MEMOIR OF PLIXV. 
25 
years of the reign of Vespasian, as we find that his 
absence abroad obliged him to depute the guardian- 
ship of his nephew' to the care of Virginius Rufus. 
On his return to Italy he seems to have made some 
stay in the south of Gaul ; for he informs us llmt he 
saw there a stone said to have fallen from the sky ; 
and he describes rvith great exactness the province 
of Narbonne, particularly the fountain of \'aucluse. 
At Rome, Vespasian, with whom he had been on 
intimate terras during the German wars, gave him 
a very favourable reception, and was in the habit of 
calling him to his apartment every morning before 
sunrise, — a privilege which, according to Suetonius 
and Xiphilinus, was reserved only for his particular 
friends. It is not certain, though probable, that Ves- 
pasian raised him to the rank of senator ; nor is 
there any proof that he served with Titus in the 
war against the Jews. What he remarks concern- 
ing Judea is not sufficiently exact to induce us to 
believe that he speaks from personal observation ; 
and besides, it is hardly possible to assign to any 
other period of his life than this, the composition of 
his work on the “ History of his own Times,” in 
thirty-one books, and forming a continuation of that 
by Aufidius Bassus, an author who flourished under 
Augustus, and wrote an account of the wars in Ger- 
many. Whether or not he was the military com- 
panion of that emperor in the east, he tvas honoured 
with his intimate friendship, and to him he dedicated 
