Year of the Four Emperors (AD 69): Galba, Otho, Vitellius

The Year of the Four Emperors was the Roman civil war of AD 69, in which Galba, Otho, Vitellius and Vespasian each ruled the empire in turn. It followed the suicide of Nero in June 68, which ended the Julio-Claudian dynasty founded by Augustus. The crisis showed that the throne could be won by provincial armies, and it ended with Vespasian founding the Flavian dynasty, which built the Colosseum and ruled for 27 years.

Background: the end of Nero

By the late 60s Nero had lost the support of much of the Senate, the army and the provincial elite. In March 68 Gaius Julius Vindex, governor of part of Gaul, rebelled and invited Servius Sulpicius Galba, the elderly governor of Hispania Tarraconensis in Spain, to lead the revolt. Galba’s troops hailed him in April 68. Vindex was defeated by the Rhine legions under Verginius Rufus and killed himself, but the damage to Nero’s position was done.

When the Praetorian Guard and the Senate abandoned him, Nero fled Rome and took his own life on 9 June 68 (see Death of Nero). The Senate recognised Galba, then about 70 years old, as emperor. For the first time since Augustus there was no member of the ruling family to inherit power.

Galba: a strict old man (June 68 – January 69)

Galba reached Rome in the autumn of 68 and quickly made enemies. He was famous for severity and thrift, and he refused to pay the Praetorians the generous bonus promised in his name. He also executed or dismissed a number of officials and relied on a small circle of unpopular advisers.

On 1 January 69 the legions of Upper Germany refused to renew their oath to him. The next day the army of Lower Germany proclaimed its own governor, Aulus Vitellius. Galba responded by adopting the young aristocrat Lucius Calpurnius Piso Licinianus as his heir on 10 January. This disappointed Marcus Salvius Otho, a former friend of Nero and governor of Lusitania, who had backed Galba and hoped to succeed him.

Tacitus later summed up Galba with a famous verdict: everyone would have thought him capable of ruling, had he never ruled.

Otho: three months in power (January – April 69)

Otho bribed members of the Praetorian Guard, and on 15 January 69 soldiers killed Galba and Piso in the Forum. The Senate accepted Otho the same day. He tried to present himself as a moderate ruler, but the armies of the Rhine were already marching south for Vitellius.

Two of Vitellius’s generals, Aulus Caecina Alienus and Fabius Valens, crossed the Alps with large forces. Otho’s army met them near Cremona in the Po valley at the First Battle of Bedriacum on 14 April 69 and was defeated. Although Otho still had troops available, he chose not to prolong the war and killed himself at Brixellum on 16 April. Ancient writers, often hostile to his earlier lifestyle, praised the manner of his death.

Vitellius: the emperor of the Rhine legions (April – December 69)

Vitellius entered Rome in July 69. He replaced the Praetorian Guard with men from his own German legions, and his soldiers’ behaviour in Italy made the regime unpopular. Ancient sources portray Vitellius as lazy and gluttonous, though their judgement was shaped by the winning side.

Meanwhile the eastern armies had their own candidate. Titus Flavius Vespasianus, a capable general from a modest Italian family, was commanding the war against the Jewish revolt in Judaea. On 1 July 69 the prefect of Egypt, Tiberius Julius Alexander, had his legions swear loyalty to Vespasian. The armies of Judaea and Syria, the latter under the governor Gaius Licinius Mucianus, followed within days.

Vespasian’s victory (July – December 69)

Vespasian’s plan was to hold Egypt, Rome’s main source of grain, while Mucianus marched west. But the legions on the Danube declared for Vespasian and moved first. Led by Marcus Antonius Primus, they invaded Italy in the autumn.

At the Second Battle of Bedriacum, fought on 24–25 October 69 near Cremona, the Flavian forces defeated the Vitellian army. The town of Cremona was then sacked and burned by the victors over several days, one of the worst atrocities of the war.

As the Flavians advanced on Rome, Vitellius negotiated to abdicate, but his supporters refused to let him. Vespasian’s elder brother, Titus Flavius Sabinus, took refuge on the Capitoline Hill with Vespasian’s younger son Domitian. On 19 December the Vitellians stormed the hill; the great Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus burned, and Sabinus was killed, while Domitian escaped in disguise. The next day, 20 December 69, Flavian troops fought their way into the city, and Vitellius was found and killed.

On 21 December the Senate granted Vespasian the powers of an emperor. A bronze tablet recording part of this law, known as the lex de imperio Vespasiani, survives in the Capitoline Museums in Rome.

Key people

• Galba (3 BC – AD 69): aristocratic governor in Spain, emperor from June 68 until his murder.
• Otho (AD 32–69): former courtier of Nero who overthrew Galba and ruled for about three months.
• Vitellius (AD 15–69): governor of Lower Germany, raised to power by the Rhine legions.
• Vespasian (AD 9–79): general in Judaea who won the war and ruled until his death in 79.
• Antonius Primus and Mucianus: the Flavian commanders who won Italy and secured Rome.

Consequences

Vespasian did not reach Rome until the autumn of 70. In the meantime Mucianus ran the capital, and Vespasian’s son Titus took over the war in Judaea, ending with the Siege of Jerusalem in 70. The civil war had also encouraged the Batavian revolt led by Julius Civilis on the Rhine in 69–70, which took time to suppress.

Vespasian lacked the noble ancestry of the Julio-Claudians, so his regime worked hard to build legitimacy. While he waited in Alexandria, Tacitus and Suetonius report that he was credited with healing a blind man and a lame man, stories that spread the idea of divine favour. The law conferring his powers listed them explicitly, rather than relying on family prestige. He also reduced the risk of further civil war by naming his adult sons as his successors from the start.

As emperor, Vespasian restored the treasury, rebuilt the Capitol and began the Flavian Amphitheatre, the Colosseum, on land Nero had used for his palace. His sons Titus (79–81) and Domitian (81–96) succeeded him, until the assassination of Domitian ended the dynasty.

Timeline

• AD 68, March: Vindex rebels in Gaul.
• AD 68, April: Galba is proclaimed by his troops in Spain.
• AD 68, 9 June: Nero dies by suicide; the Senate recognises Galba.
• AD 69, 2 January: the Rhine armies proclaim Vitellius.
• AD 69, 15 January: Galba is murdered; Otho becomes emperor.
• AD 69, 14–16 April: Otho is defeated at the First Battle of Bedriacum and kills himself.
• AD 69, 1 July: Vespasian is proclaimed emperor in Egypt and the East.
• AD 69, 24–25 October: Flavian victory at the Second Battle of Bedriacum.
• AD 69, 20 December: Flavian troops take Rome; Vitellius is killed.

Why it matters

The crisis of 68–69 revealed what Tacitus called the secret of empire: that an emperor could be made somewhere other than Rome. Power now clearly rested on the loyalty of the legions, a lesson later usurpers would repeat. Yet the war also produced a stable new dynasty, and Vespasian’s practical rule restored order after a year of bloodshed.