Vespasian

Biography

Titus Flavius Vespasianus rose from the Italian municipal gentry rather than the old senatorial aristocracy — a self-made soldier-administrator with a reputation for bluntness, frugality, and dry humor. Nero gave him command of the war in Judea in 67 AD precisely because he was capable but unthreatening: a man too lowborn to dream of the throne. Vespasian methodically reconquered Galilee, captured Josephus at Jotapata, and was closing on Jerusalem when the empire dissolved into the chaos of the Year of the Four Emperors. In 69 AD the eastern legions proclaimed Vespasian emperor. He left the final reduction of Jerusalem to his son Titus and marched on Rome, founding the Flavian dynasty and restoring stability after Nero's fall and the civil wars. He funded his reign partly from the spoils of Judea — the great Colosseum was built with the plunder and slave labor of the Jewish war — and stamped 'IVDAEA CAPTA' on his coins. Pragmatic to the last, he reportedly joked on his deathbed about his impending deification: 'Alas, I think I am becoming a god.'

Key Battles