At last he entered the City with trumpets sounding, in his general's cloak, and
					girded with his sword, amidst a display of standards and banners; his attendants
					being all in the military habit, and the arms of the soldiers unsheathed. Acting
					more and more in open violation of all laws, both divine and human, he assumed
					the office of Pontifex Maximus, upon the day of the defeat at the Allia; A dies non fastus , an
						unlucky day in the Roman calendar, being the anniversary of the great defeat
						by the Gauls on the river Allia, which joins the Tiber about five miles from Rome . This disaster happened on the 16th
						of the calends of August (7th July). ordered the magistrates to be
					elected for ten years of office; and made himself consul for life. To put it out
					of all doubt what model he intended to follow in his government of the empire,
					he nmade his offerings to the shade of Nero in the midst of the Campus Martius , and with a full assembly of
					the public priests attending him. And at a solemn entertainment, he desired a
					harper who pleased the company much, to sing something in praise of Domitius;
					and upon his beginning some songs of Nero's, he started up in presence of.the
					whole assembly, and could not refrain from applauding him, by clapping his
					hands. After such a commencement of his career, he conducted his affairs, during the
					greater part of his reign, entirely by the advice and direction of the vilest
					amongst the players and charioteers, and especially his freedman Asiaticus. This
					fellow had, when young, been engaged with him in a course of riotous living,
					but, being at last quite tired of the occupation, ran away. His master, some
					time after, caught him at Puteoli ,
					selling a liquor called Posca, Posca was sour wine or
						vinegar mixed with water, which was used by the Roman soldiery as their
						common drink. It has been found beneficial in the cure of putrid
						diseases. and put him in chains, but soon released him, and retained
					him in his former capacity. Growing weary, however, of his rough and stubborn
					temper, he sold him to a strolling-fencing-master; after which, when the fellow
					was to have been brought up to play his part at the conclusion of an
					entertainment of gladiators, he suddenly carried him off, and at length, upon
					his being advanced to the government of a province, gave him his freedom. The
					first day of his reign, he presented him with the gold rings at supper, though
					in the morning, when all about him requested that favour in his behalf, he
					expressed the utmost abhorrence of putting so great a strain upon the equestrian
					order. He was chiefly addicted to the vices of luxury and cruelty. He always made three
					meals a day, sometimes four; breakfast, dinner, and supper, and a drunken revel
					after all. This load of victuals he could well enough bear, from a custom to
					which he had enured himself, of frequently vomiting. For these several meals he
					would make different appointments at the houses of his friends on the same day.
					None ever entertained him at less expense than four hundred thousand
						sesterces. Upwards of £ 4000 sterling. See note, p.
						510. 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 thousand
					choice fishes, and seven thousand birds. Yet even this supper he himself outdid,
					at a feast which he gave upon the first use of a dish which had been made for
					him, and which, for its extraordinary size, he called " The Shield of Minerva."
					In this dish there were tossed up together the livers of char-fish, the brains
					of pheasants and peacocks, with the tongues of flamingos, and the entrails of
					lampreys, which had been brought in ships of war as far as from the Carpathian
					Sea, and the Spanish Straits. He was not only a man of an insatiable appetite,
					but would gratify it likewise at unseasonable times, and with any garbage that
					came in his way; so that, at a sacrifice, he would snatch from the fire flesh
					and cakes, and eat them upon the spot. When he travelled, he did the same at the
					inns upon the road, whether the meat was fresh dressed and hot, or what had been
					left the day before, and was half-eaten. He delighted in the infliction of punishments, and even those which were capital,
					without any distinction of persons or occasions. Several noblemen, his
					schoolfellows and companions, invited by him to court, he treated with such
					flattering caresses, as seemed to indicate an affection short only of admitting
					them to share the honours of the imperial dignity; yet he put them all to death
					by some base means or other. To one he gave poison with his own hand, in a cup
					of cold water which he called 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 , or any toll or custom upon
					the road. One of these, while in the very act of saluting him, he ordered for
					execution, but immediately sent for him back; upon which all about him
					applauding his clemency, he commanded him to 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 with him. A Roman knight, upon his being
					dragged away for execution, and crying out to him, " You are my heir," he
					desired to produce his will: and finding that he had made his freedman joint
					heir with him, he commanded that both he and the freedman should have their
					throats cut. He put to death some of the common people for cursing aloud the
					blue party in the Circensian games; supposing it to be done in contempt of
					himself, and the expectation of a revolution in the government. There were no
					persons he was more severe against than jugglers and astrologers; and as soon as
					any one of them was informed against, he put him to death without the formality
					of a trial. He was enraged against them, because, after his proclamation by
					which he commanded all astrologers to quit Rome , and Italy also,
					before the calends [the first] of October, a bill was immediately posted about
					the city, with the following words :-" TAKE NOTICE: In
						imitation of the form of the public edicts, which began with the words,
						BONUM FACTUM. The Chaldaeans also decree that Vitellius Germanicus
					shall be no more, by the day of the said calends." He was even suspected of
					being accessary to his mother's death, by forbidding sustenance to be given her
					when she was unwell; a German witch, Catta muliere: The
						Catta were a German tribe who inhabited the present countries of Hesse or Baden . Tacitus, De Mor. Germ., informs us that the Germans
						placed great confidence in the prophetical inspirations which they
						attributed to their women. whom he held to be oracular, having told
					him, "That he would long reign in security if he survived his mother." But
					others say, that being quite weary of the state of affairs, and apprehensive of
					the future, she obtained without difficulty a dose of poison from her son. In the eighth month of his reign, the troops both in Moesia and Pannonia 
					revolted from him; as did likewise, of the armies beyond sea, those in
						 Judaea and Syria , some of which swore allegiance to
					Vespasian as emperor in his own presence, and others in his absence. In order,
					therefore, to secure the favour and affection of the people, Vitellius lavished
					on all around whatever he had it in his power to bestow, both publicly and
					privately, in the most extravagant manner. He also levied soldiers in the city,
					and promised all who enlisted as volunteers, not only their discharge after the
					victory was gained, but all the rewards due to veterans who had served their
					full time in the wars. The enemy now pressing forward both by sea and land, on
					one hand he opposed against them his brother with a fleet, the new levies, and a
					body of gladiators, and in another quarter the troops and generals who were
					engaged at Bedriacum. But being beaten or betrayed in every direction, he agreed
					with Flavius Sabinus, Vespasian's brother, to abdicate, on condition of having
					his life spared, and a hundred millions of sesterces granted him; and he
					immediately, upon the palace-steps, publicly declared to a large body of
					soldiers there assembled, " that he resigned the government, which he had
					accepted reluctantly;" but they all remonstrating against it, he deferred 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 tears repeated the declaration from a
					writing which he held in his hand; but the soldiers and people again
					interposing, and encouraging him not to give way, but to rely on their zealous
					support, he recovered his courage, and forced Sabinus, with the rest of the
					Flavian party, who now thought themselves secure, to retreat into the Capitol,
					where he destroyed them all by setting fire to the temple of Jupiter , whilst he beheld the contest and the
					fire from Tiberius's house, Suetonius does not supply any
						account of the part added by Tiberius to the palace of the Casars on the
							 Palatine , although, as it will
						be recollected, he has mentioned or described the works of Augustus,
						Caligula, and Nero. The banquetting-room here mentioned would easily command
						a view of the Capitol, across the narrow intervening valley. Flavius
						Sabinus, Vespasian's brother, was prefect of the city. where he was
					feasting. Not long after, repenting of what he had done, and throwing the blame
					of it upon others, he called a meeting, and swore "that nothing was dearer to
					him than the public peace;" which oath he also obliged the rest to take. Then
					drawing a dagger from his side, he presented it first to the consul, and, upon
					his refusing it, to the magistrates, and then to every one of the senators; but
					none of them being willing to accept it, he went away, as if he meant to lay it
					up in the temple of Concord; but some crying out to him, "You are Concord," he
					came back again, and said that he would not only keep his weapon, but for the
					future use the cognomen of Concord.