them from the rear).  After this various bodies of men made assaults at various points and committed some of the most atrocious deeds.  All the behavior for which they censured Vitellius and his followers, behavior which they pretended was the cause of the war between them, they themselves repeated, slaying great numbers.  Many of those killed were struck with pieces of tiling from the roof or cut down in alleyways while jostled about by a throng of adversaries.  Thus as many as fifty thousand human beings were destroyed during those days of carnage.

[Sidenote:—­20—­] So the city was being pillaged, and the men were some fighting, some fleeing, some actually plundering and murdering by themselves in order that they might be taken for the invaders and so preserve their lives.  Vitellius in dread put on a ragged, dirty, little tunic and concealed himself in an obscure alcove where dogs were kept, intending to run off during the night to Tarracina and join his brother.  But the soldiers found him after a short search, for he could not long be sure of remaining hid, seeing that he had been emperor.  They seized him, a mass of shavings and blood—­for the dogs had done him some harm already—­and stripping off his clothes they bound his hands behind his back, put a rope around his neck and dragged from the palace the Caesar who had reveled there.  Down the Sacred Way they hauled the emperor who had frequently paraded past in his chair of state.  Then they conducted the Augustus to the Forum, where he had often addressed the people.  Some buffeted him, some plucked at his beard, all ridiculed him, all insulted him, laying especial stress in their remarks on his intemperance, since he had an expansive paunch. [Sidenote:—­21—­] When in shame at this treatment he kept his eyes lowered, the soldiers would prick him under the chin with their daggers, to make him look up even against his will.  A certain Celt who saw this would not endure it, but taking pity on him cried:  “I will help you, as well as I can alone.”  Then he wounded Vitellius and killed himself.  However, Vitellius did not die of the wound but was haled to the prison, as were also his statues, while many amusing and many disgraceful remarks were made about them.  Finally, grieved to the heart at the way he had been treated and what he was compelled to hear, he was heard to exclaim:  “Yet I was once your emperor!” At that the soldiers flew into a rage and took him to the top of the Scalae Gemoniae, where they struck him down.  His head was cut off and carried about all over the city.

[Sidenote:—­22—­] Subsequently his wife saw to his burial.  He had lived fifty-four years [and eighty-nine days] and had reigned for a year lacking ten days.  His brother had started from Tarracina to come to his assistance, but learned while en route that he was dead.  He also encountered a detachment of men sent against him and made terms with them on condition that his life should be spared.  In spite of this he was murdered not long afterward.  The son of Vitellius, too, perished soon after his father, notwithstanding that Vitellius had killed no relative either of Otho or of Vespasian.  After all these various events had taken place, Mucianus came up and administered necessary details in conjunction with Domitian, whom he also presented to the soldiers and had him make a speech, boy though he was.  Each of the soldiers received twenty-five denarii.