Vespasian was an energetic soldier; he could march at
the head of his army, choose the place for his camp, and bring by night and
day his skill, or, if the occasion required, his personal courage to oppose
the foe. His food was such as chance offered; his dress and appearance
hardly distinguished him from the common soldier; in short, but for his
avarice, he was equal to the generals of old. Mucianus, on the contrary, was
eminent for his magnificence, for his wealth, and for a greatness that
transcended in all respects the condition of a subject; readier of speech
than the other, he thoroughly understood the arrangement and
direction of civil
business. It would have been a rare combination of princely qualities, if,
with their respective faults removed, their virtues only could have been
united in one man. Mucianus was governor of
Syria,
Vespasian of
Judæa. In the administration of
these neighbouring provinces jealousy had produced discord between them, but
on Nero's fall they had dropped their animosities and associated their
counsels. At first they communicated through friends, till Titus, who was
the great bond of union between them, by representing their common interests
had terminated their mischievous feud. He was indeed a man formed both by
nature and by education to attract even such a character as that of
Mucianus. The tribunes, the centurions, and the common soldiers, were
brought over to the cause by appeals to their energy or their love of
license, to their virtues or to their vices, according to their different
dispositions.
