Ancient Rome: An Introductory History (51 page)

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science. It contains a wealth of information concerning geography, biology, botany, and zoology.

Lucan's chief work is generally called
Pharsalia, an
epic poem dealing with the civil wars of 49-45
B.C
. Lucan, who was the nephew of the philosopher Seneca, is said to have incurred Nero's wrath and jealousy for being a more talented poet than the emperor and for praising Cato, the staunch defender of the republic.

Petronius wrote what is surely the most original piece of literature of the age, a novel of sorts called the
Satyricon
. Only large fragments survive. Written in a literary genre called Menippean satire, which mixes poetry and prose, the
Satyricon
tells the various adventures of two trashy characters in southern Italy. One part of the work has even become common reading for Latin studentsthe hilarious
Cena Trimalchionis
. Trimalchio is a former slave turned millionaire, and his dinner party gives a portrait of ancient Italy's vulgar nouveaux riches. Since Petronius was describing base characters, he used the common vocabulary and syntax characteristic of everyday Latin, thus leaving for us examples of how common people talked in Latin. Most Latin literature was written by the upper classes, who spoke more educated Latin. Federico Fellini, the great Italian movie director, adapted the fragments of the
Satyricon
to create his movie
Fellini's Satyricon
.

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Chapter 25
The Flavian Emperors

Vespasian (A.D. 69-79): "Vae, Puto Deus Fio"

Upon becoming emperor, Vespasian (his full name was Titus Flavius Vespasianus) faced many problems. Various provinces revolted when they heard about Rome's difficulties in keeping an emperor. The Jews in Palestine, who had revolted during Nero's reign, were not yet subdued; Vespasian, who had been sent there by Nero to put down the revolt, left his son Titus to finish the siege of Jerusalem while he went to Rome to become emperor. A Gaul named Civilis incited his countrymen to rise up against Rome; gaining the assistance of the Germans, they quickly overran much of Gaul. The armies in Britain were restlessthey had been left out of the emperor-making game. Dacians (in modern Romania) were invading Roman territory, and Oea (site of modem Tripoli) and Lepcis, two cities in the province of Africa, were at war with each other. The treasury at Rome was empty: Whatever had survived Nero's extended party had been distributed to the Praetorian Guard by the emperors Galba, Otho, and Vitellius, to buy their support.

Yet if any person could restore order to the empire, Vespasian was the one. From a peasant background, he had none of the pretensions of the noble Julio-Claudian emperors. For example, while other nobles at Nero's court had applauded his singing, Vespasian had fallen into disfavor with Nero for falling asleep during one of his performances. Vespasian ruled with common sense, and he soon restored order and stability in the provinces, in Rome, and in the treasury.

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To put the treasury in the black, he raised taxes, while at the same time showing sympathy for cities and provinces that were already hard pressed. For example, when some cities in Asia Minor suffered an earthquake, Vespasian remitted their taxes for five years. His frugality made him unpopular with some, for he did not spend money on games, as Nero had done. One story of his frugality concerns his tax on the contents of the public bathrooms. Tanners in ancient Rome collected urine from the public bathrooms to cure leather; Vespasian taxed their collection of the urine. When his son Titus complained to him about taxing the urine, Vespasian waved a gold coin under his nose and asked him how it smelled. (
Vespasiano
in modem Italian means "public urinal.") Vespasian established so solid a basis for the treasury that he was able to embark on a building program (see below).

Gone were the days of fear of informers. Immediately after becoming emperor, Vespasian restored citizenship to those who had been convicted of
rnaiestas
. One source says that the doors of Vespasian's palace stood open all day and that no guard was stationed at them. Vespasian did not subject his visitors to searches, as previous emperors had done, out of fear of assassination. The few people who plotted against Vespasian were forgiven. He committed one political murder, and that was of a diehard republican senator, Helvidius Priscus, who would not stop promoting a revolution. Vespasian regretted the murder. To a Cynic philosopher, who was yelling rude remarks to him, the emperor simply yelled back, "Good dog!" (The word
cynic
comes from a Greek word meaning "dog.") Another source says that Vespasian simply replied, "I do not kill a barking dog."

Vespasian had simple tastes. When one foppish young Roman noble, smelling of perfume, came to thank him for awarding him a prefecture, Vespasian shook his head and in a stem voice said, "I would have preferred that you reek of garlic" (Suetonius,
Vespasian
VIII. 3) and canceled the appointment. When some astrologers told Vespasian that he was descended from a friend of Hercules, Vespasian burst out laughing; this is quite a contrast to the pretensions of the Julio-Claudians, who believed that they were descended from Venus and that they became gods themselves after their death. During the restoration of the Capitol, which had burned down

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The colosseum, known to the Romans as the Flavian Amphitheater. (Author photograph)

during the recent civil wars, Vespasian filled up the first basket of trash and carried it off himself.

After solving the financial crisis, Vespasian embarked on a program to improve Rome, Italy, and the empire. In Rome, he restored the Capitol and started construction of the Colosseum (which the ancients called the Amphitheatrum Flavianum) and a new Ara Pacis; in the provinces he built more roads and bridges. He started something like public education in Italy by paying for professional teachers and granting them immunity from taxes. Vespasian granted Latin rights to all Spain and drafted provincials into the Senate; because of this, an African became consul in
A.D
. 80.

The succession was settled; Vespasian's elder son Titus would become emperor with Domitian, the younger son, as his partner. Both had been trained in the administration of the empire by receiving repeated consulships and even censorships. The last

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thing Vespasian said before his death in
A.D
. 79 reveals his common sense and sense of humor; knowing he was about to die, he said, "Vae, puto deus fio" ("Alas, I think I'm becoming a god"; Suetonius,
Vespasian
XXIII). The Senate did, in fact, consider that he had become a god.

Titus (79-81 A.D.): "Amici, Diem Perdidi"

When Titus first became emperor, people thought he would become another Nero or Caligula, for Titus' youth too had been one of dissipation and decadence. Yet he became immensely popular during his brief reign. He respected private property and provided public entertainment in the form of wild beast hunts and a naval battle on an artificial lake. He seems to have wanted to use his position to make people happy; according to one story, when Titus one day realized that he had done nobody a favor that day, he exclaimed, "Amici, diem perdidi" ("My friends, I have wasted a day"; Suetonius,
Titus
VIII). He repressed the reformers and had some of them either sold into slavery or banished. When two patricians were found to be aiming at the throne, Titus only warned them to stop. Supposedly Domitian too was plotting against him; Titus continued swearing to his brother that he was the successor and begged him to return the affection he felt for him. During the various disasters that afflicted Italy during his reign, one of which was a great fire in Rome in 80, Titus is said to have shown "not just an emperor's concern, but even the love that a parent has for his children" (Suetonius,
Titus
VIII. 3).

Another of the disasters was the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in Campania, which buried the cities of Herculaneum and Pompeii. Thousands died, including the writer Pliny the Elder, who was studying the eruption; his nephew, Pliny the Younger, describes the eruption in a few letters to his friend Tacitus, a historian who is one of our main sources for the history of the Julian-Claudian emperors. Archaeologists have excavated the sites of the cities and have unearthed almost a complete ancient Italian town, undisturbed after two thousand years of being buried beneath volcanic lava.

During Titus' reign the British revolted. The rebellion was put down by Gn. Julius Agricola, whom the historian Tacitus memor-

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ialized in one of his early works. While stifling the revolt, Agricola's men sailed around Britain, and for the first time Europeans learned that Britain is an island.

Titus died two years into his reign. His last words, "I made one mistake," prompted many people to believe that the one mistake was to trust Domitian and to allow him to live. Titus was deified, and Domitian became emperor.

Domitian (A.D. 81-96): "Dominus Et Deus"

Domitian was very different from his gentle, good-natured, affable father and brother. Shortly after his father became emperor, Domitian used his position as praetor and his authority as the emperor's son for all they were worth and filled many vacancies and positions with people of his choosing. That prompted Vespasian to exclaim that he was suprised that Domitian had not appointed the next emperor, too. He was already known to spend part of his leisure time in his room, stabbing flies with a stylus.

Although an efficient administrator, Domitian knew he was boss and let everybody else know it too. Not content with the personal bodyguard that the emperor had, he had twenty-four lictors precede him, the number that had honored a dictator during the republic. He always dressed in purple, the color of royalty. He assumed the power of
censor perpetuus
, so he could always eject from the Senate any member he did not like, and he used this power so frequently that the senators hated him bitterly. He insisted upon being addressed as "dominus et deus" (lord and god) and required that sacrifices be offered to him, which necessarily brought him into conflict with Jews and Christians. He changed the name of the month October to Domitianus.

Nonetheless, Domitian was an efficient emperor. He strengthened the borders of the empire and raised the soldiers' pay. He had a building program, the most important part of which is the Pantheon. In addition, he rebuilt the Baths of Agrippa and restored the Porticus Octaviae with two libraries, one for Latin works, the other for Greek (he even sent scribes to the library at Alexandria to copy rare manuscripts). He restored the Temple of Vespasian on the Capitoline Hill. He fought some wars with the Germans and Dacians; it appears that

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his wars were not successful, for a later emperor, Trajan, waged wars with the Dacians to rescue the standards that Domitian had lost. He always gave great and expensive shows, and even a naval combat, in the Colosseum. He gave wild beast hunts and gladiatorial combats fought by women, too. He started a contest every five years in horsemanship, gymnastics, music, poetry, oratory, and lyre playing.

In 88 the governor of Upper Germany, L. Antonius Saturninus, revolted; he was quickly defeated by the governor of Lower Germany, but the revolt had its effect on Domitian and rendered him paranoid and ruthless in hunting out conspiracies. He revived the laws of
maiestas
, and informers were not lacking to accuse someone with loose lips or faulty discretion: "He killed Salvius Cocceianus because he had celebrated the birthday of his uncle, Emperor Otho . . . and his own cousin, Flavius Sabinus, because on the day of the consular elections the herald had mistakenly announced that he was
imperator
, instead of
consul
" (Suetonius,
Domitian
X). Another anecdote says that a woman was executed for undressing in front of a statue of Domitian. He killed another because he had written praises of Helvidius Priscus (executed during Vespasian's reign) and Thrasea Paetus (executed under Nero), both Stoics who longed for a return to the republic.

His popularity with the soldiers could not prevent plots against him. So paranoid was he that he lined the columns where he took his walks with a reflective mineral so he could see every person's every move. In spite of his precautions, he was assassinated in 96; his wife was one of the conspirators. Domitian had kept a sword under his pillow; one conspirator secretly removed its blade, and another stabbed him in the groin. He was killed after putting up a fierce struggle. The Senate, now allowed to choose the next emperor, chose Nerva, a senator respected for his eloquence, sense of justice, and amiable nature. So great was the senators' hatred of Domitian that they voted for
damnatio memoriae
(condemnation of memory) of Domitian: Images of him were destroyed, his name was erased from inscriptions, the many arches erected in his honor were torn down, and his acts were rescinded.

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