THE LIVES OF THE TWELVE CAESARS

 By C. Suetonius Tranquillus;

 To which are added, HIS LIVES OF THE GRAMMARIANS, RHETORICIANS, AND POETS. 

 The Translation of Alexander Thomson, M. D. 

 revised and corrected by T. Forester, Esq. , A. M. 

AULUS VITELLIUS. (427)

I. Very different accounts are given of the origin of the Vitellianfamily. Some describe it as ancient and noble, others as recent andobscure, nay, extremely mean. I am inclined to think, that these severalrepresentations have been made by the flatterers and detractors ofVitellius, after he became emperor, unless the fortunes of the familyvaried before. There is extant a memoir addressed by Quintus Eulogius toQuintus Vitellius, quaestor to the Divine Augustus, in which it is said, that the Vitellii were descended from Faunus, king of the aborigines, andVitellia [689], who was worshipped in many places as a goddess, and thatthey reigned formerly over the whole of Latium: that all who were left ofthe family removed out of the country of the Sabines to Rome, and wereenrolled among the patricians: that some monuments of the familycontinued a long time; as the Vitellian Way, reaching from the Janiculumto the sea, and likewise a colony of that name, which, at a very remoteperiod of time, they desired leave from the government to defend againstthe Aequicolae [690], with a force raised by their own family only: alsothat, in the time of the war with the Samnites, some of the Vitellii whowent with the troops levied for the security of Apulia, settled atNuceria [691], and their descendants, a long time afterwards, returnedagain to Rome, and were admitted (428) into the patrician order. On theother hand, the generality of writers say that the founder of the familywas a freedman. Cassius Severus [692] and some others relate that he waslikewise a cobbler, whose son having made a considerable fortune byagencies and dealings in confiscated property, begot, by a commonstrumpet, daughter of one Antiochus, a baker, a child, who afterwardsbecame a Roman knight. Of these different accounts the reader is left totake his choice. 

II. It is certain, however, that Publius Vitellius, of Nuceria, whetherof an ancient family, or of low extraction, was a Roman knight, and aprocurator to Augustus. He left behind him four sons, all men of veryhigh station, who had the same cognomen, but the different praenomina ofAulus, Quintus, Publius, and Lucius. Aulus died in the enjoyment of theconsulship [693], which office he bore jointly with Domitius, the fatherof Nero Caesar. He was elegant to excess in his manner of living, andnotorious for the vast expense of his entertainments. Quintus wasdeprived of his rank of senator, when, upon a motion made by Tiberius, aresolution passed to purge the senate of those who were in any respectnot duly qualified for that honour. Publius, an intimate friend andcompanion of Germanicus, prosecuted his enemy and murderer, Cneius Piso, and procured sentence against him. After he had been made proctor, beingarrested among the accomplices of Sejanus, and delivered into the handsof his brother to be confined in his house, he opened a vein with apenknife, intending to bleed himself to death. He suffered, however, thewound to be bound up and cured, not so much from repenting the resolutionhe had formed, as to comply with the importunity of his relations. Hedied afterwards a natural death during his confinement. Lucius, afterhis consulship [694], was made governor of Syria [695], and by hispolitic management not only brought Artabanus, king of the Parthians, togive him an interview, but to worship the standards of the Roman legions. He afterwards filled two ordinary consulships [696], and also thecensorship [697] jointly with the emperor Claudius. Whilst that (429)prince was absent upon his expedition into Britain [698], the care of theempire was committed to him, being a man of great integrity and industry. But he lessened his character not a little, by his passionate fondnessfor an abandoned freedwoman, with whose spittle, mixed with honey, heused to anoint his throat and jaws, by way of remedy for some complaint, not privately nor seldom, but daily and publicly. Being extravagantlyprone to flattery, it was he who gave rise to the worship of Caius Caesaras a god, when, upon his return from Syria, he would not presume toaccost him any otherwise than with his head covered, turning himselfround, and then prostrating himself upon the earth. And to leave noartifice untried to secure the favour of Claudius, who was entirelygoverned by his wives and freedmen, he requested as the greatest favourfrom Messalina, that she would be pleased to let him take off her shoes;which, when he had done, he took her right shoe, and wore it constantlybetwixt his toga and his tunic, and from time to time covered it withkisses. He likewise worshipped golden images of Narcissus and Pallasamong his household gods. It was he, too, who, when Claudius exhibitedthe secular games, in his compliments to him upon that occasion, usedthis expression, "May you often do the same. "

III. He died of palsy, the day after his seizure with it, leaving behindhim two sons, whom he had by a most excellent and respectable wife, Sextilia. He had lived to see them both consuls, the same year andduring the whole year also; the younger succeeding the elder for the lastsix months [699]. The senate honoured him after his decease with afuneral at the public expense, and with a statue in the Rostra, which hadthis inscription upon the base: "One who was steadfast in his loyalty tohis prince. " The emperor Aulus Vitellius, the son of this Lucius, was bornupon the eighth of the calends of October [24th September], or, as somesay, upon the seventh of the ides of September [7th September], in theconsulship of Drusus Caesar and Norbanus Flaccus [700]. His parents wereso (430) terrified with the predictions of astrologers upon thecalculation of his nativity, that his father used his utmost endeavoursto prevent his being sent governor into any of the provinces, whilst hewas alive. His mother, upon his being sent to the legions [701], andalso upon his being proclaimed emperor, immediately lamented him asutterly ruined. He spent his youth amongst the catamites of Tiberius atCapri, was himself constantly stigmatized with the name of Spintria[702], and was supposed to have been the occasion of his father'sadvancement, by consenting to gratify the emperor's unnatural lust. 

IV. In the subsequent part of his life, being still most scandalouslyvicious, he rose to great favour at court; being upon a very intimatefooting with Caius [Caligula], because of his fondness forchariot-driving, and with Claudius for his love of gaming. But he was ina still higher degree acceptable to Nero, as well on the same accounts, asfor a particular service which he rendered him. When Nero presided in thegames instituted by himself, though he was extremely desirous to performamongst the harpers, yet his modesty would not permit him, notwithstandingthe people entreated much for it. Upon his quitting the theatre, Vitellius fetched him back again, pretending to represent the determinedwishes of the people, and so afforded him the opportunity of yielding totheir in treaties. 

V. By the favour of these three princes, he was not only advanced to thegreat offices of state, but to the highest dignities of the sacred order;after which he held the proconsulship of Africa, and had thesuperintendence of the public works, in which appointment his conduct, and, consequently, his reputation, were very different. For he governedthe province with singular integrity during two years, in the latter ofwhich he acted as deputy to his brother, who succeeded him. But in hisoffice in the city, he was said to pillage the temples of their gifts andornaments, and to have exchanged brass and tin for gold and silver. [703]

VI. He took to wife Petronia, the daughter of a man of consular rank, and had by her a son named Petronius, who was blind of an eye. Themother being willing to appoint this youth her heir, upon condition thathe should be released from his father's authority, the latter dischargedhim accordingly; but shortly after, as was believed, murdered him, charging him with a design upon his life, and pretending that he had, from consciousness of his guilt, drank the poison he had prepared for hisfather. Soon afterwards, he married Galeria Fundana, the daughter of aman of pretorian rank, and had by her both sons and daughters. Among theformer was one who had such a stammering in his speech, that he waslittle better than if he had been dumb. 

VII. He was sent by Galba into Lower Germany [704], contrary to hisexpectation. It is supposed that he was assisted in procuring thisappointment by the interest of Titus Junius, a man of great influence atthat time; whose friendship he had long before gained by favouring thesame set of charioteers with him in the Circensian games. But Galbaopenly declared that none were less to be feared than those who onlycared for their bellies, and that even his enormous appetite must besatisfied with the plenty of that province; so that it is evident he wasselected for that government more out of contempt than kindness. It iscertain, that when he was to set out, he had not money for the expensesof his journey; he being at that time so much straitened in hiscircumstances, that he was obliged to put his wife and children, whom heleft at Rome, into a poor lodging which he hired for them, in order thathe might let his own house for the remainder of the year; and he pawned apearl taken from his mother's ear-ring, to defray his expenses on theroad. A crowd of creditors who were waiting to stop him, and amongstthem the people of Sineussa and Formia, whose taxes he had converted tohis own use, he eluded, by alarming them with the apprehension of falseaccusation. He had, however, sued a certain freedman, who was clamorousin demanding a debt of him, under pretence that he had kicked him; whichaction he would not withdraw, until he had wrung from the freedman fiftythousand sesterces. Upon his arrival in the province, the army, (432)which was disaffected to Galba, and ripe for insurrection, received himwith open arms, as if he had been sent them from heaven. It was no smallrecommendation to their favour, that he was the son of a man who had beenthrice consul, was in the prime of life, and of an easy, prodigaldisposition. This opinion, which had been long entertained of him, Vitellius confirmed by some late practices; having kissed all the commonsoldiers whom he met with upon the road, and been excessively complaisantin the inns and stables to the muleteers and travellers; asking them in amorning, if they had got their breakfasts, and letting them see, bybelching, that he had eaten his. 

VIII. After he had reached the camp, he denied no man any thing he askedfor, and pardoned all who lay under sentence for disgraceful conduct ordisorderly habits. Before a month, therefore, had passed, without regardto the day or season, he was hurried by the soldiers out of hisbed-chamber, although it was evening, and he in an undress, andunanimously saluted by the title of EMPEROR [705]. He was then carriedround the most considerable towns in the neighbourhood, with the sword ofthe Divine Julius in his hand; which had been taken by some person out ofthe temple of Mars, and presented to him when he was first saluted. Nordid he return to the pretorium, until his dining-room was in flames fromthe chimney's taking fire. Upon this accident, all being inconsternation, and considering it as an unlucky omen, he cried out, "Courage, boys! it shines brightly upon us. " And this was all he said tothe soldiers. The army of the Upper Province likewise, which had beforedeclared against Galba for the senate, joining in the proceedings, he veryeagerly accepted the cognomen of Germanicus, offered him by the unanimousconsent of both armies, but deferred assuming that of Augustus, andrefused for ever that of Caesar. 

IX. Intelligence of Galba's death arriving soon after, when he hadsettled his affairs in Germany he divided his troops into two bodies, intending to send one of them before him against Otho, and to follow withthe other himself. The army he sent forward had a lucky omen; for, suddenly, an eagle cams flying up to them on the right, and havinghovered (433) round the standards, flew gently before them on their road. But, on the other hand, when he began his own march, all the equestrianstatues, which were erected for him in several places, fell suddenly downwith their legs broken; and the laurel crown, which he had put on asemblematical of auspicious fortune, fell off his head into a river. Soonafterwards, at Vienne [706], as he was upon the tribunal administeringjustice, a cock perched upon his shoulder, and afterwards upon his head. The issue corresponded to these omens; for he was not able to keep theempire which had been secured for him by his lieutenants. 

X. He heard of the victory at Bedriacum [707], and the death of Otho, whilst he was yet in Gaul, and without the least hesitation, by a singleproclamation, disbanded all the pretorian cohorts, as having, by theirrepeated treasons, set a dangerous example to the rest of the army;commanding them to deliver up their arms to his tribunes. A hundred andtwenty of them, under whose hands he had found petitions presented toOtho, for rewards of their service in the murder of Galba, he besidesordered to be sought out and punished. So far his conduct deservedapprobation, and was such as to afford hope of his becoming an excellentprince, had he not managed his other affairs in a way more correspondingwith his own disposition, and his former manner of life, than to theimperial dignity. For, having begun his march, he rode through everycity in his route in a triumphal procession; and sailed down the riversin ships, fitted out with the greatest elegance, and decorated withvarious kinds of crowns, amidst the most extravagant entertainments. Such was the want of discipline, and the licentiousness both in hisfamily and army, that, not satisfied with the provision every where madefor them at the public expense, they committed every kind of robbery andinsult upon the inhabitants, setting slaves at liberty as they pleased;and if any dared to make resistance, they dealt blows and abuse, frequently wounds, and sometimes slaughter amongst them. When he reachedthe plains on which the battles (434) were fought [708], some of thosearound him being offended at the smell of the carcases which lay rottingupon the ground, he had the audacity to encourage them by a mostdetestable remark, "That a dead enemy smelt not amiss, especially if hewere a fellow-citizen. " To qualify, however, the offensiveness of thestench, he quaffed in public a goblet of wine, and with equal vanity andinsolence distributed a large quantity of it among his troops. On hisobserving a stone with an inscription upon it to the memory of Otho, hesaid, "It was a mausoleum good enough for such a prince. " He also sentthe poniard, with which Otho killed himself, to the colony of Agrippina[709], to be dedicated to Mars. Upon the Appenine hills he celebrated aBacchanalian feast. 

XI. At last he entered the City with trumpets sounding, in his general'scloak, and girded with his sword, amidst a display of standards andbanners; his attendants being all in the military habit, and the arms ofthe soldiers unsheathed. Acting more and more in open violation of alllaws, both divine and human, he assumed the office of Pontifex Maximus, upon the day of the defeat at the Allia [710]; ordered the magistrates tobe elected for ten years of office; and made himself consul for life. Toput it out of all doubt what model he intended to follow in hisgovernment of the empire, he made his offerings to the shade of Nero inthe midst of the Campus Martius, and with a full assembly of the publicpriests attending him. And at a solemn entertainment, he desired aharper who pleased the company much, to sing something in praise ofDomitius; and upon his beginning some songs of Nero's, he started up inpresence of the whole assembly, and could not refrain from applaudinghim, by clapping his hands. 

XII. After such a commencement of his career, he conducted (435) hisaffairs, during the greater part of his reign, entirely by the advice anddirection of the vilest amongst the players and charioteers, andespecially his freedman Asiaticus. This fellow had, when young, beenengaged with him in a course of mutual and unnatural pollution, but, being at last quite tired of the occupation, ran away. His master, sometime after, caught him at Puteoli, selling a liquor called Posca [711], and put him in chains, but soon released him, and retained him in hisformer capacity. Growing weary, however, of his rough and stubborntemper, he sold him to a strolling fencing-master; after which, when thefellow was to have been brought up to play his part at the conclusion ofan entertainment of gladiators, he suddenly carried him off, and atlength, upon his being advanced to the government of a province, gave himhis freedom. The first day of his reign, he presented him with the goldrings at supper, though in the morning, when all about him requested thatfavour in his behalf, he expressed the utmost abhorrence of putting sogreat a stain upon the equestrian order. 

XIII. He was chiefly addicted to the vices of luxury and cruelty. Healways made three meals a day, sometimes four: breakfast, dinner, andsupper, and a drunken revel after all. This load of victuals he couldwell enough bear, from a custom to which he had enured himself, offrequently vomiting. For these several meals he would make differentappointments at the houses of his friends on the same day. None everentertained him at less expense than four hundred thousand sesterces[712]. The most famous was a set entertainment given him by his brother, at which, it is said, there were served up no less than two thousandchoice fishes, and seven thousand birds. Yet even this supper he himselfoutdid, at a feast which he gave upon the first use of a dish which hadbeen made for him, and which, for its extraordinary size, he called "TheShield of Minerva. " In this dish there were tossed up together thelivers of char-fish, the brains of pheasants and peacocks, with thetongues of flamingos, and the entrails of lampreys, which had beenbrought in ships of war as far as (436) from the Carpathian Sea, and theSpanish Straits. He was not only a man of an insatiable appetite, butwould gratify it likewise at unseasonable times, and with any garbagethat came in his way; so that, at a sacrifice, he would snatch from thefire flesh and cakes, and eat them upon the spot. When he travelled, hedid the same at the inns upon the road, whether the meat was freshdressed and hot, or what had been left the day before, and washalf-eaten. 

XIV. He delighted in the infliction of punishments, and even those whichwere capital, without any distinction of persons or occasions. Severalnoblemen, his school-fellows and companions, invited by him to court, hetreated with such flattering caresses, as seemed to indicate an affectionshort only of admitting them to share the honours of the imperialdignity; yet he put them all to death by some base means or other. Toone he gave poison with his own hand, in a cup of cold water which hecalled for in a fever. He scarcely spared one of all the usurers, notaries, and publicans, who had ever demanded a debt of him at Rome, orany toll or custom upon the road. One of these, while in the very act ofsaluting him, he ordered for execution, but immediately sent for himback; upon which all about him applauding his clemency, he commanded himto be slain in his own presence, saying, "I have a mind to feed my eyes. "Two sons who interceded for their father, he ordered to be executed withhim. A Roman knight, upon his being dragged away for execution, andcrying out to him, "You are my heir, " he desired to produce his will: andfinding that he had made his freedman joint heir with him, he commandedthat both he and the freedman should have their throats cut. He put todeath some of the common people for cursing aloud the blue party in theCircensian games; supposing it to be done in contempt of himself, and theexpectation of a revolution in the government. There were no persons hewas more severe against than jugglers and astrologers; end as soon as anyone of them was informed against, he put him to death without theformality of a trial. He was enraged against them, because, after hisproclamation by which he commanded all astrologers to quit home, andItaly also, before the calends [the first] of October, a bill wasimmediately posted about the city, with the following words:--"TAKENOTICE: [713] The Chaldaeans also decree that Vitellius Germanicus shallbe no more, by the day of the said calends. " He was even suspected ofbeing accessary to his mother's death, by forbidding sustenance to begiven her when she was unwell; a German witch [714], whom he held to beoracular, having told him, "That he would long reign in security if hesurvived his mother. " But others say, that being quite weary of thestate of affairs, and apprehensive of the future, she obtained withoutdifficulty a dose of poison from her son. 

XV. In the eighth month of his reign, the troops both in Moesia andPannonia revolted from him; as did likewise, of the armies beyond sea, those in Judaea and Syria, some of which swore allegiance to Vespasian asemperor in his own presence, and others in his absence. In order, therefore, to secure the favour and affection of the people, Vitelliuslavished on all around whatever he had it in his power to bestow, bothpublicly and privately, in the most extravagant manner. He also leviedsoldiers in the city, and promised all who enlisted as volunteers, notonly their discharge after the victory was gained, but all the rewardsdue to veterans who had served their full time in the wars. The enemynow pressing forward both by sea and land, on one hand he opposed againstthem his brother with a fleet, the new levies, and a body of gladiators, and in another quarter the troops and generals who were engaged atBedriacum. But being beaten or betrayed in every direction, he agreedwith Flavius Sabinus, Vespasian's brother, to abdicate, on condition ofhaving his life spared, and a hundred millions of sesterces granted him;and he immediately, upon the palace-steps, publicly declared to a largebody of soldiers there assembled, "that he resigned the government, whichhe had accepted reluctantly;" but they all remonstrating against it, hedeferred the conclusion of the treaty. Next day, early in the morning, he came down to the Forum in a very mean habit, and with many tearsrepeated the (438) declaration from a writing which he held in his hand;but the soldiers and people again interposing, and encouraging him not togive way, but to rely on their zealous support, he recovered his courage, and forced Sabinus, with the rest of the Flavian party, who now thoughtthemselves secure, to retreat into the Capitol, where he destroyed themall by setting fire to the temple of Jupiter, whilst he beheld thecontest and the fire from Tiberius's house [715], where he was feasting. Not long after, repenting of what he had done, and throwing the blame ofit upon others, he called a meeting, and swore "that nothing was dearerto him than the public peace;" which oath he also obliged the rest totake. Then drawing a dagger from his side, he presented it first to theconsul, and, upon his refusing it, to the magistrates, and then to everyone of the senators; but none of them being willing to accept it, he wentaway, as if he meant to lay it up in the temple of Concord; but somecrying out to him, "You are Concord, " he came back again, and said thathe would not only keep his weapon, but for the future use the cognomen ofConcord. 

XVI. He advised the senate to send deputies, accompanied by the VestalVirgins, to desire peace, or, at least, time for consultation. The dayafter, while he was waiting for an answer, he received intelligence by ascout, that the enemy was advancing. Immediately, therefore, throwinghimself into a small litter, borne by hand, with only two attendants, abaker and a cook, he privately withdrew to his father's house, on theAventine hill, intending to escape thence into Campania. But agroundless report being circulated, that the enemy was willing to come toterms, he suffered himself to be carried back to the palace. Finding, however, nobody there, and those who were with him stealing away, hegirded round his waist a belt full of gold pieces, and then ran into theporter's lodge, tying the dog before the door, and piling up against itthe bed and bedding. 

XVII. By this time the forerunners of the enemy's army had broken intothe palace, and meeting with nobody, searched, as was natural, everycorner. Being dragged by them out of his cell, and asked "who he was?"(for they did not recognize him), "and if he knew where Vitellius was?"he deceived them by a falsehood. But at last being discovered, he beggedhard to be detained in custody, even were it in a prison; pretending tohave something to say which concerned Vespasian's security. Nevertheless, he was dragged half-naked into the Forum, with his handstied behind him, a rope about his neck, and his clothes torn, amidst themost contemptuous abuse, both by word and deed, along the Via Sacra; hishead being held back by the hair, in the manner of condemned criminals, and the point of a sword put under his chin, that he might hold up hisface to public view; some of the mob, meanwhile, pelting him with dungand mud, whilst others called him "an incendiary and glutton. " They alsoupbraided him with the defects of his person, for he was monstrouslytall, and had a face usually very red with hard-drinking, a large belly, and one thigh weak, occasioned by a chariot running against him, as hewas attending upon Caius [716], while he was driving. At length, uponthe Scalae Gemoniae, he was tormented and put to death in lingeringtortures, and then dragged by a hook into the Tiber. 

XVIII. He perished with his brother and son [717], in the fifty-seventhyear of his age [718], and verified the prediction of those who, from theomen which happened to him at Vienne, as before related [719], foretoldthat he would be made prisoner by some man of Gaul. For he was seized byAntoninus Primus, a general of the adverse party, who was born atToulouse, and, when a boy, had the cognomen of Becco [720], whichsignifies a cock's beak. 

 * * * * * *

(440) After the extinction of the race of the Caesars, the possession ofthe imperial power became extremely precarious; and great influence inthe army was the means which now invariably led to the throne. Thesoldiers having arrogated to themselves the right of nomination, theyeither unanimously elected one and the same person, or different partiessupporting the interests of their respective favourites, there arosebetween them a contention, which was usually determined by an appeal toarms, and followed by the assassination of the unsuccessful competitor. Vitellius, by being a parasite of all the emperors from Tiberius to Neroinclusively, had risen to a high military rank, by which, with a spiritof enterprise, and large promises to the soldiery, it was not difficultto snatch the reins of government, while they were yet fluctuating in thehands of Otho. His ambition prompted to the attempt, and his boldnesswas crowned with success. In the service of the four preceding emperors, Vitellius had imbibed the principal vices of them all: but what chieflydistinguished him was extreme voraciousness, which, though he usuallypampered it with enormous luxury, could yet be gratified by the vilestand most offensive garbage. The pusillanimity discovered by this emperorat his death, forms a striking contrast to the heroic behaviour of Otho. 

FOOTNOTES:

[689] Faunus was supposed to be the third king who reigned over theoriginal inhabitants of the central parts of Italy, Saturn being thefirst. Virgil makes his wife's name Marica--

 Hunc Fauna, et nympha genitum Laurente Marica Accipimus. --Aen. Vii. 47. 

Her name may have been changed after her deification; but we have noother accounts than those preserved by Suetonius, of several of thetraditions handed down from the fabulous ages respecting the Vitellianfamily. 

[690] The Aequicolae were probably a tribe inhabiting the heights in theneighbourhood of Rome. Virgil describes them, Aen. Vii. 746. 

[691] Nuceria, now Nocera, is a town near Mantua; but Livy, in treatingof the war with the Samnites, always speaks of Luceria, which Strabocalls a town in Apulia. 

[692] Cassius Severus is mentioned before, in AUGUSTUS, c. Lvi. ;CALIGULA, c. Xvi. , etc. 

[693] A. U. C. 785. 

[694] A. U. C. 787. 

[695] He is frequently commended by Josephus for his kindness to theJews. See, particularly, Antiq. VI. Xviii. 

[696] A. U. C. 796, 800. 

[697] A. U. C. 801. 

[698] A. U. C. 797. See CLAUDIUS, c. Xvii. 

[699] A. U. C. 801. 

[700] A. U. C. 767; being the year after the death of the emperorAugustus; from whence it appears that Vitellius was seventeen years olderthan Otho, both being at an advanced age when they were raised to theimperial dignity. 

[701] He was sent to Germany by Galba. 

[702] See TIBERIUS, c. Xliii. 

[703] Julius Caesar, also, was said to have exchanged brass for gold inthe Capitol, Junius, c. Liv. The tin which we here find in use at Rome, was probably brought from the Cassiterides, now the Scilly islands. Whence it had been an article of commerce by the Phoenicians andCarthaginians from a very early period. 

[704] A. U. C. 821. 

[705] A. U. C. 822. 

[706] Vienne was a very ancient city of the province of Narbonne, famousin ecclesiastical history as the early seat of a bishopric in Gaul. 

[707] See OTHO, c. Ix. 

[708] See OTHO, c. Ix. 

[709] Agrippina, the wife of Nero and mother of Germanicus, founded acolony on the Rhine at the place of her birth. Tacit. Annal. B. Xii. Itbecame a flourishing city, and its origin may be traced in its modernname, Cologne. 

[710] A dies non fastus, an unlucky day in the Roman calendar, being theanniversary of their great defeat by the Gauls on the river Allia, whichjoins the Tiber about five miles from Rome. This disaster happened onthe 16th of the calends of August [17th July]. 

[711] Posca was sour wine or vinegar mixed with water, which was used bythe Roman soldiery as their common drink. It has been found beneficialin the cure of putrid diseases. 

[712] Upwards of 4000 pounds sterling. See note, p. 487. 

[713] In imitation of the form of the public edicts, which began withthe words, BONUM FACTUM. 

[714] Catta muliere: The Catti were a German tribe who inhabited thepresent countries of Hesse or Baden. Tacitus, De Mor. Germ. , informs usthat the Germans placed great confidence in the prophetical inspirationswhich they attributed to their women. 

[715] Suetonius does not supply any account of the part added byTiberius to the palace of the Caesars on the Palatine, although, as itwill be recollected, he has mentioned or described the works of Augustus, Caligula, and Nero. The banquetting-room here mentioned would easilycommand a view of the Capitol, across the narrow intervening valley. Flavius Sabinus, Vespasian's brother, was prefect of the city. 

[716] Caligula. 

[717] Lucius and Germanicus, the brother and son of Vitellius, wereslain near Terracina; the former was marching to his brother's relief. 

[718] A. U. C. 822. 

[719] c. Ix. 

[720] Becco, from whence the French bec, and English beak; with, probably, the family names of Bec or Bek. This distinguished provincial, under his Latin name of Antoninus Primus, commanded the seventh legion inGaul. His character is well drawn by Tacitus, in his usual terse style, Hist. XI. 86. 2.