Vespasian

Roman emperor (r. 69-79 c.e.)

• Born: November 17, 9 c.e.
• Birthplace: Reate (now Rieti, Italy)
• Died: June 23, 79 c.e.
• Place of death: Aquae Cutilae (now Bagni di Paterno, Italy)

After the chaos and civil war that followed the downfall of Nero, Vespasian restored peace and order to the Roman Empire and secured its survival as an enduring political and cultural institution.

Early Life

Titus Flavius Sabinus Vespasianus, better known as Vespasian (vehs-PAY-zhee-uhn), came from a family whose origins were probably humble and certainly obscure. The Flavians were of Sabine stock, and Vespasian’s grandfather and father were both tax collectors and moneylenders. His father never advanced above the equestrian order (the rank below the senate) but was an associate of several influential members of the court of the emperor Claudius; through them, he obtained a military commission for his son.

Vespasian was appointed a tribune of soldiers in Thrace and demonstrated his considerable abilities within a short period of time. He advanced fairly rapidly for a man of his position and won the office of quaestor, which meant that provinces could be assigned to him; he was given Crete and Cyrene.

He married Flavia Domitilla, and they had three children. The two sons, Titus and Domitian, would succeed their father as emperors; the daughter died at a young age. After the death of his wife, Vespasian resumed a relationship with a woman named Caenis, a former slave who had been secretary to the mother of the emperor Claudius. Vespasian lived with Caenis as his wife in all but official ceremony until her death.

During 43 and 44, Vespasian was in command of Roman troops in Germany, and then in Britain, where he distinguished himself through vigorous military actions, including the defeat of several powerful tribes and the conquest of the Isle of Wight. For these accomplishments, he was awarded a consulship. He next served as governor of the Roman province of Africa (modern Tunisia) but was so honest that he left office without amassing the usual wealth. His career under Claudius’s successor, Nero, took a disastrous turn in 66 when Vespasian fell asleep at one of the emperor’s singing performances. For this heinous offense Vespasian narrowly escaped death and was instead banished from the court. Not until the outbreak of a serious revolt in Judaea, when an experienced general was required, was Vespasian rescued from oblivion.

Vespasian was strongly built, with a broad, sturdy frame. Throughout his life he enjoyed excellent health, partly because of his temperate habits and partly because of his active and energetic life. The coins and portrait busts of the period show a face that is humorous yet shrewd, with an expression that caused the ancient biographer Suetonius to compare it to a man straining to complete a bowel movement. Vespasian had a rough, often coarse humor, which was frequently directed at himself—in particular, at his well-known reputation for stinginess. His outstanding characteristics were hard work, administrative genius, and a profound wealth of common sense.

Life’s Work

In 67, Vespasian was recalled from exile to lead Roman forces against the Jewish revolt, which was a serious threat to Rome’s eastern borders and a danger to the vital grain supply from Egypt. By the summer of 68, Vespasian had regained most of Judaea, and the remnants of the rebel forces were detained in Jerusalem, which he put under siege. It was at this point that Vespasian learned of the uprising in Rome and the death of Nero.

“The year of the four emperors” followed, as Servius Sulpicius Galba, Marcus Salvius Otho, and Aulus Vitellius successively aspired to and gained the throne. While seeming to accept each in turn as the legitimate ruler, Vespasian was secretly establishing contacts and making plans with other influential governors and generals in the east; most notable were those of the two key provinces of Syria and Egypt. In 68, the troops of Vespasian’s army declared him emperor; troops throughout the region quickly followed, and soon the forces pledged to him were advancing on Rome.

Vespasian himself reached Rome sometime in the fall of 70; his son, Titus, remained in Judaea to complete the reconquest of that territory. Later, the two would celebrate a splendid double triumph, which indicated that Titus was not only Vespasian’s heir but also an important part of the government.

The disastrous end of Nero’s reign and the fierce civil war and struggle over the Imperial power had left their harmful mark on Roman life and society, and it was Vespasian’s first and most constant task to repair this damage. He reintroduced strict discipline and order into the military, hoping to remove the threat of another emperor being created far from Rome by a discontented army. He began an extensive series of construction and renovation projects throughout the Empire, especially in Rome, restoring years of neglect and destruction. At the rebuilding of the Forum in Rome, Vespasian himself carried away the first load of rubble.

A parallel effort was effected in the government and administration, as Vespasian assumed the title of censor and thoroughly revised the rolls of the senate and the equestrian orders. It was in his naming of new senators that Vespasian made one of his most innovative and lasting contributions to the Empire, for he included not only many Italians from outside Rome but also men from the provinces. Through this strategy, Vespasian enlarged not only the senate but also the entire concept of the Empire itself, making it less a collection of territories conquered by Rome and more a unified, organic whole. It is impossible to determine if Vespasian was working from a coherent, deliberate plan or merely responding to the situation in a sensible, practical fashion; either interpretation is possible. The result, however, was to create a broader and more lasting base for Roman power.

This reconstruction of Roman life demanded much effort from Vespasian, and he proved to be an outstandingly diligent administrator. The work also required vast amounts of money, and it was in search of these funds that Vespasian acquired the reputation for greed. He was quite open and shameless in obtaining funds, buying and selling on the commodity market and placing a tax on the public restrooms. When his son Titus found this last measure distasteful and protested to his father, Vespasian held up a coin and asked if the smell was offensive. When Titus said that it was not, Vespasian answered, “And yet it comes from urine.” Even today, public restrooms in Italy are called vespasianos.

Although Vespasian was quick and crafty in gathering money, he was willing to spend it freely for worthwhile purposes. In addition to his extensive building projects, he was the first emperor to give grants and stipends to those who contributed to the liberal and practical arts: Teachers of rhetoric, poets, artists, and engineers received funds during his reign.

The years of Vespasian were marked by no major conquests or expansions of the Empire’s boundaries. Even if he had aspired to such glories, the situation made the option highly dubious. Internally there was simply too much restoration to be done, as Rome was depleted from the recent succession of rival emperors and from the revolt in Judaea. Peace at home, rather than glory abroad, was the theme of Vespasian’s reign.

This peace and the restoration it made possible were accomplished largely through Vespasian’s abilities and innate common sense. Unlike the rulers who preceded him, he had little fear of conspiracies or plots, launched no treason trials, and encouraged no informers. Historians have generally accorded him a high place, naming him one of Rome’s best emperors.

From the time of Julius Caesar it had become a tradition that rulers of the Empire were deified on their deaths. When Vespasian was in his final hours, he took note of this practice and with rough good humor made his last remark: “Dear me, I seem to be turning into a god.”

Significance

Vespasian’s great achievements were the restoration of peace and political sanity to the Roman Empire and the enlargement of its Imperial rather than strictly Roman foundations. After the disaster of Nero’s final years and the almost fatal chaos of the struggle for power that followed, Vespasian was able to provide for domestic tranquillity, reassert military discipline, and establish a political framework that prevented, at least for a time, renewed outbreaks of self-destructive civil war.

At first glance, Vespasian might have seemed unlikely to be capable of such tremendous tasks: His origins were humble, his manner was common, even coarse, and his abilities, although genuine, seemed limited. Yet it is evident that these apparent defects, when allied with a solid basis of traditional Roman common sense and a broad view of the Empire, were in fact the very qualities needed to undo years of social uncertainty and internecine violence.

As an administrator Vespasian was diligent; his major concern was to ensure the proper functioning of those operations necessary to any state: tax collections, public works, defense, and commerce. Having achieved the Imperial position, he was more concerned to execute it conscientiously for the state than to defend it obsessively for himself. Ancient historians are unanimous in their view that he displayed none of the crippling suspicions and paranoid actions of earlier rulers. Cornelius Tacitus, that bleak and perceptive observer of Imperial Rome, gave Vespasian the rarest of praise when he wrote that he was the only ruler who became better, rather than worse, as time went on.

Vespasian’s common origins were perhaps one reason that he could form a larger view of the Empire, including more of its population as citizens and senators. He was not trapped by the old views of patrician families seeking to retain their privileged status and their time-honored, yet ineffectual, control of the state. His wide-ranging experiences, from Britain to Judaea, also helped give him this expanded perspective; there was not much doubt that this new direction enabled later emperors to maintain one of the world’s most lasting political systems.

In this view, Vespasian certainly ranks as one of the best of the Roman emperors. This judgment is based on many factors, but focuses on Vespasian’s renewal and expansion of the Empire, an expansion less in geographical territory than in political unity.

Vespasian and His Successors

69-79

• Vespasian

79-81

• Titus

81-96

• Domitian

96-98

• Nerva

98-117

• Trajan

117-138

• Hadrian

138-161

• Antoninus Pius

161-169

• Lucius Verus

161-180

• Marcus Aurelius

180-192

• Commodus

Bibliography

Grant, Michael. The Roman Emperors: A Biographical Guide to the Rulers of Imperial Rome, 31 B.C.-A.D. 476. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1996. Vespasian’s rule is best judged not alone but as counterpoint to the disorder that preceded it. The brief selections in this volume provide an overview of the decline of the Empire during the last years of Nero and the near-fatal chaos that followed. Vespasian’s accomplishments are viewed as the more outstanding in the comparison.

Grant, Michael. The Twelve Caesars. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1975. Grant continues where Suetonius’s Lives of the Twelve Caesars (see below) leaves off in using anecdotes of character and personality to establish underlying psychological and political motives. By placing Vespasian within the tenor of his times, Grant not only makes the emperor more human but also shows the impressive nature of his achievements.

Greenhalgh, P. A. L. The Year of the Four Emperors. New York: Barnes and Noble Books, 1975. A large part of Vespasian’s reputation is linked to the restoration of order to the Roman world after an intense period of chaos. This study concentrates on the events that brought him to power and reveals the extensive task of reconstruction he had to undertake.

Levick, Barbara. Vespasian. New York: Routledge, 1999. The first full-length biography of Vespasian in English. Although the writing is dry, the scholarship is sound and thorough. Addresses not only Vespasian’s accomplishments in life but also his legacy. Includes indexes and eight pages of bibliographical references.

Marsh, Henry. The Caesars: The Roman Empire and Its Rulers. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1971. A brisk narrative in this popular collection of biographical portraits shows Vespasian in his roles as soldier, administrator, emperor, and rough-edged individual. The nonscholarly style is admirably suited to the character of Vespasian, with his practical common sense and coarse humor.

Suetonius. Lives of the Twelve Caesars. Translated by Michael Grant. New York: Welcome Rain, 2001. True to the standards of ancient biography, Suetonius shows the caesars less as actors on the grand political stage than as particular individuals with quirks and characteristics. This presentation, while missing much of importance, is still excellent for revealing the unmistakable individuality of a man such as Vespasian.

Wellesley, Kenneth. The Year of the Four Emperors. 3d ed. New York: Routledge, 2000. This edition includes an introduction by Barbara Levick. Places Vespasian in the context of the chaos and turmoil that preceded his reign. Addresses his childhood briefly but focuses on his rise to power. Includes bibliographical references, maps, and an index.