Nero Sends Vespasian

When Nero was told of the reverses in Judea, a hidden alarm and fear came over him, as was natural. But openly he was haughty and angry. He said that what had happened was due to the slackness of the generals rather than the valor of the enemy, and he thought it fitting, because of the weight of the empire he bore, to look down on bad news and to seem to have a soul above every misfortune. Yet the turmoil in his soul was betrayed by his anxieties. [a]

He was considering to whom he should entrust the East, now in such commotion: someone who would punish the Jews for their revolt and also forestall the neighboring nations, which were already catching the same sickness. He found only Vespasian equal to the need and able to take on the burden of so great a war. Here was a man who had grown old in the campaigns he had served since his youth. Long before, he had pacified the West for the Romans when the Germans were throwing it into disorder, and by his arms he had won Britain, until then little known. Through this he had given Nero’s father Claudius a triumph without any sweat of his own. [c]

Nero took these things as good omens. He saw that Vespasian’s age gave him steadiness along with experience, that his sons were a strong hostage for his loyalty, and that their prime of life would be a hand to carry out their father’s wisdom. Perhaps, too, God was already arranging the whole course of events. So he sent the man to take command of the armies in Syria, after much soothing and courting such as the urgency of the moment and necessity demanded. From Achaia, where he had been with Nero, Vespasian sent his son Titus to Alexandria to bring up the fifteenth legion from there. He himself crossed the Hellespont and went overland to Syria, where he gathered the Roman forces and a considerable number of auxiliaries from the neighboring kings. [d]