Vespasian | Page 4

friends were very ready to support him, and even pressed him to the
enterprise, until he was encouraged to it by the fortuitous aid of persons

unknown to him and at a distance. Two thousand men, drawn out of
three legions in the Moesian army, had been sent to the assistance of
Otho. While they were upon their march, news came that he had been
defeated, and had put an end to his life; notwithstanding which they
continued their march as far as Aquileia, pretending that they gave no
credit to the report. There, tempted by the opportunity which the
disorder of the times afforded them, they ravaged and plundered the
country at discretion; until at length, fearing to be called to an account
on their return, and punished for it, they resolved upon choosing and
creating an emperor. "For they were no ways inferior," they said, "to
the army which made Galba emperor, nor to the pretorian troops which
had set up Otho, nor the army in Germany, to whom Vitellius owed his
elevation." The names of all the consular lieutenants, therefore, being
taken into consideration, and one objecting to one, and another to
another, for various reasons; at last some of the third legion, which a
little before Nero's death had been removed out of Syria into Moesia,
extolled Vespasian in high terms; and all the rest assenting, his name
was immediately inscribed on their standards. The design was
nevertheless quashed for a time, the troops being brought to submit to
Vitellius a little longer.
However, the fact becoming known, Tiberius Alexander, governor of
Egypt, first obliged the legions under his command to swear obedience
to Vespasian as their emperor, on the calends [the 1st] of July, which
was observed ever after as the day of his accession to the empire; and
upon the fifth of the ides of the same month [the 28th July], the army in
Judaea, where he then was, also swore allegiance to him. What
contributed greatly to forward the affair, was a copy of a letter, whether
real or counterfeit, which was circulated, and said to have been written
by Otho before his decease to Vespasian, recommending to him in the
most urgent terms to avenge his death, and entreating him to come to
the aid of the commonwealth; as well as a report which was circulated,
that Vitellius, after his success against Otho, proposed to change the
winter quarters of the legions, and remove those in Germany to a less
(449) hazardous station and a warmer climate. Moreover, amongst the
governors of provinces, Licinius Mucianus dropping the grudge arising
from a jealousy of which he had hitherto made no secret, promised to

join him with the Syrian army, and, among the allied kings, Volugesus,
king of the Parthians, offered him a reinforcement of forty thousand
archers.
VII. Having, therefore, entered on a civil war, and sent forward his
generals and forces into Italy, be himself, in the meantime, passed over
to Alexandria, to obtain possession of the key of Egypt [745]. Here
having entered alone, without attendants, the temple of Serapis, to take
the auspices respecting the establishment of his power, and having
done his utmost to propitiate the deity, upon turning round, [his
freedman] Basilides [746] appeared before him, and seemed to offer
him the sacred leaves, chaplets, and cakes, according to the usage of the
place, although no one had admitted him, and he had long laboured
under a muscular debility, which would hardly have allowed him to
walk into the temple; besides which, it was certain that at the very time
he was far away. Immediately after this, arrived letters with intelligence
that Vitellius's troops had been defeated at Cremona, and he himself
slain at Rome. Vespasian, the new emperor, having been raised
unexpectedly from a low estate, wanted something which might clothe
him with divine majesty and authority. This, likewise, was now added.
A poor man who was blind, and another who was lame, came both
together before him, when he was seated on the tribunal, imploring him
to heal them [747], and saying that they were admonished (450) in a
dream by the god Serapis to seek his aid, who assured them that he
would restore sight to the one by anointing his eyes with his spittle, and
give strength to the leg of the other, if he vouchsafed but to touch it
with his heel. At first he could scarcely believe that the thing would any
how succeed, and therefore hesitated to venture on making the
experiment. At length, however, by the advice of his friends, he made
the attempt publicly, in the presence of the assembled multitudes, and it
was crowned with success in both cases [748]. About the same time, at
Tegea in Arcadia, by the