Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics:
The Year of the Four Emperors in Tacitus' Histories

Amanda Regan (University of Michigan)

Though it is common knowledge that Tacitus tells lies about Vitellius (and a number of other people, while he’s at it), the particular manner in which he structures these lies has yet to be examined.  He does not portray Vitellius simply as a lazy buffoon, nor yet as a gluttonous general; he does not detail his tardiness and greed merely to highlight the finer characteristics of Vespasian.   By strongly associating Vitellius with qualities considered to be German, and thereby turning him into a foreigner assaulting Rome, Tacitus instead carefully places him within the context of the political image Galba and Otho created for themselves in 68-69: that of a key political player during the end of the Roman Republic.

Numismatic and archaeological evidence give clear indications that Galba and Otho both identified with, and presented themselves as avatars of, the politicians who dominated Rome in the second half of the first century B.C.  Tacitus characterizes them as such within his text.  By further presenting Vitellius as a kind of Marc Antony, who abandoned his city for the luxuries of a foreign culture, Tacitus groups the three men into a single unit: potential emperors whose rule will bring nothing but the same bloody division that once plunged Rome into civil war.  This characterization neatly divides Vespasian from the three other men who sought power during the year of the four emperors.  It is not that Vespasian is precisely a ‘new Augustus’: he is similar to Augustus only in that he can bring stability out of chaos.  Vespasian is, instead, the first of a ruling order that marks a new beginning in the life of the Roman empire, one completely separate from the events that heralded its birth.