ath, like Galba and
Otho. These three emperors left no mark, and were gluttons and
sensualists, who excited nothing but contempt; soldiers of fortune--only
respectable in inferior rank.

(M1085) On the first of July, A.D. 69, Titus Flavius Vespasianus, of
humble family, arose, as general, to the highest honors of the State, and
was first proclaimed emperor at Alexandria, at the close of the Jewish
war, which he conducted to a successful issue. A brief contest with
Vitellius secured his recognition by the Senate, and the first of the
Flavian line began to reign--a man of great talents and virtues. On the
fall of Jerusalem, his son Titus returned to Rome, and celebrated a joint
triumph with his father, and the gates of the temple of Janus were
shut,--the first time since Augustus,--and universal peace was proclaimed.

(M1086) One of the first acts of the new emperor was to purify the Senate,
reduced to two hundred members, soon followed by the restoration of the
finances. He rebuilt the capitol, erected the temple of Peace, the new
forum, the baths of Titus, and the Coliseum. He extended a generous
patronage to letters, and under his reign Quintilian, the great
rhetorician, and Pliny, the naturalist, flourished. It was in the ninth
year of his reign that an eruption of Vesuvius occurred, when Herculaneum
and Pompeii were destroyed, to witness which Pliny lost his life.
Vespasian had associated with himself his son Titus in the government, and
died, after a reign of ten years, exhausted by the cares of empire; and
Titus quietly succeeded him, but reigned only for two years and a quarter,
and was succeeded by his brother, Domitian, a man of some ability, but
cruel, like Nero. He was ten years younger than Titus, and was thirty
years of age when proclaimed emperor by the praetorians, and accepted by
the Senate, A.D. 81. At first he was a reformer, but soon was stained by
the most odious vices. He continued the vast architectural works of his
father and brother, and patronized learning.

(M1087) It was during the reign of Domitian that Britain was finally
conquered by Agricola, who was recalled by the jealousy of the emperor,
after a series of successes which gave him immortality. The reduction of
this island did not seriously commence until the reign of Claudius. By
Nero, Suetonius Paulinus was sent to Britain, and under him Agricola took
his first lessons of soldiership. Under Vespasian he commanded the
twentieth legion i