Vespasian

Vespasian ruled Rome from AD 69 to 79, ended a year of civil war, and founded the Flavian dynasty from an ordinary provincial family. Born in AD 9 near Reate to an equestrian tax collector and moneylender, he was the first emperor whose ancestors had held no senatorial office, and he never lost a blunt, rustic manner or a reputation for meanness with money. He commanded a legion in the invasion of Britain in AD 43, fighting through the south-west, and was consul and then governor of Africa. He fell out of favour under Nero, reportedly for falling asleep during one of the emperor's recitals. In AD 66 he was given the command against the Jewish revolt precisely because he was too undistinguished to be a threat. He had subdued Galilee and most of the country by AD 68. Nero's death produced the year of four emperors. Vespasian was proclaimed by the eastern legions in July AD 69, let his generals fight the campaign in Italy while he held Egypt and the grain supply, and entered Rome in AD 70. His son Titus took Jerusalem and destroyed the Temple that year. He restored the treasury by systematic taxation, including a levy on the collection of urine from public latrines for use in cloth-fulling; when Titus objected he held a coin to his son's nose and asked whether it smelled. He began the Colosseum on the site of Nero's private lake, deliberately returning the ground to the people. He was open about the dynasty's ordinariness, and joked as he was dying in AD 79 that he thought he was becoming a god.

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