In the Good Graces of Four Emperors

Lucius Vitellius, a master of flattery at the courts of Caligula and Claudius, and his son Aulus, to whom Galba gave the army on the Rhine.

Transcript

This is Aulus Vitellius.

Above him, his father, Lucius: three times consul, governor of Syria. And a master of flattery.

Lucius is the first to worship Caligula as a god: he approaches with his head veiled and falls on his face before him.

He asks Messalina to let him take off her sandal. And afterward he carries it under his toga.

It was his speech in the Senate that allowed Claudius to marry his niece.

The son learns from his father. He plays dice with Claudius.

With Caligula he shares a passion for chariot racing.

And when Nero pretends he does not want to sing in the theater,

Aulus brings him back. Supposedly on behalf of the people.

Favored by three emperors, he becomes consul and proconsul of Africa. He governs honestly.

At the end of AD sixty-eight, a fourth emperor, Galba, is looking for a commander on the Rhine.

He chooses Aulus Vitellius.

Everyone is surprised.