No More Learning

Some of these visitors
indulged in a cockney practical joke,[426] and stole some of the
soldiers' swords, quietly cutting their belts while their attention
was diverted. Then they kept asking them, 'Have you got your sword
on? ' The troops were not used to being laughed at, and refused to
tolerate it. They charged the defenceless crowd. Amongst others the
father of one of the soldiers was killed while in his son's company.
When it was discovered who he was, and the news spread, they shed no
more innocent blood. Still there was some panic in the city as the
first soldiers arrived and began to roam the streets. They mostly made
for the Forum, anxious to see the spot where Galba had fallen. [427]
They themselves were a sufficiently alarming sight with their rough
skin coats and long pikes. Unused to towns, they failed to pick their
way in the crowd; or they would slip on the greasy streets, or collide
with some one and tumble down, whereupon they took to abuse and before
long to violence. Their officers, too, terrified the city by sweeping
along the streets with their bands of armed men.

After crossing the Mulvian bridge, Vitellius himself had been 89
riding on a conspicuous horse, wearing his sword and general's
uniform, with the senate and people trooping in front of him. However,
as this looked too much like an entry into a captured city, his
friends persuaded him to change into civilian dress and walk on foot.
At the head of his column were carried the eagles of four legions,
surrounded by the colours belonging to the detachments of four other
legions. [428] Next came the standards of twelve regiments of
auxiliary horse, then the files of infantry and the cavalry behind
them.
Then came thirty-four cohorts of auxiliaries, arranged according
to their nationality or the nature of their weapons. In front of the
eagles came the camp prefects and tribunes, and the senior
centurions,[429] all dressed in white. The other centurions marched
each at the head of his company, glittering with their armour and
decorations. Gaily, too, shone the soldiers' medals[430] and their
chains of honour. It was a noble spectacle, an army worthy of a better
emperor. Thus Vitellius entered the Capitol, where he embraced his
mother and conferred on her the title of Augusta.

On the following day Vitellius delivered a grandiloquent eulogy on 90
his own merits. He might have been addressing the senate and people of
some other state, for he extolled his own industry and self-control,
although each member of his audience had seen his infamy for himself,
and the whole of Italy had witnessed during his march the shameful
spectacle of his sloth and luxury. However, the thoughtless crowd
could not discriminate between truth and falsehood. They had learnt
the usual flatteries by heart and chimed in with loud shouts of
applause. They insisted in the face of his protests that he should
take the title of Augustus. But neither his refusal nor their
insistence made much difference. [431]

In Rome nothing passes without comment, and it was regarded as a 91
fatal omen that Vitellius took office as high priest, and issued his
encyclical on public worship on the 18th of July, which, as the
anniversary of the disasters on the Cremera and the Allia,[432] had
long been considered an unlucky day. But his ignorance of all civil
and religious precedent was only equalled by the incapacity of his
freedmen and friends. He seemed to live in a society of drunkards.
However, at the consular elections he canvassed for his candidates
like a common citizen.