Fire on the Capitol — AD 69 II: The Capitol in Flames

April, AD 69. Vitellius is still in Gaul. For three months he has been calling himself emperor, though Rome has another. His commanders have gone ahead across the Alps. He himself trails after them with the rest of the army from the Rhine, as if the war were only about to begin. After a few days’ march a courier catches up with him. At Bedriacum his legions have beaten Otho. Otho is dead. (Tac. 2.57; Suet. Vit. 10.1)

In Rome the same people who not long ago prayed for Otho’s victory now cheer Vitellius. Cassius Dio sums it up briefly: nothing in human affairs is stable. (Dio 65.1)

It is the city prefect who administers the oath to the soldiers in the capital. His name is Flavius Sabinus. He is the elder brother of Vespasian, the general fighting the Jews in the East. Remember him. In December he will defend the Capitol against the soldiers of the emperor to whom he has them swear today. In a single vote the Senate grants Vitellius all the honors his predecessors collected over years. (Tac. 2.55, 3.69)

Who is this man to whom the throne fell from the sky? Galba gave him the army on the Rhine for one reason. Not the one you would expect.