hion," which he was told was being fixed with his neck in a forked
stick and beaten to death. Then, hearing the hoofs of the horses of his
pursuers, he set a sword against his breast and made a slave drive it
home, and was groaning his last when the horsemen came up. He was but 30
years old, and was the last Emperor who could trace any connection, even
by adoption, with Augustus. He perished A.D. 68.

CHAPTER XXXIII.

THE FLAVIAN FAMILY.

62-96.

The ablest of all Nero's officers was Titus Flavius Vespasianus, a
stern, rigid old soldier, who, with his son of the same name, was in the
East, preparing to put down a great rising of the Jews. He waited to see
what was going to happen, and in a very few weeks old Galba had offended
the soldiers by his saving ways; there was a rising against him, and
another soldier named Otho became Emperor; but the legions from Gaul
marched up under Vitellius to dethrone him, and he killed himself to
prevent other bloodshed.

When the Eastern army heard of these changes, they declared they would
make an Emperor like the soldiers of the West, and hailed Vespasian as
Emperor. He left his son Titus to subdue Judea, and set out himself for
Italy, where Vitellius had given himself up to riot and feasting. There
was a terrible fight and fire in the streets of Rome itself, and the
Gauls, who chiefly made up Vitellius' army, did even more mischief than
the Gauls of old under Brennus; but at last Vespasian triumphed.
Vitellius was taken, and, after being goaded along with the point of a
lance, was put to death. There had been eighteen months of confusion,
and Vespasian began his reign in the year 70.

It was just then that his son Titus, having taken all the strongholds in
Galilee, though they were desperately defended by the Jews, had advanced
to besiege Jerusalem. All the Christians had heeded the warning that our
blessed Lord had left them, and were safe at a city in the hills called
Pella; but the Jews who were left within were fiercely quarrelling among
themselves, and fought with one another as savagely as they fought with
the enemy. Titus threw trenches round and blockaded the city; and the
famine within grew to be most horrible. Some died in their houses, but
the fierce lawless zealots rushed up and down the streets, breaking into
the houses where they thought food was to be found. When they smelt
roasting in one grand dwelling belonging to a lady, they rushed in and
asked for