hopes on Tiberius, obtained
for his adopted son the censorial and tribunitian powers, and dictated a
law, by which the future prince was invested with an authority equal to
his own, over the provinces and the armies. [32] Thus Vespasian subdued
the generous mind of his eldest son. Titus was adored by the eastern
legions, which, under his command, had recently achieved the conquest of
Judaea. His power was dreaded, and, as his virtues were clouded by the
intemperance of youth, his designs were suspected. Instead of listening
to such unworthy suspicions, the prudent monarch associated Titus to the
full powers of the Imperial dignity; and the grateful son ever approved
himself the humble and faithful minister of so indulgent a father. [33]

[Footnote 32: Velleius Paterculus, l. ii. c. 121. Sueton. in Tiber. c.
26.]

[Footnote 33: Sueton. in Tit. c. 6. Plin. in Praefat. Hist. Natur.]

The good sense of Vespasian engaged him indeed to embrace every measure
that might confirm his recent and precarious elevation. The military
oath, and the fidelity of the troops, had been consecrated, by the
habits of a hundred years, to the name and family of the Caesars; and
although that family had been continued only by the fictitious rite of
adoption, the Romans still revered, in the person of Nero, the grandson
of Germanicus, and the lineal successor of Augustus. It was not without
reluctance and remorse, that the praetorian guards had been persuaded to
abandon the cause of the tyrant. [34] The rapid downfall of Galba,
Otho, and Vitellus, taught the armies to consider the emperors as the
creatures of their will, and the instruments of their license. The birth
of Vespasian was mean: his grandfather had been a private soldier, his
father a petty officer of the revenue; [35] his own merit had raised him,
in an advanced age, to the empire; but his merit was rather useful than
shining, and his virtues were disgraced by a strict and even sordid
parsimony. Such a prince consulted his true interest by the association
of a son, whose more splendid and amiable character might turn the
public attention from the obscure origin, to the future glories, of the
Flavian house. Under the mild administration of Titus, the Roman world
enjoyed a transient felicity, and his beloved memory served to protect,
above fifteen years, the vices of his brother Domitian.

[Footnote 34: This idea is frequently and strongly inculcated by
Tacitus. See Hist. i. 5, 16,