 Although, from the Lives of the Twelve Caesars by Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information, or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Andrew Coleman The Lives of the Twelve Caesars by Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus. Translated by Alexander Thompson. And edited by T. Forrester. Otho. The ancestors of Otho were originally of the town of Farentum. Of an ancient and honourable family. And indeed, one of the most considerable in Etruria. His grandfather, Marcus Salveus Otho. Whose father was Roman knight, but his mother of mean extraction. For it is not certain whether she was free-born. By the favour of Livy Augusta. In whose house he had his education. Was made a senator. But never rose higher than the proytorship. His father, Lucius Otho. Was by the mother's side nobly descended. Allied to several great families. And so dearly beloved by Tiberius. And so much resembled him in his features. That most people believed Tiberius was his father. He behaved with great strictness and severity. Not only in the city offices. But in the pro-consulship of Africa. And some extraordinary commands in the army. He had the courage to punish with death. Some soldiers in Illyricum. Who, in the disturbance attempted by Camillus. Upon changing their minds. Had put their generals to the sword. As promoters of that insurrection against Claudius. He ordered the execution to take place in the front of the camp. And under his own eyes. Though he knew they had been advanced to higher ranks in the army by Claudius. On that very account. By this action he acquired fame. But lessened his favour at court. Which however he soon recovered. By discovering to Claudius a design upon his life. Carried on by a Roman knight. And which he had learnt from some of his slaves. For the senate ordered a statue of him to be erected in the palace. An honour which had been conferred. But upon very few before him. And Claudius advanced him to the dignity of a patrician. Commending him at the same time in the highest terms. And concluding with these words. A man than whom I don't so much as wish. To have children that should be better. He had two sons by a very noble woman. Albia Tarentia namely. Lucius Titianus. And a younger called Marcus. Who had the same cognomen as himself. He had also a daughter. Whom he contracted to Drusus. Germanicus's son. Before she was of marriageable age. The emperor Arthur. Was born upon the fourth of the cannons of May. In the consulship of Camillus Aruantius. And Amitius Aenobabus. He was from his earliest youth. So riotous and wild. That he was often severely scourged by his father. He was said to run about in the night time. And seize upon any one he met. Who was either drunk or too feeble to make resistance. And toss him in a blanket. After his father's death. To make his court the more effectually to a freedwoman about the palace. Who was in great favour. He pretended to be in love with her. Though she was old. And almost decrepit. Having by her means got into Nero's good graces. He soon became one of the principal favourites. By the congeniality of his disposition to that of the emperor. Or, as some say, by the reciprocal practice of mutual pollution. He had so great a sway at court. That when a man of consular rank was condemned for bribery. Having tampered with him for a large sum of money to procure his pardon. Before he had quite affected it. He scrupled not. To introduce him into the senate. To return his thanks. Having by means of this woman insinuated himself into all the emperor's secrets. He, upon the day designed for the murder of his mother. Entertained them both at a very splendid feast. To prevent suspicion. Popia Sabina. For whom Nero entertained such a violent passion. That he had taken her from her husband. And entrusted her to him. He received. And went through the form of marrying her. And not satisfied with obtaining her favours. He loved her so extravagantly. That he could not with patience bear Nero for his rival. It is certainly believed. That he not only refused admittance to those who were sent by Nero to fetch her. But that on one occasion he shut him out. And kept him standing before the door. Mixing prayers and menaces in vain. And demanding back again what was entrusted to his keeping. His pretended marriage therefore. Being dissolved. He was sent lieutenant into Lucitania. This treatment of him was thought sufficiently severe. Because harsher proceedings might have brought the whole fast to light. Which notwithstanding. At last came out. And was published to the world. In the following district. You ask why authors banished. No. The cause comes not within the verge of vulgar laws. Against all rules of fashionable life. The rogue had dared to sleep with his own wife. He governed the province in quality of questor for ten years. With singular moderation and justice. As soon as an opportunity of revenge offered. He readily joined in Galba's enterprises. And at the same time conceived hopes of obtaining the imperial dignity for himself. To this he was much encouraged by the state of the times. But still more by the assurances given him by Sir Lucas the astrologer. Who having formally told him that he would certainly outlive Nero. Came to him at that juncture unexpectedly. Promising him again that he should succeed to the empire. And that in a very short time. He therefore let slip no opportunity of making his court to everyone about him. By all manner of civilities. As often as he entertained Galba at supper. He distributed to every man of the cohort which attended the emperor on guard. A gold piece. Endeavouring likewise to oblige the rest of the soldiers in one way or another. Being chosen an arbitrator by one who had a dispute with his neighbour about a piece of land. He bought it and gave it him. So that now almost everybody thought and said. That he was the only man worthy of succeeding to the empire. He entertained hopes of being adopted by Galba. And expected it every day. But find himself disappointed by Piso's being preferred before him. He turned his thoughts to obtaining his purpose by the use of violence. And to this he was instigated as well by the greatness of his debts. As by resentment at Galba's conduct towards him. For he did not conceal his conviction. That he could not stand his ground unless he became emperor. And that it signified nothing whether he fell by the hands of his enemies in the field. Or of his creditors in the forum. He had a few days before squeezed out a one of the emperor's slaves. A million of sistercies for procuring him a stewardship. And this was the whole fund he had for carrying on so great an enterprise. At first the design was entrusted to only five of the guard. But afterwards to ten others. Each of the five naming two. They had every one ten thousand sistercies paid down and were promised fifty thousand more. By these others were drawn in. But not many. From a confident assurance that when the matter came to the crisis they should have enough to join them. His first intention was immediately after the departure of Piso to seize the camp and fall upon Galba whilst he was at supper in the palace. But he was restrained by a regard for the cohort at that time on duty. Lest he should bring too great an odium upon it. Because it happened that the same cohort was in guard before. Both when Caius was slain and Nero deserted. For some time afterwards he was restrained also by scruples about the omens and by the advice of Seleucus. Upon the day fixed at last for the enterprise having given his accomplices noticed wait for him in the forum near the temple of Saturn at the gilded milestone. He went in the morning to pay his respects to Galba and being received with a kiss as usual. He attended him at sacrifice and heard the predictions of the auger. A freedman of his then bringing him word that the architects were come which was the signal agreed upon he withdrew as if it were with a design to view a house upon sale. And went out by a back door of the palace to the place appointed. Some say he pretended to be seized with an aegyo fit and ordered those about him to make that excuse for him, if he was inquired after. Being then quickly concealed in a woman's litter he made the best of his way for the camp. But the bearers growing tired he got out and began to run. His shoe was a little bit too short for him. His shoe becoming loose he stopped again but being immediately raised by his attendants upon their shoulders and unanimously saluted by the title of Emperor. He came amidst auspicious acclamations and drawn swords into the Principia in the camp, all who met him joining in the cavalcade as if they had been privy to the design. Upon this sending some soldiers to dispatch Galba and Piso he said nothing else in his address to the soldiery to secure their affections than these few words. I shall be content with whatever ye think fit to leave me. Towards the close of the day he entered the Senate and after he had made a short speech to them, pretending that he had been seized in the streets and compelled by violence to a suit. He then assumed the Imperial Authority, which he designed to exercise in conjunction with them, he retired to the palace. Besides other compliments which he received from those who flocked about him to congratulate and flatter him, he was called Nero by the mob and manifested no intention of declining that cognomen. Today some authors relate that he used it in his official acts and the first letters he sent to the governors of provinces. He suffered all his images and statues to be replaced and restored his procurators and freedmen to their former posts and the first writing which he signed as Emperor was a promise of 50 millions of Cisterces to finish the Golden House. He is said to have been greatly frightened that night in his sleep and to have grown heavily and being found by those who came running in to see what the matter was lying upon the floor before his bed. He endeavoured by every kind of atonement to appease the ghost of Galba by which he had found himself violently tumbled out of bed. The next day, as he was taking the omens, a great storm arising and sustaining a grievous fall, he muttered to himself from time to time. What business have I the loud trumpets to sound? About the same time the armies in Germany took an oath to Vitelius as Emperor. Upon receiving this intelligence he advised the senate to send the deputies to inform them that a prince had been already chosen and to persuade them to peace and a good understanding. By letters and messages, however, he offered Vitelius to make him his colleague in the Empire and his son-in-law. But a war being now unavoidable and the generals and troops sent forward by Vitelius advancing, he had a proof of the attachment and fidelity of the Praetorian guards which had nearly proved fatal to the senator in order. It had been judged proper that some arms should be given out of the stores and conveyed to the fleet by the marine troops. While they were employed in fetching these from the camp in the night, some of the guards suspecting treachery excited a tumult. And suddenly the whole body, without any of their officers at their head, ran to the palace demanding that the entire senate should be put to the sword. And having repulsed some of the tribunes who endeavored to stop them and slain others, they broke all bloody as they were into the banqueting room inquiring for the Emperor, nor would they quit the place until they had seen him. He now entered upon his expedition against Vitelius with great alacrity, but too much precipitation, and without any regard to the ominous circumstances which attended it. For the Ankylia had been taken out of the Temple of Mars for the usual procession, but were not yet replaced, during which interval it had of old been looked upon as very unfortunate to engage in any enterprise. He likewise set forward upon the day when the worshippers of the Mother of the Gods begin their lamentations and wailing. Besides these other unlucky omens attended him, for in a victim offered to Father Dis he found the signs such as upon all other occasions are regarded as favourable. Whereas in that sacrifice the contrary intimations are judged the most propitious. At his first setting forward he was stopped by inundations of the Tiber, and at twenty miles distance from the city found the road blocked up by the fall of houses. Though it was the general opinion that it would be proper to protract the war, as the enemy were distressed by famine and the strictness of their quarters, yet he resolved with equal rashness to force them to an engagement as soon as possible, whether from impatience of prolonged anxiety and in the hope of bringing matters to an issue before the arrival of Ithelius, or because he could not resist the ardour of the troops who were all clamorous for battle. He was not, however, present at any of those which ensued, but stayed behind at Brixellum. He had the advantage in three slight engagements near the Alps about Placentia at a place called Castors, but was, by a fraudulent stratagem of the enemy, defeated in the last and greatest battle at Bedriacum. For some hopes of a conference being given, and the soldiers being drawn up to hear the conditions of peace declared, very unexpectedly, and amidst their mutual salutations, they were obliged to stand to their arms. Immediately upon this he determined to put an end to his life, more as many think, and not without reason, out of shame, at persisting in a struggle for the empire to the hazard of the public interest and so many lives, than from despair or distrust of his troops. For he had still in reserve and in full force those whom he had kept about him for a second trial of his fortune, and others were coming up from Dalmatia, Pannonia and Moesia, nor were the troops lately defeated so far discouraged as not to be ready, even of themselves, to run all risks in order to wipe off their recent disgrace. My father, Suetonius Lennis, was in this battle, being at that time an Angosteclavian tribune in the 13th Legion. He used frequently to say that Otho, before his advancement to the empire, had such an abhorrence of civil war, that once upon hearing an account given at table of the death of Cassius and Brutus, he fell into a trembling, and that he never would have interfered with Galba, but that he was confident of succeeding in his enterprise without a war. Moreover, that he was then encouraged to despise life by the example of a common soldier, who bringing news of the defeat of the army, and finding that he met with no credit, but was reeled at for a liar and a coward, as if he had run away from the field of battle, fell upon his sword at the emperor's feet. Upon the sight of which, my father said that Otho cried out that he would expose to no further danger such brave men who had deserved so well at his hands, advising therefore his brother, his brother's son, and the rest of his friends to provide for their security in the best manner they could, after he had embraced and kissed them, he sent them away. And then, withdrawing into a private room by himself, he wrote a letter of consolation to his sister, containing two sheets. He likewise sent another to Messalina, Nero's widow, whom he had intended to marry, committing to her the care of his relics and memory. He then burnt all the letters which he had by him, to prevent the danger and mischief that might otherwise befall the writers from the conqueror. What ready money he had, he distributed among his domestics. And now, being prepared, and just upon the point of dispatching himself, he was induced to suspend the execution of his purpose, by a great tumult which had broken out in the camp, finding that some of the soldiers who were making off had been seized and detained as deserters. Let us add, said he, this night to our life. These were his very words. He then gave orders that no violence should be offered to any one, and keeping his chamber door open until late at night, he allowed all who pleased the liberty to come and see him. At last, after quenching his thirst with a draught of cold water, he took up two poneyards, and having examined the points of both, put one of them under his pillow, and shutting his chamber door, slept very soundly, until, awaking about break of day, he stabbed himself under the left pap. Some persons bursting into the room upon his first groan, he at one time covered, and at another exposed his wound to the view of the bystanders, and thus life soon ebbed away. His funeral was hastily performed, according to his own order, in the thirtieth year of his age, and ninety-fifth day of his reign. The person at appearance of Otho no way corresponded to the great spirit he displayed on this occasion, for he has said to have been of low stature, splay-footed, and bandy-legged. He was, however, effeminately nice in the care of his person. The hair on his body he plucked out by the roots, and because he was somewhat bald, he wore a kind of parook so exactly fitted to his head that nobody could have known it for such. He used to shave every day, and rub his face with soaked bread, the use of which he began when the down first appeared upon his chin, to prevent his having any beard. It is said likewise that he celebrated publicly the sacred rites of Isis, clad in a linen garment such as is used by the worshippers of that goddess. These circumstances, I imagine, caused the world to wonder the more that his death was so little in character with his life. Many of the soldiers who were present, kissing and badewing with their tears his hands and feet as he lay dead, and celebrating him as a most gallant man at an incomparable emperor, immediately put an end to their own lives upon the spot, not far from his funeral pile. Many of those likewise, who were at a distance, upon hearing the news of his death, in the anguish of their hearts, began fighting amongst themselves until they dispatched one another. To conclude, the generality of mankind, though they hated him whilst living, yet highly extolled him after his death, in so much that it was the common talk and opinion that Galba had been driven to destruction by his rival, not so much for the sake of reigning himself as of restoring Rome to its ancient liberty. End of Otho Recording by Andrew Coleman Vitelius From the Lives of the Twelve Caesars by Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Andrew Coleman The Lives of the Twelve Caesars by Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus Translated by Alexander Thompson And edited by T. Forrester Vitelius Very different accounts are given of the origin of the Vitelian family. Some describe it as ancient and noble, others as recent and obscure, nay, extremely mean. I am inclined to think that these several representations have been made by the flatterers and detractors of Vitelius after he became emperor. Unless the fortunes of the family varied before. There is extant a memoir addressed by Quintus Eulogius to Quintus Vitelius, quite stored to the divine Augustus, in which it is said that the Vitelii were descended from fawness, king of the Aborigines, and Vitelia, who was worshipped in many places as a goddess, and that they reigned formally over the Hall of Lesion. That all who were left of the family were moved out of the country of the Sabines to Rome, and were enrolled among the patricians. That some monuments of the family continued a long time, as the Vitelian way, reaching from the geniculum to the sea, and likewise a colony of that name, which, at a very remote period of time, they desired leave from the government to defend against the Iquicoli, with a force raised by their own family only. Also that, in the time of the war with the Samnites, some of the Vitelii who went with the troops levied for the security of Apulia, settled at New Carrier, and their descendants, a long time afterwards, returned again to Rome, and were admitted into the patrician order. On the other hand, the generality of writers say that the founder of the family was a freedman. Cassius Severus and some others relate that he was likewise a cobbler, whose son, having made a considerable fortune by agencies and dealings in confiscated property, begot by a common strumpet, daughter of one Antiochus, a baker, a child, who afterwards became a Roman knight. Of these different accounts, the reader is left to take his choice. It is certain, however, that Publius Vitelius of New Carrier, whether of an ancient family or of low extraction, was a Roman knight, and a procurator to Augustus. He left behind him four sons, all men of very high station, who had the same cognomen, but the different prinomena of Aulus, Quintus, Publius, and Lucius. Aulus died in the enjoyment of the consulship, which office he bore jointly with Demitius, the father of Nero Caesar. He was elegant to excess in his manner of living, and notorious for the vast expense of his entertainments. Quintus was deprived of his rank of senator, when, upon a motion made by Tiberius, a resolution passed to purge the senate of those who were, in any respect, not duly quality. He was justified for that honour. Publius, an intimate friend and companion of Germanicus, prosecuted his enemy and murderer, Nius Piso, and procured sentence against him. After he had been made proctor, being arrested among the accomplices of Sajanas, and delivered into the hands of his brother to be confined in his house, he opened a vein with a pen knife, intending to bleed himself to death. He suffered, however, the wound to be pound up and cured, not so much from repenting the resolution he had formed as to comply with the importunity of his relations. He died afterwards a natural death during his confinement. Lucius, after his consulship, was made governor of Syria, and by his politic management not only brought Artibanus, king of the Pardians, to give him an interview, but to worship the standards of the Roman legions. He afterwards filled two ordinary consulships, and also the censorship jointly with the emperor Claudius. Whilst that prince was absent upon his expedition into Britain, the care of the empire was committed to him, being a man of great integrity and industry. But he lessened his character not a little, by his passionate fondness for an abandoned freedwoman, with whose spittle, mixed with honey, he used to anoint his throat and jaws by way of remedy for some complaint. Not privately nor seldom, but daily and publicly. Being extravagantly prone to flattery, it was he who gave rise to the worship of Chia Caesar as a god, when upon his return from Syria he would not presume to accost him any otherwise than with his head covered, turning himself round and then prostrating himself upon the earth. And to leave no artifice untried to secure the favour of Claudius, who was entirely governed by his wives and freedmen, he requested as the greatest favour from Messalina that she would be pleased to let him take off her shoes, which when he had done, he took her right shoe and wore it constantly betwixt his toga and his tunic, and from time to time covered it with kisses. He likewise worshipped golden images of Narcissus and Pallas among his household gods. It was he too, who when Claudius exhibited the secular games, in his compliments to him upon that occasion, used this expression, May you often do the same. He died of palsy, the day after his seizure with it, leaving behind him two sons, whom he had by most excellent and respectable wife, sextilia. He had lived to see them both consuls the same year and during the whole year also, the younger succeeding the elder for the last six months. The senate honoured him after his decease with a funeral at the public expense, and with a statue in the rostra, which had this inscription upon the base, one who was steadfast in his loyalty to his prince. The emperor Aulus Vitellius, the son of this Lucius, was born upon the eighth of the canons of October, or as some say, upon the seventh of the aides of September, in the consulship of Drusus Caesar and Norbanus Flaccus. His parents were so terrified with the predictions of astrologers upon the calculation of his nativity, that his father used his utmost endeavours to prevent his being sent governor into any of the provinces whilst he was alive. His mother, upon his being sent to the allegiance, and also upon his being proclaimed emperor, immediately lamented him as utterly ruined. He spent his youth amongst the catamites of Tiberius at Capri, was himself constantly stigmatised with the name of Spintria, and was supposed to have been the occasion of his father's advancement by consenting to gratify the emperor's unnatural lust. In the subsequent part of his life, being still most scandalously vicious, he rose to great favour at court, being upon a very intimate footing with Caius, because of his fondness for chariot driving, and with Claudius for his love of gaming. But he was in a still higher degree acceptable to Nero, as well on the same accounts, as for a particular service which he rendered him. When Nero presided in the games instituted by himself, though he was extremely desirous to perform amongst the harpers, yet his modesty would not permit him, notwithstanding the people entreated much for it. Upon his quitting the theatre, Vitellius fetched him back again, pretending to represent the determined wishes of the people, and so afforded him the opportunity of yielding to their entreaties. By the favour of these three princes, he was not only advanced to the great offices of state, but to the highest dignities of the sacred order, after which he held the proconsulship of Africa, and had the superintendents of the public works, in which appointment, his conduct, and consequently his reputation, were very different. For he governed the province with singular integrity during two years, in the latter of which he acted as deputy to his brother who succeeded him. But in his office in the city, he was said to pillage the temples of their gifts and ornaments, and to have exchanged brass and tin for gold and silver. He took to wife Petronia, the daughter of a man of consular rank, and had by her a son named Petronius, who was blind of an eye. The mother being willing to appoint this youth her heir, upon condition that he should be released from his father's authority, the latter discharged him accordingly. But shortly after, as was believed, murdered him, charging him with the design upon his life, and pretending that he had, from consciousness of his guilt, drank the poison he had prepared for his father. Soon afterwards he married Galeria Fondana, the daughter of a man of Petronian rank, and had by her both sons and daughters. Amongst the former was one who had such a stammering in his speech that he was little better than if he had been dumb. He was sent by Galba into lower Germany, contrary to his expectation. It is supposed that he was assisted in procuring this appointment by the interest of Titus Junius, a man of great influence at that time, whose friendship he had long before gained by favouring the same set of charioteers with him in the Circassian games. But Galba openly declared that none were less to be feared than those who only cared for their bellies, and that even his enormous appetite must be satisfied with the plenty of that province, so that it is evident he was selected for that government more out of contempt than kindness. It is certain that when he was to set out he had not money for the expenses of his journey. He being at that time so much straightened in his circumstances that he was obliged to put his wife and children whom he left at Rome into a poor lodging which he hired for them in order that he might let his own house for the remainder of the year, and he pawned a pearl taken from his mother's earring to defray his expenses on the road. A crowd of creditors who were waiting to stop him, and amongst them the people of Sinusa and Formia, and whose taxes he had converted to his own use, he alluded by alarming them with the apprehension of false accusation. He had, however, sued a certain freedman, who was clamorous in demand to get debt of him, under pretence that he had kicked him, which action he would not withdraw until he had wrung from the freedman fifty thousand sistercies. Upon his arrival in the province the army which was disaffected to Galba and rightful insurrection received him with open arms as if he had been sent them from heaven. It was no small recommendation to their favour that he was the son of a man who had been thrice consul, was in the prime of life, and of an easy, prodigal disposition. This opinion, which had been long entertained of him, Vitelius confirmed by some late practices, having kissed all the common soldiers whom he met with upon the road, and being excessively complacent in the ins and stables to the muleteers and travellers, asking them in a morning if they had got their breakfasts, and letting them see by belching that he had eaten his. After he had reached the camp he denied no man anything he asked for, and pardoned all who lay under sentence for disgraceful conduct or disorderly habits. Before a month therefore had passed without regard to the day or season he was hurried by the soldiers out of his bed-chamber, although it was evening, and he in an undress and unanimously saluted by the title of Emperor. He was then carried round the most considerable towns in the neighbourhood with a sword of the Divine Julius in his hand, which had been taken by some person out of the temple of Mars, and presented to him when he was first saluted. Nor did he return to the Praetorium until his dining-room was in flames from the chimneys taking fire. Upon this accident all being in consternation and considering it as an unlucky omen he cried out, Courage Boys, it shines brightly upon us! And this was all he said to the soldiers. The army of the Upper Province likewise, which had before declared against Galba for the Senate, joining in the proceedings he very eagerly accepted the cognomen of Germanicus, offered him by the unanimous consent of both armies, but deferred assuming that of Augustus, and refused forever that of Caesar. Intelligence of Galba's death, arriving soon after, when he had settled his affairs in Germany, he divided his troops into two bodies, intending to send one of them before him against Otho, and to follow with the other himself. The army he sent forward had a lucky omen, for suddenly an eagle came flying up to them on the right, and having hovered round the standards flew gently before them on their road. But, on the other hand, when he began his own march, all the equestrian statues which were erected for him in several places fell suddenly down with their legs broken, and the laurel crown which he had put on as emblematic of auspicious fortune fell off his head into a river. Soon afterwards, at Vienne, as he was upon the tribunal administering justice, a cock perched upon his shoulder, and afterwards upon his head, the issue corresponded to these omens, for he was not able to keep the empire which had been secured for him by his lieutenants. He heard of the victory at Bedriarchum, and the death of Otho, when he was yet in Gaul, and without the least hesitation, by a single proclamation, disbanded all the Praetorian cohorts, as having, by their repeated treasons, set a dangerous example to the rest of the army, commanding them to deliver up their arms to his tribunes. A hundred and twenty of them, under whose hands he had found petitions presented to Otho, for rewards of their service in the murder of Galba, he besides ordered to be sought out and punished. So far his conduct deserved approbation, and was such as to afford hope of his becoming an excellent prince. Had he not managed his other affairs in a way more corresponding with his own disposition, at his former manner of life, than to the imperial dignity. For having begun his march, he rode through every city in his route in a triumphal procession, and sailed down the rivers in ships, fitted out with the greatest elegance, and decorated with various kinds of crowns, amidst the most extravagant entertainments. Such was the want of discipline, and the licentiousness both in his family and army, that, not satisfied with the provision everywhere made for them at the public expense, they committed every kind of robbery and insult upon the inhabitants, setting slaves at liberty as they pleased, and if any dared to make resistance, they dealt blows and abuse, frequently wounds, and sometimes slaughter amongst them. When he reached the plains on which the battles were fought, some of those around him being offended at the smell of the carcasses which lay rotting upon the ground, he had the audacity to encourage them by most detestable remark, that a dead enemy smelt not a miss, especially if he were a fellow citizen. To qualify, however, the offensiveness of the stench, he quaffed in public a goblet of wine, and with equal vanity and insolence distributed a large quantity of it among his troops. On his observing a stone with an inscription upon it to the memory of Otto, he said, it was a mausoleum good enough for such a prince. He also sent the ponyard, with which Otto killed himself, to the colony of Agrippina, to be dedicated to Mars. Upon the Apennine hills, he celebrated a Bacchanalian feast. At last he entered the city with trumpet-sounding in his general's cloak and girded with his sword a mister display of standards and banners, his attendance being all in the military habit, and the arms of the soldiers unsheathed. Acting more and more in open violation of all laws, both divine and human, he assumed the office of Pontifex Maximus upon the day of the defeat at the Alia, ordered the magistrates to be elected for ten years of office, and made himself consul for life. To put it out of all doubt what model he intended to follow in his government of the Empire, he made his offerings to the shade of Nero in the midst of the campus marshes, and with a full assembly of the public priests attending him. And at a solemn entertainment he desired a harper who pleased the company much to sing something in praise of Demitius. And upon his beginning some songs of Nero's he started up in presence of the whole assembly, and could not refrain from applauding him by clapping his hands. After such a commencement of his career he conducted his affairs during the greater part of his reign, entirely by the advice and direction of the vialist amongst the players and charioteers, and especially his freedmen Asiaticus. This fellow had, when young, been engaged with him in a course of mutual and unnatural pollution, but being at last quite tired of the occupation, ran away. His master some time after caught him at Putioli, selling a liquor called Posca, and put him in chains, but soon released him and retained him in his former capacity. Growing weary, however, of his rough and stubborn temper, he sold him to a strawling fencing master, after which, when the fellow was to have been brought up to play his part at the conclusion of an entertainment of gladiators, he suddenly carried him off, and at length, upon his being advanced to the government of a province, gave him his freedom. The first day of his reign, he presented him with the gold rings at supper, though in the morning, when all about him requested that favour in his behalf, he expressed the utmost abominance of putting so great a stain upon the equestrian order. He was chiefly addicted to the vices of luxury and cruelty. He always made three meals a day, sometimes four, breakfast, dinner, and supper, and a drunken revel after all. This load of vitals he could well enough bear, from a custom to which he adineered himself, of frequently vomiting. For these several meals he would make different appointments at the houses of his friends on the same day. None ever entertained him at less expense than four hundred thousand cisterces. The most famous was a set entertainment given him by his brother, at which it is said there were served up no less than two thousand choice fishes, and seven thousand birds. Yet even this supper he himself outdid at a feast which he gave upon the first use of a dish which had been made for him, and which for its extraordinary size he called the shield of Minerva. In this dish there were tossed up together the livers of charfish, the brains of pheasants and peacocks, with the tongues of flamingos, and the entrails of lampreys which have been brought in ships of war as far as from the Carpathian Sea and the Spanish Straits. He was not only a man of an insatiable appetite, but would gratify it likewise at unseasonable times, and with any garbage that came in his way. So that at a sacrifice he would snatch from the fire flesh and cakes, and eat them upon the spot. When he travelled he did the same at the inns upon the road, whether the meat was fresh dressed and hot, or what had been left the day before, and was half eaten. He delighted in the infliction of punishments, and even those which were capital, without any distinction of persons or occasions. Several noblemen, his school-fellows and companions, invited by him to court, he treated with such flattering caresses, that seemed to indicate an affection short only of admitting them to share the honours of the imperial dignity. Yet he put them all to death by some base means or other. To one he gave poison with his own hand, in a cup of cold water which he called for in a fever. He scarcely spared one of all the usurers, notaries and publicans who had ever demanded a debt of him at Rome, or any toll or custom upon the road. One of these, while in the very act of saluting him, he ordered for an execution, but immediately sent for him back, upon which all about him, applauding his clemency, he commanded him to be slain in his own presence, saying, I have a mind to feed my eyes. Two sons who interceded for their father, he ordered to be executed with him. A Roman knight upon his being dragged away for execution, and crying out to him, you are my heir! He desired to produce his will. And finding that he had made his freedman joint heir with him, he commanded that both he and the freedman should have their throats cut. He put to death some of the common people for cursing aloud the blue party in the Sicilian games, supposing it to be done in contempt of himself and the expectation of a revolution in the government. There were no persons he was more severe against than jugglers and astrologers, and as soon as any one of them was informed against, he put him to death without the formality of a trial. He was enraged against them because after his proclamation by which he commanded all astrologers to quit home and Italy also before the Callens of October, a bill was immediately posted about the city with the following words, Take notice, the Chaldeans also decree that Vitellius Germanicus shall be no more by the day of the said Callens. He was even suspected of being accessory to his mother's death by forbidding sustenance to be given her when she was unwell, a German witch whom he held to be irracula having told him that he would long reign in security if he survived his mother. But others say that being quite wary of the state of affairs and apprehensive of the future, she obtained without difficulty a dose of poison from her son. In the eighth month of his reign, the troops both in Mosia and Pannonia revolted from him, as did likewise of the armies beyond sea, those in Judea and Syria, some of which swore allegiance to Vespasian as emperor in his own presence and others in his absence. In order therefore to secure the favour and affection of the people, Vitellius lavished on all around whatever he had it in his power to bestow, both publicly and privately, in the most extravagant manner. He also levied soldiers in the city and promised all who enlisted as volunteers not only their discharge after the victory was gained but all the rewards due to veterans who had served their full time in the wars. The enemy now pressing forward, both by sea and land, on one hand he opposed against them his brother with a fleet, the new levies, and a body of gladiators, and in another quarter the troops and generals who were engaged at Bedriacum. But being beaten or betrayed in every direction, he agreed with Flavius Sabinus, Vespasian's brother, to abdicate on condition of having his life spared, and a hundred millions of Cisterces granted him, and he immediately upon the palace steps publicly declared to a large body of soldiers their assembled that he resigned the government which he had accepted reluctantly. But they all remonstrating against it he deferred the conclusion of the treaty. Next day, early in the morning, he came down to the forum in a very mean habit, and with many tears repeated the declaration from a writing which he held in his hand. But the soldiers and people again interposing and encouraging him not to give way, but to rely on their zealous support, he recovered his courage and forced Sabinus with the rest of the Flavian party who now thought themselves secure to retreat into the capital where he destroyed them all by setting fire to the temple of Jupiter whilst he beheld the contest and the fire from Tiberius's house where he was feasting. Not long after, repenting of what he had done and throwing the blame of it upon others, he called a meeting and swore that nothing was dearer to him than the public peace which oath he also obliged the rest to take. Then drawing a dagger from his side he presented it first to the consul and upon his refusing it to the magistrates and then to every one of the senators. But none of them being willing to accept it he went away as if he meant to lay it up in the temple of Concord but some crying out to him You are Concord! he came back again and said that he would not only keep his weapon but for the future use the cognomen of Concord. He advised the Senate to send deputies accompanied by the Vestal Virgins to desire peace or at least time for consultation. The day after when he was waiting for an answer he received intelligence by a scout that the enemy was advancing. Immediately therefore throwing himself into a small litter borne by hand with only two attendants a baker and a cook he privately withdrew to his father's house on the Aventine Hill intending to escape thence into Campania but a groundless report being circulated that the enemy was willing to come to terms he suffered himself to be carried back to the palace finding however nobody there and those who were with him stealing away he girded round his waist a belt full of gold pieces and then ran into the porter's lodge tying the dog before the door and piling up against it the bed and bedding By this time the forerunners of the enemy's army had broken into the palace and meeting with nobody searched as was natural every corner being dragged by them out of his cell and asked who he was but they did not recognise him and if he knew where Vitellius was he deceived them by a falsehood but at last being discovered he begged hard to be detained in custody even were it in a prison pretending to have something to say which concerned the space insecurity nevertheless he was dragged half naked into the forum with his hands tied behind him a rope about his neck at his clothes torn amidst the most contemptuous abuse both by word and deed along the via sacra his head being held back by the hair in the manner of condemned criminals and the point of a sword put under his chin that he might hold up his face to public view some of the mob meanwhile pelting him with dung and mud whilst others called him incendiary and glutton they also up braided him with the defects of his person for he was monstrously tall and had a face usually very red with hard-drinking, a large belly and one thigh weak occasioned by a chariot running against him as he was attending upon Caius while he was driving at length upon the scalai gemoni he was tormented and put to death in lingering tortures and then dragged by a hook into the tiber he perished with his brother and son in the 57th year of his age and verified the prediction of those who from the omen which happened to him at Vien as before related foretold that he would be made prisoner by some man of gall for he was seized by Antoninus Primus, a general of the first party who was born at Toulouse and when a boy had the cognomen of Beco which signifies a cox beak end of Vitellius recording by Andrew Corman section 30 Vespasian part 1 of the lives of the 12 Caesars by Gaius Suetonius Tranquilus this is a Librivox recording all Librivox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit Librivox.org recording by Icy Jumbo the lives of the 12 Caesars by Gaius Suetonius Tranquilus translated by Alexander Thompson and edited by T. Forrester Vespasian part 1 paragraphs 1 to 7 the empire which had long been thrown into a disturbed and unsettled state by the rebellion and violent death of its last three rulers was at length restored to peace and security by the Flavian family whose descent was indeed obscure and which boasted no ancestral honors 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 Ivocatus 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 Sabinas was never engaged in the military service though some say he was a centurion of the First Order and others that whilst he held his rank he was discharged on account of his bad state of health this Sabinas I say was a publican and received the tax of the 40th 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 leaving behind him his wife Vespasia Polla and two sons by her the elder of whom Sabinas 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 Polio thrice-appointed military tribune and at last prefect of the camp and her brother was a senator of Praetorian dignity to this day about six miles from Nursia on the road to Spoletum a place on the summit of a hill called Vespasiae where are several monuments of the Vespasii a sufficient proof of the splendor and antiquity of the family I will not deny that some have presented 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 and Sabinas 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 Sabinas beyond Reate in a little country seat called Falacrine upon the fifth of the calends of December 27th of November in the evening in the consulship Sulpicius Camerinas and Caus Popius Sabinas 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 everything 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 honor he at length drove him to it more by taunts and reproaches than by her entreaties and authority calling him now and then by way of reproach his brother's footmen he served as military tribune in Thrace when made Quistor the province of Crete and Cyrene fell to him by lot he was candidate for the Edile ship and soon after for the Brightore ship but met with a repulse in the former case though at last with much difficulty he came in sixth on the pole books but the office of Brightore he carried upon his first canvas standing amongst the highest at the pole 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 Domitila who had formerly been the mistress of Statilius Capella a Roman knight of Sabrata in Africa who, Domitila, enjoyed Latin rites 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 Farentum but no more than secretary to Equistor by her he had the following children Titus, Domitila and Domitila 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 Kynis the freedwoman of Antonia and also her Emanuensis 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 specialized 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 a 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 accepting that once in an insurrection at Adrametum 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 he continued dealing in mules for the support of his rank for which reason he was commonly called the mulletier he is said likewise to have been convicted of extorting from a young man of fashion 200,000 cisterces 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 Acaya 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 who should go forth from Judea this prediction referred to a Roman emperor as the event showed 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 safely be trusted in an affair of so much importance Vespasian was chosen in preference to all others both for his known activity and on account of the obscurity of his origin and name being a person of whom there could not be the least jealousy two legions therefore eight squadrons of horse and ten cohorts being added to the former troops in Judea 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 Vitelius 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 several deliveries of Vespasia put out each time a new branch evident imitations 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 Sabinas encouraged by these omens which were confirmed by the augurs told his mother that her grandson would be the 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 edileship 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 sudden as if he was tired fell down at his feet as he lay still upon his couch and hung down his neck as if he were in a factory 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 a cire 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 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 until he was encouraged to it by the fortuitous aid of persons unknown to him and at a distance two thousand men drawn out of the three legions in the Moisean army had been sent to the assistance of Otto 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 Aquilaia 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 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 Otto nor the army in Germany to whom Vitelius owed his elevation the names of all the consular left tenants 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 ascending his name was immediately inscribed on their standards the design was nevertheless quashed for a time the troops being brought to submit to Vitelius 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 Callens the first 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 army in Judea 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 in treating him to come to the aid of the commonwealth as well as a report which was circulated that Vitelius 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 Likinius Mukianus dropping the grudging rising from the jealousy of which he had hitherto made no secret promised to join him with the Syrian army and among the allied kings Volugasus king of the Parthians offered him a reinforcement of 40,000 archers having therefore entered on a civil war and sent forward his generals and forces into Italy he himself in the meantime went to Syria to Alexandria to obtain possession of the key of Egypt here having entered alone without attendance 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 freedmen 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 immediately 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 anyhow 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 Tagaea in Arcadia through Thayers several vessels of ancient workmanship were dug out of a consecrated place on which there was an effigy resembling Vespasian End of Vespasian Part 1 Section 31 Vespasian Part 2 of The Lives of the Twelve Caesars by Gaius Suetonius Tranquilus This is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Icy Jumbo The Lives of the Twelve Caesars by Gaius Suetonius Tranquilus translated by Alexander Thompson and edited by T. Forrester Vespasian Part 2 paragraphs 8-25 Returning now to Rome under these auspices and with a great reputation for 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 the 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 smelt of garlic revoked his commission. When the men belonging to the fleet who travelled by turns from Ostia and Putioli to Rome petitioned for an addition to their pay under the name of Shumani thinking that it would answer little purpose to send them away without a reply he ordered them for the future to run barefooted 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 Kylikia as well as Comagene which at that time had been under the government of kings. He stationed some legions in Cappadocia on account of the frequent inroads of the 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 de-site to the city he gave leave to anyone who would to take possession of the void ground and build upon it, if the proprietors should hesitate to perform the work themselves. He then moved upon building the capital 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 capital 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 temple, relative 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 Coyleon Mount which had been begun by Agrippina but almost entirely demolished by Nero and an amphitheater in the middle of the city upon finding that Augustus had projected such a work. He purified the senatorian equestrian orders which had been much reduced by the havoc made amongst them at several times and was fallen into dispute by neglect. He expelled the most unworthy, he chose in their room the most honorable persons in Italy and the provinces. And to let it be known that these 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 the aggressors and then it was fair and lawful to return it. The business of the courts had prodigiously accumulated partly from old lawsuits 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 commissioners for the restitution of what had been seized by violence during the war and others with extraordinary jurisdiction to decide cases belonging to the Quentin weary 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 license 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 a slave of another person should be considered a Bond woman 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 conducted himself with great moderation and clemency. He was so far from dissembling 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 Solarian 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 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 tribunition 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 illusions of advocates and the petulance of philosophers. Likinius Mukianus who had been guilty of notorious acts of lewdness but presuming upon his great services treated him very rudely he reproved only in private and when complaining of his conduct to a common friend of theirs he concluded with these words however I am a man Salveus 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 Cisterces he commended 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 whether he should go 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 anyone 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 what he had 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 Pritore omitted any mark of honour to him in his mention of him in his edicts yet he was not angry until Helvidius proceeded to invade 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 not with standing and accordingly dispatched messengers to fetch back the executioners and he would have saved him had he not been deceived by a false account at the death of any man nay he would shed tears and sigh at the just punishment of the guilty. The only thing deservedly blamable 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 among the procurators to higher offices with the view of squeezing them after himself. 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 emperors 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 cisterces 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. 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 cisterces, 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 cisterces 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 cone of Venus and to another artist who repaired the Colossus. Someone offering to convey some immense columns into the capital at a small expense by a mechanical maintenance, 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 he restored the old musical entertainments. He gave a Polinaris, the Tragedian, four hundred thousand cisterces and to Turpinus and Deodorus the Harper's two hundred 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 trade. 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 Callens of March, not with standing which he could not wipe off the disrepute of his former stinginess. The Alexandrians called him constantly Cibiosactes, a name which had been given 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 millions of cisterces he cried out give him but a hundred thousand cisterces 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 emperors 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 daybreak 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 Kynis. Coming out of his private apartments he passed to the bath and entered the supper room. They say he was never more good-humoured and indulgent than at that time and therefore his attendance always seized that opportunity when they had any favour to ask. At supper and indeed at other times he was extremely free and jacose for he had humour but of a low kind and he would sometimes use in decent language such as he's addressed to young 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 Mestreus Florus that Plostra was a more proper expression than Plostra he the next day saluted him by the name of Flourus. 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 cisterces and Mestreus had desired to know how he would have the sum entered in his accounts he replied four Vespasians being seduced he used Greek verses very wittily speaking of a tall man who had enormous parts Maxi Bybas Cradon Dolikovsky on Encos still shaking as he strode his vast long spear and of Corailus 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 Larches he said O Larches Larches Apan Apothanis Authis exarches Esai Cairilos Ah Larches Larches when thou art no more Thou art Corailus be called just as before he chiefly affected Witt 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 pretense of 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 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 lawsuit 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 he asked him if it stunk and he replied no and yet he 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 forebear 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 said he 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 Coutilii 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 diarrhea 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 of June being sixty-nine years, one month and seven days old all are agreed that he had such confidence in the calculations on his relativity 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 in the other himself and his sons the event corresponded to the symbol for the reigns of the two parties that were precisely of the same duration End of Vespasian This was indeed extremely difficult after he became emperor as before that time and even during the reign of his father he lay up on the throne of the emperor of the emperor of the emperor of the emperor of the emperor of the emperor of the emperor of the emperor of the emperor during the reign of his father he lay under public odium and censure he was born upon the third of the calends of January in the year remarkable for the death of Caius near the Septizonium in a mean house and a very small and dark room which still exists and is shown to the curious he was educated in the palace with Britannicus and instructed in the same branches of learning and under the same masters during this time they say he was a ziognomist being introduced by Narcissus the freedman of Claudius to examine the features of Britannicus positively affirmed that he would never become emperor but that Titus who stood by would they were so familiar that Titus being next to him at table is thought to have tasted of the fatal potion which put an end to Britannicus life and to have contracted from it a distemper which hung about him a long time in these circumstances he afterwards erected a golden statue of him in the Palladium and dedicated to him an equestrian statue of ivory attending it in the Circensian procession in which it is still carried to this day while yet a boy he was remarkable for his noble endowments both of body and mind and as he advanced in years they became still more conspicuous he had a fine person combining an equal mixture of this was very strong though not tall and somewhat corpulent gifted with an excellent memory and a capacity for all the arts of peace and war he was a perfect master of the use of arms and riding very ready in the Latin and Greek tongues both in verse and prose and such was the facility he possessed in both that he would harang and versify ex-temporary nor was he unacquainted with music but could both sing and play upon the harp equally and scientifically I have likewise been informed by many persons that he was remarkably quick in riding shorthand would in merriment and jest engage with his secretaries in the imitation of any handwriting he saw and often say that he was admirably qualified for forgery he filled with distinction the rank of a military tribune both in Germany and Britain in which he conducted himself with the utmost activity in the imitation as appears evident from the great number of statues with honourable inscriptions erected to him in various parts of both those provinces after serving in the wars he frequented the courts of law but with less aciduity than applause about the same time he married Aracidia the daughter of Tertulus who was only a knight but had formerly been prefect of the Praetorian guards after her decease he married but afterwards divorced her taking from her the daughter he had by her upon the expiration of his questorship he was raised to the rank of commander of a legion and took the two strong cities of Terakia and Gamala in Judea and having his horse killed under him in a battle he mounted another whose rider he had encountered and slain soon afterwards when Galba came to be emperor he was sent to congratulate him on the rise of all people upon himself wherever he came it being the general opinion amongst them that the emperor had sent for him with a design to adopt him for his son but finding all things again in confusion he turned back upon the road and going to consult the Oracle of Venus at Paphos about his voyage he received assurances of obtaining the empire for himself these hopes were speedily strengthened and being left to finish the reduction of Judea by the result of Jerusalem he slew seven of its defenders with the like number of arrows and took it upon his daughter's birthday so great was the joy and attachment of the soldiers that in their congratulations they unanimously saluted him by the title of emperor and upon his quitting the province soon afterwards would needs have detained him earnestly begging him and that not without threats either to stay or take them all and the suspicion of his being engaged in a design to rebel against his father and claim for himself the government of the east and the suspicion increased when on his way to Alexandria he wore a diadem at the consecration of the ox oppies at Memphis and though he did it only in compliance with an ancient religious usage of the country yet there was some who put a bad construction upon it making therefore what haste he could into Italy he arrived first at Regium and sailing thence in a merchant ship to Putioli went to Rome with all possible expedition presenting himself unexpectedly to his father he said by way of contradicting the strange reports raised concerning him I am come father I am come from that time he constantly acted as colleague with his father and indeed as regent of the empire he triumphed with his father bore jointly with him the office of censor and was besides his colleague not only in the tribunician authority but in seven consul ships taking upon himself the care and inspection of all offices he dictated letters wrote proclamations in his father's name and pronounced his speeches in the senate in place of the questor he likewise assumed the command of the Praetorian guards although no one but a Roman knight had ever before been their prefect in this he conducted himself with great haughtiness and violence taking off without scruple or delay all those he had most reason to suspect after he had secretly sent his emissaries into the theaters and camp to demand as if by general consent that the suspected persons should be delivered up to punishment among these he invited to supper a caissina a man of consular rank whom he ordered to be stabbed at his departure immediately after he had gone out of the room to this act indeed he was provoked by an imminent danger for he had discovered a writing under the hand of caissina containing an account of a plot hatched among the soldiers by these acts though he provided for his future security yet for the present he so much incurred the hatred of the people that scarcely ever anyone came to the empire with a more odious character or more universally disliked besides his cruelty he lay under the suspicion of giving way to habits of luxury as he often prolonged his revels till midnight with the most riotous of his acquaintance nor was he unsuspected of lewdness on account of the swarms of catamites and eunuchs about him and his well-known attachment to Queen Bernice who received from him as it is reported a promise of marriage he was supposed besides to be of a rapacious disposition for it is certain that in causes which came before his father he used to offer his interest for sale and took bribes people publicly expressed an unfavorable opinion of him and said he would prove another Nero this prejudice however turned out in the end to his advantage and enhanced his praises to the highest pitch when he was found to possess no vicious propensities but on the contrary the noblest virtues his entertainments were agreeable rather than extravagant and he surrounded himself with such excellent friends that the succeeding princes adopted them as most serviceable to themselves and the state he immediately sent away Bernice from the city much against both their inclinations some of his old eunuchs though such accomplished dancers that they bore an uncontrollable sway upon the stage he was so far from treating with any extraordinary kindness that he would not so much as witness their performances in the crowded theater he violated no private right and if ever man refrained from injustice he did, nay he would not accept of the allowable ordinary offerings yet in munificence he was inferior to none of the princes before him having dedicated his amphitheater and built some warm baths close by it with great expedition he entertained the people with most magnificent spectacles he likewise exhibited a naval fleet in the old Namakia besides the combat of gladiators and in one day brought into the theater five thousand wild beasts of all kinds he was by nature extremely benevolent for whereas all the emperors after Tiberius according to the example he had set them would not admit the grants made by former princes to be valid unless they received their own sanction he confirmed them all by one general edict without waiting for any applications respecting them of all who petitioned for any favor he sent none away without hopes and when his ministers represented to him that he promised more than he could perform he replied no one ought to go away downcast from an audience with his prince once at supper reflecting that he had done nothing for any that day he broke out into that memorable and justly admired saying my friends I have lost a day more particularly he treated the people on all occasions with so much courtesy that on presenting them with a show of gladiators he declared he should manage it not according to his own fancy but that of the spectators and did accordingly he denied them nothing and very frankly encouraged them to ask what they pleased espousing the cause of the Thracian party among the gladiators he frequently joined in the popular demonstrations in their favor but without compromising his dignity or doing injustice to omit no opportunity of acquiring popularity he sometimes made use himself of the bads he had erected including the common people there happened in his reign some dreadful accidents an eruption of Mount Vesuvius in Campania and a fire in Rome which continued during three days and three nights besides a plague such as was scarcely ever known before amidst these many great disasters he not only manifested the concern which might be expected from a prince but even the affection of a father for his people leaving them by his proclamations and another while relieving them to the utmost of his power he chose by lot from amongst the men of consular rank commissioners for repairing the losses in Campania the estates of those who had perished by the eruption of Vesuvius and who had left no heirs he applied to the repair of the ruined cities with regard to the public buildings destroyed by fire in the city he declared that nobody should be a loser but himself he applied all the ornaments of his palaces to the decoration of the temples and purposes of public utility and appointed several men of the equestrian order to super intend the work for the relief of the people during the plague he employed in the way of sacrifice and medicine all means both human and divine amongst the calamities of the times were informers and their agents a tribe of miscreants who had grown up under the license of former reigns these he frequently ordered to be scourged or beaten with sticks in the forum and then after he had obliged them to pass through the amphitheater as a public spectacle commanded them to be sold for slaves or else banished them to some rocky islands and to discourage such practices for the future amongst other things he prohibited actions to be successively brought under different laws for the same cause or the state of affairs of deceased persons to be inquired into after a certain number of years having declared that he accepted the office of Pontifex Maximus for the purpose of preserving his hands undefiled he faithfully adhered to his promise for after that time he was neither directly nor indirectly concerned in the death of any person though he sometimes was justly irritated he swore that he would perish himself rather than prove the destruction of any man two men of patrician rank being convicted of aspiring to the empire he only advised them to desist saying that the sovereign power was disposed of by fate and promised them that if there was anything else they desired of him he would grant it he also immediately sent messengers to the mother of one of them who was at a great distance and in deep anxiety about her son to assure her of his safety nay, he not only invited them to sup with him but next day at a show of gladiators purposely placed them close by him and handed to them the arms of the combatants for his inspection it is said likewise that having had their nativities cast he assured them that a great calamity was impending on both of them but from another hand and not from his though his brother was continually plotting against him almost openly stirring up the army's rebellion and contriving to get away yet he could not endure to put him to death or to banish him from his presence with less respect than before but from his first accession to the empire he constantly declared him his partner in it and that he should be his successor begging of him sometimes in private with tears in his eyes to return the affection he had for him amidst all these favorable circumstances he was cut off by an untimely death more to the loss of mankind than himself at the close of the public spectacles he wept bitterly in the presence of the people and then retired into the Sabine country rather melancholy because a victim had made it to escape while he was sacrificing and loud thunder had been heard while the atmosphere was serene at the first resting place on the road he was seized with a fever and being carried forward in a litter they say that he drew back to curtains and looked up to heaven complaining heavily that his life was taken from him though he had done nothing to deserve it for there was no action of his that he had occasion to repent of but one what that was he neither disclosed himself nor is it easy for us to conjecture some imagine that he alluded to the connection which he had formerly had with his brother's wife but Domitia solemnly denied it on oath which she would never have done had there been any truth in the report nay she would certainly have gloried in it as she was forward enough to call her scandalous intrigues he died in the same villa where his father had died before him upon the Ides of September two years, two months and twenty days after he had succeeded his father and in the one and fortieth year of his age as soon as the news of his death was published all people mourned for him as for the loss of some near relative the senate assembled in haste before they could be summoned by proclamation and locking the doors of their house at first but afterwards opening them gave him such thanks and heaped upon him such praises now he was dead as they never had done whilst he was alive and present among them end of Titus