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Sestertius - Vitellius L VITELL CENSOR II S C, Lucius Vitellius Pater
| Issuer | Roman Empire (27 BC - 395 AD) |
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| Year | 69 |
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| Diameter | 35 mm |
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| Obverse description | Laureate bust of Emperor Aulus Vitellius facing right, depicted with a heavy, fleshy neck and coarse facial features characteristic of his portraiture, the laurel wreath rendered in fine detail. The draped bust is shown from the right side, with the drapery gathered at the shoulder. The surrounding legend reads A VITELLIVS GERMAN IMP AVG P M TR P, distributed around the full circumference of the coin, struck in bold relief on a slightly irregular flan typical of Julio-Claudian-era hammered bronze coinage. |
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| Obverse lettering | A VITELLIVS GERMAN IMP AVG P M TR P (Translation: Aulus Vitellius Germanicus, supreme commander (Imperator), emperor (Augustus), high priest, tribunician power) |
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Lucius Vitellius the Elder — father of the short-lived emperor Aulus Vitellius — was one of the most politically durable operators of the early principate, surviving Tiberius, Caligula, and Claudius through a combination of calculated flattery and genuine administrative competence. He served as censor alongside Claudius in 47–48 AD, the occasion commemorated by this reverse type. That censorship was the first held in decades and marked a deliberate Claudian revival of Republican institutions — though in practice it served to purge the senate of inconvenient members and extend citizenship to Gallic elites.
These sestertii were struck during Aulus Vitellius's chaotic nine-month reign in 69 AD, posthumously honoring a father who had died in 51 AD. The elder Vitellius never held the purple, yet his son minted coins in his name with censorial honors intact.