2Vitellius

Vitellius met his end on December 22 69 AD, when the advance guard of Vespasian, commander of the legions in Judaea and the last of this civil war’s emperors, entered Rome.

The emperor went into hiding (Tacitus tells us in a doorkeeper’s lodge) but was soon dragged out by the rampaging troops. At first they didn’t recognize him, but once they learned the identity of their imperial captive they decided to put him to death.Vitellius was stripped half-naked, a noose thrown around his neck and his hands bound behind his back and dragged the length of the Via Sacra into the Roman Forum. En route, the plebeians spat at him, threw excrement, and insulted him over his obesity and grotesque appearance.The journey took painfully long; Vitellius limped the whole way as one of his legs was mangled from when Caligula had once struck him with a chariot. After at least 30 minutes, judging from the length of the Via Sacra, he arrived at the Germanian steps.There he was executed, made to bleed to death from dozens of tiny incisions. His body was pierced with hooks and dragged to the Tiber, the river becoming his ultimate resting place.

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