69

Events in 69 1

• 69 Year of the Four Emperors Following Nero's death in 68 AD, four emperors seize power in quick succession in 69 AD — the Year of the Four Emperors. Galba is murdered by the Praetorians after seven months; Otho kills himself after 95 days when Vitellius's Rhine legions defeat him; Vitellius is dragged through Rome and killed when the Danube legions march on Rome for their general Vespasian. The lesson is brutal and definitive: emperors are made by armies, not by the Senate or birth.