Aureus - Vitellius and Lucius Vitellius Pater L VITELLIVS COS III CENSOR

Vitellius struck this aureus honoring his father Lucius, who had served three consulships and two terms as censor under Claudius — a man so politically adept he survived Caligula's reign through calculated flattery, reportedly prostrating himself before Caligula's shoes. The reverse honors him posthumously; Lucius died in 51 AD, nearly two decades before his son seized the purple. Using a dead father's prestige to legitimize a regime held together with little more than the Rhine legions' loyalty was a transparent maneuver, but brevity rendered it moot. Vitellius himself was dead before the year was out, dragged through Rome and executed in December 69.