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The Roman Empire

Vitellius, January – December 69. Aureus, Tarraco (?) 2 January-18 April 69, AV 7.54 g. A VITELLIVS – IMP GERMAN Laureate head l. with globe at point of bust. Rev. LIBERIS IMP GERMANICI Busts of Vitellius' children: on l., a boy, bare- headed and draped with a globe at point of bust and on r., a girl, bare-headed and draped. C 8 var. (GERMANICVS). BMC p. 386 note § var. (GERMANICVS). RIC 8 var. (GERMANICVS). CBN –. Calicó 561 var. (GERMANICVS).
An apparently unrecorded variety of an extremely rare type. Three interesting and
unusual portraits, obverse slightly off-centre, otherwise very fine

Ex NAC sale 34, 2006, 140.
In A.D. 68 Nero's turbulent reign fell apart and took the entirety of the Roman world with it. C. Julius Vindex, the governor of Gallia Lugdunensis, had raised a dangerous, but ultimately failed, revolt in an attempt to topple the emperor, which lead the way for Servius Sulpicius Galba, the governor of Hispania Tarraconensis, to ascend the throne. In June, when the Praetorian Guard also declared for Galba, the Senate announced Nero as an enemy of the state and forced him to flee the capital. Realizing that there was nowhere to run, the hapless emperor committed suicide, leaving Galba to enter Rome as its liberator from the excesses of the Neronian age.
Love of Galba was fleeting. He cancelled Nero's reforms that had benefited many wealthy and influential individuals in Rome, and either destroyed or imposed crippling fines on towns that did not recognize him immediately. Most dangerous of all, however, was his failure to reward either the Praetorian Guard for their loyalty or to address the concerns of the German legions, who had no love for Galba. The latter, now under the command of Aulus Vitellius, the governor of Germania Inferior, were incensed by accusations that they had stood in Galba's way during the revolt of Vindex when they had, in fact, loyally put down a rebellion against the state. Thus, on 1 January A.D. 69 when the entire Roman army swore the traditional oath of loyalty to the emperor, the German legions refused, hailing Vitellius as rival emperor on the following day. So began the disastrous Year of the Four Emperors.
Attempting to shore up his position in Rome, Galba had adopted Lucius Calpurnius Piso Licinianus-a young and ambitious senator with an illustrious ancestry-as his heir. This carefully considered political move did not quite turn out how Galba expected as it offended many other ambitious and wealthy men in the city, most notably Marcus Salvius Otho, who bribed the Praetorian Guard to provide the military muscle for his own bid for the imperial purple. This coup d'etat further unnerved Galba, who took to the streets in a foolish attempt to incite popular support for himself. Little public interest materialized and both Galba and his heir were killed in the Forum by the Praetorian Guard, leaving Otho as the new emperor in Rome.
To his credit, Otho attempted to avoid further bloodshed by offering to marry Vitellius' daughter, thereby establishing an Othonian-Vitellian imperial dynasty, but events were already out of hand. Upon being elevated by his soldiers, Vitellius had sent half of his legions south to take possession of Rome. Otho initially won several small victories against the Vitellian forces, but suffered a severe defeat at the First Battle of Bedriacum on 14 April A.D. 69. Instead of attempting to regroup and resist the advance of the German legions, Otho abandoned hope and committed suicide on 16 April. At this point, Vitellius was the undisputed emperor, but as with his immediate predecessors, his reign would be short.
Once in Rome, Vitellius reportedly drained the imperial coffers with constant banqueting and triumphal processions and then attempted to raise new funds by engineering the deaths of wealthy flatterers who had named him as their heirs. It turned out to be an exceptionally bad time for the state finances to be in such disarray as Vespasian, the commander of the Syrian legions charged with repressing the Great Jewish Revolt, was proclaimed rival emperor in Alexandria on 1 July. Vespasian was soon also supported by Marcus Antonius Primus, commander of the Danubian legions, who began a march on Rome. Vitellius' forces met them in battle at the Second Battle of Bedriacum on 24 October A.D. 69 but were soundly defeated by the hardened Danubian legions. As Otho before him, Vitellius knew that he had little hope of retaining power.
After the defeat at Bedriacum, Vitellius sent an embassy to Primus to negotiate his peaceful abdication in favour of Vespasian. Primus is said to have accepted this arrangement, but the Praetorian Guard intercepted Vitellius on his way to deposit the imperial insignia in the Temple of Concord and forced him to return to the palace instead of surrendering to Primus and recognising Vespasian. When Rome was taken at last by Primus in December of A.D. 69, Vitellius attempted to hide, but was captured. He was taken to the Gemonian Stairs-a traditional site of execution in the city since at least the time of Tiberius-where he was killed. Shocked at this fatal turn of events, before the executioner ended his life Vitellius is reported to have remarked, "Yet I was once your emperor." His body was thrown into the Tiber and his head paraded through the city. Just to be sure that no scions of the house of Vitellius would later arise to oppose the new Flavian dynasty of Vespasian, both the brother and young son of Vitellius were also executed.
This extremely rare aureus attempts to contrast the intended reign of Vitellius with that of Nero and to give reassurance that the chaotic power vacuum that developed after Nero's suicide would be avoided with a new Vitellian dynasty. Whereas Nero had killed himself with no male member of the Julio-Claudian house to take his place as emperor, this coin shows that Vitellius was well-stocked with children who could be used to create a stable imperial house. His son, named Aulus Vitellius Germanicus Novis ("the Younger"), is depicted on the left with his draped bust terminating in a globe just like the bust of his father on the obverse. The shared treatment of the busts visually establishes the son as the intended successor of his father. Vitellius' daughter, Vitellia, appears on the right. Her depiction alludes to political stability as well, as she was used to establish a marriage alliance with Decimus Valerius Asiaticus, the governor of Gallia Belgica. This connection was pleasing not only to the western legions who had declared for Vitellius (Valerius had previously been military legate in Gallia Belgica under Nero) but also to the Senate, which had found itself abused and ignored under Nero (Valerius was of the senatorial class). It even may have been intended to smooth over Gallic discontent with the government in Rome (the father of Valerius was of Allobrogian Gallic origin). After all, Nero's tax policy in Gaul had been the catalyst for the revolt of Vindex that brought about the Year of the Four Emperors in the first place.
Although this aureus is usually tentatively attributed to the Spanish mint of Tarraco, the reverse dynastic type almost certainly refers to events that took place in April of A.D. 69 while Vitellius was in Lugdunum. Cassius Dio (LXV.2a) tells us that when Vitellius learned of Otho's death he placed his six-year-old son on the tribunal at Lugdunum and at that point gave him the titles of imperator and Germanicus-the very titles that appear on the reverse with the portrait of Vitellius' son. It was also at this same time that Vitellia was betrothed to Decimus Valerius Asiaticus. Despite the tentative mint attribution, the coin is a beautifully tragic piece of Roman numismatic history for it answers the desperate hope for a new stable imperial dynasty to rule over Rome and the Empire, but in actual fact this was not to be provided by Vitellius and his family, but rather by his rival, Vespasian whose Flavian dynasty lasted for 37 years.