At the end of 68, Galba, to the general astonishment, selected him to command the army of Germania Inferior, and here Vitellius made himself popular with his subalterns and with the soldiers by outrageous prodigality and excessive good nature, which soon proved fatal to order and discipline.

When Marcus Antonius Primus, the general of Vespasian, was marching upon Rome ( 69 AD ), he joined the ambassadors that were sent by Vitellius to the victorious general, and going among the soldiers of the latter, preached about the blessings of peace and the dangers of war, but was soon made to stop.

* Julius Gratus, praefectus of the camp in the army of Aulus Caecina Alienus, the general of Vitellius, put in chains by the soldiers because his brother, Julius Fronto, was a supporter of Otho.

Vitellius was a Roman general who became the third emperor in the so called Year of the Four Emperors in 69AD.

During the civil war following Nero ’ s death, Anicetus sided with Vitellius and led a general insurrection against Vespasian in Pontus and Colchis 69.

At the same time Vitellius and his armies in Germania had risen in revolt, and prepared to march on Rome, intent on overthrowing Otho.

Before reaching Italy, Titus learnt that Galba had been murdered and replaced by Otho, governor of Lusitania, and that Vitellius and his armies in Germania were preparing to march on the capital, intent on overthrowing Otho.

Along with XXII Primigenia, the legion supported Vitellius, governor of Germania Superior, in the Year of the Four Emperors ( 69 ), first against Otho, then Vespasian, who would become emperor in the end.

Back in Germania Inferior it seems he was arrested again by the new governor Vitellius, at the urging of the local legions which demanded his execution.

Aulus Vitellius was appointed governor of Germania Inferior.

* November – Vitellius nominated governor of Germania Inferior

Galba was deposed in January 69 by a disloyal member of his own entourage, Otho ( Nero's governor of Lusitania, i. e., western Spain ), who was in turn displaced in April by Vitellius ( Nero's governor of Germania Inferior ).

However, legate Aulus Vitellius, governor of the province of Germania Inferior, had also claimed the throne earlier in the month and marched on Rome with his troops.

In the confusing Year of the four emperors, the legion fought in Otho's army in the Battle of Bedriacum, where this emperor was defeated by Vitellius The victorious Vitellius ordered the legion transferred to Spain, but by the year 70 it was fighting in the Batavian rebellion.

Tiberius sent Phraates's grandson, Tiridates III, and ordered Lucius Vitellius ( the father of the emperor Vitellius ) to restore the Roman authority in the East.

Tiberius sent Tiridates to the east, and ordered Lucius Vitellius ( the father of the emperor Vitellius ) to restore the Roman authority there.

The city was nearly ordered destroyed by the Romans but owing to the pleas of one Claudius Cossus, a Helvetian envoy to Vitellius, and, as Tacitus puts it, “ of well-known eloquence ” the city was spared.

During the Year of Four Emperors ( 69 AD ) Vitellius, who nearly ordered Aventicum destroyed, was the third.

Some astrologers responded to his decree by anonymously publishing a decree of their own: " Decreed by all astrologers in blessing on our State Vitellius will be no more on the appointed date.

The fleet was at once dispatched to secure Liguria, and on 14 March Otho, undismayed by omens and prophecies, started northwards at the head of his troops in the hopes of preventing the entry of Vitellius ' troops into Italy.

In 69 AD it became the scene of violent conflict between the troops of Othos and Vitellius.

The city's prosperity continued to increase until 69, when it was destroyed in the Second Battle of Bedriacum by the troops of Vespasian, fighting to install him as Emperor against his rival Vitellius.

The Othonian troops fled back to their camp in Bedriacum, and the next day surrendered to the Vitellian forces and took the oath of allegiance to Vitellius.

The Batavi regiments duly helped Vitellius overthrow Otho at the Battle of Bedriacum.

* 69 – 70, Revolt of the Batavi, Destruction of 2 Roman legions by the Batavi, Year of the Four Emperors, Assassination of Emperor Galba, Suicide of Emperor Otho, Execution of Emperor Vitellius, Begin of Flavian dynasty, Fall of Jerusalem.

The historian Michael Lapidge suggests that the Laudes Regiae, which are included in Cotton Vitellius E xii, might have been composed by Ealdred, or a member of his household.

In the letter to Wanley, Hickes responds to an apparent charge against Smith, made by Wanley, that Smith had failed to mention the Beowulf script when cataloguing Cotton MS. Vitellius A. XV.

Otho and Vitellius realised the potential threat posed by the Flavian faction.

When Otho was defeated by Vitellius at the First Battle of Bedriacum however, the armies in Judaea and Egypt took matters into their own hands and declared Vespasian emperor on 1 July 69.

In Rome meanwhile, Domitian was placed under house arrest by Vitellius, as a safeguard against future Flavian aggression.

By the afternoon of 20 December Vitellius was dead, his armies having been defeated by the Flavian legions.

After a vain attempt to conciliate Vitellius by the offer of a share in the Empire, Otho, with unexpected vigor, prepared for war.

Vitellius ' commanders now resolved to bring on a decisive battle, the Battle of Bedriacum, and their designs were assisted by the divided and irresolute counsels which prevailed in Otho's camp.

Once he realised his support was wavering, Vitellius prepared to abdicate in favour of Vespasian, but was executed in Rome by Vespasian's soldiers on 22 December 69.

Suetonius makes the sensible remark that both accounts might have been made by either flatterers or enemies of Vitellius — except that both were in circulation before Vitellius became emperor.

He married firstly before the year 40 a woman named Petronia, daughter of Publius or Gaius Petronius Pontius Nigrinus, by whom he had a son Aulus Vitellius Petronianus, the universal heir of his mother and grandfather.

As soon as it was known that the armies of the East, Dalmatia, and Illyricum had declared for Vespasianus, Vitellius, deserted by many of his adherents, would have resigned the title of emperor.

* Aulus Vitellius entry in historical sourcebook by Mahlon H. Smith

On 20 December, Vitellius was defeated, and the following day Vespasian was declared Emperor by the Roman Senate.

* December 22 – Vitellius is captured and murdered by the Gemonian stairs.

Its cultivation spread into the Mediterranean world by way of Iran from Syria: Pliny in his Natural History asserts that pistacia, " well known among us ," was one of the trees unique to Syria, and in another place, that the nut was introduced into Italy by the Roman consul in Syria, Lucius Vitellius the Elder ( consul in Syria in 35 AD ) and into Hispania at the same time by Flaccus Pompeius.

Nero was declared an enemy of the state by the Senate, but then given an enormous funeral honoring him after his death by Vitellius.