Vespasian

Vespasian, born Titus Flavius Vespasianus, emerged as the final victor of the Roman civil wars of 69 CE, the Year of the Four Emperors, and ruled until his death ten years later. A soldier from a modest family of tax collectors, he restored order and the treasury after Nero's fall, began the Colosseum and founded the Flavian dynasty. The historians who described him, notably Josephus, Tacitus and Suetonius, all wrote under his family's rule or owed it favours, so their warm portrait should be read with some caution.

Vespasian was born on 17 November 9 CE at Falacrinae, a village north-east of Rome. His grandfather had been a centurion who fought for Pompey at Pharsalus; his father was a customs official and small-scale moneylender. Raised largely by his grandmother at Cosa, he was overshadowed by his elder brother Sabinus and, according to Suetonius, entered public life only after his mother's taunts. His early career was undistinguished: Suetonius tells how Caligula, angry at the dirty streets Vespasian was meant to keep clean, had mud stuffed into the folds of his toga. Even so, he reached the praetorship at the minimum age.

Under Claudius, Vespasian commanded the Second Legion Augusta in the invasion of Britain in 43 CE. After fighting at the Medway and the Thames, he pushed into the south-west, capturing some twenty hill forts, Maiden Castle among them, and taking the Isle of Wight. He was rewarded with triumphal honours and a consulship in 51 CE, but then withdrew from public life, having made an enemy of Claudius's wife Agrippina. In 63 CE he governed the province of Africa, returning so short of money that he mortgaged his estates and took up mule-trading. Touring Greece with Nero, he fell from favour, by some accounts for nodding off during one of the emperor's performances.

In 66 CE Nero chose him to crush the Jewish revolt in Judaea. With his son Titus he slowly reconquered much of the country, destroying many towns. Among his captives was the Jewish commander Josephus, who later claimed that an ancient prophecy of a world ruler pointed to Vespasian, and who wrote the history of the war under Flavian patronage.

Nero's suicide in June 68 CE plunged the empire into civil war. Galba was murdered, Otho was defeated by Vitellius, and the eastern armies looked for a candidate of their own. On 1 July 69 CE the legions in Egypt proclaimed Vespasian emperor, followed by those in Judaea and then Moesia, Pannonia and Illyricum. While he held Egypt, Rome's main grain supply, Antonius Primus led his forces into Italy, won at Bedriacum, sacked Cremona and fought his way into Rome, where Vitellius was killed. The senate recognised Vespasian on 21 December 69 CE. Titus took Jerusalem and destroyed the Temple in 70 CE.

Vespasian reached Rome in mid-70 CE and set about restoring stability and the empty treasury. He revived old taxes and invented new ones, including a charge on public urinals; when Titus objected, Suetonius says, his father held a coin to his son's nose and asked whether it smelled. He built a Temple of Peace and began the Flavian Amphitheatre, now called the Colosseum, partly with spoils from Jerusalem. Rebellions in Gaul and Germany were suppressed, and in Britain his governors pushed north. He expelled critical philosophers and executed the outspoken Helvidius Priscus.

Vespasian fell ill in 79 CE, travelled to his usual summer retreat near Reate, and died there on 23 June. Suetonius credits him with a deathbed joke: "Dear me, I think I am becoming a god." He was succeeded by Titus, making him the first Roman emperor to be followed on the throne by his natural son.

Our 100 CE map shows the Roman Empire about two decades after his death, beside the Parthian Empire on its eastern frontier. See also Nero, whose fall opened his way to power, Caligula and Pompey.