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Rh or two of the provinces, yet at present the empire appeared to have lost rather than gained by his removal. It was bad for a score or two of statesmen and generals to perish yearly by the executioner's hands, or by suicide—that common refuge of despair; but it was worse for thousands to be mown down by the swords of infuriated soldiers, in a few weeks or even a few days. Aulus Vitellius, indeed, was not utterly evil. He was not wholly abandoned to the vices and pleasures of the city. He had gained for himself some reputation in letters and in eloquence; he had served with great credit for uprightness as proconsul and legate in Africa. On his march from the Rhine he displayed some generosity in saving unpopular officers from the fury of the legions, among them ; and some modesty in at first deferring to accept the title of Augustus, and positively refusing that of Cæsar. His mother and his wife also helped to invest him with some vicarious merit. Both these matrons were examples of moderation in prosperity. , like mother, looked with fear and distrust on her son's elevation, refused all public honours herself, and replied to the first letter he addressed to her under his new title of Germanicus, that her son was named Vitellius, and she knew of no other. This high-minded woman died shortly after his accession, seems to have been spared the spectacle of his gross and vulgar excesses, and certainly did not witness his shameful end. His wife Galeria bore herself as the spouse of a simple senator, and humanely protected the children of, Vespasian's brother, from the daggers of the Vitellians. Like Galba, too, Vitellius committed no crime in aspiring to the throne; it was