416 



ROMAN EMPIRE. 



Roman 

 Empire, 



Vespasian 

 enters 



Koine. 



Vespasian, arrive in Rome than these atrocities ceased, 

 and the metropolis resumed its usual tranquillity. The 

 senate and the army concurred in declaring Vespasian 

 emperor ; and messengers were sent to him in Egypt 

 to request him to return. In the mean time Claudius 

 Civilis, who had st. command in Germany, revolted, and 

 after maintaining a warlike attitude for some time, and 

 resistingthearms of Cerealis, Vespasian's general, he was 

 at last obliged to make peace with his country. These 

 events were followed by an irruption of the Sarmatians, 

 who passed the Iser, and with the rapidity of a torrent 

 overran the country, destroyed several garrisons, and 

 pouted an army commanded by Fonteius Agrippa. 

 Rubrus Gallus, however, succeeded in driving them 

 back into their settlements, in which they were for a 

 while retained by the influence of forts and garrisons. 



Having intrusted Titus with the siege of Jerusalem, 

 Vespasian set off for Rome; and he was met many miles 

 from the city by the senate, and one-half of the inha- 

 bitants, who for the first time expressed a sincere de- 

 light in having an emperor of high principle and tried 

 virtue. While Rome was thus made happy by the suc- 

 cession of Vespasian, his son Titus carried on the war 

 in Judea, which he brought to a close by the total de- 

 struction of Jerusalem, as described in our history of 

 the JEWS. Titus, therefore, returned in triumph ; and 

 the triumphal arch which was erected at that grand 

 celebration exists almost entire in modern Rome. The 

 Romans were justly proud of a prince, who had exhi- 

 bited all the qualities of a governor, and all the heroism 

 of a soldier; and the metropolis of the world was des- 

 tined to enjoy, at leait during two reigns, the blessings 

 of a profound peace. 



Having quieted every commotion, Vespasian had 

 the satisfaction of shutting the temple of Janus, which 

 had been open for six years ; and he devoted himself 

 to consolidate the happiness of his people by moral as 

 well as political reformations. He restored the ancient 

 discipline of the army. He shortened and improved 

 the proceedings in courts of justice ; and it has been 

 said, that during his long reign no individual suffered 

 from an unjust or a severe decree. Vespasian extended 

 his fostering arm to the arts and sciences, and to the re- 

 storation of the public buildings, and the improvement 

 of the city. He settled 100,000 sesterces on the teachers 

 of rhetoric. He patronised Josephus, the Jewish histo- 

 rian, and Quintilian the orator ; and Pliny the natural 

 historian was held by him in the highest regard. He 

 patronised both the fine and the useful arts ; and he 

 invited to his capital, and took under his patronage, 

 the most celebrated masters and artificers from every 

 part of the world. He restored the Capitol to its 

 original splendour; he built the celebrated amphi- 

 theatre, whose ruins still attest its former grandeur ; 

 and he founded several new cities, and repaired others 

 that had suffered from the devastations of his prede- 

 cessors. The clemency of Vespasian was not less than 

 his wisdom, He provided a match in a noble family 

 for the daughter of Vitellius his enemy, and he himself 

 gave her a handsome dowry ; and when plots were or- 

 ganised against him, he refused to punish the conspi- 

 yators. The only exceptions to this mild and forgiving 

 temper occurred in the case of Julius Sabinus, who had 

 proclaimed himself emperor at Vitellius's death. This 

 rash commander, after being defeated by Vespasian's 

 army, concealed himself for nine years in a cave, where 

 he was attended by his faithful wife Empona, who pro- 

 vided for all his necessities. Sabinus was at last dis- 

 covered;, and carried prisoner to Rome ; but though 



Roman. 

 Empire. 



powerful application was made in his behalf, yet Ves- 

 pasian could not be induced to extend his mercy to a 

 man whom he had already dreaded as a rival. ^*V*" 



The character of Vespasian required some abate- 

 ments to be brought down to the ordinary level of hu- 

 manity ; and these were soon discovered in his ava- 

 rice and rapacity. He revived taxes that had fallen- 

 into disuse ; he is said to have drawn profit from the 

 purchase and sale of commodities ; and he has been 

 loaded with the more serious charge of sharing in the 

 plunder of avaricious governors, whom he had set over 

 the provinces. For the taxes which he levied, how- 

 ever severe and absurd they may have been, an exctise 

 has been easily found in the exhausted state of the re- 

 venue when he came to the throne. We are unwilling, 

 therefore, to admit the charge of his sharing in the ra- 

 pacity of his governors ; for it is an undoubted fact, 

 that he took the greatest precautions to provide for 

 the safety of his remotest dominions. And when we 

 consider that only two insurrections took place in his 

 reign, it is not probable that his people were unjustly 

 taxed, or his provinces rapaciously governed. These 

 insurrections were confined principally to the Alani, a. 

 rude tribe, who, quitting their, deserts, passed into, 

 Media and Armenia, and defeated Tiridates with 

 great slaughter. Titus, however, having been sent to 

 punish them,they retired to the riverTanais, from which 

 they came. During the reign of Vespasian, Petilius 

 Cerealis and Julius Frontinus subjugated a considerable 

 part of Britain ; and Agricola, who went out toward*- 

 the end of Vespasian's reign, completed the conquest ef. 

 the island, as has been stated under that article. 



After a reign of ten years, Vespasian was seized Vespasian 

 with an illness at Campania, which soon carried him dies, A..D. 

 off, amid the tears of a people whom he had benefited,. 79> 

 and who sincerely loved him in return. 



After some slight opposition from his brother Domi- Titus de- 

 tian, who alleged that his father's will had been alter. clared em- 

 ed, Titus was declared emperor. Though in his youth P eror< 

 he was fond of pleasure and dissipation, yet no sooner 

 did he ascend the throne, than he became a pattern of 

 regularity and moderation. His generosity and love 

 of justice, his hatred of informers, his anxiety to pre- 

 vent dissensions, his obliging disposition, and his rea- 

 diness, on all occasions, to do good, procured for him 

 the enviable appellation of the Delight of Mankind. 

 The celebrated exclamation of his having lost a day,, 

 is said to have been made when he recollected in the 

 evening that on that day he had done nothing to pro- 

 rao'e the good of mankind. 



The great eruption of Vesuvius, in which Pliny the 

 naturalist lost his life, (See PLINY, vol. XVI. p. 658,) 

 happened in Titus's reign ; and about the same time a 

 fire raged in Rome for three days, and was followed 

 by a pestilence which carried off 10,000 men in one 

 day. This disaster, which the emperor did all in his 

 power to repair, was followed by the victories of Agri- 

 cola in Britain, which we have already detailed in that 

 article. 



In consequence of a violent attack of fever near Titus dies. , 

 Rome, Titus was carried off in the forty-first year of A - D. 81. 

 his age, and the third of his reign. He was succeeded 

 by his brother Domitian, who was suspected of having 

 administered poison. 



Domitian began his reign with the character of a Domitian 

 liberal, just, and humane prince. He refused legacies madeem- 

 that had been left him because the testator had chil- P 610 *' 

 dren of his own. He sat whole days in revising the 

 sentences of the ordinary judges; and he detested 



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