Those soldiers of Vespasian that were led by Quintus Petilius Cerialis [
] (one of the foremost senators and a relative of Vespasian by marriage) and by Antonius Primus--for Mucianus had not yet overtaken them--were by this time close at hand, and Vitellius fell into the depths of terror. The oncoming leaders through the medium of certain messengers and by placing their letters in coffins with dead bodies, in baskets full of fruit, or the reed traps of bird-catchers, learned all that was being done in the city and formed their plans accordingly. Now, when they saw the blaze rising from the Capitol as from a beacon, they made haste. The first of the two to approach the city with his cavalry was Cerialis, [and he was defeated at the very entrance by being cut off with horsemen in a narrow spot. However, he prevented any harm being done by his opponents. For Vitellius, hoping that his proved superiority would afford him an opportunity to make terms, restrained his soldiers] . And having convened the senate he sent envoys chosen from that body together with the vestal virgins to Cerialis as envoys.
19
Since no one would listen to them and they came very near losing their lives, the emissaries visited Primus, who was also at last approaching; from him they secured an audience, but accomplished nothing. For at this juncture his soldiers came angrily toward him and overcame with ease the guard at the Tiber bridge. (When the latter took their stand upon it and disputed their passage, the horsemen forded the stream and fell upon 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.
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.