gh 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 [20] 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, [21] 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."

4. These were the discourses the soldiers had in their several
companies; after which they got together in a great body, and,
encouraging one another, they declared Vespasian emperor, [22] and