It is with a sad heart that I announce our glorious emperor,
Vespasian died yesterday.
He came to the throne during the year of the 4 emperors and survived the trials and battles that were the downfall of the other three.
In terms of
his rule,
Vespasian was a competent and level-headed administrator who identified the various problems with which the
Roman state was struggling and implemented effective solutions.
For example, a combination of
Nero’s lavish expenditures and the effects of the civil war
had left the empire’s finances in dire straits.
Vespasian’s remedy was to increase existing taxes, revive old ones which
had been abandoned by
his predecessors, and impose new ones. Perhaps the most famous example from the latter category is
his imposition of a tax on the use of public toilets.
When
his son
Titus rebuked him for raising revenue from such an unseemly source,
Vespasian is said by Suetonius to have held a coin from the first intake of the tax to
Titus’ nose and asked him if its smell revolted him. When
Titus replied that it did not,
his father quipped ‘and yet it
comes from urine!’
Unfortunately for
Vespasian, while
his fiscal policies made economic sense, they led to a reputation as something of a money-grubber, and to accusations that he would employ somewhat underhanded tactics to raise
money, such as allowing people to buy their way out of trouble in court or to purchase magisterial and other offices.
Vespasian also expedited the reconstruction of
Rome – which seems
still to have been suffering from the lingering effects of both the Great Fire of 64 and of general neglect – by allowing anyone with the
money and the inclination to buy land and build on it, if the current owners were found to be unwilling.
In
military and foreign affairs,
Vespasian restored discipline in the army and standardized the structure of the empire by taking over the client kingdoms which
still existed on the borders and converting them into full
Roman provinces.
In addition to being a sensible ruler,
Vespasian is also credited with being a humble and straightforward person. He was born on 17 November, AD 9 in the
Sabine village of Falacrina, to a family of only local note, and it is said that
his mother
had to prod him into pursuing a senatorial career through sarcastic insults.
He struggled early in
his career, including losing
his first election to the aedileship, and later, when he governed
Africa under
Claudius,
his honorable decision not to enrich himself at the expense of the province forced him to mortgage
his property to
his brother and fund himself by going into business as a muleteer, a decidedly lowly occupation for a
man who would one day rule the
Roman Empire.
Although
his later career was somewhat more successful –
consul in 51, and tasked under
Nero with putting down the
Jewish rebellion –
his unremarkable career and background seems to have encouraged
Vespasian not to take himself too seriously or let
his ego get the better of him, even as emperor.
We are told that he was generally tolerant of criticism and jokes at
his expense, choosing to respond in kind rather than attack the offender. Moreover, he avoided ordering the deaths of senators and giving in to rumors and fears of plots against him.
The exception to this rule was Helvidius Priscus, a high profile member of the so-called Stoic opposition, a group of nobles who followed the Stoic philosophy, held
republican views and set their faces against the imperial system.
Priscus frequently insulted
Vespasian and the dignity of the emperorship in word and deed; when
his behavior became intolerable he was exiled and later killed on
Vespasian’s orders.
Vespasian ruled for almost ten years, when he fell ill and died. According to our sources
his last words were ‘it is fitting that an emperor should die on
his feet!’ pronounced after he felt sure
his final moment
had come and
had struggled from
his bed to die with dignity.
Another story, and in keeping with
his tendency towards jocularity and self-deprecation,
his final utterance was ‘oh dear, I think I’m becoming a god’, a wry reference to the ritual of deifying emperors after their deaths.
Vespasian had occupied the imperial throne for almost ten years, and at
his death it passed to
his eldest son
Titus, thus establishing the
Flavian dynasty. Indeed, Suetonius tells us that
Vespasian declared to the senate that either
his sons would succeed him or no one would.
Our Dear Emperor's funeral rights will begin tonight at dusk. The Imperial Prince
Titus Flavius
Caesar Vespasianus demands all shops and brothels closed for 3 days of morning.