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

Climbing the greasy pole

	The Colosseum, Rome Werner Forman Archive Enlarge Image

City clerk
Finding out where the money went was the young Vespasian's next lesson. At the age of 23, he was transferred to Rome, the hub of the empire, and his first executive role: triumvir capitalis – a city clerk, a very small cog in a complex machine that was always threatening to break down.

Rome was the largest city in the world, home to perhaps 1.5 million people – as big as London in the 19th century. It had been the centre of a great Mediterranean empire for over 200 years. People of every race, colour and creed were there – hustling, dealing, looking for political favours, trading, making money.

It was, in many ways, a poisonous cockpit of cosmopolitan and inter-racial strife, but it was also terribly vibrant. This was the centre of the known world, and if you wished to get on, you had to go there.

It was also an enormously parasitical city. It produced nothing, and therefore it had to be fed. The Roman poor didn't have to find food – the emperor provided that for free. He also watered them and provided wine for them. They were also entertained. There's never been a society that pampered its poor to such an extent that the Romans did.

This was not altruism. Rome was a powder keg, and government was about keeping the powder dry. But all this had to be paid for.

Rome maintained itself because it taxed its subjects. The empire was vital because all the money it collected in taxes poured into Rome, then out to the armies on the frontier. The city of Rome was probably the most expensive part of this scheme; it is likely that the army took something less than half the total imperial budget. The taxes were absolutely fundamental to all the lavish luxury to be found in Rome.

From his time in the city, Vespasian learned that, to continue in peace and prosperity, Rome needed the empire more than the empire needed Rome. His next appointment would make that all too clear.

Magistrate abroad
The next move of the 26-year-old Vespasian was his first proper senatorial appointment.

He was appointed quaestor to the province of Crete and Cyrene in north Africa, his first posting 'overseas'. A quaestor – a kind of senior magistrate – was another step on the way to a consulship, the crown of a senatorial career. But progress from here, for someone of low birth, was far from guaranteed ... and Crete and Cyrene was a far from prestigious posting.

Being a quaestor gave you experience of provincial government, starting at the nuts and bolts end of how you extract money out of the provinces.

Clearly coming to a settled province like Cyrene from somewhere like Thrace was, for Vespasian, stepping from one world into another. He was coming into a well-established, urban civilisation based on sedentary agriculture that was already tied into Mediterranean trade and exchange networks. As a tax collector's son, he must have instantly latched on to the economic possibilities of this relatively peaceful region and the potential contribution that these sorts of areas could make, both to the economy of the empire and to its political and social life.

The posting was traditionally for one year only. The next step was to become an aedile – one of a pair of magistrates who administered public works and the maintenance of roads, public games, the corn supply and so on. Promotion to the aedileship was automatic for patricians, but Vespasian wasn't a patrician and he wasn't particularly well connected. His application failed.

There was another problem. The emperor Tiberius was gravely ill. The privileged of the Senate, anticipating a change of fortune, were lining up for their promotions ... and Vespasian wasn't in the queue.

Magistrate in Rome
Tiberius died on 16 March AD 37 and was succeeded by Caligula. With the change of emperor came Vespasian's chance for promotion, but when he finally made the next rung on the ladder, he may have wished he hadn't.

Among the duties of the aediles was keeping the streets clean. Caligula noticed that they were covered in mud. He had his guards fill Vespasian's toga with all the filth and excrement of the streets.

To be known to the emperor was not always good for one's career, especially when the emperor was insane. For Vespasian, this was a crash course in one of the main unwritten rules of Roman power: the higher you rise, the more dangerous your situation becomes.

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