Real Roman History24 Syys

Episode 89. Vespasian's Reign

Works Cited Primary Sources

Cassius Dio. Roman History, Books 65–66. Surviving only through the eleventh-century epitome compiled by the Byzantine monk John Xiphilinus. The narrative continuity for the reign depends substantially on Xiphilinus's selection and compression, and is flagged where relied on. Cassius Dio's original treatment was almost certainly considerably more extensive than what Xiphilinus preserved.
Epictetus. Discourses, 1.2.19–21. Used for the exchange between Vespasian and Helvidius Priscus. Epictetus is writing perhaps fifty years after the events, around 100 to 120 CE, but had heard the story from people who were present in the Senate. A partisan source—Epictetus was himself a Stoic, and Helvidius was the model he was holding up to his students—but the substance of the confrontation is consistent with everything else we know.
Josephus, Flavius. The Jewish War, Book 7. Used here for the Flavian triumph of 71 CE. Josephus was an eyewitness to the triumph, living in Rome at the time as a freedman of the Flavian house. His account is the most detailed extant description of a Roman triumph from anyone who watched one.
Pliny the Elder. Natural History, 3.30. Contemporary source, written during Vespasian's reign and dedicated to Titus. Used here for the Spanish ius Latii grant and for scattered references to the Flavian court throughout the work. Pliny would die at Stabiae during the Vesuvius eruption of 79 CE, three months after Vespasian's death.
Suetonius. Life of Vespasian, in The Twelve Caesars. The principal biographical source for the reign, used throughout. Suetonius's Flavian sources were broadly favourable to Vespasian, but he also draws on hostile material where available. The narrative shape of the reign in this episode follows Suetonius's structure, with selective use of his anecdotal material where independent corroboration exists.
Tacitus. Histories, Books 4–5. The text breaks off in late 70 CE. The principal Latin narrative of Vespasian's reign was almost certainly contained in books now lost—one of the most consequential gaps in the surviving Latin historical tradition. What we can reconstruct of Tacitus's view of the reign comes from his Agricola and Annals.

Inscriptions

CIL VI 40454a. Reconstructed dedicatory inscription of the Colosseum. The fragmentary inscription suggesting ex manubiis funding from the Jewish War spoils. Discovered and reconstructed in the late twentieth century. The reconstruction is contested in detail, but the manubial funding claim is widely accepted.
The Fasti of the Flavian period. The official lists of consuls and other magistrates, used here for the censorship of 73–74 CE and the joint consulships of Vespasian and Titus throughout the reign.

Secondary Sources

Birley, Anthony R. The biographies of the second-century emperors. Various publishers. Birley's biographies of Hadrian, Marcus Aurelius, and Septimius Severus collectively provide the long-arc context for the Flavian foundations laid by Vespasian's reforms.
Jones, Brian W. The Emperor Domitian. Routledge, 1992. Essential for the Flavian background, particularly for the dynastic arrangements and Domitian's position during Vespasian's reign.
Levick, Barbara. Vespasian. Routledge, 1999. The standard scholarly biography of Vespasian. The structural reading of the reign in this episode follows Levick's analysis at several points.

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