T. Flavius Vespasianus Augustus (Vespasian) - C. Suetonius Tranquillus
XV. It will scarcely be found, that so much as one innocent person
suffered in his reign, unless in his absence, and without his knowledge,
or, at least, contrary to his inclination, and when he was imposed upon.
Although Helvidius Priscus [757] was the only man who presumed to salute
him on his return from Syria by his private name of Vespasian, and, when
he came to be praetor, omitted any mark of honour to him, or even any
mention of him in his edicts, yet he was not angry, until Helvidius
proceeded to inveigh against him with the most scurrilous language.
(456) Though he did indeed banish him, and afterwards ordered him to be
put to death, yet he would gladly have saved him notwithstanding, and
accordingly dispatched messengers to fetch back the executioners; and he
would have saved him, had he not been deceived by a false account
brought, that he had already perished. He never rejoiced at the death of
any man; nay he would shed tears, and sigh, at the just punishment of the
guilty.
XVI. The only thing deservedly blameable in his character was his love
of money. For not satisfied with reviving the imposts which had been
repealed in the time of Galba, he imposed new and onerous taxes,
augmented the tribute of the provinces, and doubled that of some of them.
He likewise openly engaged in a traffic, which is discreditable [758]
even to a private individual, 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 the state to candidates, and pardons to
persons under prosecution, whether they were innocent or 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 wealth. He was commonly said, "to have used them as
sponges," because it was his practice, as we may say, to wet them when
dry, and squeeze them when wet. It is said that he was naturally
extremely covetous, and was upbraided with it by an old herdsman of his,
who, upon the emperor's refusing to enfranchise him gratis, which on his
advancement he humbly petitioned for, cried out, "That the fox changed
his hair, but not his nature." On the other hand, some are of opinion,
that he was urged to his rapacious proceedings by necessity, and the
extreme poverty of the treasury and exchequer, of which he took public
notice in the beginning of his reign; declaring that "no less than four
hundred thousand millions of sesterces were wanting to carry on the
government." This is the more likely to be true, because he applied to
the best purposes what he procured by bad means.
XVII. His liberality, however, to all ranks of people, was excessive.
He made up to several senators the estate required (457) 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 [759]; and rebuilt, in a better manner than before, several
cities in different parts of the empire, which had been damaged by
earthquakes or fires.
XVIII. He was a great encourager of learning and the liberal arts. He
first granted to the Latin and Greek professors of rhetoric the yearly
stipend of a hundred thousand sesterces [760] each out of the exchequer.
He also bought the freedom of superior poets and artists [761], and gave
a noble gratuity to the restorer of the Coan of Venus [762], and to
another artist who repaired the Colossus [763]. Some one offering to
convey some immense columns into the Capitol at a small expense by a
mechanical contrivance, he rewarded him very handsomely for his
invention, but would not accept his service, saying, "Suffer me to find
maintenance for the poor people." [764]
XIX. In the games celebrated when the stage-scenery of (458) the theatre
of Marcellus [765] was repaired, he restored the old musical
entertainments. He gave Apollinaris, the tragedian, four hundred
thousand sesterces, and to Terpinus 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
entertained company constantly at his table, and often in great state and
very sumptuously, in order to promote trade. As in the Saturnalia he
made presents to the men which they were to carry away with them, so did
he to the women upon the calends of March [766]; notwithstanding which,
he could not wipe off the disrepute of his former stinginess. The
Alexandrians called him constantly Cybiosactes; a name which had been
given to one of their kings who was sordidly avaricious. Nay, at his
funeral, Favo, the principal mimic, personating him, and imitating, as
actors do, both his manner of speaking and his gestures, asked aloud of
the procurators, "how much his funeral and the procession would cost?"
And being answered "ten millions of sesterces," he cried out, "give him
but a hundred thousand sesterces, and they might throw his body into the
Tiber, if they would."
XX. He was broad-set, strong-limbed, and his features gave the idea of a
man in the act of straining himself. In consequence, one of the city
wits, upon the emperor's desiring him "to say something droll respecting
himself," facetiously answered, "I will, when you have done relieving
your bowels." [767] He enjoyed a good state of health, though he used no
other means to preserve it, than repeated friction, as much (459) as he
could bear, on his neck and other parts of his body, in the tennis-court
attached to the baths, besides fasting one day in every month.
XXI. His method of life was commonly this. After he became emperor, he
used to rise very early, often before daybreak. Having read over his
letters, and the briefs of all the departments of the government offices;
he admitted his friends; and while they were paying him their
compliments, he would put on his own shoes, and dress himself with his
own hands. Then, after the dispatch of such business as was brought
before him, he rode out, and afterwards retired to repose, lying on his
couch with one of his mistresses, of whom he kept several after the death
of Caenis [768]. Coming out of his private apartments, he passed to the
bath, and then entered the supper-room. They say that he was never more
good-humoured and indulgent than at that time: and therefore his
attendants always seized that opportunity, when they had any favour to
ask.
XXII. At supper, and, indeed, at other times, he was extremely free and
jocose. For he had humour, but of a low kind, and he would sometimes use
indecent language, such as is addressed to young girls about to be
married. Yet there are some things related of him not void of ingenious
pleasantry; amongst which are the following. Being once reminded by
Mestrius Florus, that plaustra was a more proper expression than plostra,
he the next day saluted him by the name of Flaurus [769]. A certain lady
pretending to be desperately enamoured of him, he was prevailed upon to
admit her to his bed; and after he had gratified her desires, he gave her
[770] four hundred (460) thousand sesterces. When his steward desired to
know how he would have the sum entered in his accounts, he replied, "For
Vespasian's being seduced."
XXIII. He used Greek verses very wittily; speaking of a tall man, who
had enormous parts:
Makxi bibas, kradon dolichoskion enchos;
Still shaking, as he strode, his vast long spear.
And of Cerylus, a freedman, who being very rich, had begun to pass
himself off as free-born, to elude the exchequer at his decease, and
assumed the name of Laches, he said:
----O Lachaes, Lachaes,
Epan apothanaes, authis ex archaes esae Kaerylos.
Ah, Laches, Laches! when thou art no more,
Thou'lt Cerylus be called, just as before.
He chiefly affected wit upon his own shameful means of raising money, in
order to wipe off the odium by some joke, and turn it into ridicule. One
of his ministers, who was much in his favour, requesting of him a
stewardship for some person, under pretence of his being his brother, he
deferred granting him his petition, and in the meantime sent for the
candidate, and having squeezed out of him as much money as he had agreed
to give to his friend at court, he appointed him immediately to the
office. The minister soon after renewing his application, "You must,"
said he, "find another brother; for the one you adopted is in truth
mine."
Suspecting once, during a journey, that his mule-driver had alighted to
shoe his mules, only in order to have an opportunity for allowing a
person they met, who was engaged in a law-suit, to speak to him, he asked
him, "how much he got for shoeing his mules?" and insisted on having a
share of the profit. When his son Titus blamed him for even laying a tax
upon urine, he applied to his nose a piece of the money he received in
the first instalment, and asked him, "if it stunk?" And he replying no,
"And yet," said he, "it is derived from urine."
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
expense, he told them to pay it down immediately, (461) holding out the
hollow of his hand, and saying, "there was a base ready for the statue."
Not even when he was under the immediate apprehension and peril of death,
could he forbear jesting. For when, among other prodigies, the mausoleum
of the Caesars suddenly flew open, and a blazing star appeared in the
heavens; one of the prodigies, he said, concerned Julia Calvina, who was
of the family of Augustus [771]; and the other, the king of the
Parthians, who wore his hair long. And when his distemper first seized
him, "I suppose," said he, "I shall soon be a god." [772]
XXIV. In his ninth consulship, being seized, while in Campania, with a
slight indisposition, and immediately returning to the city, he soon
afterwards went thence to Cutiliae [773], and his estates in the country
about Reate, where he used constantly to spend the summer. Here, though
his disorder much increased, and he injured his bowels by too free use of
the cold waters, he nevertheless attended to the dispatch of business,
and even gave audience to ambassadors in bed. At last, being taken ill
of a diarrhoea, to such a degree that he was ready to faint, he cried
out, "An emperor ought to die standing upright." In endeavouring to
rise, he died in the hands of those who were helping him up, upon the
eighth of the calends of July [24th June] [774], being sixty-nine years,
one month, and seven days old.
XXV. All are agreed that he had such confidence in the calculations on
his own nativity and that of his sons, that, after several conspiracies
against him, he told the senate, that either his sons would succeed him,
or nobody. It is said likewise, that he once saw in a dream a balance in
the middle of the porch of the Palatine house exactly poised; in one
(462) scale of which stood Claudius and Nero, in the other, himself and
his sons. The event corresponded to the symbol; for the reigns of the
two parties were precisely of the same duration. [775]
* * * * * *
Neither consanguinity nor adoption, as formerly, but great influence in
the army having now become the road to the imperial throne, no person
could claim a better title to that elevation than Titus Flavius
Vespasian. He had not only served with great reputation in the wars both
in Britain and Judaea, but seemed as yet untainted with any vice which
could pervert his conduct in the civil administration of the empire. It
appears, however, that he was prompted more by the persuasion of friends,
than by his own ambition, to prosecute the attainment of the imperial
dignity. To render this enterprise more successful, recourse was had to
a new and peculiar artifice, which, while well accommodated to the
superstitious credulity of the Romans, impressed them with an idea, that
Vespasian's destiny to the throne was confirmed by supernatural
indications. But, after his elevation, we hear no more of his miraculous
achievements.
The prosecution of the war in Britain, which had been suspended for some
years, was resumed by Vespasian; and he sent thither Petilius Cerealis,
who by his bravery extended the limits of the Roman province. Under
Julius Frontinus, successor to that general, the invaders continued to
make farther progress in the reduction of the island: but the commander
who finally established the dominion of the Romans in Britain, was Julius
Agricola, not less distinguished for his military achievements, than for
his prudent regard to the civil administration of the country. He began
his operations with the conquest of North Wales, whence passing over into
the island of Anglesey, which had revolted since the time of Suetonius
Paulinus, he again reduced it to subjection. Then proceeding northwards
with his victorious army, he defeated the Britons in every engagement,
took possession of all the territories in the southern parts of the
island, and driving before him all who refused to submit to the Roman
arms, penetrated even into the forests and mountains of Caledonia. He
defeated the natives under Galgacus, their leader, in a decisive battle;
and fixing a line of garrisons between the friths of Clyde and Forth, he
secured the Roman province from the incursions of the people who occupied
the parts of the island (463) beyond that boundary. Wherever he
established the Roman power, he introduced laws and civilization amongst
the inhabitants, and employed every means of conciliating their
affection, as well as of securing their obedience.
The war in Judaea, which had been commenced under the former reign, was
continued in that of Vespasian; but he left the siege of Jerusalem to be
conducted by his son Titus, who displayed great valour and military
talents in the prosecution of the enterprise. After an obstinate defence
by the Jews, that city, so much celebrated in the sacred writings, was
finally demolished, and the glorious temple itself, the admiration of the
world, reduced to ashes; contrary, however, to the will of Titus, who
exerted his utmost efforts to extinguish the flames.
The manners of the Romans had now attained to an enormous pitch of
depravity, through the unbounded licentiousness of the tines; and, to the
honour of Vespasian, he discovered great zeal in his endeavours to effect
a national reformation. Vigilant, active, and persevering, he was
indefatigable in the management of public affairs, and rose in the winter
before day-break, to give audience to his officers of state. But if we
give credit to the whimsical imposition of a tax upon urine, we cannot
entertain any high opinion, either of his talents as a financier, or of
the resources of the Roman empire. By his encouragement of science, he
displayed a liberality, of which there occurs no example under all the
preceding emperors, since the time of Augustus. Pliny the elder was now
in the height of reputation, as well as in great favour with Vespasian;
and it was probably owing not a little to the advice of that minister,
that the emperor showed himself so much the patron of literary men. A
writer mentioned frequently by Pliny, and who lived in this reign, was
Licinius Mucianus, a Roman knight: he treated of the history and
geography of the eastern countries. Juvenal, who had begun his Satires
several years before, continued to inveigh against the flagrant vices of
the times; but the only author whose writings we have to notice in the
present reign, is a poet of a different class.
C. VALERIUS FLACCUS wrote a poem in eight books, on the Expedition of the
Argonauts; a subject which, next to the wars of Thebes and Troy, was in
ancient times the most celebrated. Of the life of this author,
biographers have transmitted no particulars; but we may place his birth
in the reign of Tiberius, before all the writers who flourished in the
Augustan age were extinct. He enjoyed the rays of the setting sun which
had illumined that glorious period, and he discovers the efforts of an
ambition to recall its meridian splendour. As the poem was left (464)
incomplete by the death of the author, we can only judge imperfectly of
the conduct and general consistency of the fable: but the most difficult
part having been executed, without any room for the censure of candid
criticism, we may presume that the sequel would have been finished with
an equal claim to indulgence, if not to applause. The traditional
anecdotes relative to the Argonautic expedition are introduced with
propriety, and embellished with the graces of poetical fiction. In
describing scenes of tenderness, this author is happily pathetic, and in
the heat of combat, proportionably animated. His similes present the
imagination with beautiful imagery, and not only illustrate, but give
additional force to the subject. We find in Flaccus a few expressions
not countenanced by the authority of the most celebrated Latin writers.
His language, however, in general, is pure; but his words are perhaps not
always the best that might have been chosen. The versification is
elevated, though not uniformly harmonious; and there pervades the whole
poem an epic dignity, which renders it superior to the production
ascribed to Orpheus, or to that of Apollonius, on the same subject.
FOOTNOTES:
[721] Reate, the original seat of the Flavian family, was a city of the
Sabines. Its present name is Rieti.
[722] It does not very clearly appear what rank in the Roman armies
was held by the evocati. They are mentioned on three occasions by
Suetonius, without affording us much assistance. Caesar, like our
author, joins them with the centurions. See, in particular, De Bell.
Civil. I. xvii. 4.
[723] The inscription was in Greek, kalos telothaesanti.
[724] In the ancient Umbria, afterwards the duchy of Spoleto; its modern
name being Norcia.
[725] Gaul beyond, north of the Po, now Lombardy.
[726] We find the annual migration of labourers in husbandry a very
common practice in ancient as well as in modern times. At present,
several thousand industrious labourers cross over every summer from the
duchies of Parma and Modena, bordering on the district mentioned by
Suetonius, to the island of Corsica; returning to the continent when the
harvest is got in.
[727] A.U.C. 762, A.D. 10.
[728] Cosa was a place in the Volscian territory; of which Anagni was
probably the chief town. It lies about forty miles to the north-east of
Rome.
[729] Caligula.
[730] These games were extraordinary, as being out of the usual course
of those given by praetors.
[731] "Revocavit in contubernium." From the difference of our habits,
there is no word in the English language which exactly conveys the
meaning of contubernium; a word which, in a military sense, the Romans
applied to the intimate fellowship between comrades in war who messed
together, and lived in close fellowship in the same tent. Thence they
transferred it to a union with one woman who was in a higher position
than a concubine, but, for some reason, could not acquire the legal
rights of a wife, as in the case of slaves of either sex. A man of rank,
also, could not marry a slave or a freedwoman, however much he might be
attached to her.
[732] Nearly the same phrases are applied by Suetonius to Drusilla, see
CALIGULA, c. xxiv., and to Marcella, the concubine of Commodus, by
Herodian, I. xvi. 9., where he says that she had all the honours of an
empress, except that the incense was not offered to her. These
connections resembled the left-hand marriages of the German princes.
[733] This expedition to Britain has been mentioned before, CLAUDIUS,
c. xvii. and note; and see ib. xxiv.
Valerius Flaccus, i. 8, and Silius Italicus, iii. 598, celebrate the
triumphs of Vespasian in Britain. In representing him, however, as
carrying his arms among the Caledonian tribes, their flattery transferred
to the emperor the glory of the victories gained by his lieutenant,
Agricola. Vespasian's own conquests, while he served in Britain, were
principally in the territories of the Brigantes, lying north of the
Humber, and including the present counties of York and Durham.
[734] A.U.C. 804.
[735] Tacitus, Hist. V. xiii. 3., mentions this ancient prediction, and
its currency through the East, in nearly the same terms as Suetonius.
The coming power is in both instances described in the plural number,
profecti; "those shall come forth;" and Tacitus applies it to Titus as
well as Vespasian. The prophecy is commonly supposed to have reference
to a passage in Micah, v. 2, "Out of thee [Bethlehem-Ephrata] shall He
come forth, to be ruler in Israel." Earlier prophetic intimations of a
similar character, and pointing to a more extended dominion, have been
traced in the sacred records of the Jews; and there is reason to believe
that these books were at this time not unknown in the heathen world,
particularly at Alexandria, and through the Septuagint version. These
predictions, in their literal sense, point to the establishment of a
universal monarchy, which should take its rise in Judaea. The Jews
looked for their accomplishment in the person of one of their own nation,
the expected Messiah, to which character there were many pretenders in
those times. The first disciples of Christ, during the whole period of
his ministry, supposed that they were to be fulfilled in him. The Romans
thought that the conditions were answered by Vespasian, and Titus having
been called from Judaea to the seat of empire. The expectations
entertained by the Jews, and naturally participated in and appropriated
by the first converts to Christianity, having proved groundless, the
prophecies were subsequently interpreted in a spiritual sense.
[736] Gessius Florus was at that time governor of Judaea, with the title
and rank of prepositus, it not being a proconsular province, as the
native princes still held some parts of it, under the protection and with
the alliance of the Romans. Gessius succeeded Florus Albinus, the
successor of Felix.
[737] Cestius Gallus was consular lieutenant in Syria.
[738] See note to c. vii.
[739] A right hand was the sign of sovereign power, and, as every one
knows, borne upon a staff among the standards of the armies.
[740] Tacitus says, "Carmel is the name both of a god and a mountain;
but there is neither image nor temple of the god; such are the ancient
traditions; we find there only an altar and religious awe."--Hist. xi.
78, 4. It also appears, from his account, that Vespasian offered
sacrifice on Mount Carmel, where Basilides, mentioned hereafter, c. vii.,
predicted his success from an inspection of the entrails.
[741] Josephus, the celebrated Jewish historian, who was engaged in
these wars, having been taken prisoner, was confined in the dungeon at
Jotapata, the castle referred to in the preceding chapter, before which
Vespasian was wounded.--De Bell. cxi. 14.
[742] The prediction of Josephus was founded on the Jewish prophecies
mentioned in the note to c. iv., which he, like others, applied to
Vespasian.
[743] Julius Caesar is always called by our author after his apotheosis,
Divus Julius.
[744] The battle at Bedriacum secured the Empire for Vitellius. See
OTHO, c. ix; VITELLIUS, c. x.
[745] Alexandria may well be called the key, claustra, of Egypt, which
was the granary of Rome. It was of the first importance that Vespasian
should secure it at this juncture.
[746] Tacitus describes Basilides as a man of rank among the Egyptians,
and he appears also to have been a priest, as we find him officiating at
Mount Carmel, c. v. This is so incompatible with his being a Roman
freedman, that commentators concur in supposing that the word "libertus."
although found in all the copies now extant, has crept into the text by
some inadvertence of an early transcriber. Basilides appears, like Philo
Judaeus, who lived about the same period, to have been half-Greek, half-
Jew, and to have belonged to the celebrated Platonic school of
Alexandria.
[747] Tacitus informs us that Vespasian himself believed Basilides to
have been at this time not only in an infirm state of health, but at the
distance of several days' journey from Alexandria. But (for his greater
satisfaction) he strictly examined the priests whether Basilides had
entered the temple on that day: he made inquiries of all he met, whether
he had been seen in the city; nay, further, he dispatched messengers on
horseback, who ascertained that at the time specified, Basilides was more
than eighty miles from Alexandria. Then Vespasian comprehended that the
appearance of Basilides, and the answer to his prayers given through him,
were by divine interposition. Tacit. Hist. iv. 82. 2.
[748] The account given by Tacitus of the miracles of Vespasian is
fuller than that of Suetonius, but does not materially vary in the
details, except that, in his version of the story, he describes the
impotent man to be lame in the hand, instead of the leg or the knee, and
adds an important circumstance in the case of the blind man, that he was
"notus tabe occulorum," notorious for the disease in his eyes. He also
winds up the narrative with the following statement: "They who were
present, relate both these cures, even at this time, when there is
nothing to be gained by lying." Both the historians lived within a few
years of the occurrence, but their works were not published until
advanced periods of their lives. The closing remark of Tacitus seems to
indicate that, at least, he did not entirely discredit the account; and
as for Suetonius, his pages are as full of prodigies of all descriptions,
related apparently in all good faith, as a monkish chronicle of the
Middle Ages.