VESPASIAN, in full TITUS FLAVIUS VESPASIANUS, Roman emperor A.D. was born on Nov. 18, A.D. 9, in the Sabine country near Reate. His father was a tax-collector and money lender on a small scale ; his mother was the sister of a senator. After having served with the army in Thrace and been quaestor in Crete and Cyrene, Vespasian rose to be aedile and praetor, having meanwhile married Flavia Domitilla, the daughter of a Roman knight, by whom he had two sons, Titus and Domitian, afterwards emperors. Having already served in Germany, in the years 43 and 44, in the reign of Claudius, he distinguished him self in command of the 2nd legion in Britain under Aulus Plautius. He reduced Vectis (isle of Wight) and penetrated to the borders of Somersetshire. In 51 he was for a brief space consul; in 63 he went as governor to Africa, where, according to Tacitus (ii. 97), his rule was "infamous and odious"; according to Suetonius (Vesp. 4), "upright and highly honourable." He went with Nero's suite to Greece, and in 66 was appointed to conduct the war in Judaea. On the first of July, 69, while he was at Caesarea, he was proclaimed emperor, first by the army in Egypt, and then by his troops in Judaea. The legions of the East at once took the cus tomary oath of allegiance. Nevertheless, Vitellius, the occupant of the throne, had on his side the veteran legions of Gaul and Germany, Rome's best troops. But the feeling in Vespasian's favour quickly gathered strength, and the armies of Moesia, Pannonia and Illyricum soon declared for him, and made him in fact master of half of the Roman world. They entered Italy on the north-east under the leadership of Antonius Primus, defeated the army of Vitellius at Bedriacum (or Betriacum), sacked Cre mona and advanced on Rome, which they entered after furious fighting, in which the Capitol was destroyed by fire. The new em peror received the tidings of his rival's defeat and death at Alexandria, whence he at once forwarded supplies of corn to Rome, which were urgently needed, along with an edict or a declaration of policy, in which he gave assurance of an entire reversal of the laws of Nero, especially those relating to treason_ Leaving the war in Judaea to his son Titus, he arrived at Rome in 70. He at once devoted his energies to repairing the evils
caused by civil war. He restored discipline in the army, which under Vitellius had become utterly demoralized, and, with the co operation of the senate, put the government and the finances on a sound footing. He renewed old taxes and instituted new, increased the tribute of the provinces, and kept a watchful eye upon the treasury officials. By his own example of simplicity of life, he put to shame the luxury and extravagance of the Roman nobles and initiated in many respects a marked improvement in the general tone of society. By taking over the censorship, the last of the republican magistracies, he gained complete control over the entry to the senate. He altered the constitution of the praetorian guard, in which only Italians, formed into nine cohorts, were en rolled, while Italians seem to have been excluded from the legions; he tended to assimilate the auxiliaries to the legions in personnel. The time-expired men, when they went back to their homes, he made use of to promote the urbanization and Romanization of the more backward and unorganized provinces. In 7o a formidable rising in Gaul, headed by Claudius Civilis, was suppressed and the German frontier made secure ; the Jewish War was brought to a close by Titus's capture of Jerusalem, and in the following year, of ter the joint triumph of Vespasian and Titus, the temple of Janus was closed, and the Roman world had rest for the remain ing nine years of Vespasian's reign. In 78 Agricola went to Britain, and both extended and consolidated the Roman dominion in that province, pushing his arms into North Wales and the Isle of Anglesey. In the following year Vespasian died, on June 23.