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Vespasian: Flavius Vespasian
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Vespasian was the son of Flavius Sabinus, a Roman knight who had been a tax collector. His mother, Vespasia Polla... belonged to the equestrian order in society but had a brother who entered the Senate. In his early life Vespasian was somewhat overshadowed by his older brother, Flavius Sabinus, who rose to hold an important command on the Danube about AD 48 and was prefect of Rome for many years under Nero. Although Vespasian is said to have hesitated before following his brother into the Senate, his career was in no sense retarded; for, after military service in Thrace and a quaestorship in Crete, he reached the praetorship in the earliest year allowed him by law, namely AD 39, the year in which his elder son, Titus, was born.
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Vespasian was the Roman Emperor from 69-79. The accession of Vespasian marks a turning point in the history of the Principate. After the confusion of the conflict between Otho and Vitellius, he was elected Emperor, not in Rome but in the East, and by the Army. The accession of Flavius Vespasian marks the beginning of a period, embracing three reigns, known as the Flavian age (69-96).
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The emperor Vespasian (Titus Flavius Vespasianus) had a successful military career under Claudius and Nero. He was the last of four men acclaimed emperor in the troubled year A.D. 68-69, and with his sons, Titus and Domitian, he founded a new dynasty, the Flavians. Because he came into power following a period of unrest and because he intended some necessary and unpopular reforms, Vespasian was careful to dissociate himself from his discredited predecessors and to undertake works for the benefit of the Roman public. He continued the reconstruction of part of the city that burned in the fire of A.D. 64, he began the Flavian Amphitheater (later known as the Colosseum) as an arena for public entertainment on land reclaimed from Nero's extravagant estate, and he completed the Temple of Divine Claudius, which Nero had failed to finish, as a way of dissociating himself from Nero while paying homage to the rest of the Julio-Claudians.
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Vespasian had an older brother named Titus Flavius Sabinus II, who early on had already entered into public office. Vespasian was not quite as keen to follow in his brother's footsteps and it took some convincing from his mother before he would do so.
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Vespasian married Flavia Domitilla, which was a politically unambitious match, due to her lack of social standing and family connections. Her father, Flavius Liberalis had to appear before a board of arbitration to establish his daughter's claim to full Roman Citizenship, instead of just a Latin one. Vespasian and Flavia Domitilla produced three children, a daughter ... called Domitilla, and two sons, Titus and Domitian. Both Flavia Domitilla and the daughter Domitilla died before Vespasian reached his magistracy. After the death of his wife, Vespasian returned to his former mistress Caenis (a Freedwoman and secretary to Antonia, Marc Antony's daughter) who remained his wife in all but name even during his Emperorship. [The subject of Lindsey Davis' novel The Course of Honour].
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[I]n 66, Vespasian was appointed to conduct the war in Judea, which was threatening unrest throughout the East. A revolt there had killed the previous governor and routed Licinius Mucianus, the governor of Syria, when he tried to restore order. Two legions, with eight cavalry squadrons and 10 auxiliary cohorts, were therefore dispatched under the command of Vespasian to add to the one already there. His elder son, Titus, served on his staff. During this time he became the patron of Flavius Josephus, a Jewish resistance leader turned Roman agent who would go on to write his people's history in Greek. In the end, thousands of Jews were killed and many towns destroyed by the Romans, who successfully re-established control over Judea.
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