How to end a series: BIG!

I am now at the point of plotting out Vitellius’ Feast which will be the final book in the Four Emperors Series.

By the time I have written the final sentence of Vitellius’ Feast I will have contributed over 400k words on the subject of 69 AD.

So how to end what has been a rather enjoyable ride through Palatine, Galba’s Men, Otho’s Regret and Vitellius’ Feast? Answer=BIG!

Luckily history is on my side. Vitellius was a big man of ample appetites and tastes.

Suetonius says of him:

But his besetting sins were luxury and cruelty. He divided his feasts into three, sometimes into four a day, breakfast, luncheon, dinner, and a drinking bout; and he was readily able to do justice to all of them through his habit of taking emetics.

Which gives me scope to try and out do some of Nero’s excesses depicted in Palatine.

We also have drama a plenty with the burning down of the Temple of Jupiter amongst many shocking events that took place towards the end of 69 AD.

Along with the inevitable deaths, including one historically attested death of a character I know readers are extremely fond of (me too!).

So all in all we have excesses and action, death and mourning, treachery and betrayal to come in the final showdown.

But also some kind of conclusion to the lives of the characters who survive to the end. An ending for them all. One that I hope will satisfy.