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[601]
These were the discourses the soldiers had in their several companies;
after which they got together in a great body, and, encouraging one another,
they declared Vespasian emperor, 1
and exhorted him to save the government, which was now in danger. Now Vespasian's
concern had been for a considerable time about the public, yet did he not
intend to set up for governor himself, though his actions showed him to
deserve it, while he preferred that safety which is in a private life before
the dangers in a state of such dignity; but when he refused the empire,
the commanders insisted the more earnestly upon his acceptance; and the
soldiers came about him, with their drawn swords in their hands, and threatened
to kill him, unless he would now live according to his dignity. And when
he had shown his reluctance a great while, and had endeavored to thrust
away this dominion from him, he at length, being not able to persuade them,
yielded to their solicitations that would salute him emperor.
1 It is plain by the nature of the thing, as well as by Josephus and Eutropius, that Vespasian was first of all saluted emperor in Judea, and not till some time afterward in Egypt. Whence Tacitus's and Suetonius's present copies must be correct text, when they both say that he was first proclaimed in Egypt, and that on the calends of July, while they still say it was the fifth of the Nones or Ides of the same July before he was proclaimed in Judea. I suppose the month they there intended was June, and not July, as the copies now have it; nor does Tacitus's coherence imply less. See Essay on the Revelation, p. 136.
Flavius Josephus. The Works of Flavius Josephus. Translated by. William Whiston, A.M. Auburn and Buffalo. John E. Beardsley. 1895.
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