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The Flavian Dynasty (69–96)
The Flavians were a new dynasty. And when I say new, I mean new in the sense that they lacked the old blood or money the Julio-Claudians possessed. Vespasian’s grandfather was a mere centurion among hundreds others serving under Pompey. What made it worse was that the old Patriarch fled from the field during the final Battle of Pharsalus, an act that would have seen him chopped into little mutton-chops were it not for the fact that Pompey lost that battle and war. Successive generations managed to turn things around through well-placed marriages and public service – not in the army – but as tax collectors skimming off the top…
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A Brief History of Rome
From the Tarquinian Kings to a Murder on the Senate Floor: In a nutshell, the Roman civilization lasted from around 753 BC to 476 AD, encompassing the founding of Rome by the mythical twins, the Roman Republic, and the Roman Empire… let me take you through this not-so-a brief History of Rome, the greatest civilization that ever existed! The political and geographical unit known as Rome was inarguably the longest-living ‘nation’ to have ever existed in Western Civilization. Rome, beginning from the kings of Tarquin in 753 B.C., to the fall of Western Rome under barbarian invaders 1400 years later, underwent monumental changes as the challenges of keeping a civilization…
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The Year of the Four Emperors (68–69)
The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse! No, that’s not right… The Ambitious Four? Still not there… The Four Unfortunates? Hmmm, Vespasian did win out in the end… The Four Candidates? It is hard to put a title to these four gentlemen coming up next. History tags their period “The Year of the Four Emperors.” Only one of them made it past the goal post, and even then, it was something of a close call. Even then, while history acknowledges just these four, there were several others who made claims on the throne. Among the most notable were Gaius Julius Vindex, a governor from Gallia, and Nymphidius Sabinus, a Praetorian Prefect…
