Vespasian

Family: Flavian · Role: emperor · First appears: Claudius 45

Vespasian was born at Phalacrine, the family country-seat beyond Reate, and was educated at Cosa under the care of his grandmother Tertulla. He served as a military tribune in Thrace, received Crete and Cyrene as quaestor, lost his first candidacy for the aedileship, then won the praetorship on his first canvass. He married Flavia Domitilla, and they had Titus, Domitian, and Domitilla; he outlived his wife and daughter, and after his wife’s death renewed his union with Caenis.

In the reign of Claudius, the influence of Narcissus sent him to command a legion in Germany, after which he served under Aulus Plautius and Claudius in Britain, reducing tribes, towns, and the Isle of Wight. He later governed Africa with great reputation, but Nero excluded him from his society and forbade him to salute him publicly, leading Vespasian to hide until he was offered a province and army. In Judaea he restored camp discipline and resumed attacks, and his soldiers eventually proclaimed him emperor, though the first attempt was delayed while they submitted to Vitellius; Licinius Mucianus then offered the Syrian army, while Volugesus offered forty thousand Parthian archers.

After entering the civil war, Vespasian became emperor and celebrated a triumph for victories over the Jews. He rebuilt temples and the Capitol, erected the temple of Peace and an amphitheatre, reorganized offices and courts, restored damaged cities, supported professors, poets, artists, and performers, and rewarded Apollinaris, Terpinus, and Diodorus. He disbanded and punished many of Vitellius’s soldiers, yet arranged a splendid marriage for Vitellius’s daughter; he made Metius Pomposianus consul, banished and ordered the death of Helvidius Priscus while attempting to recall the executioners, and dealt with Licinius Mucianus privately despite their friendship. He died at Cutiliae while attempting to rise from his bed, after declaring that either his sons would succeed him or nobody would; Domitian was reprimanded during his father’s lifetime and made to live under closer supervision.