Lucius Vitellius the Elder

Lucius Vitellius from Guillaume Rouillé's Promptuarii Iconum Insigniorum
Titulus of Pyramus, the cubicularius of Lucius Vitellius
This page is on Lucius Vitellius, the father of the emperor Vitellius.
For his other son, the emperor's brother, see Lucius Vitellius the younger.

Lucius Vitellius Veteris or the Elder (before 7 BC – 51) was the youngest of four sons of quaestor Publius Vitellius and the only one that did not die through politics.

Career

Under Emperor Tiberius, he was Consul in 34 and Governor of Syria in 35. He deposed Pontius Pilate in 36 after complaints from the people in Samaria. He supported Emperor Caligula, and was a favorite of Emperor Claudius' wife Empress Valeria Messalina. During Claudius' reign, he was Consul again twice in 43 and 47, and governed Rome while the Roman Emperor was absent on his invasion of Britain. Around the time that Claudius married Agrippina the Younger in 47, 48 or 49, Vitellius served as a Censor.

He wielded great influence and was known for his outstanding character, though at one time, a Roman Senator accused him of treason. He died of paralysis in 51. Lucius received a state funeral and had a statue on the rostra ‘steadfast loyal to the Emperor’.

Family

Lucius married a Roman woman named Sextilia, a reputable woman from a distinguished family. She gave birth to two sons named Aulus Vitellius Germanicus (who was the short lived Emperor in 69) and Lucius Vitellius.

In fiction

Vitellius is a prominent character in Robert Graves's novel Claudius the God, an intimate friend of Claudius.

External links

Political offices
Preceded by
Galba,
and Lucius Cornelius Sulla Felix		 Consul of the Roman Empire
34
with Paullus Fabius Persicus 		Succeeded by
Gaius Cestius Gallus,
and Marcus Servilius Nonianus
Preceded by
Claudius II,
and Gaius Caecina Largus		 Consul of the Roman Empire
43
with Claudius III 		Succeeded by
Gaius Sallustius Crispus Passienus II,
and Titus Statilius Taurus
Preceded by
Decimus Valerius Asiaticus II,
and Marcus Iunius Silanus		 Consul of the Roman Empire
47
with Claudius IV 		Succeeded by
Aulus Vitellius,
and Lucius Vipstanus Poplicola
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