Encyclopedia
Imperator Caesar Vespasianus Augustus , known originally as
Titus Flavius Vespasianus and usually referred to in
English as
Vespasian, was
emperor of
Rome from 69 to 79. Vespasian was the founder of the short-lived though influential Flavian dynasty, being succeeded as emperor by his sons
Titus and
Domitian. He ascended the throne at the end of the tumultuous Year of the Four Emperors. Vespasian's reign is best known for his reforms following the demise of the
Julio-Claudian Dynasty and for the campaign against
Judaea.
Family and early career
He was born in Falacrina, in the
Sabine country near Reate. His father, Titus Flavius Sabinus, was an equestrian who worked as a customs official in
Asia Province and a money-lender on a small scale in
Aventicum, where Vespasian lived for some time. His mother, Vespasia Polla, was the sister of a
Senator.
After prompting from his mother, Vespasian followed his older brother, also called Titus Flavius Sabinus, into public life. He served in the army as a military tribune in
Thrace in 36. The following year he was elected quaestor and served in
Crete and
Cyrene. He rose through the ranks of Roman public office, being elected aedile on his second attempt in 39 and praetor on his first attempt in 40, taking the opportunity to ingratiate himself with the Emperor
Caligula.
In the meantime, he married
Flavia Domitilla, the daughter of an equestrian from Ferentium. They had two sons,
Titus Flavius Vespasianus and
Titus Flavius Domitianus , and a daughter, Domitilla . Flavia died before Vespasian became emperor. Thereafter his mistress, Caenis, was his wife in all but name until she died in 74.
Upon the accession of
Claudius as emperor in 41, Vespasian was appointed legate of Legio II
Augusta, stationed in
Germania, thanks to the influence of the Imperial freedman Narcissus.
Invasion of Britannia
In 43, Vespasian and the II
Augusta participated in the Roman invasion of Britain, and he distinguished himself under the overall command of Aulus Plautius. After participating in crucial early battles on the rivers Medway and
Thames, he was sent to reduce the southwest, penetrating to the borders of modern
Somerset. He fought thirty battles, captured twenty
oppida , subdued two powerful nations and reduced Vectis . These successes earned him triumphal regalia on his return to Rome.
Continued political career
Vespasian was elected consul for the last two months of 51, after which he withdrew from public life. He came out of retirement in 63 when he was sent as governor to
Africa Province. According to
Tacitus , his rule was "infamous and odious" but according to Suetonius , he was "upright and, highly honourable". On one occasion he was pelted with
turnips. At this time he found himself in financial difficulties and was forced to mortgage his estates to his brother. To revive his fortunes he turned to the
mule trade and gained the nickname
mulio .
Returning from Africa, Vespasian toured
Greece in
Nero's retinue, but lost Imperial favour after paying insufficient attention to the Emperor's recitals on the
lyre, and found himself in the political wilderness.
Great Jewish Revolt
However, in 66, Vespasian was appointed to conduct the
war in
Judea, which was threatening unrest throughout the East. A revolt there had killed the previous governor and routed Licinius Mucianus, the governor of
Syria, when he tried to restore order. Vespasian was dispatched with two legions to add to the one already there. His elder son,
Titus, served under him. During this time he became the patron of
Flavius Josephus, a Jewish resistance leader turned Roman agent who would go on to write his people's history in Greek. In the end, thousands of Jews were killed and many towns destroyed by the Romans, who successfully re-established control over Judea.
The Year of Four Emperors
After the death of
Nero in 68, Rome saw a succession of short-lived emperors and a year of civil wars.
Galba was murdered by
Otho, who was defeated by
Vitellius. Otho's supporters, looking for another candidate to support, settled on Vespasian.
According to Suetonius, a prophecy ubiquitous in the Eastern provinces claimed that from Judaea would come the future rulers of the world. Vespasian eventually believed that this prophecy applied to him, and found a number of omens, oracles, and portents that reinforced this belief.
He also found encouragement in Mucianus, the governor of Syria; and, although Vespasian was a strict disciplinarian and reformer of abuses, Vespasian's soldiers were thoroughly devoted to him. All eyes in the East were now upon him. Mucianus and the Syrian legions were eager to support him. While he was at
Caesarea, he was proclaimed emperor , first by the army in
Egypt, and then by his troops in Iudaea .
Nevertheless,
Vitellius, the occupant of the throne, had Rome's best troops on his side — the veteran legions of
Gaul and the Rhineland. But the feeling in Vespasian's favour quickly gathered strength, and the armies of
Moesia,
Pannonia, and
Illyricum soon declared for him, and made him the
de facto master of half of the Roman world.
While Vespasian himself was in
Egypt securing its grain supply, his troops entered Italy from the northeast under the leadership of M. Antonius Primus. They defeated Vitellius's army at Bedriacum , sacked
Cremona and advanced on Rome. They entered Rome after furious fighting. In the resulting confusion, the Capitol was destroyed by fire and Vespasian's brother Sabinus was killed by a mob.
On receiving the tidings of his rival's defeat and death at
Alexandria, the new emperor at once forwarded supplies of urgently needed grain to Rome, along with an edict or a declaration of policy, in which he gave assurance of an entire reversal of the laws of Nero, especially those relating to treason. While in Egypt he visited the Temple of
Serapis, where reportedly he experienced a vision. Later he was confronted by two labourers who were convinced that he possessed a divine power that could work
miracles.
Vespasian as Emperor
Leaving the war in Judaea to his son Titus, Vespasian arrived at Rome in 70. He at once devoted his energies to repairing the evils caused by civil war. He restored discipline in the army, which had become utterly demoralized under Vitellius. With the cooperation of the
Senate, he put the government and its finances on a sound footing.
He renewed old taxes and instituted new ones, increased the tribute of the provinces, and kept a watchful eye upon the treasury officials. The Latin saying "Pecunia non olet" may have been created when he had introduced a urine tax on public toilets. By his own example of simplicity of life, he put to shame the luxury and extravagance of the Roman nobles and initiated a marked improvement in the general tone of society in many respects.
As censor, he reformed the Senatorial and Equestrian orders, removing unfit and unworthy members and promoting good and able men, among them
Gnaeus Julius Agricola. At the same time, he made it more dependent upon the Emperor, by exercising an influence upon its composition. He altered the constitution of the
Praetorian Guard, in which only
Italians were enrolled into its nine cohorts.
In 70, a formidable rising in
Gaul, headed by
Gaius Julius Civilis, was suppressed by Vespasian's brother-in-law, Quintus Petillius Cerialis, and the German frontier made secure. The
Jewish War was brought to a close by Titus's
capture of Jerusalem. In the following year, the joint triumph of Vespasian and Titus, was memorable as the first occasion on which a father and his son were thus associated together in the Western world. The temple of Janus was closed and the Roman world had peace for the remaining nine years of Vespasian's reign. "The peace of Vespasian" became a proverb.
In 78 Agricola went to Britain, and both extended and consolidated the Roman dominion in that province, pushing his way into what is now
Scotland. In the following year Vespasian died, on June 23 of an intestinal inflammation which led to excessive diarrhoea.
Views on Vespasian
The avarice with which both Tacitus and Suetonius stigmatize Vespasian seems really to have been an enlightened economy, which, in the disordered state of the Roman finances, was unnecessarily exaggerated.
Vespasian could be liberal to impoverished Senators and equestrians and to cities and towns desolated by natural calamity. He was especially generous to men of letters and
rhetors, several of whom he pensioned with salaries of as much as 1,000 gold pieces a year.
Quintilian is said to have been the first public teacher who enjoyed this imperial favour.
Pliny the Elder's great work, the
Natural History or "Natural History" is an encyclopedia [i] written by Pliny the Elder [i]. ...
, was written during Vespasian's reign, and dedicated to Vespasian's son Titus. Some of the philosophers who talked idly of the good old times of the
Republic, and thus indirectly encouraged conspiracy, provoked Vespasian into reviving the obsolete penal laws against this profession. However, only one, Helvidius Priscus, was put to death, and he had affronted the Emperor by studied insults. "I will not kill a dog that barks at me," were words honestly expressing the temper of Vespasian. Vespasian was indeed noted for mildness and a healthy sense of
justice. For example, he helped the daughter of his late adversary Vitellius find a suitable husband and even provided her with the dowry. Much money was spent on public works and the restoration and beautification of Rome: a new forum, the splendid Temple of Peace, the public baths and the vast
Colosseum.
To the last, Vespasian was a plain, blunt soldier, with a demonstrated strength of character and ability, and with a steady purpose to establish good order and secure the prosperity and welfare of his subjects. In his habits he was punctual and regular, transacting his business early in the morning, and enjoying a
siesta in the afternoon.
He did not quite have the distinguished bearing looked for in an emperor. He was free in his conversation, and his humour, of which he had a good deal, was apt to take the form of rather coarse jokes. He could jest even in his last moments:
Vae puto, deus fio - "Alas, I think I'm becoming a god," he allegedly whispered to those around him. There is something very characteristic in the exclamation he is said to have uttered in his last illness, "An emperor ought to die standing."
Vespasian ultimately did much good for Rome, and ranks somewhere with its greatest emperors — Augustus,
Trajan and
Septimus Severus].
In later literature
- Marcus Didius Falco novels
Sources
- Suetonius, Lives of the Twelve Caesars
- Tacitus, Histories
- Dio Cassius, Roman History
Further reading
- Barbara Levick, Vespasian , Routledge, 1999. ISBN 0-415-16618-7 . ISBN 0-415-33866-2
External links
This entry was based on the entry from the 1911 Encyclopędia Britannica.
