But Vitellius was deaf to all courageous counsel.  His mind was 67 obsessed with pity for his wife and children, and an anxious fear that obstinate resistance might make the conqueror merciless towards them.  He had also a mother,[180] very old and infirm, but she had opportunely died a few days before and thus forestalled the ruin of her house.  All she had got out of her son’s principate was sorrow and a good name.  On December 17 he heard the news that the legion and the Guards at Narnia had deserted him and surrendered to the enemy.  He at once put on mourning and left the palace, surrounded by his sorrowful household.  His small son was carried in a little litter, as though this had been his funeral.  The populace uttered untimely flatteries:  the soldiers kept an ominous silence.

On that day there was no one so indifferent to the tragedy of 68 human life as to be unmoved by this spectacle.  A Roman emperor, yesterday master of the inhabited world, had left the seat of his authority, and was now passing through the streets of the city, through the crowding populace, quitting the throne.  Such a sight had never been seen or heard of before.  The dictator, Caesar, had been the victim of sudden violence; Caligula of a secret conspiracy.  Nero’s had been a stealthy flight to some obscure country house under cover of night.  Piso and Galba might almost be said to have fallen on the field of battle.  But here was Vitellius—­before the assembly of his own people, his own soldiers around him, with women even looking on—­uttering a few sentences suitable to his miserable situation.  He said it was in the interest of peace and of his country that he now resigned.  He begged them only to retain his memory in their hearts and to take pity on his brother, his wife, and his little innocent children.  As he said this, he held out his son to them and commended him, now to individuals, now to the whole assembly.  At last tears choked his voice.  Turning to the consul, Caecilius Simplex,[181] who was standing by, he unstrapped his sword and offered to surrender it as a symbol of his power over the life and death of his subjects.  The consul refused.  The people in the assembly shouted ‘No’.  So he left them with the intention of depositing the regalia in the Temple of Concord and then going to his brother’s house.  But he was faced with a still louder uproar.  They refused to let him enter a private house, and shouted to him to return to the palace.  They blocked every other way and only left the road leading into the Via Sacra open.[182] Not knowing what else to do, Vitellius returned to the palace.