appear by the solicitude he was in [how to recover his affairs again.]
2. And as he was deliberating to whom he should commit the care of the east, now it was in so great a commotion, and who might be the best able to punish the Jews for their rebellion, and might prevent the same distemper from seizing upon the neighbouring nations also; he found no one but Vespasian equal to the task, and able to undergo the great burden of so mighty a war, seeing he was growing an old man already in the camp, and from his youth had been exercised in warlike exploits: he was also a man that had long ago pacified the west, and made it subject to the Romans, when it had been put into disorder by the Germans; he had also recovered to them Britain by his arms, which had been little known before;[1] whereby he procured to his father Claudius to have a triumph bestowed on him without any sweat or labour of his own.
3. So Nero esteemed these circumstances as favourable omens, and saw that Vespasian's age gave him sure experience, and great skill, and that he had his sons as hostages for his fidelity to himself, and that the flourishing age they were in would make them fit instruments under their father's prudence. Perhaps also there was some interposition of Providence, which was paving the way for Vespasian's being himself emperor afterwards. Upon the whole, he sent this man to take upon him the command of the armies that were in Syria; but this not without great encomiums and flattering compellations, such as necessity
- ↑ Take the confirmation of this in the words of Suetonius. "In the reign of Claudius," says he, "Vespasian, for the sake of Narcissus, was sent as the lieutenant of a legion into Germany. Thence he removed into Britain, and fought thirty battles with the enemy." In Vesp. sect. 4. We may also here note from Josephus, that Claudius the emperor, who triumphed for the conquest of Britain, was enabled so to do by Vespasian's conduct and bravery, and that he is here styled "the father of Vespasian."
