Produced by Tapio Riikonen and David Widger
By
C. Suetonius Tranquillus;
To which are added,
The Translation of
Alexander Thomson, M.D.
revised and corrected by
T.Forester, Esq., A.M.
(441)
I. The empire, which had been long thrown into a disturbed and unsettedstate, by the rebellion and violent death of its three last rulers, wasat length restored to peace and security by the Flavian family, whosedescent was indeed obscure, and which boasted no ancestral honours; butthe public had no cause to regret its elevation; though it isacknowledged that Domitian met with the just reward of his avarice andcruelty. Titus Flavius Petro, a townsman of Reate [721], whether acenturion or an evocatus [722] of Pompey's party in the civil war, isuncertain, fled out of the battle of Pharsalia and went home; where,having at last obtained his pardon and discharge, he became a collectorof the money raised by public sales in the way of auction. His son,surnamed Sabinus, was never engaged in the military service, though somesay he was a centurion of the first order, and others, that whilst heheld that rank, he was discharged on account of his bad state of health:this Sabinus, I say, was a publican, and received the tax of the fortiethpenny in Asia. And there were remaining, at the time of the advancementof the family, several statues, which had been erected to him by thecities of that province, with this inscription: "To the honestTax-farmer." [723] He afterwards turned usurer amongst the Helvetii, andthere died, leaving behind him his wife, Vespasia Pella, and two sons byher; the elder of whom, Sabinus, came to be prefect of the city, and theyounger, Vespasian, to be emperor. Polla, descended of a good family, atNursia [724], had for her father Vespasius Pollio, thrice appointed (442)military tribune, and at last prefect of the camp; and her brother was asenator of praetorian dignity. There is to this day, about six milesfrom Nursia, on the road to Spoletum, a place on the summit of a hill,called Vespasiae, where are several monuments of the Vespasii, asufficient proof of the splendour and antiquity of the family. I willnot deny that some have pretended to say, that Petro's father was anative of Gallia Transpadana [725], whose employment was to hireworkpeople who used to emigrate every year from the country of the Umbriainto that of the Sabines, to assist them in their husbandry [726]; butwho settled at last in the town of Reate, and there married. But of thisI have not been able to discover the least proof, upon the strictestinquiry.
II. Vespasian was born in the country of the Sabines, beyond Reate, in alittle country-seat called Phalacrine, upon the fifth of the calends ofDecember [27th November], in the evening, in the consulship of QuintusSulpicius Camerinus and Caius Poppaeus Sabinus, five years before thedeath of Augustus [727]; and was educated under the care of Tertulla, hisgrandmother by the father's side, upon an estate belonging to the family,at Cosa [728]. After his advancement to the empire, he used frequentlyto visit the place where he had spent his infancy; and the villa wascontinued i