e
empire in addition to filling the ranks of the Senate which had been
depleted by the late civil wars. He was generous in his grants of
citizenship to provincials, and bestowed the Latin right on all the
non-Roman communities of Spain, as a preliminary step to their complete
romanization.

*Vespasian and the senate.* Vespasian was the first princeps who was not
of the Roman nobility. He was a native of the Italian municipality of
Reate and his family was only of equestrian rank. He was furthermore an
eminently practical man who made no attempt to disguise the fact that he
was the real master in the state. Significant in this respect was his
revival of the _praenomen_ imperator, which had been neglected by the
successors of Augustus. He treated the Senate with respect, and recognized
its judicial authority, but excluded it from all effective share in the
government. A senatorial decree and a law of the _comitia_ conferred upon
Vespasian the powers of the principate, yet he dated the beginning of his
reign from the day of his salutation as Imperator by his army. All these
things, combined with his refusal to punish the informers of Nero's reign,
earned him the ill-will of the senators. Some of them proceeded to open
criticism of the princeps and a futile advocacy of republicanism in the
form of a cult of Brutus and Cato the Younger. The leader of this group
was Helvidius Priscus, son-in-law of Paetus Thrasea, whom Nero had put to
death, and like him a Stoic. Although not very dangerous, such opposition
could not be ignored and Priscus was banished. He was later executed,
probably for conspiracy. In all probability it was the antimonarchical
tendency of contemporary Stoic teachings that induced Vespasian to banish
philosophers from Rome.

*The praetorian prefecture.* To forestall any disloyalty in the praetorian
guard, Vespasian made his son Titus praetorian prefect. Titus also
received the _imperium_ and _tribunicia potestas_, and when Vespasian died
in 79 A. D. succeeded to the principate.

*Titus, 79-81 A. D.* His rule lasted little over two years, and is chiefly
remarkable for two great disasters. In 79 A. D. an eruption of the volcano
of Vesuvius buried the cities of Pompeii, Herculaneum, and Stabii in
Campania. Beneath the heavy deposit of volcanic ashes the buildings of
these towns have been preserved from disintegration, and the excavation of
the site of Pompeii has revealed with wonderful freshness the life of