THE empire, which had been long thrown into a disturbed and unsettled state, by
					the rebellion and violent death of its three last rulers, was at length restored
					to peace and security by the Flavian family, whose descent was indeed obscure,
					and which boasted no ancestral honours; but the public had no cause to regret
					its elevation; though it is acknowledged that Domitian met with the just reward
					of his avarice and cruelty. Titus Flavius Petro, a townsman of Reate , whether a centurion or an
						 evocatus of Pompey's party in
					the civil war, is uncertain, fled out of the battle of Pharsalia and went home;
					where, having at last obtained his pardon and discharge, he became a collector
					of the money raised by public sales in the way of auction. His son, surnamed
					Sabinus, was never engaged in the military service, though some say he was a
					centurion of the first order, and others, that whilst he held that rank, he was
					discharged on account of his bad state of health: this Sabinus, I say, was a
					republican, and received the tax of the fortieth penny in Asia . And there were remaining, at the time of
					the advancement of the family, several statues, which had been erected to him by
					the cities of that province, with this inscription: "To the honest
						Tax-farmer." He afterwards
					turned usurer amongst the Helvetii, and there died, leaving behind him his wife,
					Vespasia Polla , and two sons by her;
					the elder of whom, Sabinus, came to be prefect of the city, and the younger,
					Vespasian, to be emperor. Polla, descended of a good family, at Nursia , had for her
					father Vespasius Pollio, thrice appointed military tribune, and at last prefect
					of the camp; and her brother was a senator of praetorian dignity. There is to
					this day, about six miles from Nursia , on the road to Spoletum, a place on the summit of a
					hill, called Vespasize, where are several monuments of the Vespasii, a
					sufficient proof of the splendour and antiquity of the family. I will not deny
					that some have pretended to say. that Petro's father was a native of Gallia
					Transpadana, whose employment was to hire work-people
					who used to emigrate every year from the country of the Umbria into that of the Sabines, to assist
					them in their husbandry; but who settled at last in the
					town of Reate , and there married. But
					of this I have not been able to discover the least proof, upon the strictest
					inquiry.

Vespasian was born in the country of the Sabines, between the Reate , and a little country-seat called
					Phalacrine, upon the fifth of the calends of December [27th November], in the
					evening, in the consulship of Quintus Sulpicius Camerinus and Caius Poppaeus
					Sabinus, five years before the death of Augustus; and was educated under the care
					of Tertulla, his grandmother by the father's side, upon an estate belonging to
					the family, at Cosa . After his advancement to the empire, he used
					frequently to visit the place where he had spent his infancy; and the villa was
					continued in the same condition, that he might see every thing about him just as
					he had been used to do. And he had so great a regard for the memory of his
					grandmother, that, upon solemn occasions and festival days, he constantly drank
					out of a silver cup which she had been accustomed to use. After assuming the
					manly habit, he had a long time a distaste for the senatorian toga, though his
					brother had obtained it- nor could he be persuaded by any one but his mother to
					sue for that badge of honour. She at length drove him to it, more by taunts and
					reproaches, than by entreaties and authority, calling him now and then, by way
					of reproach, his brother's footman. He served as military tribune in Thrace . When made quaestor, the province of
						 Crete and Cyrene fell to him by lot. He was candidate
					for the aedileship, and soon after for the praetorship, but met with a repulse
					in the former case; though at last, with much difficulty, he came in sixth on
					the poll-books. But the office of praetor he carried upon his first canvass,
					standing amongst the highest at the poll. Being incensed against the senate, and
					desirous to gain, by all possible means, the good graces of Caius, he obtained leave to exhibit extraordinary
						 games for the emperor's
					victory in Germany , and advised them to
					increase the punishment of the conspirators against his life, by exposing their
					corpses unburied. He likewise gave him thanks in that august assembly for the
					honour of being admitted to his table.

Meanwhile, he married Flavia Domitilla, who had formerly been the mistress of
					Statilius Capella, a Roman knight of Sabrata in Africa , who
					[Domitilla] enjoyed Latin rights; and was soon after declared fully and freely a
					citizen of Rome , on a trial before the
					court of Recovery, brought by her father Flavius Liberalis, a native of
					Ferentum, but no more than secretary to a quaestor. By her he had the following
					children: Titus, Domitia nd Domitilla. He outlived his wife and daughter, and
					lost them both before he became emperor. After the death of his wife he renewed
					his union with his former
					concubine, Caenis, the freedwoman of Antonia, and also her amanuensis, and
					treated her, even after he was emperor, almost as if she had been his lawful
						wife.

In the reign of Claudius, by the interest of Narcissus, he was sent to Germany , in command of a legion; whence being
					removed into Britain , he engaged the
					enemy in thirty several battles. He reduced under subjection to the Romans two
					very powerful tribes, and above twenty great towns, with the Isle of Wight,
					which lies close to the coast of Britain ; partly under the command of Aulus Plautius, the
					consular lieutenant, and partly under Claudius himself. For this success he received the triumphal ornaments, and in a short
					time after two priesthoods, besides the consulship, which he held during the
					last two months of the year. The interval
					between that and his proconsulship he spent in leisure and retirement, for fear
					of Agrippina, who still held great sway over her son, and hated all the friends
					of Narcissus, who was then dead. Afterwards he got by lot the province of
						 Africa , which he governed with
					great reputation, excepting that once, in an insurrection at Adrumetum, he.was
					pelted with turnips. It is certain that he returned thence nothing richer; for
					his credit was so low, that he was obliged to mortgage his whole property to his
					brother, and was reduced to the necessity of dealing in mules, for the support
					of his rank; for which reason he was commonly called "the Muleteer." He is said
					likewise to have been convicted of extorting from a young man of fashion two
					hundred thousand sesterces for procuring him the broad-stripe, contrary to the
					wishes of his father, and was severely reprimanded for it. While in attendance
					upon Nero in Achaia , he frequently
					withdrew from the theatre while Nero was singing, and went to' sleep if he
					remained, which gave so much offence, that he was not only excluded from his
					society, but debarred the liberty of saluting him in public. Upon this, he
					retired to a small out-of-the-way town, where he lay skulking in constant fear
					of his life, until a province, with an army, was offered him. 
				 A firm persuasion had long prevailed through all the East, that it was fated for the empire of the world, at that time,
					to devolve on some one who should go forth from Judaea . This prediction referred to a Roman emperor, as the
					event shewed; but the Jews, applying it to themselves, broke out into rebellion,
					and having defeated and slain their governor, routed the lieutenant of Syria , a man of consular rank, who was advancing to his assistance, and took an
					eagle, the standard of one of his legions. As the suppression of this revolt
					appeared to require a stronger force and an active general, who might be safely
					trusted in an affair of so much importance, Vespasian was chosen in preference
					to all others, both for his own activity, and on account of the obscurity of his
					origin and name, being a person of whom there could be not the least jealousy.
					Two legions, 'therefore, eight squadrons of horse, and ten cohorts, being added
					to the former troops in Judaea , and,
					taking with him his eldest son as lieutenant, as soon as he arrived in his
					province, he turned the eyes of the neighbouring provinces upon him, by
					reforming immediately the discipline of the camp, and engaging the enemy once or
					twice with such resolution, that, in the attack of a castle, he had his knee hurt by the
					stroke of a stone, and received several arrows in his shield.

After the deaths of Nero and Galba, whilst Otho and Vitellius were contending for
					the sovereignty, he entertained hopes of obtaining the empire, with the prospect
					of which he had long before flattered himself, from the following omens. Upon an
					estate belonging to the Flavian family, in the neighbourhood of Rome , there was an old oak, sacred to Mars,
					which, at the three several deliveries of Vespasia, put out each time a new
					branch; evident intimations of the future fortune of each child. The first was
					but a slender one, which quickly withered away; and accordingly, the girl that
					was born did not live long. The second became vigorous, which portended great
					good fortune; but the third grew like a tree. His father Sabinus, encouraged by
					these omens, which were confirmed by the augurs, told his mother, "that her
					grandson would be emperor of Rome ;" at
					which she laughed heartily, wondering, she said, "that her son should be in his
					dotage whilst she continued still in full possession of her faculties." 
				 Afterwards in his aedileship, when Caius Caesar, being enraged at his not taking
					care to have the streets kept clean, ordered the soldiers to fill the bosom of
					his gown with dirt, some persons at that time construed it into a sign that the
					government, being trampled under foot and deserted in some civil commotion,
					would fall under his protection, and as it were into his lap. Once, while he was
					at dinner, a strange dog that wandered about the streets, brought a man's
						hand, and laid it under the table. And another time, while he was
					at supper, a plough-ox throwing the yoke off his neck, broke into the room, and
					after he had frightened away all the attendants, on a suddren, as if he was
					tired, fell down at his feet, as he lay still upon his couch, and hung down his
					neck. A cypress-tree likewise, in a field belonging to the family, was torn up
					by the roots, and laid flat upon the ground, when there was no violent wind; but
					next day it rose again fresher and stronger than before. 
				 He dreamt in Achaia that the good
					fortune of himself and his family would begin when Nero had a tooth drawn; and
					it happened that the day after, a surgeon coming into the hall, showed him a
					tooth which he had just extracted from Nero. In Judea , upon his consulting the oracle of the divinity at
						 Carmel , the answer
					was so encouraging as to assure him of success in anything he projected, however
					great or important it might be. And when Josephus, one of the noble prisoners, was put in
					chains, he confidently affirmed that he should be released in a very short time
					by the same Vespasian, but he would be emperor first. Some
					omens were likewise mentioned in the news from Rome , and among others, that Nero, towards the close of his
					days, was commanded in a dream to carry Jupiter's sacred chariot out of the
					sanctuary where it stood, to Vespasian's house, and conduct it thence into the
					circus. Also not long afterwards, as Galba was going to the election in which he
					was created consul for the second time, a statue of the Divine Julius turned towards the east. And in the field
					of Bedriacum, before the battle
					began, two eagles engaged in the sight of the army; and one of them being
					beaten, a third came from the east, and drove away the conqueror.

He made, however, no attempt upon the sovereignty though his friends were very
					ready to support him, and even pressed him to the enterprise untl he was
					encouraged to it by the fortuitous aid of persons unknown to him and at a
					distance. Two thousand men, drawn out of three legions in the Moesian army, had
					been sent to the assistance of Otho. While they were upon their march, news came
					that he had been defeated, and had put an end to his life; notwithstanding which
					they continued their march as far as Aquileia , pretending that they gave no credit to the report.
					There, tempted by the opportunity which the disorder of the times afforded them,
					they ravaged and plundered the country at discretion; until at length, fearing
					to be called to an account on their return, and punished for it, they resolved
					upon choosing and creating an emperor. "For they were no ways inferior," they
					said, "to the army which made Galba emperor, nor to the praetorian troops which
					had set up Otho, nor the army in Germany , to whom Vitellius owed his elevation." The names of
					all the consular lieutenants, therefore, being taken into consideration, and one
					objecting to one, and another to another, for various reasons; at last some of
					the third legion, which a little before Nero's death had been removed out of
						 Syria into Moesia , extolled Vespasian in high terms; and
					all the rest assenting, his name was immediately inscribed on their standards.
					The design was nevertheless quashed for a time, the troops being brought to
					submit to Vitellius a little longer. 
				 However, the fact becoming known, Tiberius Alexander, governor of Egypt , first obliged the legions under his
					command to swear obedience to Vespasian as their emperor, on the calends [the
					1st] of July, which was observed ever after as the day of his accession to the
					empire; and upon the fifth of the ides of the same month [the 28th of July], the
					army in Judaea , where he then was, also
					swore allegiance to him. What contributed greatly to forward the affair, was a
					copy of a letter, whether real or counterfeit, which was circulated, and said to
					have been written by Otho before his decease to Vespasian, recommending to him
					in the most urgent terms to avenge his death, and entreating him to come to the
					aid of the commonwealth; as well as a report which was circulated, that
					Vitellius, after his success against Otho, proposed to change the winter
					quarters of the legions, and remove those in Germany to a less hazardous station and a warmer climate.
					Moreover, amongst the governors of provinces, Lucinius Mucianus dropping the
					grudge arising from a jealousy of which he had hitherto made no secret, promised
					to join him with the Syrian army, and, among the allied kings, Vologesus, king
					of the Parthians, offered him a reinforcement of forty thousand archers.

Having, therefore, entered on a civil war, and sent forward his generals and
					forces into Italy , he himself, in the
					meantime, passed over to Alexandria , to obtain possession of the key of Egypt . Here having entered
					alone, without attendants, the temple of Serapis, to take the auspices
					respecting the establishment of his power, and having done his utmost to
					propitiate the deity, upon turning round, [his freedman] Basilides appeared before him, and seemed to offer him the sacred
					leaves, chaplets, and cakes, according to the usage of the place, although no
					one had admitted him, and he had long laboured under a muscular debility, which
					would hardly have allowed him to walk into the temple; besides which, it was
					certain that at the very time he was far away. Immeiately after this, arrived
					letters with intelligence that Vitellius's troops had been defeated at Cremona,
					and he himself slain at Rome. Vespasian, the new emperor, having been raised
					unexpectedly from a low estate, wanted something which might clothe him with
					divine majesty and authority. This, likewise, was now added. A poor man who was
					blind, and another who was lame, came both together before him, when he was
					seated on the tribunal, imploring him to heal them, and saying that they were
					admonished in a dream by the god Serapis to seek his aid, who assured them that
					he would restore sight to the one by anointing his eyes with his spittle, and
					give strength to the leg of the other, if he vouchsafed but to touch it with his
					heel. At first he could scarcely believe that the thing would any how succeed,
					and therefore hesitated to venture on making the experiment. At length, however,
					by the advice of his friends, he made the attempt publicly, in the presence of
					the assembled multitudes, and it was crowned with success in both cases. About the same time,
					at Tegea in Arcadia, by the direction of some soothsayers, several vessels of
					ancient workmanship were dug out of a consecrated place, on which there was an
					effigy resembling Vespasian.

Returning now to Rome, under these auspices, and with a great reputation, after
					enjoying a triumph for victories over the Jews, he added eight consulships to his
					former one. He likewise assumed the censorship, and made it his principal
					concern, during the whole of his government, first to restore order in the
					state, which had been almost ruined, and was in a tottering condition, and then
					to improve it. The soldiers, one part of them emboldened by victory, and the
					other smarting with the disgrace of their defeat, had abandoned themselves to
					every species of licentiousness and insolence. Nay, the provinces, too, and free
					cities, and some kingdoms in alliance with Rome, were all in a disturbed state.
					He, therefore, disbanded many of Vitellius's soldiers, and punished others; and
					so far was he from granting any extraordinary favours to the sharers of his
					success, that it was late before he paid the gratuities due to them by law. That
					he might let slip no opportunity of reforming the discipline of the army, upon a
					young man's coming much perfumed to return him thanks for having appointed him
					to command a squadron of horse, he turned away his head in disgust, and giving
					him this sharp reprimand, "I had rather you had smelt of garlic," revoked his
					commission. When the men belonging to the fleet, who travelled by turns from
					Ostia and Puteoli to Rome, petitioned for an addition to their pay, under the
					name of shoe-money, thinking that it would answer little purpose to send them
					away without a reply, he ordered them for the future to run bare-footed; and so
					they have done ever since. He deprived of their liberties, Achaia, Lycia,
					Rhodes, Byzantium, and Samos, and reduced them into the form of provinces;
					Thrace, also, and Cilicia, as well as Comagene, which until that time had been
					under the government of kings. He stationed some legions in Cappadocia on
					account of the frequent inroads of barbarians, and, instead of a Roman knight,
					appointed as governor of it a man of consular rank. The ruins of houses which
					had been burnt down long before, being a great desight to the city, he gave
					leave to any one who would, to take possession of the void ground and build upon
					it, if the proprietors should hesitate to perform the work themselves. He
					resolved upon rebuilding the Capitol, and was the foremost to put his hand to
					clearing the ground of the rubbish, and removed some of it upon his own
					shoulder. And he undertook, likewise, to restore the three thousand tables of
					brass which had been destroyed in the fire which consumed the Capitol; searching
					in all quarters for copies of those curious and ancient records, in which were
					contained the decrees of the senate, almost from the building of the city, as
					well as the acts of the people, relative to alliances, treaties, and privileges
					granted to any person.

He likewise erected several new public buildings, namely the temple of Peace near the forum, that of
					Claudius on the Coelian mount, which had been begun by Agrippina, but almost
					entirely demolished by Nero; and an
						amphitheatre 
					in the middle of the city, upon finding that Augustus had projected such a work.
					He purified the senatorian and equestrian orders, which had been much reduced by
					the havoc made amongst them at several times, and was fallen into disrepute by
					neglect. Having expelled the most unworthy, he chose in their room the most
					honourable persons in Italy and the provinces. And to let it be known that those
					two orders differed not so much in privileges as in dignity, he declared
					publicly when some altercation passed between a senator and a Roman knight,
					"that senators ought not to be treated with scurrilous language, unless they
					were aggressors, and then it was fair and lawful to return it."

The business of the courts had prodigiously accumulted, partly from old law-suits
					which, on account of the interruption that had been given to the course of
					justice, still remained undecided, and partly from the accession of new suits
					arising out of the disorder of the times. He, therefore, chose cmmissioners by
					lot to provide for the restitution of what had been seized by violence during
					the war, and others with extraordinary jurisdiction to decide causes belonging
					to the centumviri, and reduce them to as small a number as possible, for the
					dispatch of which, otherwise, the lives of the litigants could scarcely allow
					sufficient time.

Lust and luxury, from the licence which had long prevailed, had also grown to an
					enormous height. He, therefore, obtained a decree of the senate, that a woman
					who formed an union with the slave of another person, should be considered a
					bondwoman herself; and that usurers should not be allowed to take proceedings at
					law for the recovery of money lent to young men whilst they lived in their
					father's family, not even after their fathers were dead.

In other affairs, from the beginning to the end of his government, he conduct
					himself-wihgreatmedeation and clemency. He was so far from disseriibling the
					obscurity of his extraction, that he frequently made mention of it himself. When
					some affected to trace his pedigree to the founders of Reate, and a companion of
						Hercules, whose
					monument is still to be seen on the Salarian road, he laughed at them for it.
					And he was so little fond of external and adventitious ornaments, that, on the
					day of his triumph,' being quite tired of the length and tediousness of the
					procession, he could not forbear saying, "he was rightly served, for having in
					his old age. been so silly as to desire a triumph; as if it was either due to
					his ancestors, or had ever been expected by himself." Nor would he for a long
					time accept of the tribunitian authority, or the title of Father of his Country.
					And in regard to the custom of searching those who came to salute him, he
					dropped it even in the time of the civil war.

He bore with great mildness the freedom used by his friends, the satirical
					allusions of advocates, and the petulance of philosophers. Licinius Mucianus,
					who had been guilty of notorious acts of lewdness, but, presuming upon his great
					services, treated him very rudely, he re- proved only in private; and when
					complaining of his con- duct to a common friend of theirs, he concluded with
					these words, "However, I am a man." Salvius Liberalis, in pleading the. cause of
					a rich man under prosecution, presuming to say, "What is it to Caesar, if
					Hipparchus possesses a hundred millions of sesterces?" he com- mended him for
					it. Demetrius, the Cynic philosopher, who
					had been sentenced to banishment, meeting him on the road, and refusing to rise
					up or salute him, nay, snarling at him in scurrilous language, he only called
					him a cur.

He was little disposed to keep up the memory of affronts or quarrels, nor did he
					harbour any resentment on account of them. He made a very splendid marriage for
					the daughter of his enemy Vitellius, and gave her, besides, a suitable fortune
					and equipage. Being in a great consternation after he was forbidden the court in
					the time of Nero, and asking those about him, what he should do? or, whither he
					should g ? one of those whose office it was to introduce people to the emperor,
					thrusting him out, bid him go to Morbonia. But when
					this same person came afterwards to beg his pardon, he only vented his
					resentment in nearly the same words. He was so far from being influenced by
					suspicion or fear to seek the destruction of any one, that, when his friends
					advised him to beware of Metius Pomposianus, because it was commonly believed,
					on his nativity being cast, that he was destined by fate to the empire, he made
					him consul, promising for him, that he would not forget the benefit
					conferred.

It will scarcely be found, that so much as one innocent person suffered in his
					reign, unless in his absence, and without his knowledge, or, at least, contrary
					to his inclination, and when he was imposed upon. Although Helvidius Priscus
						 was the only man who presumed to salute him on his return
					from Syria by his private name of Vespasian, and, when he came to be praetor,
					omitted any mark of honour to him, or even any mention of him in his edicts, yet
					he was not angry, until Helvidius proceeded to inveigh against him with the most
					scurrilous language. Though he did indeed banish him, and afterwards ordered him
					to be put to death, yet he would gladly have saved him notwithstanding, and
					accordingly dispatched messengers to fetch back the executioners; and he would
					have saved him, had he not been deceived by a false account brought, that he had
					already perished. He never ejroiced at the death of any man; nay, he would shed
					tears, and sigh, atthe just punishment of the guilty.

The only thing deservedly blameable in his character was his love of money. For
					not satisfied with reviving the imposts which had been repealed in the time of
					Galba he imposed new and onerous taxes, augmented the tribute of the provinces,
					and doubled that of some of them. He likewise openly engaged in a traffic, which
					is discreditable even to a private
					individual, buying great quantities of goods, for the purpose of retailing them
					again to advantage. Nay, he made no scruple of selling the great offices of the
					state to candidates, and pardons to persons under prosecution, whether they were
					innocent or guilty. It is believed, that he advanced all the most rapacious
					amongst the procurators to high offices, with the view of squeezing them after
					they had acquired great wealth. He was commonly said, "to have used them as
					sponges," because it was his practice, as we may say, to wet them when dry, and
					squeeze them when wet. It is said that he was naturally extremely covetous, and
					was upbraided with it by an old herdsman of his, who, upon the emperor's
					refusing to enfranchise him gratis, which on his advancement he humbly
					petitioned for, cried out, "That the fox changed his hair, but not his nature."
					On the other hand, some are of opinion, that he was urged to his rapacious
					proceedings by necessity, and the extreme poverty of the treasury and exchequer,
					of which he took public notice in the beginning of his reign; declaring that "no
					less than four hundred thousand millions of sesterces were wanting to carry on
					the government." This is the more likely to be true, because he applied to the
					best purposes what he procured by bad means.

His liberality, however, to all ranks of people, was excessive. He made up to
					several senators the estate required by law to qualify them for that dignity;
					relieving likewise such men of consular rank as were poor, with a yearly
					allowance of five hundred thousand sesterces; and rebuilt, in a better manner than before, several
					cities in different parts of the empire, which had been damaged by earthquakes
					or fires.

He was a great encourager of learning and the liberal arts. He first granted to
					the Latin and Greek professors of rhetoric the yearly stipend of a hundred
					thousand sesterces each out of the exchequer.
					He also bought the freedom of superior poets and artists, and gave a
					noble gratuity to the restorer of the Coan Venus, and to another artist who repaired the Colossus. Some one offering to convey some immense columns into
					the Capitol at a small expense by a mechanical contrivance, he rewarded him very
					handsomely for his invention, but would not accept his service, saying, "Suffer
					me to find maintenance for the poor people."

In the games celebrated when the stage-scenery of the theatre of Marcellus was repaired, restred the old
					musical entertainments. He gave Apollinaris, the tragedian, four hundred
					thousand sesterces, and to Terpinus and Diodorus, the harpers, two hundred
					thousand; to some a hundred thousand; and the least he gave to any of the
					performers was forty thousand, besides many golden crowns. He entertained
					company constantly at his table, and often in great state and very sumptuously,
					in order to promote trafde. As in the Saturnalia he made presents to the men
					which they were to carry away with them, so did he to the women upon the calends
					of March; 
					notwithstanding which, he could not wipe off the disrepute of his former
					stinginess. The Alexandrians called him constantly Cybiosactes; a name wich had
					been. to one of their kings who was sordidly avaricious. Nay, at his funeral,
					Favo, the principal mimic, personating him, and imitating, as actors do, both
					his manner of speaking and his gestures, asked aloud of the procurators, "how'
					much his funeral and the procession would cost?" And being answered "ten
					millions of sesterces," he cried out, "give him but a hundred thousand
					sesterces, and they might throw his body into the Tiber, if they would."

He was broad-set, strong-limbed, and his features gave the idea of a man in the
					act of straining himself. In consequence, one of the city wits, upon the
					emperor's desiring him "to say something droll respecting himself," facetiously
					answered, "I will, when you have done relieving your bowels." He enjoyed a good state of health, though he used no other means to
					preserve it, than repeated friction, as much as he could bear, on his neck and
					other parts of his body, in the tennis-court attached to the baths, besides
					fasting one day in every month.

His method of life was commonly this. After he became emperor, he used to rise
					very early, often before day-break. Having read over his letters, and the briefs
					of all the departments of the government offices, he admitted his friends; and
					while they were paying him their compliments, he would put on his own shoes, and
					dress himself with his own hands. Then, after the dispatch of such business as
					was brought before him, he rode out, and afterwards retired to repose, lying on
					his couch with one of his mistresses, of whom he kept several after the death of
						Caenis. Coming out of his
					private apartments, he passed to the Bath," 'and then entered the supper-room.
					They say that he was never more good-humoured and indulgent than at that time:
					and therefore his attendants always seized that opportunity, when they had any
					favour to ask.

At supper, and, indeed, at other times, he was extremely free and jocose. For he
					had humour, but of a low kind, and he would sometimes use indecent language,
					such as is addressed to ygung girls about to be married. Yet there are some
					things related of him not void of ingenious pleasantry; amongst which are the
					following. Being once reminded by Mestrius Florus, that plaustra was a more
					proper expression than plostra, he the next day saluted him by the name of
						Flaurus. A certain lady pretending to
					be desperately enamoured of him, he was prevailed upon to admit her to his bed:
					and after he had gratified her desires, he gave her four hundred thousand sesterces. When his
					steward desired to know how he would have the sum entered in his accounts, he
					replied, "For Vespasian's being seduced."

He used Greek verses very wittily; speaking of a tall man: μακρὰ ζίζασ κραδάων δολλιχώσκιον ἔγχοσ 
					And of Cerylus, a freedman, who being very rich had begun to pass himself off as
					free-born, to elude the exchequer at 'his decease, and assumed the name of
					Laches, he said: ὦ Λάχης, Λάχησ 
						 ἔπαν ἀποθάνης, αὐθίσ ἐξ ἀρχῆσ ἔση Κήρυλοσ 
					 Ah, Laches, Laches ! when thou art no more, 
						 Thou'lt Cerylus be called, just as before. He chiefly
					affected wit upon his own shameful means of raising money, in order to wipe off
					the odium by some joke, and turn it into ridicule. One of his ministers, who was
					much in his favour, requesting of him a stewardship for some person, under
					pretence of his being his brother, he deferred granting him his petition, and in
					the meantime sent for the candidate, and having squeezed out of him as much
					money as he had agreed to give to his friend at court, he appointed him
					immediately to the office. The minister soon after renewing his application,
					"You must," said he, "find another brother; for the one you adopted is in truth
					mine." 
				 Suspecting once, during a journey, that his mule-driver had alighted to shoe his
					mules, only in order to have an opportunity for allowing a person they met, who
					was engaged in a law-suit, to speak to him, he asked him, " how much he got for
					shoeing his mules?" and insisted on having a share of the profit. When his son
					Titus blamed him for even laying a tax upon urine, he applied to his nose a
					piece of the money he received in the first instalment, and asked him, " if it
					stunk?" And he replying no, "And yet," said he, it is derived from urine." Some
					deputies having come to acquaint him that a large statue, which would cost a
					vast sum, was ordered to be erected for him at the public expense, he told them
					to pay it down immediately, holding out the hollow of his hand, and saying, "
					there was a base ready for the statue." Not even when he was under the immediate
					apprehension and peril of death, could he forbear jesting. For when, among other
					prodigies, the mausoleum of the Caesars suddenly flew open, and a blazing star
					appeared in the heavens; one of the prodigies, he said, concerned Julia Calvina,
					who was of the family of Augustus, 
					and the other, the king of the Parthians, who wore his hair long. And when his
					distemper first seized him, "I suppose." he said, "I shall soon be a god."

In his ninth consulship, being seized, while in Campania, with a slight
					indisposition, and immediately returning to the city, he soon afterwards went
					thence to Cutiliae, and his estates in the country about Reate,
					where he used constantly to spend the summer. Here, though his disorder much
					increased, and he injured his bowels by too free use of the cold waters, he
					nevertheless attended to the dispatch of business, and even gave audience to
					ambassadors in bed. At last, being taken ill of a diarrhoea, to such a degree
					that he was ready to faint, he cried out, "An emperor ought to die standing
					upright." In endeavouring to rise, he died in the hands of those who were
					helping him up, upon the eighth of the calends of July [24th June], being sixty-nine years, one month, and seven
					days old.

All are agreed that he had such confidence in the calculations of his own
					nativity and that of his sons, that, after several conspiracies against him, he
					told the senate, that either his sons would succeed him, or nobody. It is said
					likewise, that he once saw in a dream a balance in the middle of the porch of
					the Palatine house exactly poised; in one scale of which stood Claudius and
					Nero, and in the other, himself and his sons. The event corresponded to the
					symbol; for the reigns of the two parties were precisely of the same
						duration.

Remarks on Vespasian 
				 NEITHER consanguinity nor adoption, as formerly, but great influence in the army
					having now become the road to the imperial throne, no person could claim a
					better title to that elevation than Titus Flavius Vespasian. He had not only
					served with great reputation in the wars both in Britain and Judaea, but seemed
					as yet untainted with any vice which could pervert his conduct in the civil
					administration of the empire. It appears, however, that he was prompted more by
					the persuasion of friends, than by his own ambition, to prosecute the attainment
					of the imperial dignity. To render this enterprise more successful, recourse was
					had to a new and peculiar artifice, which, while well accommodated to the
					superstitious credulity of the Romans, impressed them with an idea, that
					Vespasian's destiny to the throne was confirmed by supernatural indications.
					But, after his elevation, we hear no more of his miraculous achievements. 
				 The prosecution of the war in Britain, which had been suspended for some years,
					was resumed by Vespasian; and he sent thither Petilius Cerealis, who by his
					bravery extended the limits of the Roman province. Under Julius Frontinus,
					successor to the general, the invaders continued to make farther progress in the
					reduction of the island: but the commander who finally established the dominion
					of the Romans in Britain, was Julius Agricola, not less distinguished for his
					military achievements, than for his prudent regard to the civil administration
					of the country. He began his operations with the conquest of North Wales, whence
					passing over into the island of Anglesey, which had revolted since the time of
					Suetonius Paulinus, he again reduced it to subjection. Then proceeding
					northwards with his victorious army, he defeated the Britons in every
					engagement, took possession of all the territories in the southern parts of the
					island, and driving before him all who refused to submit to the Roman arms,
					penetrated even into the forests and mountains of Caledonia. He defeated the
					natives under Galgacus, their leader, in a decisive battle; and fixing a line of
					garrisons between the friths of Clyde and Forth, he secured the Roman province
					from the incursions of the people who occupied the parts of the island beyond
					that boundary. Wherever he established the Roman power, he introduced laws and
					civilization amongst the inhabitants, and employed every means of conciliating
					their affection, as well as of securing their obedience. 
				 The war in Judaea, which had been commenced under the former reign, was now
					continued in that of Vespasian; but he left the siege of Jerusalem to be
					conducted by his son Titus, who displayed great valour and military talents in
					the prosecution of the enterprise. After an obstinate defence by the Jews, that
					city, so much celebrated in the sacred writings, was finally demolished, and the
					glorious temple itself, the admiration of the world, reduced to ashes; contrary,
					however, to the will of Titus, who exerted his utmost efforts to extinguish the
					flames. 
				 The manners of the Romans had now attained to an enormous pitch of depravity,
					through the unbounded licentiousness of the times; and, to the honour of
					Vespasian, he discovered great zeal in his endeavours to effect a national
					reformation. Vigilant, active, and persevering, he was indefatigable in the
					management of public affairs, and rose in the winter before day-break, to give
					audience to his officers of state. But if we give credit to the whimsical
					imposition of a tax upon urine, we cannot entertain any high opinion, either of
					his talents as a financier, or of the resources of the Roman empire. By his
					encouragement of science, he displayed a liberality, of which there occurs no
					example under all the preceding emperors, since the time of Augustus. Pliny the
					elder was now in the height of reputation, as well as in great favour with
					Vespasian; and it was probably owing not a little to the advice of that
					minister, that the emperor showed himself so much the patron of Literary men. A
					writer mentioned frequently by Pliny, and who lived in this reign, was Licinius
					Mucianus, a Roman knight: he treated of the history and geography of the eastern
					countries. Juvenal, who had begun his Satires several years before, continued to
					inveigh against the flagrant vices of the times; but the only author whose
					writings we have to notice in the present reign, is a poet of a different class.