Family
He was the son of Lucius Vitellius Veteris and his wife Sextilia, and had one brother, Lucius Vitellius the Younger. Suetonius recorded two different accounts of the origins of the Vitellius (gens), one making them descendants of past rulers of Latium, the other describing them as of lowly origins.
Suetonius makes the sensible remark that both accounts might have been made by either flatterers or enemies of Vitellius—except that both were in circulation before Vitellius became emperor. Suetonius also recorded that when Vitellius was born his horoscope so horrified his parents that his father tried to prevent Aulus from becoming a consul.
He married firstly before the year 40 a woman named Petronia, daughter of Publius or Gaius Petronius Pontius Nigrinus, by whom he had a son Aulus Vitellius Petronianus, the universal heir of his mother and grandfather.
He married secondly, around the year 50, a woman named Galeria Fundana (ca 40 – aft. 69), perhaps the granddaughter of Gaius Galerius (ca 15 BC – aft. 23), Praefectus Aeg. in 23. They had two children, a son called Germanicus and a daughter whose name is unknown (b. ca 55). Settipani and Birley have suggested that this daughter married Libo Rupilius Frugi, the father of Rupilia Faustina.
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