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Galba and Otho
Nero's death in 68 CE ushered in the Year of the Four Emperors, a time of unrest which, as the name suggests, involved four different men in the role of emperor. The first, Galba was weak as an emperor for two reasons: he had no funds with which to keep his troops in line and bribe the Praetorian guard and was emperor solely because of support among his troops and only his troops. The Rhine legions were ill-disposed toward him, and so they declared Aulus Vitellius emperor in 69 CE as well. While Vitellius took several Rhine legions to Italy to fight Galba, Marcus Salvius Otho—one of Galba's first supporters, turned against him by Galba naming someone else as his successor—went to the Praetorian camp and bribed the forces into recognizing him as emperor, after which the Guard caught and killed Galba.
An earlier protégé of Nero turned enemy (he had been married to Nero’s mistress), Otho was degenerate and ineffective. Still, he won the support of the Danube and Thrace area legions and was somewhat popular in Rome, but his military support was much farther away than was his opponent Vitellius. Early in 69 CE, Otho led the Praetorian Guard through Cisalpine Gaul to Cremona where he met Vitellius in battle. The Praetorian forces were outnumbered five-to-one, and Otho was eliminated at a battle remembered as the First Battle of Bedriacum, committing suicide shortly thereafter.
Vitellius and Vespasian
Vitellius then went south to Rome, where the Senate recognized him as princeps. Almost immediately, he drove Rome into debt. In response, and with the support of the Syrian governor and army, Vespasian proclaimed himself emperor in the summer of 69 CE, leaving his son Titus in Judea to deal with the Jewish Revolt. Support quickly gathered around Vespasian, with Marcus Antonius Primus, a Danube region general, leading Vespasian’s forces against Vitellius’s forces in Italy. Vitellius suffered a crushing defeat at the Second Battle of Bedriacum in Cremona. Following this, he was executed in the streets of Rome by Vespasian’s supporters. On December 21, 69 CE, the Senate declared Vespasian emperor.
With the Julio-Claudians now gone, Vespasian founded the Flavian dynasty and became a different sort of emperor. He was an equestrian provincial from the Sabine region in Italy and had received an excellent education. He had also commanded a legion in Britain, had ascended to the level of consul, and invaded Africa. During Nero's time, he was one of Rome's most influential commanders and received command of the legions subduing the Jewish Revolt. In 70 CE, he was 61 years old, and known for his frugality and good humor tempered by shrewdness.
Early Difficulties During Vespasian’s Rule
For the most part, the Roman frontiers had remained stable throughout 69 CE, despite the civil war. However, Vespasian, a good general and savvy politician, still faced two immediate problems: the Jewish Revolt in Judea, and the Batavian revolt in the lower Rhine. The latter, led by Gaius Julius Civilis and Julius Sabinus, desired the independence of Gaul and lower Germany, having been insulted by the earlier disbanding of their legions under Galba. Under Civilis, Batavians terrorized the Rhineland, convincing Roman auxiliaries and legions as well as several tribesmen of Gaul to join them. By the middle of 70 CE, all the Rhineland and eastern Gaul were in arms. Only with sustained efforts by fresh legions were the disturbances put down.
Regarding Judea, Vespasian had left his son Titus there. He conquered all of Jerusalem after a grueling 139-day siege, which was followed by a vicious plunder and burning of the Jewish Temple. Despite this, the revolt lingered on for another three years. Ultimately, a legion was stationed in the region under the legate Gessius Florus, and Judea became a second-rate military province.
Rome under Vespasian
With the exception of the Jewish Revolt and the Batavian confrontation, Vespasian's reign was peaceful, and the emperor was able to devote his time to organization. The Rhine revolt had shown the drawbacks of using auxiliaries in the regions from which they were recruited, and so they were now deployed away from home under the command of Roman officers. At home, the Principate remained the same, in theory, with Vespasian gaining no additional formal powers. However, the Senate was no longer the emperor’s partner in governance; he expected them to obey his directives, and they largely did. Vespasian was able to enforce his choice of proconsuls for provincial commands, ending any illusion of Senate control. Though Vespasian was an autocrat, he was both respectable and respectful. He saved the Empire from chaos and provided it with stability.
The Flavian dynasty also marked the political rise of the equites. A new aristocracy began to emerge, based in Italian towns instead of Rome, and old senatorial families gradually disappeared, replaced by the town equestrians. Like Vespasian, they were sober, industrious, and boring, but effective, believing in public service, honesty, and moderation. Provincial and imperial administration was cleaned up, providing the basis for the 2nd-century civil administration of Rome's golden age. Vespasian also tried to improve finances, increasing provincial tribute, and made small advances on the German frontier. He was even able to entirely arrange an amicable succession prior to his death.
