Vitellius meantime was thinking only of his sensual enjoyments*. Valens, with a train of women and eunuchs, was moving leisurely onwards, when he heard of the treachery of Cæcina and Lucilius Bassus. Instead of hastening by forced marches to Cremona or making some daring effort, he still loitered, and thought only of seducing the wives and daughters of his hosts. He fell back into Umbria, and thence into Etruria, where, hearing of the loss of the battle at Cremona, he seized some shipping and made sail for Narbonese Gaul, with the intention of exciting the Gauls and Germans to arms. But his project failed; and being driven by a storm to some islets near Marseilles, he was there taken by the ships sent by the Flavians in pursuit of him.

The whole of Italy north and east of the Apennines was now in the hands of the Flavians. As the winter was approaching and the Po was beginning to overflow, Antonius resolved to make no further delay, and leaving the sick and wounded and a part of the legionaries at Verona, he advanced with the remainder along the Æmilian road to Fano (Fanum Fortunæ) on the coast. Vitellius had sent fourteen prætorian cohorts and all his cavalry to defend the passage of the Apennines, committing the defence of the city to his brother L. Vitellius and the remaining prætorian cohorts. He occupied himself with remitting tributes, granting immunities, appointing consuls for a series of years, and such like useless or pernicious acts, never intermitting the pleasures of the table till he learned that the army insisted on his presence with it. He then set out with a great number of the senators and joined it at Mevania (Marozia) in Umbria; but the total ignorance of war which he displayed and his continual drunkenness proved how unqualified he was for empire. Instead of crossing the Apennines and attacking the enemy, who was suffering from the weather and from want of supplies in an exhausted country, he frittered away the strength of his army and exposed it to be cut up in detail. Tidings of the revolt of the fleet at Misenum gave him a pretext for returning to Rome; he there learned further that the people of Puteoli and other towns had joined in the revolt, and the officer, whom he sent to recall the soldiers to their duty, declared for Vespasian and occupied Tarracina.

*"Umbraculis hortorum abditus, (ut ignava animalia, quibus si cibum suggeras, jacent torpentque,) præterita, instantia, futura pari oblivione dimiserat." Tacitus.

The disgraceful departure of Vitellius emboldened the peoples of the Sabellian race to manifest their inclination to the Flavian cause. Antonius also, though the weather was foul and the snow deep, crossed the Apennines, which he never perhaps could have achieved had Vitellius been other than he was, and advanced along the Flaminian road. On the way he was met by Petillius Čerialis, an able officer and a connexion of Vespasian's, who had escaped from confinement in the garb of a peasant. Cerialis was forthwith associated in the command of the army, which encamped at Carsulæ (S. Germini), within ten miles of the Vitellians, who were at Narnia. Here the Flavians were joined by the troops from Verona. Desertion soon spread among the Vitellians, and when the head of Valens, who had been put to death at Urbino, was brought and shown to them, they gave up all hopes, and consented to declare for Vespasian. Frequent messages were at this time sent by the Flavian generals to Vitellius, offering him a large income and a retreat in Campania, if he would give over the contest. Mucianus wrote to the same effect; and Vitellius was beginning to speak of the number of slaves he should require and the place he should select: for, as Tacitus says, "such a torpor had scized his mind, that if others had not remembered that he was an emperor, he would have forgotten it himself."

The prefect of the city at this time was Flavius Sabinus, the elder brother of Vespasian; for a generous or prudent policy of sparing the relatives of each other, of which Otho had set the example, prevailed among the rival candidates for empire. Vespasian's younger son, Domitianus, was also at Rome and in safety. Sabinus was strongly urged, by the principal persons in the city, to put himself at the head of the Urban cohorts and the watchmen, with their own slaves, and seize the city for his brother; but he was a man of mild temper and averse from civil bloodshed; he therefore preferred the way of negotiation: he had several private meetings with Vitellius, and they finally came to an arrangement in the temple of Apollo, it was said, in the presence of two witnesses. Vitellius' friends, when they heard of it, did all in their power to make him break the agreement, but to no purpose. On the 18th of December, when news came of the defection of the troops at Narnia, he came down from the palace clad in black, having his young son in a litter with him, and addressed the people and soldiery in the Forum, telling them

that he retired for the sake of peace and the republic; and commending to them his family. He then, in token of his resignation, handed his dagger to the consul, who declined to receive it. He moved toward the temple of Concord, to deposit his ensigns there, and then retire to the adjoining house of his brother; but the people and the German soldiers opposed his passage, and forced him to return to the palace.

The principal persons of both orders, hearing that Vitellius had abdicated, had repaired to the house of Sabinus, where the Urban cohorts and the watchmen were also assembled. When they heard of the conduct of the populace and the German cohorts, feeling that they had gone too far to recede, they resolved to have recourse to arms. A skirmish speedily took place with some of the Vitellians, in which they were worsted, and Sabinus then retired to the Capitol, with his soldiers and some of the knights and senators. During the night, as the guard of the Vitellians was slack, he caused his children and his nephew to be brought thither, and at the same time he sent to apprise the Flavian generals of his situation.

As soon as it was light Sabinus sent a centurion to remonstrate with Vitellius on his breach of faith. Vitellius attempted to excuse himself, by declaring his want of power to restrain his soldiers. The centurion was obliged to retire by the rear of the house to elude them, and he had hardly returned to the Capitol when they advanced to the assault. They assailed the portico of the temple with flaming brands; Sabinus caused the statues to be all pulled down and piled up behind the doors to serve as a barrier. They then made their attacks at all the approaches, especially that by the Asylum. The edifice at length burst into flames, whether fired by the besieged or the besiegers was uncertain, and thus was the temple of the tutelar deities of Rome destroyed for the second time, in the midst of civil commotions. Undaunted by the flames, the Vitellians rushed in: few of the defenders made resistance, most sought to escape in various ways, and generally with success. Domitian was concealed by the keeper of the temple, and next day he got away, disguised as one of the ministers of Isis. Sabinus and the consul Atticus were seized and dragged into the presence of Vitellius. In vain the powerless emperor wished to save the former he was murdered before his eyes. Atticus escaped by declaring that it was he himself that had fired the temple. The Flavians were keeping the Saturnalia, at Otriculum,

Cerialis ad

when they heard of the late events at Rome. vanced immediately, with a body of a thousand horse, in order to enter the city by the Salarian road, while Antonius led the remainder of the army along the Flaminian. The night was far gone, when, at Saxa-rubra, the latter was informed of the burning of the Capitol and the death of Sabinus. Cerialis, when he approached the city, was repulsed and driven back to Fidenæ; and the populace, elated at this success of their party, took up arms for Vitellius and demanded to be led to battle. He thanked them for their zeal, but he preferred negotiation to arms. He sent deputies to both Cerialis and Antonius, and the Vestal Virgins were the bearers of a letter to the latter. The holy maidens were treated with all due respect, but the answer returned to Vitellius was, that the murder of Sabinus and the burning of the Capitol had put an end to all hopes of peace.

Antonius having made a fruitless effort to induce the troops to halt for one day at the Mulvian bridge, they advanced to the assault in three bodies along the Tiber and the Salarian and Flaminian roads. The Vitellians opposed them vigorously at all points; success was various, but fortune mostly favoured the Flavians. The people looked on, as if it had been the sports of the amphitheatre, cheering the victors, and requiring those who sought refuge any where to be dragged out and slain. They also plundered the dead. In some parts of the city there were the flashing of arms and the sounds of combat; while in others, the usual course of debauchery was going on, and the baths and the taverns were filled with their daily visitors. It was at the prætorian camp that the battle raged the loudest. Pride urged the old prætorians to recover their camp; their successors were determined to die rather than yield it up. Every kind of engine was employed against it; at length an entrance was forced, and all its defenders were slain.

When the city was taken, Vitellius had himself conveyed in a sedan to the house of his wife, on the Aventine, intending to steal away during the night, to Tarracina, which his brother had recovered. But he changed his mind, and returned to the palace. He found it deserted; and as he roamed its empty halls, his spirit failed, and he concealed himself in the porter's lodge, hiding under the bed and bedclothes. Here he was found and dragged out by a Flavian tribune. His hands were tied behind his back, a rope was put about his neck, his

robe was torn, a sword was set under his chin to make him hold up his head; some reviled him, others pelted him with mud and dirt. He was thus led along the Sacred Way, and at the Gemonian stairs he was hacked to death, and his body was then dragged away and flung into the Tiber.

State of Affairs at Rome.-German War.-Capture and Destruction of Jerusalem.-Return of Titus.-Vespasian-Character of his GovernmentHis Death.-Titus-His Character and Reign.-Public Calamities.- Death of Titus.-Domitian-His Character.-Conquest of Britain.-Dacian War.-Other Wars.-Cruelty of Domitian-His Death.-Literature of this period.

T. Flavius Sabinus Vespasianus.

A.U. 823-832. A.D. 70-79.

THE death of Vitellius terminated the civil war, but it did not yet restore tranquillity to the empire. Rome presented the appearance of a conquered city. The victorious Flavians pursued and slaughtered the Vitellians in all quarters; houses were broken open and robbed, and their owners, if they resisted, were murdered. Complaint and lamentation were heard on all sides. The generals were unable to restrain their men, and the evil was left to exhaust itself. The troops were soon however led as far as Boville and Aricia, to oppose L. Vitellius, who was reported to be on his march against the city, but he and his cohorts surrendered at discretion, and he was led to Rome and put to death. The same was the fate of a few more of the friends of Vitellius, among whom may be mentioned his freedman Asiaticus. Some persons were prosecuted and punished for their acts in the time of Nero, among whom it is gratifying to mention the philosopher Egnatius Celer, the friend and prosecutor of Soranust.

The senate decreed all the usual imperial honours to Ves† Above, p. 106.

*Authorities: Suetonius and Dion.