He advised the senate to send deputies, accompanied by the Vestal Virgins, to
					desire peace, or, at least, time for consultation. The day after, while he was
					waiting for an answer, he received intelligence by a scout, that the enemy was
					advancing. Immediately, therefore, throwing himself into a small litter, borne
					by hand, with only two attendants, a baker and a cook, he privately withdrew to
					his father's house, on the Aventine 
					hill, intending to escape thence into Campania . But a groundless report being circulated, that the
					enemy was willing to come to terms, he suffered himself to be carried back to
					the palace. Finding, however, nobody there, and those who were with him stealing
					away, he girded round his waist a belt full of gold pieces, and then ran into
					the porter's lodge, tying the dog before the door, and piling up against it the
					bed and bedding. By this time the forerunners of the enemy's army had broken into the palace, and
					meeting with nobody, searched, as was natural, every corner. 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 begged hard to be detained in custody, even
					were it in a prison; pretending to have something to say which concerned
					Vespasian's security. Nevertheless, he was dragged half-naked into the forum,
					with his hands tied behind him, a rope about his neck, and his clothes torn,
					amidst the most contemptuous abuse, both by word and deed, along the Via Sacra;
					his head 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 his face to
					public view; some of the mob, meanwhile, pelting him with dung and mud, whilst
					others called him " an incendiary and glutton." They also upbraided him with the
					defects of his person, for he was monstrously tall, 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 he was attending upon Caius, Caligula. while he was driving. At length, upon the
					Scalae Gemoniae, he was tormented and put to death in lingering tortures, and
					then dragged by a hook into the Tiber . He perished with his brother and son, Lucius and
						Germanicus, the brother and son of Vitellius, were slain near Terracina ; the former was marching to his
						brother's relief. in the fifty-seventh year of his age, A.U.C. 822 and verified the prediction of those who,
					from the omen which happened to him at Vienne , as before related, C. ix 
					foretold that he would be made prisoner by some man of Gaul . For he was seized by Antoninus Primus, a
					general of the adverse party, who was born at Toulouse , and, when a boy, had the cognomon of Becco, Becco, from whence the French bee, 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 in
							 Gaul . His character is well
						drawn by Tacitus, in his usual terse style, Hist. XI. 86. 2. which
					signifies a cock's beak. Remarks on Vitellius AFTER the extinction of the race of the Caesars, the possession of the imperial
					power became extremely precarious; and great influence in the army was the means
					which invariably led to the throne. The soldiers having arrogated to themselves
					the right of nomination, they either unanimously elected one and the same
					person, or different parties supporting the interests of their respective
					favourites, there arose between them a contention, which was usually determined
					by an appeal to arms, and followed by the assassination of the unsuccessful
					competitor. Vitellius, by being a parasite of all the empelors from Tiberius to
					Nero inclusively, had arisen to a high military rank, by which, with a spirit of
					enterprise, and large promises to the soldiery, it was not difficult to snatch
					the reins of government, while they were yet fluctuating in the hands of Otho.
					His ambition prompted to the attempt, and his boldness was crowned with success.
					In the service of the four preceding emperors, Vitelliis had imbibed the
					principal vices from them all: but what chiefly distinguished him was extreme
					voraciousness, which, though he usually pampered it with enormous luxury, could
					not yet be gratified by the vilest and most offensive garbage. The pusillanimity
					discovered by this emperor at his death forms a striking contrast to the heroic
					behaviour of Otho.