Series: Empire – Vitellius
Reference: RIC I 79

Dynasty and ruler: Year of the Four Emperors - Vitellius
Year and mint: 69 AD - Rome
Obverse: Laureate head of Vitellius right. A VITELLIVS GERMAN IMP TR P
Reverse: Facing bare-headed and draped busts of Vitellius’ children: his son Vitellius Germanicus on the left and his daughter Vitellia on the right. LIBERI IMP GERMAN

Grade: EF 2.90 g - 6h
Provenance: Mars Vltor 10/2/2024

Comment:
Following Nero’s suicide in June 68 AD and the end of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, Rome descended into a violent struggle for power. In January 69, Vitellius was proclaimed emperor by the Rhine legions at Cologne. In April, his troops defeated Otho, and in July Vitellius entered Rome as emperor. That same month, however, Vespasian was proclaimed emperor by his legions in the East. Civil war resumed and, in December, Vespasian’s forces captured Rome. Vitellius was seized, led with his hands bound along the Via Sacra to the Gemonian Stairs, and executed there.

This dynastic denarius was struck during those few months. Vitellius appears on the obverse, while the reverse bears the facing busts of his two children beneath the legend LIBERI IMP GERMAN—a clear assertion of dynastic continuity for a ruling house that would disappear before the end of that same year.