Category:Vespasian (subject)

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Titus Flavius Vespasianus (17–79 CE) was the commander in chief sent by Nero to quell the Jewish Revolt and the first emperor of the Flavian dinasty, from 69 to 79 CE.

< Events : Jewish War >


Overview

Vespasian was born in an Italic equestrian family from Reate. He followed the various steps of the Senatorial cursus honorum under Claudius and Nero, ending in 66 CE as the commander of the army sent to quell the revolt in Judaea. Proclaimed emperor in 69 CE, at the end of the Year of the Four Emperors, Vespasian ruled till 79 CE. He was succeeded by his son Titus.

Early Career

Titus Flavius Vespasianus was born in 17 CE at Reate. Although his father, Titus Flavius Sabinus, was an equestrian, his mother Vespasia Polla, was the daughter of a Senator. Both he and his older brother, Titus Flavius Sabinus, followed a Senatorial career. In 36 CE he begun his cursus honorum as military tribune in Thrace, in 37 he was appointed quaestor and served in Crete and Cyrene, in 39 he was appointed aedilis and in 40 CE praetor. In 41 CE, Claudius appointed Vespasian legate of Legio II Augusta, stationed in Germania. From 41 till 43 CE Vespasian took part in the invasion of Britannia under the command of Aulus Plautius. On his return to Rome, Claudius awarded him the ornamenta triumphalia. In 51 CE, Vespasian was elected consul. He then withdrew from public life till 63 CE. Vespasian married Flavia Domitilla, the daughter of an equestrian. They had two sons, Titus Flavius Vespasianus and Titus Flavius Domitianus, and a daughter, Domitilla. Flavia died before Vespasian became emperor. Vespasian then took a mistress Caenis, a member of the household of Antonia Maior, who lived together with him till her death in 74 CE. In 63 CE, Nero appointed him governor of the Province of Africa. Afterwards he followed the Emperor Nero in his travel to Greece, although it seems that for a while Vespasian lost the Imperial favor. In 66 CE, Nero appointed Vespasian commander in chief in Judaea. Titus, Vespasian’elder son served in the staff. Vespasian’s army was supported by the armies of various client - kings as Agrippa II, Antiochus of Commagene, Soaemus of Emesa, and Malichus II of Nabatea. In 67 CE, Vespasian, conduced a series of campaigns, which resulted in the fall of various Jewish strongholds in Galilee, including Iotapata, commanded by Joseph Ben Mattatihu, and Gamla. The following year, in 68 CE, the Roman army conquered back Judaea, and surrounded Jerusalem. The death of Nero in 68 CE, was followed by the succession of short –lived emperors, Galba, Otho, and Vitellius. Vespasian supported Otho, and once Otho was murdered, his supporters looked at Vespasian as their choice. Vespasian bid to the throne was supported by Mucianus, the governor of Syria, the army in Egypt under Tiberius Julius Alexander, by his own army in Judaea, and the legions stationed in Moesia, Pannonia, and Illyricum. While Vespasian was in the East, M. Antonius Primus defeated Vitellius’s army at the second battle of Bedriacum, and after the sack of Cremona entered in Rome. However during the civil war in Rome between the supporters of Vespasian, including the praefectus urbis Flavius Sabinus, Vespasian’s brother, and the supporters of Vitellius, resulted in the death of Sabinus and in the burning down of the Capitol.

Imperial Succession

Vespasian arrived at Rome in 70, leaving the conduct of the war in Judaea to his son Titus. The beginning of Vespasian’s rule was characterized by the stabilization of the Empire, after the troubled period which followed Nero’s suicide. He renewed old taxes and instituted new ones, most notably the Fiscus Iudaicus, and increased the tribute from the provinces. As censor, Vespasian reformed the Senatorial and Equestrian orders. Vespasian also altered the constitution of the Praetorian Guard. The Jewish War was victoriously concluded by Titus with the conquest of Jerusalem. In the following year, in 71 CE, Vespasian and Titus, hold a triumphal procession in Rome. The temple of Janus was closed. In fact the Jewish War ended only in 73 C.E. with the fall of Masada. Judaea in the aftermath of the war was made a Senatorial Province. The victory war was celebrated with the emission of various coins, the Judaea Capta series, minted under Vespasian and Titus. Agrippa II conserved his kingdom, which was probably extended during Domitian’s rule. At Rome Vespasian erected various monuments to celebrate the Jewish War, as the Forum Pacis, where the spoils of the Jerusalem Temple were deposited, including one of the Temple’s Menorah. The most well known project is the construction of the Amphitheatre Flavium, better known as Colosseum, with the money taken from the Temple of Jerusalem. In the West, the beginning of Vespasian ruler was dominated by a series of risings. Thus in 70 C.E., a formidable rising on the Lower Rhine, was headed by the Batavian allied chieftain [Gaius Julius Civilis. Later, in Northern Gaul, two chiefs of the Treveri, Iulius Classicus and Iulius Tutor, rebelled as well. The rebels conquered Moguntiacum and Vetera. The revolt was suppressed by Vespasian's brother-in-law, Quintus Petillius Cerialis. In Rome Vespasian had to face the so called Stoic opposition. In 71 C.E. Vespasian had the philosophers banished from Rome. In 72 C.E., the Stoic philosopher, Hevidius Priscus committed suicide. Vespasian’s reign was characterized by expansion in Germany, where the Agri Decumati, the Neckar region, was annexed and in Britain. First Petilius Cerealis, then Sextus Frontinus, and from 78 C.E., Cn. Iulius Agricola extended and consolidated the Roman dominion in that province, after the battle of Mons Graupius in 84 C.E. pushing their way into Caledonia, or Scotland. In the East, the rulers of Lesser Armenia and Commagene were deposed. Cappadocia and Lesser Armenia were put under the administration of the governor of Galatia. During the rule of Vespasian, Latin rights were extended to Spain in 73-74 C.E. Vespasian died in 79 CE, and was succeeded by his son Titus.

Vespasian, the Jews and Judaea

The Jewish War was the turning point in the life of Vespasian, and resulted in his rise to the Imperial throne and the establishment of the Flavian dinasty. Vespasian is celebrated by Flavius Josephus in his Jewish War. Josephus wrote that he prophesized the Imperial throne to Vespasian soon after his capture at Iotapata in 67 CE. The episode is reported by Tacitus as well. A similar account is found in Rabbinic literature, where Rabbi Jochanan Ben Zakkai prophesized to Vespasian the imperial succession, following his escape from besieged Jerusalem. Vespasian was sent as commander in chief to quell the Jewish Rebellion in 66 CE. From 67 till 69 CE, he directed the military operations in Galilee, Peraea, Idumaea and Judaea. He left the conduct of the end of the war to his son Titus. The revolt ended only in 73 CE, with the fall of Masada to Lucius Flavius Silva, appointed by Vespasian as Senatorial governor of Judaea. In the aftermath of the revolt, which ended with the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple, Vespasian made Judaea a senatorial province, stationing there, in the ruins of Jerusalem the Legio X Fraetensis. The capital of the province remained at Caesarea Maritima, which received the title of colonia, as it had supported Vespasian bid to the imperial throne in 69 CE. However, Vespasian continued to show his support for the Herodian king Agrippa II, to who were reinstated his territories in Galilee and in the north. One of the consequences of the Jewish War for the Jews the reign of Vespasian was the levy of a poll-tax called the Fiscus Iudaicus. The Fiscus Iudaicus was a compulsory tax, which took the place of the Half-Sheqel that the Jews voluntarily contributed to the Temple in Jerusalem, now destroyed. This tax was to be versed instead to the imperial aerarium, or imperial treasure, for the reconstruction of the Temple of Jupiter Capitolinus. The bounty ransacked from the Jewish War, permitted to Vespasian] ambitious buildings projects such as the Colosseum. The Jewish War was celebrated through the erection of the Templum Pacis, which hosted the spoils of the Temple of Jerusalem, and by the minting of a series of coins in gold, silver, and bronze, the Judaea Capta series, which celebrated the victory in the Jewish War.

Vespasian in ancient sources

Vespasian in literature & the arts

Vespasian in scholarship

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