Vitellius I (The Romans Abide)

Vitellius I (Latin: Lucius Vitellius Caesar Augustus: c.769 - 6 June, 818) was Roman Emperor between March and June of 818 as a successor to Emperor Florian.

Born into a wealthy senatorial family around the year 769, Vitellius was a powerful statesmen during The Anarchy period, during which time he served as consul during the last month of Emperor Tacitus' reign, and maintained power of the senate well beyond that. In 809, during the rule of Corbulo, Vitellius was forced by the princeps to cross the mederteranian to serve as proconsul for the African province, were he would stay for eight years before being recalled to Rome by Florian whilst he was in the midst of recovering from a melee wound. It was here he was declared heir apparent by both the Emperor and the Senate. This was complicated in January of 818, when Florian's son Marcellus was born, and against three months after in which the Emperor himself died in his sleep.

A minor crisis thus began, with Marcellus being declared princeps by his mother, Poppaea Sabina, and Vitellius assuming the title due to the Senate's support. Eventually, Sabina backed down, and accepted Vitellius as emperor. Two months later, Vitellius called his brother, Aulus Vitellius, to Rome to propose they ruled alongside each other, as Aulus' marriage Domitius Cassia, the daughter of former-Emperor Corbulo, bolstered Lucius' own claim on the principate. His brother accepted, and until Vitellius I death in June of 818, the two rulled as co-Emperors, Aulus later leading the nation as the only princeps