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Vespasian: Emperor Nero
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Portrait of Vespasian on Silver Denarius As you may be able to guess from his portrait, Vespasian's rise to power was not for his good looks, he looks more like a heavyweight boxer. This is a good clue because it was his military skills which caused his elevation. Under Claudius he served in Germany and that well-known trouble spot, the Isle of Wight. Under Nero he was made proconsul of Africa, but in 66 he was sent east because the jews were revolting. Some of his coins show Judea as a captive. He continued the Jewish War during the struggles between Galba, Otho and Vitellius.
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Vespasian was a new style of emperor, a product of the middle classes rather than a patrician. of a low and buffoonish kind"). As often as not, he was the butt of his own jokes, and he would encourage others to tell jokes at his expense as well.
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Vespasian's major objectives during his reign were to restore Rome's finances after Nero's reign, to restore discipline in the army after the civil wars and to ensure the succession of his son Titus. He was successful in all three. The immunity from taxation that Nero had given to the Greeks was revoked, and the Colosseum was begun in Rome with spoils from the conquest of Jerusalem.
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Vespasian helped rebuild Rome after the civil war. He added the temple of Peace and the temple to the Deified Claudius.[21] In 75, he erected a colossal statue of Apollo, begun under Nero, and he dedicated a stage of the theater of Marcellus. He ... began construction of the Colosseum.
Tacitus records that by December 22, A.D. 69, Vespasian had been given all the honors and privileges usually granted to emperors. Even so, the issue remains unclear, owing largely to a surviving fragment of an enabling law, the lex de imperio Vespasiani, which conferred powers, privileges, and exemptions, most with Julio-Claudian precedents, on the new emperor. Whether the fragment represents a typical granting of imperial powers that has uniquely survived in Vespasian's case, or is an attempt to limit or expand such powers, remains difficult to know. In any case, the lex sanctioned all that Vespasian had done up to its passing and gave him authority to act as he saw fit on behalf of the Roman people.
Vespasian came to power after a chaotic period following the death of Nero. He restored peace and stability, and became the first emperor of the Flavian dynasty. He was followed on the imperial throne by Titus.
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