[Sidenote:--3--] On this point one of them, Vibius Crispus, [Footnote:
_Q. Vibius Crispus._] was the author of a most witty remark. Having been
compelled for some days by sickness to absent himself from the convivial
board, he said: "If I had not fallen ill, I should certainly have died."
The entire period of his reign consisted in nothing but carousals and
revels. All the most valuable food products were brought together from the
ocean itself (not to go farther) from the earth and from the
Mediterranean, and were prepared in so costly a fashion that even now some
cakes and other dishes are named Vitellian, after him. Why should one go
into the details of these affairs? It is admitted by quite everybody that
during the period of his reign he expended on dinners two hundred million
two thousand five hundred denarii. There came very near being a famine in
all costly articles of food, yet it was imperative that they should be
provided. Once he had a dish made that cost twenty-five myriads, into
which he put a mixture of tongues and brains and livers of fish and
certain kinds of birds. As it was impossible to make so large a vessel of
pottery, it was made of silver and remained extant for some time, regarded
somewhat in the light of a votive offering, until Hadrian finally set eyes
on it and had it melted down.

[Sidenote:--4--] Since I have mentioned this fact, I will also add
another, namely that not even Nero's Golden House would satisfy Vitellius.
He delighted in and commended the name and the life and all the practices
of its former owner, yet he found fault with the structure itself, saying
that it had been badly built and was scantily and meanly equipped. When he
fell ill one time he looked about for a room to afford him an abode; so
little did even Nero's surroundings satisfy him. His wife Galeria
ridiculed the small amount of decoration found in the royal apartments.
This pair, as they spent other people's money, never stopped to count the
cost of anything; but those who invited them to meals found themselves in