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Message:: [QUOTE="IdesOfMarch01, post: 2860777, member: 39084"]Vespasian [ATTACH=full]681136[/ATTACH] Titus Flavius Vespasianus was born in 9 AD to an undistinguished family in Falacrinae, a village northeast of Rome.  He was to be the final emperor in The Year of Four Emperors. [ATTACH=full]681137[/ATTACH] His older brother Sabinus entered public life, pursuing the cursus honorum (a sequence of public offices for aspiring politicians that included military and political administration posts).  As a youth, Vespasian apparently lacked his brother’s ambition; Suetonius writes: “After assuming the garb of manhood he for a long time made no attempt to win the broad stripe of senator, though his brother had gained it, and only his mother could finally induce him to sue for it. She at length drove him to it, but rather by sarcasm than by entreaties or parental authority, since she constantly taunted him with being his brother's footman.” Thus goaded by his mother (a spiritual relative of Livia, perhaps?), Vespasian served in Thrace for three years as a tribune of the soldiers.  During these years he married Flavia Domitilla, with whom he had three children: a daughter Domitilla, and two sons Titus and Domitian.  Unfortunately, both his wife and daughter died before Vespasian became emperor. Vespasian had caught the notice of Claudius’ freedman Narcissus, and when Claudius invaded Britain in 43 AD, Vespasian was given command of a legion.  He distinguished himself in 30 battles, taking 20 towns (some of which were probably little more than forts on hills) under the overall leadership of the command of Autius Plautius.  Although his star was rising, after Claudius’ death, Claudius’ wife Agrippina Jr. was suspicious of many of Claudius’ associates, and Vespasian’s career seems to have stalled until later in Nero’s reign. Nero appointed him proconsul of Africa, and Vespasian did not exploit his position for personal financial gain.  Although he was part of Nero’s extravagant entourage on the latter’s tour of Greece, Vespasian was expelled when he fell asleep during one of Nero’s singing performances. Vespasian would soon gain prominence as the Roman commander who put down the Judaean revolt.  It’s instructive to understand how Vespasian was chosen for this command; according to Suetonius: “Since to put down this rebellion required a considerable army with a leader of no little enterprise, yet one to whom so great power could be entrusted without risk, Vespasian was chosen for the task, both as a man of tried energy and as one in no wise to be feared because of the obscurity of his family and name.” In other words, Vespasian could be trusted because he wasn’t so ambitious that he would usurp the current rulers in power. In 69 AD, Nero, Galba, and Otho would fail rapidly as would-be Roman emperors, and after Otho’s defeat and suicide, Vespasian’s troops hailed him emperor despite the fact that Vitellius had also been hailed emperor by his troops.  Confrontation was inevitable. Vitellius had Rome’s best and most experienced troops on his side – those from Gaul and the Rhineland – but more legions were declaring for Vespasian, including those in Moesia, Pannonia, and Illyricum, plus the legions in Syria under Mucianus.  This made Vespasian the de facto leader of over half the Roman Empire. While Vespasian delayed his march from Alexandria – his son Titus was still fighting the Judaean revolt – an ambitious commander named Primus had gained control of the legions in Pannonia and Moesia.  Primus was an opportunist who used Vespasian as a means for his own ambitions, and somewhat of an unwanted ally, but he proved useful in opposing Vitellius.  By October 69, with Vespasian still in Alexandria, Primus invaded Italy with five legions and decisively defeated the Vitellians at the Second Battle of Bedriacum.  Primus’ troops looted nearby Cremona for four days and then marched south to Rome, with the legions of Mucianus not far behind. Primus met more Vitellian forces at Narnia, 40 miles outside of Rome, but rather than engaging in a costly (and probably losing) battle, the Vitellians were convinced to defect, and the handwriting was on the wall (probably in Times Roman font) for Vitellius.  Vitellius wisely decided to abdicate, influenced by Vespasian's brother Flavius Sabinus who was the city prefect of Rome.  A deal was struck through Sabinus: Vitellius would abdicate to Vespasian in exchange for 1,000,000 aurei.  Though the deal was acceptable to Sabinus, the Praetorian guard was enraged and demanded that the deal be retracted.  Sabinus was captured and killed, and Vespasian’s son Domitian barely escaped with his life. Shortly thereafter, Primus and his legions entered Rome in the name of Vespasian, and proceeded to plunder and massacre in the capital until the legions of Mucianus arrived the next day and ousted Primus.  During this time, Vespasian was still in Alexandria and would remain there for another six months, hoping for the conclusion of the Judaean war.  But eventually he could wait no longer and in the summer of 70 AD took a ship to Brundisium.  He made the rest of his way to Rome on land, arriving in October of 70 AD, some 15 months after being hailed Caesar by his and other troops. Vespasian inherited an empire that was in extreme disarray and completely bankrupt.  Vespasian proceeded to raise funds by almost any means necessary.  Suetonius writes: “Some say that he was naturally covetous and was taunted with it by an old herdsman of his, who on being forced to pay for the freedom for which he earnestly begged Vespasian when he became emperor, cried: "The fox changes his fur, but not his nature." Others on the contrary believe that he was driven by necessity to raise money by spoliation and robbery because of the desperate state of the treasury and the privy purse; to which he bore witness at the very beginning of his reign by declaring that forty thousand millions were needed to set the State upright. This latter view seems the more probable, since he made the best use of his gains, ill-gotten though they were.” In order to raise the 400,000,000 aurei Suetonius mentions above, Vespasian resorted to practices that although lucrative, were not exactly ethical.  He openly sold pardons to convicted criminals; he took bribes from politicians and those seeking political office; he even imposed a urine tax on public toilets, proclaiming “Pecunia non olet” (“Money does not smell.”).  Yet despite his outward appearance of stinginess and greed, which would follow him to his grave, it appears that he mostly used this money to rebuild Rome and its finances after the disastrously profligate reign of Nero and the ensuing civil wars.  Indeed, Suetonius also notes: “He was most generous to all classes, making up the requisite estatefor senators, giving needy ex-consuls an annual stipend of five hundred thousand sesterces, restoring to a better condition many cities throughout the empire which had suffered from earthquakes or fires, and in particular encouraging men of talent and the arts. “He was the first to establish a regular salary of a hundred thousand sesterces for Latin and Greek teachers of rhetoric, paid from the privy purse. He also presented eminent poets with princely largessand great rewards, and artists, too, such as the restorer of the Venus of Cosand of the Colossus.To a mechanical engineer, who promised to transport some heavy columns to theCapitol at small expense, he gave no mean reward for his invention, but refused to make use of it, saying: "You must let me feed my poor commons." Vespasian's legacy is extensive although not necessarily well documented.  It's known that he initiated the building of the Colosseum in 71 AD, to be completed by his son Titus after Vespasian’s death of a fever in 79 AD.  He also built the new temple of Capitoline Jupiter and the temple of Peace in the Forum, as well as much other building in the western Roman Empire.  My observation is that most of Vespasian's success is implied and not recorded: he inherited an empire in extreme disarray but by the time of his death, handed off a smoothly and well-functioning Rome to his son. Despite his parsimonious side, he was also know for his wit and easy-going nature – a contrast to his proven abilities as a strong and successful military general.  The Flavian dynasty, through Vespasian and his sons Titus and Domitian, would rule until 96 AD. About the Coins Vespasian started striking coins in his name while in Judaea as governor under Nero.  After being hailed emperor, he struck coins at Antioch and Alexandria during the conflict and defeat of Vitellius.  He struck Imperial coins not only in his name, but in the names of his two sons Titus and Domitian (both as Caesar).  His coinage was extensive – RIC Volume II revised has over 120 pages listing Vespasian’s imperial coinage. [ATTACH=full]681219[/ATTACH] The feature I appreciate most in my Vespasian mint set is the distinctly different look of each obverse portrait: on the dupondius, there is imperious Vespasian; on the elegant Judaea Capta sestertius, there is Vespasian the benign conqueror; on the Judaea Capta denarius, Vespasian appears (to my eye) a bit surprised and puzzled; finally on the aureus there is Vespasian the elder statesman and leader.  And for reasons I can’t articulate, I’ve always found the anatomical correctness of Neptune on the aureus’ reverse to be quintessentially Roman. Bring out those Vespasian coins and stories! Next: Titus[/QUOTE]

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