Emperor Vitellius

Abstract Aulus Vitellius found the same easy popularity with the people of Rome as he had with the troops of Cologne. He discovered that the memory of Nero, his long-time companion of the streets, was still warm in the places where they had played together. He ordered that an altar be built to the last Caesar in the Campus Martius behind the Capitol. Nero’s priests were to come from the order that Tiberius had established in memory of Augustus. Caecina and Valens were as loyal to Aulus as they had been before even though this did not make them loyal in the way that Augustus would have expected. Both were consuls but neither was the most reliable of aides to an emperor still finding his way. Each hated the other much more than they loved anyone else. Soon came the news that Vespasian, another of Nero’s generals, was also seeking the throne.