BOOK VIII

THE DEIFIED VESPASIAN, THE DEIFIED TITUS, DOMITIAN

THE DEIFIED VESPASIAN

I. The empire, which for a long time had been unsettled and, as it were, drifting, through the usurpation and violent death of three emperors, was at last taken in hand and given stability by the Flavian family. This house was, it is true, obscure and without family portraits, yet it was one of which our country had no reason whatever to be ashamed, even though it is the general opinion that the penalty which Domitian paid for his avarice and cruelty was fully merited.

a

Titus Flavius Petro, a burgher of Reate and during the civil war a centurion or a volunteer veteran on Pompey's side, fled from the field of Pharsalus and went home, where after at last obtaining pardon and an honourable discharge, he carried on the business of a collector of moneys. His son, surnamed Sabinus (although some say that he was a centurion of the first grade, and others that while still in command of a cohort he was retired because of ill-health) took no part in military life, but farmed the public tax of a twentieth in Asia.

a

imagines a civitatibus ei positae sub hoc titulo: 3 KAAWC TEAWNHCANTI. Postea faenus apud Helvetios exercuit ibique diem obiit superstitibus uxore Vespasia Polla et duobus ex ea liberis, quorum maior Sabinus ad praefecturam urbis, minor Vespasianus ad principatum usque processit. Polla Nursiae honesto genere orta patrem habuit Vespasium Pollionem, ter tribunum militum praefectumque castrorum, fratrem senatorem praetoriae dignitatis. Locus etiam ad sextum miliarium Nursia Spoletium euntibus in monte summo appellatur Vespasiae, ubi Vespasiorum complura monumenta exstant, magnum indicium splendoris 4 familiae et vetustatis. Non negaverim iactatum a quibusdam Petronis patrem e regione Transpadana fuisse mancipem operarum, quae ex Umbria in Sabinos ad culturam agrorum quotannis commeare soleant; subsedisse autem in oppido Reatino uxore ibidem ducta. Ipse ne vestigium quidem de hoc, quamvis satis curiose inquirerem, inveni.

3

II. Vespasianus natus est in Sabinis1 ultra Reate vico modico, cui nomen est Falacrinae,2 XV. Kal. Decb. vesperi, Q. Sulpicio Camerino C. Poppaeo Sabino cons., quinquennio ante quam Augustus excederet; educatus sub paterna avia Tertulla in praediis Cosanis. Quare princeps quoque et locum 1 Sabinis, ; Samnis, .

2 Falacrini] Phalacrinae (-ne), .

3

vesperiq(ue), ; corrected in 5.

a A position held by tried and skilful officers, especially centurions of the first grade (primipili; C. I. L. iii. 6809, etc.). Cf. Vegetius, Epit. Rei Milit. 2. 10, is post longam probatamque militiam peritissimus omnium legebatur, ut recte doceret alios quod ipse cum laude fecisset.

a

And there existed for some time statues erected in his honour by the cities of Asia, inscribed "To an honest tax-gatherer." Later he carried banking business in the Helvetian country and there he died, survived by his wife, Vespasia Polla, and by two of her children, of whom the elder, Sabinus, rose to the rank of prefect of Rome, and the younger, Vespasian, even to that of emperor. Polla, who was born of an honourable family at Nursia, had for father Vespasius Pollio, thrice tribune of the soldiers and prefect of the camp," while her brother became a senator with the rank of praetor. There is moreover on the top of a mountain, near the sixth milestone on the road from Nursia to Spoletium, a place called Vespasiae, where many monuments of the Vespasii are to be seen, affording strong proof of the renown and antiquity of the house. I ought to add that some have bandied about the report, that Petro's father came from the region beyond the Po and was a contractor for the day-labourers who come regularly every year from Umbria to the Sabine district, to till the fields; but that he settled in the town of Reate and there married. Personally I have found no evidence whatever of this, in spite of rather careful investigation.

9 A.D.

II. Vespasian was born in the Sabine country, in a small village beyond Reate, called Falacrina, on the evening of the fifteenth day before the Kalends of Nov. 14, December, in the consulate of Quintus Sulpicius Camerinus and Gaius Poppaeus Sabinus, five years before the death of Augustus. He was brought up under the care of his paternal grandmother Tertulla on her estates at Cosa. Therefore even after he became emperor he used constantly to visit the home

2

3

incunabulorum assidue frequentavit, manente villa qualis fuerat olim, ne quid scilicet oculorum consuetudini deperiret; et aviae memoriam tanto opere dilexit, ut sellemnibus ac festis diebus cilo quoque eius argenteo potare perseveraverit.

Sumpta virili toga latum clavum, quanquam fratre adepto, diu aversatus est, nec ut tandem appeteret compelli nisi a matre potuit. Ea demum extudit magis convicio quam precibus vel auctoritate, dum eum identidem per contumeliam anteambulonem

fratris appellat.

Tribunatum militum in Thracia meruit; quaestor Cretam et Cyrenas provinciam sorte cepit; aedilitatis ac mox praeturae candidatus, illam1 non sine repulsa sextoque vix adeptus est loco, hanc 2 prima statim petitione et in primis. Praetor infensum 3 senatui Gaium ne quo non genere demereretur, ludos extraordinarios pro victoria eius Germanica depoposcit poenaeque coniuratorum addendum censuit, ut insepulti proicerentur. Egit et gratias ei apud amplissimum ordinem, quod se honore cenae dignatus esset.

III. Inter haec Flaviam Domitillam duxit uxorem, Statili Capellae equitis R. Sabratensis ex Africa delicatam olim Latinaeque condicionis, sed mox Jillam, Torrentius; etiam, .

2 hanc, Bentley, Duker; ac, .

3 infensum, Lipsius; infensus (-os), mss.

a The anteambulo was the client who walked before his patron on the street and compelled people to make way for him; cf. Mart. 2. 18. 5, tumidique anteambulo regis, where regis means patron," as in Hor. Epist. 1. 17. 43 and elseSee Calig. xlviii. and xlix. Lepidus and Gaetulicus; see Claud. ix. 1.

where.

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66

of his infancy, where the manor house was kept in its original condition, since he did not wish to miss anything which he was wont to see there; and he was so devoted to his grandmother's memory, that on religous and festival days he always drank from a little silver cup that had belonged to her.

After assuming the garb of manhood he for a long time made no attempt to win the broad stripe of senator, though his brother had gained it, and only his mother could finally induce him to sue for it. She at length drove him to it, but rather by sarcasm than by entreaties or parental authority, since she constantly taunted him with being his brother's footman."

He served in Thrace as tribune of the soldiers; as quaestor was assigned by lot to the province of Crete and Cyrene; became a candidate for the aedileship and then for the praetorship, attaining the former 38 A.D. only after one defeat and then barely landing in the sixth place, but the latter on his first canvass and 39 A.D. among the foremost. In his praetorship, to lose no opportuity of winning the favour of Gaius, who was at odds with the senate, he asked for special games because of the emperor's victory in Germany and recommended as an additional punishment of the conspirators e that they be cast out unburied. also thanked the emperor before that illustrious body because he had deigned to honour him with an invitation to dinner.

He

III. Meanwhile he took to wife Flavia Domitilla, formerly the mistress of Statilius Capella, a Roman knight of Sabrata in Africa, a woman originally only of Latin rank, but afterwards declared e a freeborn

d The senate.

e See note on Aug. xlvii.