Vespasian | Page 6

an enormous height. He, therefore, obtained a decree of
the senate, that a woman who formed an union with the slave of
another person, should be considered (454) a bondwoman herself; and
that usurers should not be allowed to take proceedings at law for the
recovery of money lent to young men whilst they lived in their father's
family, not even after their fathers were dead.

XII. In other affairs, from the beginning to the end of his government,
he conducted himself with great moderation and clemency. He was so
far from dissembling the obscurity of his extraction, that he frequently
made mention of it himself. When some affected to trace his pedigree
to the founders of Reate, and a companion of Hercules [753], whose
monument is still to be seen on the Salarian road, he laughed at them
for it. And he was so little fond of external and adventitious ornaments,
that, on the day of his triumph [754], being quite tired of the length and
tediousness of the procession, he could not forbear saying, "he was
rightly served, for having in his old age been so silly as to desire a
triumph; as if it was either due to his ancestors, or had ever been
expected by himself." Nor would he for a long time accept of the
tribunitian authority, or the title of Father of his Country. And in regard
to the custom of searching those who came to salute him, he dropped it
even in the time of the civil war.
XIII. He bore with great mildness the freedom used by his friends, the
satirical allusions of advocates, and the petulance of philosophers.
Licinius Mucianus, who had been guilty of notorious acts of lewdness,
but, presuming upon his great services, treated him very rudely, he
reproved only in private; and when complaining of his conduct to a
common friend of theirs, he concluded with these words, "However, I
am a man." Salvius Liberalis, in pleading the cause of a rich man under
prosecution, presuming to say, "What is it to Caesar, if Hipparchus
possesses a hundred millions of sesterces?" he commended him for it.
Demetrius, the Cynic philosopher [755], (455) who had been sentenced
to banishment, meeting him on the road, and refusing to rise up or
salute him, nay, snarling at him in scurrilous language, he only called
him a cur.
XIV. He was little disposed to keep up the memory of affronts or
quarrels, nor did he harbour any resentment on account of them. He
made a very splendid marriage for the daughter of his enemy Vitellius,
and gave her, besides, a suitable fortune and equipage. Being in a great
consternation after he was forbidden the court in the time of Nero, and
asking those about him, what he should do? or, whither he should go?
one of those whose office it was to introduce people to the emperor,

thrusting him out, bid him go to Morbonia [756]. But when this same
person came afterwards to beg his pardon, he only vented his
resentment in nearly the same words. He was so far from being
influenced by suspicion or fear to seek the destruction of any one, that,
when his friends advised him to beware of Metius Pomposianus,
because it was commonly believed, on his nativity being cast, that he
was destined by fate to the empire, he made him consul, promising for
him, that he would not forget the benefit conferred.
XV. It will scarcely be found, that so much as one innocent person
suffered in his reign, unless in his absence, and without his knowledge,
or, at least, contrary to his inclination, and when he was imposed upon.
Although Helvidius Priscus [757] was the only man who presumed to
salute him on his return from Syria by his private name of Vespasian,
and, when he came to be praetor, omitted any mark of honour to him,
or even any mention of him in his edicts, yet he was not angry, until
Helvidius proceeded to inveigh against him with the most scurrilous
language. (456) Though he did indeed banish him, and afterwards
ordered him to be put to death, yet he would gladly have saved him
notwithstanding, and accordingly dispatched messengers to fetch back
the executioners; and he would have saved him, had he not been
deceived by a false account brought, that he had already perished. He
never rejoiced at the death of any man; nay he would shed tears, and
sigh, at the just punishment of the guilty.
XVI. The only thing deservedly blameable in his character was his love
of money. For not satisfied with reviving the imposts which had been
repealed in the time of Galba, he imposed new and onerous taxes,
augmented the tribute of the provinces, and doubled that