69 AD: Rise of Vespasian

The Ancients

History Hit

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4.7 • 3.5K Ratings

🗓️ 15 October 2020

⏱️ 52 minutes

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Summary

69 AD was a tumultuous year in Roman history. 4 Romans assumed the title of emperor; only one remained standing by the year’s end. His name was Vespasian, veteran of Claudius’ invasion of Britain and the builder of the Colosseum. Jonathan Eaton (@DrJEaton) joined me on the podcast to talk through the rise of Emperor Vespasian. In particular, we focus on what this father of the Flavian Dynasty was doing during 69 AD and assess how influential soldiers across the empire were in his bid for power. Jonathan is the author of Leading the Roman Army: Soldiers and Emperors, 31 BC – 235 AD.

Jonathan's Twitter: @DrJEaton

Tristan's Twitter: @ancientstristan

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Transcript

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0:00.0	69 AD, a pretty tumultuous year in the history of ancient Rome. It was called the year of
0:09.2	the Four Emperors. And you could probably guess why, yes you're right, there were four
0:14.5	Roman emperors during 69 AD in the aftermath of the suicide of Emperor Nero. Ultimately
0:21.9	by the end of the year there would be one Emperor left standing and that Emperor would
0:25.9	go on to create the next great dynasty of ancient Rome. The Flavian dynasty. The man's name
0:33.9	was Vespasian and I'm delighted to say that in this podcast I was joined by the one and only
0:38.7	Jonathan Eaton who has recently written a book exploring the relationship between the early
0:44.2	Roman emperors and the soldiers. And in this podcast Jonathan he talks through the rise of
0:50.1	Vespasian and in particular focusing on what Vespasian was doing in 69 AD because he was not in
0:57.6	Rome for most of that year. He was in the East, he was campaigning in Judea, he was in Alexandria,
1:03.9	he was in Egypt. So how was this soldier, how was this commander able to become the new Emperor?
1:11.9	Jonathan explains all this was an absolutely fascinating chat. Jonathan is a brilliance
1:16.5	communicator and I have no doubt that you're going to absolutely love this one. Enjoy.
1:27.2	Jonathan thank you for joining me today. Thank you for inviting me on it. It's tremendous to be
1:32.5	part of the podcast. I've really enjoyed listening to some of the previous episodes.
1:36.5	Oh you're so kind you are too kind Jonathan. Today we're talking about a really interesting topic.
1:42.0	The Emperor Vespasian and his rise to power and Vespasian is it fair to say he's a great general
1:48.0	that rises to power thanks to the army? Yeah I think that's a really interesting way of
1:53.0	starting really. I think that concept is the image that many of the writers who are recording
2:01.5	the Flavian dynasty are trying to perpetuate. The Vespasian is some kind of military genius who
2:09.5	is driven to power by the armies themselves. And in fact the overall picture is far more nuanced
2:16.4	than that. And the reason that I'm so interested in the rise of Vespasian is that in many ways the
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