius delivered a grandiloquent eulogy on 90 his own merits.  He might have been addressing the senate and people of some other state, for he extolled his own industry and self-control, although each member of his audience had seen his infamy for himself, and the whole of Italy had witnessed during his march the shameful spectacle of his sloth and luxury.  However, the thoughtless crowd could not discriminate between truth and falsehood.  They had learnt the usual flatteries by heart and chimed in with loud shouts of applause.  They insisted in the face of his protests that he should take the title of Augustus.  But neither his refusal nor their insistence made much difference.[431]

In Rome nothing passes without comment, and it was regarded as a 91 fatal omen that Vitellius took office as high priest, and issued his encyclical on public worship on the 18th of July, which, as the anniversary of the disasters on the Cremera and the Allia,[432] had long been considered an unlucky day.  But his ignorance of all civil and religious precedent was only equalled by the incapacity of his freedmen and friends.  He seemed to live in a society of drunkards.  However, at the consular elections he canvassed for his candidates like a common citizen.[433] In everything he courted the favour of the lowest classes, attending performances in the theatre and backing his favourite at the races.  This would undoubtedly have made him popular had his motives been good, but the memory of his former life made his conduct seem cheap and discreditable.  He constantly attended the senate, even when the debates were on trivial matters.  It once happened that Helvidius Priscus,[434] then praetor-elect, opposed Vitellius’ policy.  At first the emperor showed annoyance,