rows."] Now when Phoebus apologized for
this speech the monarch did him no harm, in fact vouchsafed him no answer
at all, save a curt "Go to the devil yourself!"--Again, when Vologaesus
forwarded a letter to the emperor addressed as follows: "Arsaces, King of
Kings, to Flavius Vespasian, Greeting," the recipient did not rebuke him
but wrote a reply couched in the same terms and added none of his imperial
titles.

[Sidenote:--12--] Helvidius Priscus, the son-in-law of Thrasea, had been
brought up in the doctrines of the Stoics and imitated Thrasea's
bluntness, though there was no occasion for it. He was at this time
praetor and instead of doing aught to increase the honor due to the
emperor he would not cease reviling him. Therefore the tribunes once
arrested him and gave him in charge of their assistants, at which
procedure Vespasian was overcome by emotion and went out of the
senate-house in tears, uttering this single exclamation only: "A son
shall be my successor or no one at all."

[Sidenote: A.D. 71 (a.u. 824)] After Jerusalem had been captured Titus
returned to Italy and celebrated a triumph, both he and his father riding
in a chariot. Domitian, now in his consulship, also took part in the
festivities, mounted upon a charger. Vespasian next established in Rome
teachers of both Latin and Greek learning, who drew their pay from the
public treasury.

[Sidenote:--12--] It became strikingly clear that Vespasian hated
Helvidius Priscus not so much for personal affronts or on account of the
friends that the man had abused as because he was a turbulent fellow that
cultivated the favor of the rabble, was forever denouncing royalty and
praising democracy. Helvidius's behavior, moreover, was consistent with
his principles; he banded various men together, as if it were the function
of philosophy to insult those in power, to stir up the multitudes, to
overthrow the established order of things, and to incite people to
revolution. He was a son-in-law of Thrasea and affected to emulate the
latter's conduct: his failure to do so was striking. Thrasea lived in
Nero's time and disliked the tyrant. Even so, however, he never spoke or
behaved toward him in any insulting way: he merely refused to share in his
practices. But Helvidius had a grudge against Vespasian and would not let
him alone either in private or in public. By what he did he invited death
and for his meddlesome interference he was destined ultimately to pay the
penal