31.  What was the consequence of this rivalship?

32.  Was Otho finally successful?

SECTION IX.

A.D. 70.

  Afflicted Israel shall sit weeping down,
  Fast by the stream where Babel’s waters run;
  Their harps upon the neighbouring willows hung. 
  Nor joyous hymn encouraging their tongue. 
  Nor cheerful dance their feet; with toil oppressed,
  Their wearied limbs aspiring but to rest.—­Prior.

1.  Vitel’lius was declared emperor by the senate, and received the marks of distinction which were now accustomed to follow the appointments of the strongest side.

2.  He had been accustomed from his youth to dissipation and applause.  Caligula was pleased with his skill in driving a chariot; Claudius loved him because he was a great gamester; and he gained the favour of Nero by wishing him to sing publicly in the theatre.  Upon his arrival at Rome, he entered the city, not as a place he came to govern with justice, but as a town that was become his own by the laws of conquest.

3.  Vitel’lius soon gave himself up to all kinds of luxury and profuseness; but gluttony was his favourite vice.  His entertainments, seldom indeed at his own cost, were prodigiously expensive.  He frequently invited himself to the tables of his subjects; in the same day breakfasting with one, dining with another, and supping with a third. 4.  By such vices and by enormous cruelties, he became a burthen to himself, and odious to all mankind.  Having become insupportable to the inhabitants of Rome, the legions of the east unanimously resolved to make Vespa’sian emperor.

Vespa’sian was by no means of an illustrious family, his father being only a collector of the tax called quadragesima.  Nor was his conduct, previous to his accession to the imperial throne, calculated to do him honour, as he was guilty of the meanest flattery and servility to ingratiate himself with men in power.  Yet, as a general, he was indefatigable in his duties, and of unquestionable valour; abstemious in his diet, and plain in his dress.  On attaining to the imperial dignity he appears to have laid aside every vice except avarice.  His elevation neither induced him to assume arrogant and lofty airs, nor to neglect those friends who had shown themselves deserving of his favour.

[Illustration:  Coliseum.]

Desirous of convincing the world that he owed his good fortune to merit alone, he disdained to court the soldiers by largesses; in short, he displayed a nobleness of disposition worthy of the most illustrious birth, and befitting the exalted station to which he had arrived.  This prince was the founder of the noble amphitheatre, called the Coliseum, which remains to this day.  Twelve thousand Jewish captives were employed in its erection, and it was capable of containing 80,000 spectators seated, and 30,000 standing.  It is now in ruins.