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by C. Suetonius Tranquillus

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Title: T. Flavius Vespasianus Augustus (Vespasian)
The Lives Of The Twelve Caesars, Volume 10.

Author: C. Suetonius Tranquillus

Release Date: December 14, 2004 [EBook #6395]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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Produced by Tapio Riikonen and David Widger

THE LIVES
OF
THE TWELVE CAESARS

By
C. Suetonius Tranquillus;

To which are added,

HIS LIVES OF THE GRAMMARIANS, RHETORICIANS, AND POETS.

The Translation of
Alexander Thomson, M.D.

revised and corrected by
T.Forester, Esq., A.M.

T. FLAVIUS VESPASIANUS AUGUSTUS.

(441)

I. The empire, which had been long thrown into a disturbed and unsetted
state, by the rebellion and violent death of its three last rulers, was
at length restored to peace and security by the Flavian family, whose
descent was indeed obscure, and which boasted no ancestral honours; but
the public had no cause to regret its elevation; though it is
acknowledged that Domitian met with the just reward of his avarice and
cruelty. Titus Flavius Petro, a townsman of Reate [721], whether a
centurion or an evocatus [722] of Pompey's party in the civil war, is
uncertain, fled out of the battle of Pharsalia and went home; where,
having at last obtained his pardon and discharge, he became a collector
of the money raised by public sales in the way of auction. His son,
surnamed Sabinus, was never engaged in the military service, though some
say he was a centurion of the first order, and others, that whilst he
held 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 fortieth
penny in Asia. And there were remaining, at the time of the advancement
of the family,