Sabi'nus, Fla'vius
3. T.
Flavius Sabinus. was consul suffectns with M. Caelius Sabins in May and June, A. D. 69.
He was one of the generals appointed by Otho to oppose the forces of Vitellius, but after the victory of the latter he made his submission to the conqueror (
Tac. Hist. 1.77,
2.36,51). We have followed Tillemont (
Histoire des Emperers, "Note 1 sur Othon ") in making this T. Flavius Sabinus a different person from the praefect of the city mentioned above. Tacitus nowhere speaks of them as the same person, and it is moreover unlikely that the praefect of the city would have been sent away from Rome. Besides which, we find that after the death of Otho, the consul Flavius Sabinus caused his troops in the north of Italy to submit to the generals of Vitellius (
Tac. Hist. 2.51), while the praefect of the city at the same time made the city cohorts at Rome swear allegiance to Vitellius (Tac.
Iist. 2.55).
In addition to which we learn from inscriptions that the praenomen of the consul was
Titus. The praenomen of the praefect of the city is not mentioned by Tacitus, but it could not have been Titus, as that was the praenomen of Vespasian.
A difficulty, however, still remains, namely, why the younger brother Vespasian bore the surname of his father contrary to the general usage.
But to this we reply, that it may have happened in this case, as in others, that there was a brother older than the other two, named Titus, who died after the birth of the future praefect of the city, but before the birth of Vespasian, and that the praenomen of the father was then given to the child born next.
