In the East there was as
yet no movement.
Syria and its four legions were
under the command of Licinius Mucianus, a man whose good and bad fortune
were equally famous. In his youth he had cultivated with many intrigues the
friendship of the great. His resources soon failed, and his position became
precarious, and as he also suspected that Claudius had taken some offence,
he withdrew into a retired part of
Asia, and was as
like an exile, as he was aft-
POSITION OF
MUCIANUS AND VESPASIAN |
erwards like an emperor. He was a compound of
dissipation and energy, of arrogance and courtesy, of good and bad
qualities. His self-indulgence was excessive, when he had leisure, yet
whenever he had served, he had shown great qualities. In his public capacity
he might be praised; his private life was in bad repute. Yet over subjects,
friends, and colleagues, he exercised the influence of many fascinations. He
was a man who would find it easier to transfer the imperial power to
another, than to hold it for himself. Flavius Vespasian, a general of Nero's
appointment, was carrying on the war in
Judæa
with three legions, and he had no wish or feeling adverse to Galba. He had
in fact sent his son Titus to acknowledge his authority and bespeak his
favour, as in its proper place I shall relate. As for the hidden decrees of
fate, the omens and the oracles that marked out Vespasian and his sons for
imperial power, we believed in them only after his success.
