Aureus - Vitellius VICTORIA AVGVSTI, Victory

Vitellius reigned for just eight months in 69 AD — the Year of the Four Emperors — before being dragged through Rome and executed by Vespasian's forces in December of that year. His coinage was struck at Lugdunum and Rome in a frantic burst, the issues of a man who never consolidated power long enough to govern. The Victoria type is particularly pointed given the outcome: Vitellius had been proclaimed emperor by the Rhine legions in January, and his forces did defeat those of Otho at Bedriacum in April, but that victory proved his only one.