The Flavian Dynasty : Vespasian

Imperator Caesar Vespasianus Augustus 69 – 79 AD

Born: 17th November 9 AD at Falacrinae
Date of Accession: 1st July 69 AD
Died: 23rd June 79 AD at Aquae Cutilliae

Governors of Britannia during his reign:

Marcus Vettius Bolanus 69 – 71 AD
Quintus Petillius Cerialis 71 – 74 AD
Sextus Julius Frontinus 74 – 77 AD
Gnaeus Iulius Agricola 77 – 79 AD

Vespasian was the victor of the civil war of 69 AD though it was fought on his behalf by others. Vespasian had left ongoing campaigning in Judea to take control of the grain supply from Egypt when the Danube Legions – in Vespasian’s cause – crossed over into Italy toppling Vitellius.

Vespasian was of fairly humble origins and had climbed to success through a combination of natural ability as well as a canny knack of surviving, ingratiating himself to Caligula as well as Nero during the dangerous years of their tyrannical reigns.

Vespasian liked to present himself as a gruff but affable sort, though it was his son Titus who apparently had to shoulder the burden of dealing with unpleasant matters of state during his fathers reign, freeing his father from negative press.

Vespasian

Vespasian’s father had been a tax collector and Vespasian seems to have inherited a cautious approach to money from him.
In his first years in power he had to sort a treasury depleted by both Nero’s excesses and Civil War while ensuring popularity and common support in Rome by spending money on public works such as the Flavian Amphitheatre, better known as the Colosseum.

Across the Empire Vespasian would focus where possible on one front of campaigning at a time and at the start of his reign the priority was the successful conclusion of the Judean campaign, famously finished by Titus in 70 AD and recorded in the Bible.

After a period consolidating his position in Rome Vespasian turned his attention in 73 AD to improving the Agri Decumante frontier in Germania Superior, extending Roman hold to between Baden and Gunzburg and in so doing eliminating the problematic salient in that frontier by 79 AD.

It was only at this point that Vespasian turned his attention to Britain with the aim of expansion. Vespasian had personal experience of Britain having successfully campaigned in the far southern fringes of Britain in Claudius’s invasion of 43 AD.

Things had not been entirely quiet in Britain during the years of the Jewish and German wars; however these events were either linked to consolidating Roman hold on areas such as north Wales that had been heavily campaigned in previously, and in militarily annexing the Brigantian client kingdom in northern England.

Early on in such operations the governor – Bolanus - is recorded of having campaigned in the “Caledonian fields of battle”, though the context of such early punitive operations beyond Brigantian territory can only be guessed at.

More prosaically, when Cerialis finally crushed the Brigantes at Stanwick in 73 AD “new peoples” are mentioned, clearly from Scotland and perhaps drawn in to the conflict in support of the doomed Brigantian warlord Venutius.
Later years would prove that these “new peoples” had indeed caught Vespasian’s eye.

By late 77 AD however - with the German campaign clearly coming to a conclusion - Vespasian empowered his next governor, Agricola, to prepare for the physical expansion of the province. In the meantime however he– like the previous governors - had to content himself by operating within the bounds of territory previously over-run or subjugated by treaty to client status.

Agricola prepared for the planned thrust north-wards constructing a supply depot at Red House near Corbridge in 77 and 78 AD. Action in the field meantime was restricted to putting down an insurrection in north Wales and Anglesey before snuffing out once and for all the few remaining minor embers of resistance in Brigantian territory.

In 79 AD the German campaign came to its long anticipated conclusion. With major warfare concluded elsewhere in the Empire and mopping up concluded in the - by now - thoroughly subdued regions of England and Wales the real expansion of the province into Scotland could now get back underway.

Imperial instruction from Vespasian to proceed into Scotland arrived immediately and to assist the governor focus on this difficult military task the fairly unique post of “Iuridicus” was created by Vespasian to take the burden of civil matters off Agricola. This functionary was based in Londinium in the far south east while Agricola based himself in his less remote temporary capital at Deva (Chester).

Agricola advanced in great strength into eastern southern Scotland in early summer 79 AD, an advance it would appear preceded by a diplomatic agreement with the Votadini tribe (a major coastal tribe occupying northern Northumberland, the Lothians and extending to Fife).

The Votadini may have earlier been linked dynastically or politically with their powerful southern neighbours the Brigantes of northern England (Votadini territory extended into northern England) and likely chose not to share the annihilation the Brigantes suffered at Roman hands six years earlier.

This huge leap forward in eastern southern Scotland – as far as the River Teith in central Scotland - was celebrated in Agricola’s funeral eulogy “The Agricola”.

Word reached the front in mid summer however of Vespasian’s death through illness, and in accordance with standard procedure the governor halted operations while awaiting instruction from the new Emperor. Around this time, the over-run lands of the Votadini; the new extension to the Roman province of Britannia was named “Vespasiana” in honour of the late Emperor.

Vespasian is remembered by historians as a good Emperor and he certainly cultivated an image different from his notorious predecessor Nero while, for the sake of legitimacy, still attempting to associate his family “dynasty” with that of the Julio Claudians.

There is little hint of insurrection or attempted coups against his reign which is a welcome change from the preceding anarchy.

Vespasian however would merely be the first of several Emperors who would die with unresolved matters in Scotland on their minds.

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