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. The mother being willing to appoint this youth her heir, upon
					condition that he should be released from his father's authority, the latter
					discharged him 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 his father.
					Soon afterwards, he married Galeria Fundana, the daughter of a man of pretorian
					rank, and had by her both sons and daughters. Among the former was one who had
					such a stammering in his speech, that he was little better than if he had been
					dumb. He was sent by Galba into Lower Germany, A.U.C. 821 
					contrary to his expectation. It is supposed that he was assisted in procuring
					this appointment by the interest of Titus Junius, a man of great influence at
					that time; whose friendship he had long before gained by favouring the same set
					of charioteers with him in the Circensian games. But Galba openly declared that
					none were less to be feared than those who only cared for their bellies, and
					that even his enormous appetite must be satisfied with the plenty of that
					province; so that it is evident he was selected for that government more out of
					contempt than kindness. It is certain, that when he was to set out, he had not
					money for the expenses of his journey; he being at that time so much straitened
					in his circumstances, that he was obliged to put his wife and children, whom he
					left at Rome , into a poor lodging which
					he hired for them, in order that he might let his own house for the remainder of
					the year; and he pawned a pearl taken from his mother's ear-ring, to defray his
					expenses on the road. A crowd of creditors who were waiting to stop him, and
					amongst them the people of Sineussa and Formia , whose taxes he had converted to his own use, he eluded,
					by alarming them with the apprehension of false accusations. He had, however,
					sued a certain freedman, who was clamorous in demanding a debt of him, under
					pretence that he had kicked him; which action he would not withdraw, until he
					had wrung from the freedman fifty thousand sesterces. Upon his arrival in the
					province, the army, which was disaffected to Galba, and ripe for insurrection,
					received him with open arms, as if he had been sent them from heaven. It was no
					small recommendation to their favour, that he was the son of a man who had been
					thrice consul, was in the prime of life, and of an easy, prodigal disposition.
					This opinion, which had been long entertained of him, Vitellius confirmed by
					some late practices; having kissed all the common soldiers whom he met with upon
					the road, and been excessively complaisant in the inns and stables to the
					muleteers and travellers; asking them in a morning, if they had got their
					breakfasts, and letting them see, by belching, that he had eaten his. After he had reached the camp, he denied no man any thing he asked for, and
					pardoned all who lay under sentence for disgraceful conduct or disorderly
					habits. Before a month, therefore, had passed, without regard to the day or
					season, he was hurried by the soldiers out of his bed-chamber, although it was
					evening, and he in an undress, and unanimously saluted by the title of
						EMPEROR. A.U.C. 822 He was then carried round
					the most considerable towns in the neighbourhood, with the sword of the Divine
					Julius in his hand; which had been taken by some person out of the temple of
						 Mars , and presented to him when he
					was first saluted. Nor did he return to the pretorium, until his dining-room was
					in flames from the chimney's taking fire. Upon this accident, all being in
					consternation, and considering it as an unlucky omen, he cried out, " Courage,
					boys! it shines brightly upon us." And this was all he said to the soldiers. The
					army of the Upper Province, likewise, which had before declared against Galba
					for the senate, joining in the proceedings, he very eagerly accepted the
					cognomen of Germanicus, offered him by the unanimous consent of both armies, but
					deferred assuming that of Augustus, and refused for ever that of Caesar. Intelligence of Galba's death arriving soon after, when he had settled his
					affairs in Germany he divided his
					troops into two bodies, intending to send one of them before him against Otho,
					and to follow with the other himself. The army he sent forward had a lucky omen;
					for, suddenly, an eagle came flying up to them on the right, and having hovered
					round the standards, flew gently before them on their road. But, on the other
					hand, when he began his own march, all the equestrian statues, which were
					erected for him in several places, fell suddenly down with their legs broken;
					and the laurel crown, which he had put on as emblematical of auspicious fortune,
					fell off his head into a river. Soon afterwards, at Vienne , Vienne was a very ancient city of the province of
							 Narbonne , famous in
						ecclesiastical history as the early seat of a bishopric in Gaul . as he was upon the tribunal
					administering justice, a cock perched upon his shoulder, and afterwards upon his
					head. The issue corresponded to these omens; for he was not able to keep the
					empire which had been secured for him by his lieutenants. He heard of the victory at Bedriacum, See Otho, c. ix 
					and the death of Otho, whilst he was yet in Gaul , and without the least hesitation, by a single
					proclamation, disbanded all the pretorian cohorts, as having, by their repeated
					treasons, set a dangerous example to the rest of the army; commanding them to
					deliver up their arms to his tribunes. A hundred and twenty of them, under whose
					hands he had found petitions presented to Otho, for rewards of their service in
					the murder of Galba, he besides ordered to be sought out and punished. So far
					his conduct deserved approbation, and was such as to afford hope of his becoming
					an excellent prince, had he not managed his other affairs in a way more
					corresponding with his own disposition, and his former manner of life, than to
					the imperial dignity. For, having begun his march, he rode through every city in
					his route in a triumphal procession; and sailed down the rivers in ships, fitted
					out with the greatest elegance, and decorated wigh various kinds of crowns,
					amidst the most extravagant entertainments. Such was the want of discipline, and
					the licentiousness both in his family and army, that, not satisfied with the
					provision every where made for them at the public expense, they committed every
					kind of robbery and insult 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 reached the
					plains on which the battles were fought, See OTHO, c.
						xi. some of those around him being offended at the smell of the
					carcases which lay rotting upon the ground, he had the audacity to encourage
					them by a most detestable remark, "That a dead enemy smelt not amiss, especially
					if he were a fellow-citizen." To qualify, however, the offensiveness of the
					stench, he quaffed in public a goblet of wine, and with equal vanity and
					-insolence distributed a large quantity of it among his troops. On his observing
					a stone with an inscription upon it to the memory of Otho, he said, "It was a
					mausoleum good enough for such a prince." He also sent the poniard, with which
					Otho killed himself, to the colony of Agrippina, Agrippina,
						the wife of Nero and mother of Germanicus, founded a colony on the
							 Rhine at the place of her
						birth. Tacit. Annal. b. xii. It became a flourishing city, and its origin
						may be traced in its modern name, Cologne . to be dedicated to Mars. Upon the Appenine
					hills he celebrated a Bacchanalian feast.