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[592]
But now his commanders and soldiers met in several companies, and
consulted openly about changing the public affairs; - and, out of their
indignation, cried out, how "at Rome there are soldiers that live
delicately, and when they have not ventured so much as to hear the fame
of war, they ordain whom they please for our governors, and in hopes of
gain make them emperors; while you, who have gone through so many labors,
and are grown into years under your helmets, give leave to others to use
such a power, when yet you have among yourselves one more worthy to rule
than any whom they have set up. Now what juster opportunity shall they
ever have of requiting their generals, if they do not make use of this
that is now before them? while there is so much juster reasons for Vespasian's
being emperor than for Vitellius; as they are themselves more deserving
than those that made the other emperors; for that they have undergone as
great wars as have the troops that come from Germany; nor are they inferior
in war to those that have brought that tyrant to Rome, nor have they undergone
smaller labors than they; for that neither will the Roman senate, nor people,
bear such a lascivious emperor as Vitellius, if he be compared with their
chaste Vespasian; nor will they endure a most barbarous tyrant, instead
of a good governor, nor choose one that hath no child 1
to preside over them, instead of him that is a father; because the advancement
of men's own children to dignities is certainly the greatest security kings
can have for themselves. Whether, therefore, we estimate the capacity of
governing from the skill of a person in years, we ought to have Vespasian,
- or whether from the strength of a young man, we ought to have Titus;
for by this means we shall have the advantage of both their ages, for that
they will afford strength to those that shall be made emperors, they having
already three legions, besides other auxiliaries from the neighboring kings,
and will have further all the armies in the east to support them, as also
those in Europe, so they as they are out of the distance and dread of Vitellius,
besides such auxiliaries as they may have in Italy itself; that is, Vespasian's
brother, 2
and his other son [Domitian]; the one of whom will bring in a great many
of those young men that are of dignity, while the other is intrusted with
the government of the city, which office of his will be no small means
of Vespasian's obtaining the government. Upon the whole, the case may be
such, that if we ourselves make further delays, the senate may choose an
emperor, whom the soldiers, who are the saviors of the empire, will have
in contempt."
1 The Roman authors that now remain say Vitellius had children, whereas Josephus introduces here the Roman soldiers in Judea saying he had none. Which of these assertions was the truth I know not. Spanheim thinks he hath given a peculiar reason for calling Vitellius "childless," though he really had children, Diss. de Num. p. 649, 650; to which it appears very difficult to give our assent.
2 This brother of Vespasian was Flavius Sabinus, as Suetonius informs us, in Vitell. sect. 15, and in Vespas. sect. 2. He is also named by Josephus presently ch. 11. sect; 4.
Flavius Josephus. The Works of Flavius Josephus. Translated by. William Whiston, A.M. Auburn and Buffalo. John E. Beardsley. 1895.
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