VESPASIAN (Flavius Vespasianus Augustus), ROMAN EMPEROR. — Born on 17 November 9 CE at Falacrinae, near Rieti; died at Aquae Cutiliae on 24 June 79 CE (on the identification of the places, V. E. Evans, The Cults of the Sabine territory, in Amer. Academy in Rome, 1939, pp. 95, 89) from a family also originally from the Sabine region.
Tribune of the soldiers under Tiberius, he pursued the career of honors until Nero sent him as imperial legate to Syria with the task of suppressing the Jewish revolt. During the first military operations, after the capture of Jotapata, he took prisoner one of the leaders of the revolt, Josephus, who later, pardoned, became the historian of the Jewish War. In the troubled period that followed the assassination of Galba, the legions of the East, later followed by those stationed in the Danube region, proclaimed Vespasian emperor, who overcame the last resistance of his rival Vitellius in the course of a cruel civil war that also unfolded within Rome itself.
As soon as he assumed power, Vespasian had to energetically confront serious problems, such as the sense of disorientation that gripped the Empire and the consequent decline in imperial prestige, as well as economic distress. After suppressing the Batavian rebellion and pacifying the Rhine region, and successfully concluding the Jewish War through the efforts of his son Titus (v.), he restored the dignity of the imperial office (he assumed the praenomen of Imperator), reformed the Senate by eliminating those who might have cast a shadow over him and introducing new men from the equestrian order and representatives of the Italian bourgeoisie. His shrewd practical sense made the administration more efficient both in Italy and in the various provinces of the Empire. He strengthened the “limen” of this office and increased the number of legions, though excluding Italians from legionary recruitment and reserving for them only service in the praetorian and urban cohorts, in order to prevent the army from being corrupted by the urban proletariat. There was also a revival in literature, with a return to the great models of the past, seen in Pliny the Elder, Quintilian, Valerius Flaccus, and Silius Italicus. In the fervent building activity in Rome, Vespasian was responsible for notable monuments, including the Forum Pacis and the Templum Pacis, later transformed into a church under the title of SS. Cosmas and Damian by Pope Felix IV. Under Vespasian, construction began on the Flavian Amphitheatre, later inaugurated by Titus in 80 CE and completed by Domitian.
Lanfranco Fiore
