Flavius Sabinus (prefect of Rome; died AD 69)

For years he had a higher position and greater wealth than his younger brother. In April AD 69, as prefect of the city, he administered the oath of allegiance to Vitellius to the soldiers. In December he negotiated Vitellius’s abdication; the talks were witnessed by Cluvius Rufus and the poet Silius Italicus.

When the soldiers and the people would not let Vitellius step down, Sabinus shut himself up on the Capitol. On December 19 the Vitellians took the hill, and the temple of Jupiter burned. Sabinus was killed in front of the palace, and his body was thrown onto the Gemonian Stairs. Tacitus praises his honesty and thirty-five years of service.