1He had put in command of the praetorians Publilius Sabinus, previously prefect of a cohort, and Julius Priscus, then a centurion: Priscus was strong through the favour of Valens, Sabinus through that of Caecina; 1between these rivals Vitellius had no authority. 1Caecina and Valens performed the duties of empire, long troubled by hatreds which, ill concealed in war and camp, the depravity of their friends and a city fertile in breeding enmities had increased, while they competed and were compared in canvassing, in retinue and in immense crowds of callers, as Vitellius' inclinations shifted towards this one or that; 1nor is power ever secure enough when it is excessive: at the same time they both despised and feared Vitellius himself, changeable as he was through sudden offence or untimely flattery.
1Nor were they any slower for that to seize houses, gardens and the wealth of the empire, while the pitiable and needy crowd of nobles, whom with their children Galba had restored to their country, were helped by no compassion from the emperor. 1Pleasing to the leading men of the state, and approved even by the common people, was his granting to those returned from exile their rights over their freedmen, although the servile characters spoiled this in every way, hiding their money in secret or influential places of concealment, and some had passed into Caesar's household and were more powerful than their masters themselves.