GALBA (SERVIUS SULPICIUS GALBA), 68-69 A.D.
The fall of Nero and the accession of Galba form an important epoch in
the history of the Roman Empire; for to the misfortune of a form of
government, on which everything depended on the ruler, his court, and
the bodyguard and guard of the emperor, a fresh evil was now added,
namely that the army became accustomed to mutiny, and obtained a
decisive influence on the choice of the emperor. Certainly Galba did not
accept the title of emperor, until it was legally assigned to him by a
deputation of the senate; but the example of mutiny had been given, the
army had in reality, and the senate, only in form, decided as to who
should occupy the throne, and the fate of the empire was from henceforth
made more and more dependent on the troops and their leaders.
At first however it appeared fortunate, that after the weak-minded
libertines, who for some time had been at the head of the states, the
government should fall into the hands of a veteran warrior who possessed
the love and confidence of his soldiers, and hated every kind of
indulgence and excess; but any advantages which might have arisen from
this were outweighed by the great age of the emperor and the weakness
consequent on it. Galba’s weakness was first perceived when he, who at
the time of Nero’s death was still in Gaul, had returned to Rome; he was
awaited with real eagerness.
Before the arrival of Galba, Nymphidius, who had accelerated the fall of
Nero, acted as absolute ruler. He prevented Tigellinus from participating
in the command of the prætorians, tried in every way to gain over the
people, saw the entire senate in his antechamber, and mixed himself up
with all the dealings of the latter with Galba. It then occurred to him
that he might trace his descent from Cæsar and thereby establish his
claim to the throne. But to his terror, he heard, from a messenger whom
he had sent to Galba, that Titus Vinius, one of Galba’s legates, held
absolute sway over the emperor, that he had named Cornelius Laco prefect
of the prætorians, instead of him, and that his rule would therefore be
at an end as soon as Galba entered Rome. He therefore resolved to venture
to extremes and to make the prætorians proclaim him emperor; they were
turned against him by one of his officers, and killed him as soon as he
appeared in their camp.
As soon as Galba arrived in Rome, he had all the friends of Nymphidius
put to death. These and a few other executions, added to Galba’s
dependence on Vinius, prepossessed no one in favour of the new ruler.
It was still more unfortunate that he had to refuse the guard sums of
money promised in his name by Nymphidius, and that on his entry into Rome
he saw himself obliged to have another troop of soldiers cut down, who
had gone against him and made violent demands. Galba was determined to
adopt a new course of government; but in this he overlooked the fact,
that an utterly corrupt people cannot be transformed at once, or lost
morality recalled by commands. With exaggerated severity and with a
parsimony which would have been despicable even in a private individual,
he attempted to reduce a town accustomed to imperial prodigality to its
former simplicity, discipline, and order, and thereby not only embittered
the feelings of all, but also made himself ridiculous.
[Sidenote: [68-69 A.D.]]
He was indolent and enfeebled by age [he was over seventy-two years old]
and depended on three favourites, who committed all sorts of severities
in his name and tried to make money by selling privileges and favours.
These favourites were Vinius, Laco, and Galba’s freedman, Icelus. For
this reason, from the beginning, everything pointed to a short duration
of his rulership, and dissatisfaction not only seized hold of the great
mass in Rome, who, as everywhere, loved pleasure and amusement more than
virtue or their country, but also of the different armies of the kingdom.
A few months after his accession the legions rose in upper Germany, and
demanded from the senate the appointment of a younger and more vigorous
emperor. Galba tried to stay the storm by immediately naming a young
man of good family and irreproachable character, Piso Licinianus, as
his co-regent and successor. Unfortunately, when presenting Piso to the
troops, he omitted, out of economy, to give presents to the soldiers, as
had been the custom on such occasions since the accession of Claudius;
and in his speech to the assembled army he publicly avowed that the
troops in Germany had refused him obedience. This made the soldiers
dissatisfied, and he thereby robbed himself of the advantages that Piso’s
nomination might otherwise have brought him.
OTHO (M. SALVIUS OTHO), 69 A.D.
Otho, who had gone to Rome with Galba, seized the opportunity of Galba’s
mistake to place himself on the throne. He had long solicited the favour
of the soldiers and people, had given away entire estates to individuals,
had, when Galba dined with him, given money to the emperor’s escort, and
Galba had overlooked all this, because one of his favourites, Vinius,
whose daughter Otho wished to marry, had come to a secret understanding
with the latter. Otho instituted a formal conspiracy, corrupted the
soldiers by gifts and promises, and had himself proclaimed emperor in a
camp of the prætorians, a few days after Piso’s appointment. He left the
camp at the head of the soldiers who had chosen him, entered the town,
killed Galba and his co-regent, and was acknowledged emperor by the
people and senate. This took place on the 15th of January of the year 69,
when Galba had only reigned seven months and a few days.
The new emperor only maintained his rule for three months. All the
provinces and armies swore allegiance to him after Galba’s death, only
the legions of the Rhine and Upper Germany denied him obedience. They
had already rebelled against Galba, and proclaimed the leader of the
troops on the lower Rhine, Aulus Vitellius, emperor, as they had not
been recompensed by Galba for the support they had given him against
Nero. This rival, although other legions declared for him, would not in
himself have been dangerous to Otho, as he had become so enervated by
self-indulgence that he was wanting in activity and energy as well as in
decision; but in Fabius Valens and Aulus Cæcina, he possessed two able
generals, who placed themselves at the head of the legions in his stead.
With the rebellious troops they crossed the Alps into upper Italy and
fell upon Otho, who had hastily collected as many soldiers as possible
and led them against the enemy. At first the generals of Vitellius were
the losers in a few small engagements, as mutual jealousy induced them
to act separately, but as soon as they concentrated themselves they were
far superior to their adversaries. Otho ought, therefore, to have done
everything to delay the crisis until the reinforcements which he was
expecting from the provinces of the Danube had arrived. He nevertheless
did the reverse, and throughout the entire war showed himself a worthy
comrade of Nero.
He had been the husband of the notorious Poppæa Sabina; had formerly
participated with his imperial friend in all kinds of pleasures, and had
indulged in so much dissipation that he had not only fallen deeply into
debt, but had also become enervated and incapable of any exertion. This
had already become apparent in the rebellion against Galba; for he had
lost all courage at the moment of action, and would have given the whole
thing up had not his fellow-conspirators compelled him to persist in his
designs. Besides he was no general. His troops, which for the greater
part consisted of prætorians and soldiers of Nero, clung to him with
devotion, and were eager to fight, but they did not trust their officers
and would no longer take orders from them. This determined him to bring
the fight to a speedy end, as he felt that at any moment he might be
deserted by his own people. In spite of this, as he had not been present
in the earlier smaller fights, so now he took no personal share in the
great battle which was to decide his own fate.
In the vicinity of Cremona, Cæcina and Valens fell on Otho’s army. It
was beaten, suffered considerable loss, and then the greater part went
over to the enemy. Otho’s cause was, nevertheless, by no means lost; for
the prætorians adhered steadfastly to him, the legions of the provinces
of the Danube were already on the march, and the entire East as well as
Africa was open to him. Only he was too indolent and effeminate to be
able to face continuous exertions and hardships, and from the example of
his beaten army he saw how ephemeral the devotion of his soldiers had
been. So he lost courage, and decided, in spite of the remonstrances and
requests of his friends, to put an end to his life. He stabbed himself
to the heart with a firmness rarely found in a voluptuary, and by this
action won for himself the reputation with posterity of having purchased
the peace of his country with his own life.
Historians have therefore praised him above his deserts, and placed
words in his mouth which stand in opposition to his life and principles.
For instance, he is reported to have said to his friends and relatives
who wished to restrain him from suicide: “Others have gained fame by
governing well; my fame, on the contrary, is to consist in my giving
up the government of the empire, rather than ruin it by my ambition.”
Those who recall the fact that Otho throughout his life lived and acted
according to the maxims of a Nero, will know how to divest this story of
all that gives his death the appearance of a grand and noble act; for
although it cannot be denied that Otho thereby put an end to the civil
war, and died in peace and quietness, nevertheless he was not guided by
courage or love of country, but by indolence and despair.
How little the sacrifice of his life cost a Roman at this period, and why
Otho’s death must be regarded in quite another light from that in which
a similar deed would be looked upon nowadays, is apparent from the fact
that some of his soldiers killed themselves at his funeral pile, not from
fear of the future, but that they might follow the glorious example of
their leader.
VITELLIUS (AULUS VITELLIUS), 69 A.D.
After Otho’s death, the Roman senate not only recognised Vitellius as
emperor, but determined publicly to thank the Germanic army for having
appointed him. Whilst his generals were fighting for his dominion,
Vitellius remained in Gaul, and after the victory made no haste to take
possession of the empire; he first enjoyed a period of repose at Lyons,
and then stopped at Cremona and Bologna to hold revels and to see the
gladiatorial displays. It was only in July (69), three months after
Otho’s death, that he entered Rome.
[Illustration: A ROMAN SLINGER]
With his accession, all the crimes and prodigalities of the government
of a Caligula, a Claudius, and a Nero were repeated, although he was
wanting neither in culture nor in better qualities. He had only attained
to consideration by his vices, and won over the soldiers in Germany by
his familiar bearing. A dull, slack, and withal cruel disposition, a
greediness which amounted to voraciousness, and a prodigality in which
he even surpassed Nero, were the soul of his existence and government.
Only thinking of pleasure and idle repose, even on the march to Rome, he
allowed his army to rob and plunder at will, and permitted all kinds of
excesses and insubordination. In Rome, freedmen, comedians, and revellers
were his most cherished companions, and he who knew how to prepare the
most voluptuous feast, rose in his favour.
In order to obtain money for his prodigalities, like Caligula and Nero,
he committed all sorts of inhuman cruelties. For example: he freed
himself from debt by having his creditors killed, and when one of them,
condemned to death, sought to obtain favour by making the emperor a
legacy, but unfortunately gave him a co-heir, Vitellius had the latter as
well as the former put out of the way, and took the wealth of both. His
revelries and prodigalities surpassed all realisation.
By the use of emetics he was enabled to take daily from three to four
principal meals. Once, for untold gold, he had marvellous dishes prepared
from the tongues of the rarest birds and other costly delicacies, and
at the celebration of his entry into Rome he took part in a banquet at
his brother’s house in which no less than two thousand rare fish and
seven thousand birds were served up. He gormandised so shamefully that,
during the short time of his reign, he is said to have squandered no less
than nine hundred million sesterces, and, as an historian of antiquity
asserts, the Roman Empire would finally have become too poor to defray
the expenses of the emperor’s table. Fortunately for the kingdom this did
not come to pass; for Vitellius was overthrown by his troops eight months
after his accession.
This second mutiny of the army within the course of a year started in
the legions who had come from the Danube to help Otho against Vitellius.
When on the way they heard of Otho’s death, they determined to choose a
new emperor, and some of them, who shortly before had served under the
valiant Titus Flavius Vespasian, directed the choice to their former
general who was then commanding in Syria. Scarcely had the news reached
the East, when first the governor of Egypt, then Mucianus [Roman governor
of Syria and general of four legions,] and afterwards Vespasian himself,
recognised this choice. One after another all the remaining armies
declared for Vespasian. Valens and Cæcina, the principal instruments in
the elevation of Vitellius, soon detached themselves from the latter,
and only the soldiers of the Germanic army, to whom Vitellius owed the
throne, remained true to their emperor. It was therefore no great effort
to overthrow the indolent libertine. Before Vespasian had embarked his
troops, his opponent was dethroned and deprived of his life.
The legions of the Danube under one of their generals, Antonius Primus,
broke into Italy; at Cremona they beat the troops of Vitellius and then
marched against the capital, which alone seemed resolved to defend the
tyrant. Antonius Primus wished to spare the town. Vitellius himself was
too cowardly to try to offer any powerful resistance, and as by chance a
brother of Vespasian, Flavius Sabinus, was town prefect of Rome, it was
easy to negotiate matters. The result was an agreement by which Vitellius
agreed to abdicate in a very ignominious fashion. Only the soldiers of
the emperor and all those who had taken part in his universal revels,
would hear nothing of an abdication of Vitellius, and without further
ceremony laid hands on Sabinus, to whom a great number of the senate,
the knights, and the town-guard had already sworn allegiance, on behalf
of his brother. Sabinus, with a small number of attendants, was obliged
to take to flight, and retired to the Capitol. His adversaries stormed
it, took Sabinus prisoner, killed his followers, and intentionally or by
chance occasioned a fire, by which the temple of the Capitoline Jupiter,
the most sacred building in Rome, was reduced to ashes, and some of the
historical records preserved there were destroyed.
In vain did Vitellius, by earnest entreaty, try to restrain the soldiers
from murdering Sabinus; he was killed in a terrible manner, whilst
Domitian, one of Vespasian’s sons, who had just fled to the Capitol, to
the misfortune of the empire escaped the wrath of the enemy. The rude
soldiers of Vitellius conducted themselves on this occasion with the same
savagery as the troops of Antonius Primus had shown a few weeks before,
when after their victory they had burned down the town of Cremona and
had ill treated its inhabitants in the most shocking manner. Vitellius
was quite innocent of what took place in Rome, for he would gladly have
submitted to any terms by which he might have saved his life. With this
object, immediately after the murder of Sabinus, he sent ambassadors to
Antonius Primus, and that his representations and requests might make the
more impression, he sent the vestal virgins with them.
But Antonius Primus refused any further negotiations, defeated the
populace and the soldiers of Vitellius in a bloody fight, which took
place partly before the walls and partly in the streets of the town,
and had the entire body of the conquered ruthlessly massacred. On this
occasion the deep moral depravity of the Roman people showed itself in a
revolting manner. The populace watched the fierce struggle between the
two barbarian armies as coldly as though the usual gladiatorial displays
had been taking place before them; they applauded first one side and then
the other, fetched those who fled from their victorious enemy out of
their hiding places, and gave them up to their adversaries to be killed.
No one was disturbed in his usual pleasures by the fight for the
empire; the baths, the taverns, and other public resorts were filled
with revellers and pleasure seekers, as at any other time, and, as the
historian Tacitus affirms, Rome presented the hideous spectacle of a
town whose inhabitants had abandoned themselves at once to all the
horrors of civil war and all the vices of a decadent nation. Vitellius
died as he had lived.[d] Seeing the city conquered, he was conveyed in
a litter, by a private way at the back of the palace, to his wife’s
house on Mount Aventine, with intent, if he could lie concealed during
the day, to fly for refuge to his brother and the cohorts at Tarracina.
Straightway, from his inherent fickleness, and the natural effects of
fright, since, as he dreaded everything, whatever course he adopted was
the least satisfactory, he returned to his palace, and found it empty and
desolate; even his meanest slaves having made their escape, or shunning
the presence of their master. The solitude and silence of the scene
alarmed him; he opened the doors of the apartments, and was horror-struck
to see all void and empty. Exhausted with this agonising state of doubt
and perplexity, and concealing himself in a wretched hiding place, he
was dragged forth by Placidus, the tribune of a cohort. With his hands
tied behind him, and his garment torn, he was conducted, a revolting
spectacle, through crowds insulting his distress, without a friend to
shed a tear over his misfortunes. The unseemliness of his end banished
all sympathy. Whether one of the Germanic soldiers who met him intended
for him the stroke he made, and if he did, whether from rage or to rescue
him the quicker from the mockery to which he was exposed; or whether he
aimed at the tribune, is uncertain; he cut off the ear of the tribune,
and was immediately despatched.[19]
Vitellius was pushed along, and with swords pointed at his throat, forced
to raise his head, and expose his countenance to insults: one while
they made him look at his statues tumbling to the ground; frequently to
the rostrum, or the spot where Galba perished, and lastly they drove
him to Gemoniæ, where the body of Flavius Sabinus had been thrown. One
expression of his was heard, that spoke a spirit not utterly fallen,
when to a tribune who had insulted him in his misery he observed, that
nevertheless he had been his emperor. He died soon after [Dec. 21] under
repeated wounds. The populace, with the same perversity of judgment
that had prompted them to honour him while living, assailed him with
indignities when dead.
[Illustration: THE DEATH OF VITELLIUS]
He was born at Luceria. He had completed his fifty-fourth year. He rose
to the consulship, to pontifical dignities, and a name and rank amongst
the most eminent citizens, without any personal merit; but obtained all
from the splendid reputation of his father. The men who conferred the
imperial dignity upon him did not so much as know him. By impotence and
sloth he gained the affections of the army, to a degree in which few have
attained them by worthy means. Frankness and generosity, however, he
possessed; qualities which, unless duly regulated, become the occasions
of ruin. He imagined that friendships could be cemented, not by a uniform
course of virtue, but by profuse liberality, and therefore earned them
rather than cultivated them. Doubtless the interest of the commonwealth
required the fall of Vitellius; but those who betrayed Vitellius to
Vespasian can claim no merit for their perfidy, since they had broken
faith with Galba.
The day now verged rapidly towards sunset, and on account of the
consternation of the magistrates and senators who secreted themselves by
withdrawing from the city or in the several houses of their clients, the
senate could not be convened. When all apprehension of hostile violence
had subsided Domitian came forth to the generals of his party, was
unanimously saluted with the title of Cæsar, and escorted by a numerous
body of soldiers, armed as they were, to his father’s house.[i]
Mucianus, who arrived in Rome the day after the murder of Vitellius,
took over the government in the name of Vespasian.[d] Mucianus has been
styled (by Duruy[n]) “the Mæcenas and the Agrippa of the new Augustus.”
In subsequent years he was treated almost as an equal by the emperor.
He at once took active measures to restore order, and he succeeded so
well that everything was peaceful when Vespasian himself finally entered
Rome.[a] In Vespasian, for the first time since the death of Augustus,
the Roman Empire again received a worthy and able ruler. He was a man who
not only, like Galba, hated flattery and joined integrity with experience
in warfare, but whose understanding and force of character were equal to
the circumstances of the hour.[d]
VESPASIAN (T. FLAVIUS SABINUS VESPASIANUS), 69-70 A.D.
[Sidenote: [69-70 A.D.]]
Vespasian was declared emperor, by the unanimous consent both of the
senate and the army, and dignified with all those titles which now
followed rather the power than the merit of those who were appointed
to govern. Messengers were despatched to him in Egypt, desiring his
return, and testifying the utmost desire for his government. But the
winter being dangerous for sailing, he deferred his voyage to a more
convenient season. Perhaps, also, the dissensions in other parts of
the empire retarded his return to Rome; for Claudius Civilis, in Lower
Germany, excited his countrymen to revolt, and destroyed the Roman
garrisons which were placed in different parts of that province. Yet,
to give his rebellion an air of justice, he caused his army to swear
allegiance to Vespasian, until he found himself in a condition to
throw off the mask. When he thought himself sufficiently powerful, he
disclaimed all submission to the Roman government, and having overcome
one or two of the lieutenants of the empire, and being joined by such of
the Romans as refused obedience to the new emperor, he boldly advanced
to give Cerealis, Vespasian’s general, battle. In the beginning of
this engagement he seemed successful, breaking the Roman legions, and
putting their cavalry to flight. But at length Cerealis, by his conduct,
turned the fate of the day, and not only routed the enemy, but took
and destroyed their camp. This engagement, however, was not decisive;
several others ensued with doubtful success. An accommodation, at length,
determined what arms could not effect. Civilis obtained peace for his
countrymen, and pardon for himself; for the Roman Empire was, at this
time, so torn by its own divisions, that the barbarous nations around
made incursions with impunity, and were sure of obtaining peace, whenever
they thought proper to demand it.
During the time of these commotions in Germany, the Sarmatians, a
barbarous nation to the northeast of the empire, suddenly passed the
river Ister, and marching into the Roman dominions with celerity and
fury, destroyed several garrisons, and an army under the command of
Fonteius Agrippa. However, they were driven back with some slaughter by
Rubrius Gallus, Vespasian’s lieutenant, into their native forests; where
several attempts were made to confine them, by garrisons and forts placed
along the confines of their country. But these hardy nations, having once
found their way into the empire, never after desisted from invading it at
every opportunity, till at length they overran and destroyed the glory of
Rome.
Vespasian continued some months at Alexandria in Egypt.[b] The
sober-minded Tacitus, most accurate and most trustworthy of Roman
historians, relates some incidents of this story of Vespasian in Egypt
which are worth repeating, if for nothing else, to illustrate the gap
between the writing of sober history in that day and in our own.[a]
VESPASIAN PERFORMS MIRACLES AND SEES A VISION, ACCORDING TO TACITUS
[Sidenote: [70 A.D.]]
During the months when Vespasian was waiting at Alexandria for the
periodical season of the summer winds, and a safe navigation [says
Tacitus], many miracles occurred, by which the favour of heaven and a
sort of bias in the powers above towards Vespasian were manifested. One
of the common people of Alexandria, known to have a disease in his eyes,
embraced the knees of the emperor, importuning with groans a remedy
for his blindness. In this he acted in compliance with the admonition
of the god Serapis, whom that nation, devoted to superstition, honours
above all other gods; and he prayed the emperor that he would deign to
sprinkle his cheeks and the balls of his eyes with the secretion of his
mouth. Another, who was diseased in the hand, at the instance of the same
god, entreated that he might be pressed by the foot and sole of Cæsar.
Vespasian at first ridiculed the request, and treated it with contempt;
but when they persisted, at one time he dreaded the imputation of
weakness, at another he was led to hope for success, by the supplications
of the men themselves, and the encouragements of his flatterers. Lastly,
he ordered that the opinion of physicians should be taken, as to whether
a blindness and lameness of these kinds could be got the better of by
human power. The physicians stated various points--that in the one the
power of vision was not wholly destroyed, and that it would be restored
if the obstacle was removed; in the other, that the joints which had
become diseased might be renovated, if a healing power were applied; such
peradventure was the pleasure of the gods, and the emperor was chosen to
perform their will. To sum up all, that the glory of accomplishing the
cure would be Cæsar’s, the ridicule of its failure would rest upon the
sufferers. Accordingly, under an impression that everything was within
the power of his fortune, and that after what had occurred nothing was
incredible, with a cheerful countenance himself, and while the multitude
that stood by waited the event in all the confidence of anticipated
success, Vespasian executed what was required of him. Immediately the
hand was restored to its functions, and the light of day shone again to
the blind. Persons who were present even now attest the truth of both
these transactions, when there is nothing to be gained by falsehood.
After this, Vespasian conceived a deeper desire to visit the sanctuary
of Serapis, in order to consult the god about affairs of the empire.
He ordered all persons to be excluded from the temple; and lo, when he
entered, and his thoughts were fixed on the deity, he perceived behind
him a man of principal note among the Egyptians, named Basilides, whom,
at that moment, he knew to be detained by illness at a distance of
several days’ journey from Alexandria. Vespasian inquired of the priests
whether Basilides that day had entered the temple. He asked of others
whom he met whether he was seen in the city. At length, from messengers
whom he despatched on horseback, he received certain intelligence,
that Basilides was at that instant of time eighty miles distant from
Alexandria. He then concluded that it was a divine vision, and deduced
the import of the response from the name of Basilides.[i]
VESPASIAN RETURNS TO ROME
[Illustration: VESPASIAN
(From a bust in the Vatican)]
Leaving Titus to prosecute the Jewish War, Vespasian set out for Rome.
His enthusiastic reception there is described by Josephus, who says:
“All men that were in Italy showed their respects to him in their minds,
before he came thither, as if he were already come, as esteeming the very
expectation they had of him to be his real presence on account of the
great desires they had to see him, and because the good will they bore
him was entirely free and unconstrained; for it was a desirable thing to
the senate, who well remembered the calamities they had undergone in the
late changes of their governors, to receive a governor who was adorned
with the gravity of old age, and with the highest skill in the actions of
war, whose advancement would be, as they knew, for nothing else but the
preservation of those that were to be governed.
“Moreover, the people had been so harassed by their civil miseries that
they were still more earnest for his coming immediately, as supposing
they should then be firmly delivered from their calamities, and believed
they should then recover their secure tranquillity and prosperity.
And for the soldiery, they had the principal regard to him, for they
were chiefly apprised of his great exploits in war; and since they had
experienced the want of skill and want of courage in other commanders,
they were very desirous to be freed from that great shame they had
undergone by their means and heartily wished to receive such a prince
as might be a security and an ornament to them; and as this good will
to Vespasian was universal, those that enjoyed any remarkable dignities
could not have patience enough to stay in Rome, but made haste to meet
him at a very great distance from it. Nay, indeed, none of the rest could
endure the delay of seeing him, but did all pour out of the city in such
crowds, and were so universally possessed with the opinion that it was
easier and better for them to go out than to stay there, that this was
the very first time that the city joyfully perceived itself almost empty
of its citizens; for those that stayed within were fewer than those that
went out. But as soon as the news was come that he was hard by, and those
that had met him at first related with what good humour he received
every one that came to him, then it was that the whole multitude that
had remained in the city, with their wives and children, came into the
road, and waited for him there; and for those whom he passed by, they
made all sorts of acclamations on account of the joy they had to see him,
and the pleasantness of his countenance, and styled him their benefactor
and saviour, and the only person who was worthy to be ruler of the city
of Rome. And now the city was like a temple, full of garlands and sweet
odours; nor was it easy for him to come to the royal palace for the
multitude of people that stood about him, where yet at last he performed
his sacrifices of thanksgivings to his household gods, for his safe
return to the city. The multitude did also betake themselves to feasting;
which feasts and drink-offerings they celebrated by their tribes, and
their families, and their neighbourhoods, and still prayed the gods to
grant that Vespasian, his sons, and all their posterity, might continue
in the Roman government for a very long time, and that his dominion might
be preserved from all opposition. And this was the manner in which Rome
so joyfully received Vespasian, and thence grew immediately into a state
of great prosperity.”[l]
TITUS CONTINUES THE JEWISH WAR
[Sidenote: [70-71 A.D.]]
In the meantime, Titus carried on the war against the Jews with
vigour.[20] This obstinate and infatuated people had long resolved to
resist the Roman power, vainly hoping to find protection from heaven.
Their own historian represents them as arrived at the highest pitch of
iniquity, while famines, earthquakes, and prodigies all conspired to
forewarn their approaching ruin. Nor was it sufficient that heaven and
earth seemed combined against them; they had the most bitter dissensions
among themselves, and were split into two parties, that robbed and
destroyed each other with impunity; still pillaging, and, at the same
time, boasting their zeal for the religion of their ancestors.
At the head of one of those parties was an incendiary whose name was
John. This fanatic affected sovereign power, and filled the whole city of
Jerusalem, and all the towns around, with tumult and pillage. In a short
time a new faction arose, headed by one Simon, who, gathering together
multitudes of robbers and murderers who had fled to the mountains,
attacked many cities and towns, and reduced all Idumæa into his power.
Jerusalem, at length, became the theatre in which these two demagogues
began to exercise their mutual animosity: John was possessed of the
temple, while Simon was admitted into the city, both equally enraged
against each other; while slaughter and devastation followed their
pretensions. Thus did a city, formerly celebrated for peace and unity,
become the seat of tumult and confusion.
It was in this miserable situation that Titus came to sit down before
it with his conquering army, and began his operations within about six
furlongs of the place. It was at the feast of the Passover, when the
place was filled with an infinite multitude of people, who had come
from all parts to celebrate that great solemnity, that Titus undertook
to besiege it. His presence produced a temporary reconciliation between
the contending factions within; so that they unanimously resolved to
oppose the common enemy first, and then decide their domestic quarrels
at a more convenient season. Their first sally, which was made with much
fury and resolution, put the Romans into great disorder, and obliged
them to abandon their camp and fly to the mountains. However, rallying
immediately after, the Jews were forced back into the city; while Titus,
in person, showed surprising instances of valour and conduct.
These advantages over the Romans only renewed in the besieged their
desires of private vengeance. A tumult ensued in the temple, in which
several of both parties were slain; and in this manner, upon every
remission from without, the factions of John and Simon violently raged
against each other within, agreeing only in their resolution to defend
the city against the Romans.
Jerusalem was strongly fortified by three walls on every side, except
where it was fenced by deep valleys. Titus began by battering down
the outward wall, which, after much fatigue and danger, he effected;
all the time showing the greatest clemency to the Jews, and offering
them repeated assurances of pardon. But this infatuated people refused
his proffered kindness with contempt, and imputed his humanity to his
fears. Five days after the commencement of the siege Titus broke through
the second wall; and though driven back by the besieged, he recovered
his ground, and made preparations for battering the third wall, which
was their last defence. But first he sent Josephus, their countryman,
into the city, to exhort them to yield, who, using all his eloquence
to persuade them, was only reviled with scoffs and reproaches. The
siege was now, therefore, carried on with greater vigour than before;
several batteries for engines were raised, which were no sooner built
than destroyed by the enemy. At length it was resolved in council to
surround the whole city with a trench, and thus prevent all relief and
succours from abroad. This, which was quickly executed, seemed no way
to intimidate the Jews. Though famine, and pestilence, its necessary
attendant, began now to make the most horrid ravages within the walls,
yet this desperate people still resolved to hold out. Though obliged
to live upon the most scanty and unwholesome food, though a bushel of
corn was sold for six hundred crowns, and the holes and the sewers were
ransacked for carcasses that had long since grown putrid, yet they were
not to be moved. The famine raged at last to such an excess, that a woman
of distinction in the city boiled her own child to eat it; which horrid
account coming to the ears of Titus, he declared that he would bury
so abominable a crime in the ruins of their state. He now, therefore,
cut down all the woods within a considerable distance of the city, and
causing more batteries to be raised, he at length battered down the wall,
and in five days entered the citadel by force. Thus reduced to the very
verge of ruin, the remaining Jews still deceived themselves with absurd
and false expectations, while many false prophets deluded the multitude,
declaring they should soon have assistance from God.
[Illustration: A ROMAN EMPRESS
(After Hope)]
The heat of the battle was now, therefore, gathered round the inner
wall of the temple, while the defendants desperately combated from the
top. Titus was willing to save this beautiful structure, but a soldier
casting a brand into some adjacent buildings, the fire communicated
to the temple, and, notwithstanding the utmost endeavours on both
sides, the whole edifice was quickly consumed. The sight of the temple
in ruins effectually served to damp the ardour of the Jews. They now
began to perceive that heaven had forsaken them, while their cries and
lamentations echoed from the adjacent mountains. Even those who were
almost expiring lifted up their dying eyes to bewail the loss of their
temple, which they valued more than life itself. The most resolute,
however, still endeavoured to defend the upper and stronger part of
the city, named Zion; but Titus, with his battering engines, soon made
himself entire master of the place. John and Simon were taken from the
vaults where they had concealed themselves; the former was condemned to
perpetual imprisonment, and the latter reserved to grace the conqueror’s
triumph. The greatest part of the populace were put to the sword, and
the city was entirely rased by the plough; so that, according to our
Saviour’s prophecy, not one stone remained upon another. Thus, after
a siege of six months, this noble city was totally destroyed, having
flourished, under the peculiar protection of heaven, about two thousand
years. The numbers who perished in this siege, according to Josephus,
amounted to above a million of souls, and the captives to almost a
hundred thousand. The temporal state of the Jews ended with their city;
while the wretched survivors were banished, sold, and dispersed into all
parts of the world.
Upon the taking of Jerusalem, his soldiers would have crowned Titus as
conqueror, but he modestly refused the honour, alleging that he was only
an instrument in the hand of heaven, that manifestly declared its wrath
against the Jews. At Rome, however, all men’s mouths were filled with the
praises of the conqueror, who had not only shown himself an excellent
general, but a courageous combatant.[b]
Let Josephus describe for us the return of Titus, and the magnificent
triumph that he celebrated with his father.
JOSEPHUS DESCRIBES THE RETURN OF TITUS, AND THE TRIUMPH
[Sidenote: [70 A.D.]]
Titus took the journey he intended into Egypt, and passed over the desert
very suddenly, and came to Alexandria, and took up a resolution to go
to Rome by sea. And as he was accompanied by two legions, he sent each
of them again to the places whence they had before come; the fifth he
sent to Mysia; and the fifteenth to Pannonia. As for the leaders of the
captives, Simon and John, with the other seven hundred men, whom he had
selected out of the rest as being eminently tall and handsome of body,
he gave order that they should be soon carried to Italy, as resolving to
produce them in his triumph. So when he had had a prosperous voyage to
his mind, the city of Rome behaved itself in his reception, and their
meeting him at a distance, as it did in the case of his father.
But what made the most splendid appearance in Titus’ opinion was when his
father met him, and received him; but still the multitude of the citizens
conceived the greatest joy when they saw them all three together,[21] as
they did at this time; nor were many days overpast when they determined
to have but one triumph, that should be common to both of them, on
account of the glorious exploits they had performed, although the senate
had decreed each of them a separate triumph by himself. So when notice
had been given beforehand of the day appointed for this pompous solemnity
to be made, on account of their victories, not one of the immense
multitude was left in the city, but everybody went out so far as to gain
only a station where they might stand, and left only such a passage as
was necessary for those that were to be seen to go along it.
Now all the soldiery marched out beforehand by companies, and in their
several ranks, under their several commanders, in the night time, and
were about the gates, not of the upper palaces, but those near the temple
of Isis; for there it was that the emperors had rested the foregoing
night. And as soon as ever it was day, Vespasian and Titus came out
crowned with laurel, and clothed in those ancient purple habits which
were proper to their family, and then went as far as Octavian’s Walks;
for there it was that the senate, and the principal rulers, and those
that had been recorded as of the equestrian order, waited for them.
Now a tribunal had been erected before the cloisters, and ivory chairs
had been set upon it, when they came and sat down upon them. Whereupon
the soldiery made an acclamation of joy to them immediately, and all gave
them attestations of their valour; while they were themselves without
their arms, and only in their silken garments, and crowned with laurel.
Then Vespasian accepted of these shouts of theirs; but while they were
still disposed to go on in such acclamations, he gave them a signal of
silence. And when everybody entirely held their peace, he stood up, and
covering the greatest part of his head with his cloak, he put up the
accustomed solemn prayers; the like prayers did Titus put up also; after
which prayers Vespasian made a short speech to all the people, and then
sent away the soldiers to a dinner prepared for them by the emperors.
Then did he retire to that gate which was called the Gate of the Pomp,
because pompous shows do always go through that gate; there it was that
they tasted some food, and when they had put on their triumphal garments,
and had offered sacrifices to the gods that were placed at the gate, they
sent the triumph forward, and marched through the theatres, that they
might be the more easily seen by the multitude.
It is impossible to describe the multitude of the shows as they deserve,
and the magnificence of them all; such indeed as a man could not easily
think of as performed either by the labour of workmen, or the variety
of riches, or the rarities of nature. For almost all such curiosities
as the most happy men ever get by piecemeal were here heaped one upon
another, and those both admirable and costly in their nature; and all
brought together on that day demonstrated the vastness of the dominions
of the Romans; for there was here to be seen a mighty quantity of
silver, and gold, and ivory, contrived into all sorts of things, and
did not appear as carried along in pompous show only, but, as a man may
say, running along like a river. Some parts were composed of the rarest
purple hangings, and so carried along; and others accurately represented
to the life what was embroidered by the arts of the Babylonians. There
were also precious stones that were transparent, some set in crowns of
gold, and some in other ouches, as the workmen pleased; and of these
such a vast number were brought, that we could not but thence learn how
vainly we imagined any of them to be rarities. The images of the gods
were also carried, being as well wonderful for their largeness, as made
very artificially, and with great skill of the workmen; nor were any of
these images of any other than very costly materials; and many species
of animals were brought, every one in their own natural ornaments. The
men also who brought every one of these shows were great multitudes, and
adorned with purple garments, all over interwoven with gold; those that
were chosen for carrying these pompous shows having also about them such
magnificent ornaments as were both extraordinary and surprising. Besides
these, one might see that even the great number of captives was not
unadorned, while the variety that was in their garments, and their fine
texture, concealed from the sight the deformity of their bodies.
But what afforded the greatest surprise of all was the structure of the
pageants that were borne along; for indeed he that met them could not but
be afraid that the bearers would not be able firmly enough to support
them, such was their magnitude; for many of them were so made that they
were on three or even four stories, one above another. The magnificence
also of their structure afforded one both pleasure and surprise; for
upon many of them were laid carpets of gold. There was also wrought gold
and ivory fastened about them all; and many resemblances of the war, and
those in several ways, and variety of contrivances, affording a most
lively portraiture of itself. For there was to be seen a happy country
laid waste, and entire squadrons of enemies slain; while some of them ran
away, and some were carried into captivity; with walls of great altitude
and magnitude overthrown, and ruined by machines; with the strongest
fortifications taken, and the walls of most populous cities upon the tops
of hills seized on, and an army pouring itself within the walls; as also
every place full of slaughter, and supplications of the enemies, when
they were no longer able to lift up their hands in way of opposition.
Fire also sent upon temples was here represented, and houses overthrown
and falling upon their owners; rivers also, after they came out of a
large and melancholy desert, ran down, not into a land cultivated, nor as
drink for men or for cattle, but through a land still on fire upon every
side; for the Jews related that such a thing they had undergone during
this war.
Now the workmanship of these representations was so magnificent and
lively in the construction of the things, that it exhibited what had been
done to such as did not see it, as if they had been there really present.
On the top of every one of these pageants was placed the commander of
the city that was taken, and the manner wherein he was taken. Moreover,
there followed those pageants a great number of ships; and for the other
spoils, they were carried in great plenty. But for those that were taken
in the temple of Jerusalem, they made the greatest figure of them all;
that is the golden table, of the weight of many talents; the candlestick
also, that was made of gold, though its construction were now changed
from that which we made use of: for its middle shaft was fixed upon a
basis, and the small branches were produced out of it to a great length,
having the likeness of a trident in their position, and had every one a
socket made of brass for a lamp at the tops of them. These lamps were in
number seven, and represented the dignity of the number seven among the
Jews; and, the last of all the spoils, was carried the Law of the Jews.
[Illustration: ROMAN TRIPOD CANDELABRUM]
After these spoils passed by a great many men, carrying the images of
Victory, whose structure was entirely either of ivory, or of gold. After
which Vespasian marched in the first place, and Titus followed him;
Domitian also rode along with them, and made a glorious appearance, and
rode on a horse that was worthy of admiration.
The last part of this pompous show was at the temple of Jupiter
Capitolinus, whither when they were come, they stood still; for it was
the Romans’ ancient custom to stay till somebody brought the news that
the general of the enemy was slain. This general was Simon, the son of
Giora, who had then been led in this triumph among the captives; a rope
had also been put upon his head, and he had been drawn into a proper
place in the Forum, and had withal been tormented by those that drew him
along; and the law of the Romans required that malefactors condemned to
die should be slain there. Accordingly, when it was related that there
was an end of him, and all the people had set up a shout for joy, they
then began to offer those sacrifices which they had consecrated, in the
prayers used in such solemnities; which when they had finished, they went
away to the palace.
And as for some of the spectators, the emperors entertained them at their
own feast; and for all the rest there were noble preparations made for
their feasting at home; for this was a festal day to the city of Rome,
as celebrated for the victory obtained by their army over their enemies,
for the end that was now put to their civil miseries, and for the
commencement of their hopes of future prosperity and happiness.
[Sidenote: [71 A.D.]]
After these triumphs were over, and after the affairs of the Romans were
settled on the surest foundations, Vespasian resolved to build a temple
to Peace, which he finished in so short a time, and in so glorious a
manner, as was beyond all human expectation and opinion. For he having
now by providence a vast quantity of wealth, besides what he had formerly
gained in his other exploits, he had this temple adorned with pictures
and statues; for in this temple were collected and deposited all such
rarities as men aforetime used to wander all over the habitable world to
see, when they had a desire to see them one after another. He also laid
up therein, as ensigns of his glory, those golden vessels and instruments
that were taken out of the Jewish temple. But still he gave order that
they should lay up their law, and the purple veils of the holy place, in
the royal palace itself, and keep them there.[l]
THE EMPIRE IN PEACE
[Sidenote: [69-79 A.D.]]
Vespasian, having thus given security and peace to the empire, resolved
to correct numberless abuses which had grown up under the tyranny of his
predecessors. To effect this with greater ease, he joined Titus with him
in the consulship and tribunitial power; and, in some measure admitted
him a partner in all the highest offices of the state. He began with
restraining the licentiousness of the army, and forcing them back to
their pristine discipline. Some military messengers desiring money to buy
shoes, he ordered them for the future to perform their journeys barefoot.
He was not less strict with regard to the senators and the knights. He
turned out such as were a disgrace to their station, and supplied their
places with the most worthy men he could find. He abridged the processes
that had been carried to an unreasonable length in the courts of justice.
He took care to rebuild such parts of the city as had suffered in the
late commotions; particularly the Capitol, which had been lately burned,
and which he now restored to more than former magnificence.
The other ruinous cities in the empire also shared his paternal care; he
improved such as were declining, adorned others, and built many anew. In
such acts as these he passed a long reign of clemency and moderation; so
that it is said no man suffered by an unjust or a severe decree during
his administration.[b]
The care of rebuilding the Capitol [says Tacitus] he committed to Lucius
Vestinus, a man of equestrian rank, but in credit and dignity among the
first men in Rome. The soothsayers, who were convened by him, advised
that the ruins of the former shrine should be removed to the marshes,
and a temple raised on the old foundation; for the gods would not permit
a change of the ancient form. On the eleventh day before the calends of
July, the sky being remarkably serene, the whole space devoted to the
sacred structure was encompassed with chaplets and garlands. Such of the
soldiers as had names of auspicious import entered within the enclosure,
with branches from trees emblematical of good fortune. Then the vestal
virgins in procession, with a band of boys and girls whose parents, male
and female, were still living, sprinkled the whole place with water
drawn from living fountains and rivers. Helvidius Priscus, the prætor,
preceded by Plautius Ælianus, the pontiff, after purifying the area by
sacrificing a swine, a sheep, and a bull, and replacing the entrails upon
the turf, invoked Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva, and the tutelar deities of
the empire, praying that they would prosper the undertaking, and, with
divine power, carry to perfection a work begun by the piety of man; and
then Helvidius laid his hand upon the wreaths that bound the foundation
stone and were twined about the cords. At the same time, the magistrates,
the priests, the senators, the knights, and a number of citizens,
with simultaneous efforts, prompted by zeal and exultation, haled the
ponderous stone along. Contributions of gold and silver, and pieces of
other metals, the first that were taken from the mines, that had never
been melted in the furnace, but in their native state, were thrown upon
the foundations on all hands. The soothsayers enjoined that neither
stone nor gold which had been applied to other uses should profane the
building. Additional height was given to the edifice; this was the only
variation conceded by religion; and in point of magnificence it was
considered to be inferior to the former temple.[i]
Vespasian also began the construction of the great amphitheatre which,
under the name of the Colosseum, became the wonder of subsequent
generations, and which is still sufficiently preserved to excite the
admiration of every tourist. But this gigantic structure--seating about
eighty-five thousand people--was not completed until the reign of
Vespasian’s successor, Titus.
BANISHMENT AND DEATH OF HELVIDIUS
In his conduct of both private and public affairs, Vespasian appears
to have acted with temperate judgment.[a] There are, however, two
transactions which, it must be acknowledged, have left a stain upon
his memory. The first was the death of Helvidius Priscus; the other,
the heartless treatment of Epponina, wife of Sabinus. Helvidius,
excellent man, fell a sacrifice to his enemies, and, perhaps, to his
own intemperate conduct. Initiated early in the doctrines of the
stoic school, and confirmed in the pride of virtue by the example of
Pætus Thrasea, his father-in-law, he saw the arts by which Vespasian,
notwithstanding the rigour of his nature, courted popularity; and did
not scruple to say that liberty was more in danger from the artifices of
the new family, than from the vices of former emperors. In the senate he
spoke his mind with unbounded freedom.
[Illustration: THE COLOSSEUM]
Vespasian bore his opposition to the measures of government with patience
and silent dignity. He knew the virtues of the man, and retained a due
esteem for the memory of Thrasea. Willing, on that account, to live on
terms with Helvidius, he advised him to be, for the future, a silent
senator. The pride of a stoic spurned at the advice. Passive obedience
was so repugnant to his principles that he stood more firm in opposition.
Mucianus and Eprius Marcellus, who were the favourite ministers of the
emperor, were his enemies; and it is probable that, by their advice,
Vespasian was at length induced to let the proceedings of the senate take
their course. Helvidius was arraigned by the fathers, and ordered into
custody. He was soon after banished, and, in consequence of an order
despatched from Rome, put to death. It is said that Vespasian relented,
and sent a special messenger to respite execution; but the blow was
struck. Helvidius was, beyond all question, a determined republican. His
own imprudence provoked his fate; and this, perhaps, is what Tacitus had
in contemplation when he places the moderation of Agricola in contrast to
the violent spirit of others, who rush on certain destruction, without
being by their death of service to the public.
The case of Epponina was an instance of extreme rigour, or rather
cruelty. She was the wife of Julius Sabinus, a leading chief among the
Lingones. This man, Tacitus has told us, had the vanity to derive his
pedigree from Julius Cæsar, who, he said, during his wars in Gaul, was
struck with the beauty of his grandmother, and alleviated the toils of
the campaign in her embraces. Ambitious, bold, and enterprising, he
kindled the flame of rebellion among his countrymen, and, having resolved
to shake off the Roman yoke, marched at the head of a numerous army into
the territory of the Sequani, a people in alliance with Rome. This was
69 A.D. He hazarded a battle, and was defeated with great slaughter.
His rash-levied numbers were either cut to pieces or put to flight. He
himself escaped the general carnage. He fled for shelter to an obscure
cottage; and, in order to propagate a report that he destroyed himself,
set fire to his lurking-place.
SABINUS AND EPPONINA
By what artful stratagems he was able to conceal himself in caves and
dens, and, by the assistance of the faithful Epponina, to prolong his
life for nine years afterwards, cannot now be known from Tacitus.
The account which the great historian promised has perished with the
narrative of Vespasian’s reign. Plutarch relates the story as a proof
of conjugal fidelity. From that writer the following particulars may be
gleaned: Two faithful freedmen attended Sabinus to his cavern; one of
them, Martialis by name, returned to Epponina with a feigned account of
her husband’s death. His body, she was made to believe, was consumed in
the flames. In the vehemence of her grief she gave credit to the story.
In a few days she received intelligence by the same messenger that her
husband was safe in his lurking-place. She continued during the rest of
the day to act all the exteriors of grief, with joy at her heart, but
suppressed with care. In the dead of night she visited Sabinus. Before
the dawn of day she returned to her own house, and, for the space of
seven months, repeated her clandestine visits, supplying her husband’s
wants, and softening all his cares. At the end of that time she conceived
hopes of obtaining a free pardon; and having disguised her husband in
such a manner as to render a detection impossible, she accompanied him
on a long and painful journey to Rome. Finding there that she had been
deceived with visionary schemes, she marched back with Sabinus, and lived
with him in his den for nine years longer.
In the year 79 A.D. they were both discovered, and in chains conveyed to
Rome. Vespasian forgot his usual clemency. Sabinus was condemned, and
hurried to execution. Epponina was determined not to survive her husband.
She changed her supplicating tone, and, with a spirit unconquered even
in ruin, addressed Vespasian: “Death,” she said, “has no terror for me.
I have lived happier under ground, than you upon your throne. Bid your
assassins strike their blow; with joy I leave a world in which you can
play the tyrant.”
She was ordered for execution. Plutarch concludes with saying that during
Vespasian’s reign there was nothing to match the horror of this atrocious
deed; for which the vengeance of the gods fell upon Vespasian, and, in a
short time after, wrought the extirpation of his whole family.[j]
THE CHARACTER AND END OF VESPASIAN
[Sidenote: [69-79 A.D.]]
These, however, would seem to have been altogether exceptional instances
of cruelty. Anecdotes illustrating the opposite character are not
wanting. Thus: He caused the daughter of Vitellius, his avowed enemy, to
be married into a noble family; and he himself provided her a suitable
fortune. One of Nero’s servants coming to entreat pardon for having once
rudely thrust him out of the palace, and insulting him when in office,
Vespasian only took his revenge by serving him just in the same manner.
When any plots or conspiracies were formed against him, he disdained to
punish the guilty, saying that they deserved rather his contempt for
their ignorance than his resentment, as they seemed to envy him a dignity
of which he daily experienced the uneasiness. When he was seriously
advised to beware of Mettius Pomposianus, against whom there was strong
cause of suspicion, he raised him to the dignity of consul, adding that
the time would come when he must be sensible of so great a benefit.
His liberality in the encouragement of arts and learning was not less
than his clemency. He settled a constant salary of a hundred thousand
sesterces upon the teachers of rhetoric. He was particularly favourable
to Josephus, the Jewish historian. Quintilian, the orator, and Pliny, the
naturalist, flourished in his reign, and were highly esteemed by him. He
was no less an encourager of all other excellencies in art, and invited
the greatest masters and artificers from all parts of the world, making
them considerable presents as he found occasion.
Yet all his numerous acts of generosity and magnificence could not
preserve his character from the imputation of rapacity and avarice. He
revived many obsolete methods of taxation, and even bought and sold
commodities himself, in order to increase his fortune. He is charged
with advancing the most avaricious governors to the provinces, in order
to share their plunder on their return to Rome. He descended to some
very unusual and dishonourable imposts. But the avarice of princes is
generally a virtue when their own expenses are but few. The exchequer,
when Vespasian came to the throne, was so much exhausted that he informed
the senate that it would require a supply of 40,000,000,000, sesterces
[£300,000,000 or $1,500,000,000] to re-establish the commonwealth. This
necessity must naturally produce more numerous and heavy taxations
than the empire had hitherto experienced; but while the provinces
were thus obliged to contribute to the support of his power, he took
every precaution to provide for their safety, so that we find but two
insurrections in his reign.
In the fourth year of his reign Antiochus, king of Commagene, holding a
private correspondence with the Parthians, the declared enemies of Rome,
was taken prisoner in Cilicia, by Pætus the governor, and sent bound
to Rome. But Vespasian generously prevented all ill-treatment towards
him, by giving him a residence at Lacedæmon and allowing him a revenue
suitable to his dignity.
About the same time also, the Alani, a barbarous people, who lived
along the river Tanaïs, abandoned their barren wilds and invaded the
kingdom of Media. From thence passing like a torrent into Armenia, after
great ravages, they overthrew Tiridates, the king of that country,
with prodigious slaughter. Titus was at length sent to chastise their
insolence, and relieve a king that was in alliance with Rome. However,
the barbarians retired at the approach of the Roman army, laden with
plunder, being in some measure compelled to wait a more favourable
opportunity of renewing their irruptions.
But these incursions were as a transient storm, the effects of which were
soon repaired by the emperor’s moderation and assiduity. We are told that
he new-formed and established a thousand nations, which had scarcely
before amounted to two hundred. No provinces in the empire lay out of his
view and protection. He had, during his whole reign, a particular regard
to Britain; his generals, Petilius Cerealis and Julius Frontinus, brought
the greatest part of the island into subjection (70 A.D.), and Agricola,
who succeeded soon after (78 A.D.), completed what they had begun.
Such long and uninterrupted success no way increased this emperor’s
vanity. He ever seemed averse to those swelling titles which the senate
and people were constantly offering him. When the king of Parthia, in
one of his letters, styled himself king of kings, Vespasian in his
answer only called himself simply Flavius Vespasian. He was so far from
attempting to hide the meanness of his original that he frequently
mentioned it in company; and when some flatterers were for deriving his
pedigree from Hercules, he despised and derided the meanness of their
adulation. In this manner having reigned ten years, loved by his subjects
and deserving their affection, he was surprised with an indisposition
at Campania. Removing from thence to the city, and afterwards to a
country-seat near Rome, he was there taken with a flux, which brought him
to the last extremity. However, perceiving his end approaching, and as
he was just going to expire, he cried out that an emperor ought to die
standing; wherefore, raising himself upon his feet, he expired in the
hands of those that sustained him. (79 A.D.)
“He was a man,” says Pliny,[g] “in whom power made no alteration, except
in giving him the opportunity of doing good equal to his will.” He was
the second Roman emperor that died an unquestionably natural death; and
he was peaceably succeeded by Titus his son.[b]
A CLASSICAL ESTIMATE OF VESPASIAN
The only thing deservedly blamable in Vespasian’s character [says
Suetonius] was his love of money. For not satisfied with reviving
the imposts which had been dropped under Galba, he imposed new taxes
burdensome to the subjects, augmented the tribute of the provinces, and
doubled that of some. He likewise openly practised a sort of traffic
which would have been scandalous even in a person below the dignity of an
emperor, buying great quantities of goods, for the purpose of retailing
them again to advantage. Nay, he made no scruple of selling the great
offices of state to the candidates, and pardons likewise to persons under
prosecution, as well the innocent as the guilty. It is believed that
he advanced all the most rapacious amongst the procurators to higher
offices, with the view of squeezing them after they had acquired great
riches. He was commonly said, “to have made use of them as sponges,”
because he did, as one may say, wet them when dry and squeeze them when
wet. Some say that he was naturally extremely covetous, and that he was
upbraided with it by an old herdsman of his, who, upon the emperor’s
refusing to enfranchise him gratis, which at his advancement he humbly
petitioned for, cried out that the fox changed his hair, but not his
nature. There are some, on the other hand, of opinion that he was urged
to his rapacious proceedings by necessity, and the extreme poverty of the
treasury and exchequer, of which he publicly took notice in the beginning
of his reign; declaring that no less than forty thousand millions of
sesterces was necessary for the support of the government. This is the
more likely to be true of him, because he applied to the best purposes
what he procured by bad means.
His liberality to all ranks of people was particularly eminent. He made
up to several senators the estate required by law to qualify them for
that dignity, relieving likewise such men of consular rank as were poor,
with a yearly allowance of five hundred thousand sesterces; and rebuilt,
in a better manner than before, several cities in different parts of the
empire, which had been much damaged by earthquakes or fires.
He was a great encourager of learning and learned men. He first appointed
the Latin and Greek professors of rhetoric the yearly stipend of a
hundred thousand sesterces each out of the exchequer. He was likewise
extremely generous to such as excelled in poetry, or even the mechanic
arts, and particularly to one that brushed up the picture of Venus at
Cos, and another who repaired the Colossus. A mechanic offering to convey
some huge pillars into the capital at a small expense, he rewarded him
very handsomely for his invention, but would not accept of his service,
saying, “You must allow me to take care of the poor people.”
[Illustration: INTERIOR OF THE COLOSSEUM]
In the games celebrated at the revival of the stage in Marcellus’
theatre, he restored the old musical entertainments. He gave Apollinaris
the tragedian four hundred thousand sesterces; Terpnus and Diodorus the
harpers two hundred thousand; to some a hundred thousand; and the least
he gave to any of the performers was forty thousand, besides many golden
crowns. He had company constantly at his table, and entertained them in a
plentiful manner, on purpose to help the shambles. As in the Saturnalia
he made presents to the men at his table to carry away with them; so did
he to the women upon the calends of March; notwithstanding which he could
not wipe off the infamy of his former covetousness. The Alexandrians
called him constantly _Cybiosactes_; a name which had been given to one
of their kings who was sordidly covetous. Nay, at his funeral, Favo
the archmimic, representing his person, and imitating, as usual, his
behaviour both in speech and gesture, asked aloud of the procurators, how
much his funeral pomp would cost. And being answered “ten millions of
sesterces,” he cried out, that give him but a hundred thousand sesterces,
and they might throw his body into the Tiber, if they would.
_Personality of Vespasian_
He was broad set, strong limbed, and had the countenance of a person who
was straining. On this account, one of the buffoons at court, upon the
emperor’s desiring him “to say something merry upon him,” facetiously
answered, “I will, when you have done easing yourself.”
His method of life was commonly this: After he came to be emperor, he
used to rise very early, often before daybreak. Having read over his
letters, and the breviaries of all the offices about court, he ordered
his friends to be admitted; and whilst they were paying him their
compliments, he would put on his shoes and dress himself. Then, after the
despatch of such business as was brought before him, he rode out in his
chaise or chair; and, upon his return, laid himself down upon his couch
to sleep, accompanied by some of his concubines, of whom he had taken a
great number into his service upon the death of Cænis. After rising from
his couch, he entered the bath, and then went to supper. They say he
never was more easy or obliging than at that time; and therefore those
about him always seized that opportunity, when they had any favour to
request of him.
He chiefly affected wit upon his own shameful means of raising money, to
wipe off the odium by means of a little jocularity. One of his ministers,
who was much in his favour, requesting of him a stewardship for some
person, under pretence of being his brother; he put off the affair, but
sent for the person who was the candidate, and having squeezed out of
him as much money as he had agreed to give his solicitor, he appointed
him immediately to the place. The minister soon after renewing his
application, “You must,” said he, “make a brother of somebody else;
for he whom you took for yours is really mine.” Once upon a journey
suspecting that his mule driver had alighted to shoe his mules, only to
give time and opportunity to one that had a lawsuit depending to speak
to him, he asked him how much he had for shoeing, and would have a share
of the profit. Some deputies having come to acquaint him that a large
statue, which would cost a vast sum, was ordered to be erected for him at
the public charge, he bade them erect it immediately, showing them his
hand hollowed, and saying there was a base ready for it.[22]