Titus Flavius Vespasianus was a career
officer, whose victories & prudent administration restored the Roman
empire from the political & economic chaos left by Nero's
reign. He came from the Roman class of knights [equites]
rather than the patrician nobility. His father had been a tax
collector under Tiberius
& his older brother served as prefect of Rome under Nero.
Vespasian distinguished himself as
commander of the 2nd legion in Claudius'
invasion of Britain (43 CE),
for which he was appointed consul of
Rome (51 CE). He earned a reputation for such rigorous financial
management as proconsul of North Africa (63 CE) that he was not a
favorite of extravagant Nero. But when Roman troops suffered 2
disastrous defeats during the first year of the Jewish revolt
(66 CE),
Nero was persuaded that Vespasian was the safest general to put
in command of restoring Roman control over Palestine. Vespasian had
little difficulty in subduing Galilee,
where he took the Jewish commander Josephus---who
predicted that he would become emperor---hostage. Then his troops
occupied most of Judea
& laid siege to Jerusalem
before the death of Nero
68 CE).
While Vespasian was waiting for
further instructions from the new emperor [Servius
Sulpicius Galba], he learned
that he had been murdered by the Praetorian guard (69 CE). As civil
war spread between the next emperor [Marcus
Salvius Otho, first husband
of Nero's consort, Poppea]
& the Roman commander in Germany [Aulus
Vitellius] the eastern Roman
legions rallied to support Vespasian. After Otho committed suicide,
the troops proclaimed Vespasian emperor---first in Egypt, then Syria
& Judea. When Vespasian's brother, Flavius Sabinus, who had long
been prefect of Rome, closed the city to Vitellius, the Roman
legions on the Danube came to his aid, so decisively defeating Vitellius' forces that the Praetorian guard murdered him. The Senate
was left with no alternative but to confirm the victorious army's
non-patrician candidate for emperor [December 69].
Vespasian was officially granted
complete autocratic authority, which he used not only to reverse
Nero's liberal grants but to impose heavy new taxes to replenish the
imperial treasury. The Jewish tax that had supported the temple was
diverted to his own coffers. He tore down Nero's golden palace &
in its place erected the Colosseum & the Temple of Peace. He
reorganized & enlarged the army, which he recognized was his
real power base. He reorganized the provinces, extending Roman
citizenship to all provincial magistrates, a tactic that both added
to the imperial treasury & offset the influence of the old Roman
aristocracy in the Senate. Overall his policies led to a
transformation of the empire into an order that was at once more
democratic & more military, in which non-aristocrats &
non-Romans had greater access to positions of authority but with
ultimate power vested solely in the army's commander-in-chief.
Romans, recognizing that he had saved the empire & restored
civic peace, officially declared him a god immediately after his
death.
References: Josephus, War
3.3-8, 29-34 132-134, 141-504, 522-544;
4.11-87, 366-376 410-419, 441-450 486-498, 588-657;
7.21-22, 59-75, 123-162.
Tacitus, Histories
1.10;
2.1-7,
67, 73-74, 78-87, 96-99;
3.1-7,
48-49, 52, 69; 4.3-9,
38-40, 81-82; 5.1,
10, 13.
Suetonius, Twelve
Caesars: Vespasian
1-25.
Cassius Dio, Roman
History 66.1-17.
For other primary sources & more information see: