Introduction | Early years | Climbing the greasy pole
Military commander | Desperate straits | The Judaean adventure
The year of the four emperors | The new dynasty | Find out more

Introduction

Vespasian was a new kind of emperor: middle class rather than patrician, with wide experience in the provinces and the army, born not in Rome but in the countryside.

For the greater part of his life, it was unthinkable that he could rise to so exalted a position. And yet he did, and he brought stability and efficiency to the Roman empire at a time when it may well have ceased to exist without them.

Through an examination of Vespasian's long career, this part of the website shows how the levers of power, centred in Rome, worked throughout the empire and ultimately created such a man and allowed him to rule.

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