His antecedents were less propitious. The descendant of an obscure
centurion, he had been a veterinary surgeon; then, having got
Caligula's ear, he flattered it abominably. Caligula disposed of,
he flattered Claud, or what amounted to the same thing, Narcissus,
Claud's chamberlain. Through the influence of the latter he became
a lieutenant, fought on remote frontiers--fought well, too--so
well even that, Narcissus gone, he felt Agrippina watching him,
and knowing the jealousy of her eyes, prudently kept quiet until
that lady did.
With Nero he promenaded through Greece--sat at the Olympian games
and fell asleep when his emperor sang. Treason of that high
nature--sacrilege, rather, for Nero was then a god--might have
been overlooked, had it occurred but once, for Nero could be
magnanimous when he chose. But it always occurred. To Nero's
tremolo invariably came the accompaniment of Vespasian's snore. He
was dreaming of that tooth, no doubt. "I am not a soporific, am
I?" Nero gnashed at him, and sent the blasphemer away.
For a while Vespasian lived in constant expectation of some civil
message inviting him to die. Finally it came, only he was invited
to die at the head of an army which Nero had projected against
seditious Jews. When he returned, leaving his son Titus to attend
to Jerusalem, it was as emperor.
Only a moment before Vitellius had been disposed of. That curious
glutton, whom the Rhenish legions had chosen because of his coarse
familiarity, would willingly have fled had the soldiery let him.
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