Marcellus's Death and the Change of the Ruling Class under Vespasian

<p>So far, it has been considered that the Emperor Vespasian's new government consisted of his relatives, partisans and old friends. In 79 A.D., however, the powerful senator, Eprius Marcellus, cos. II in 74, who has been regarded as one of Vespasian's confidants, was suspected of framing a plot against Vespasian and forced to suicide. It has been questioned why he went to his doom. In the first part of this paper, the careers of the provincial governors from 69 to 73 are examined. The governors of the few important consular provinces were Vespasian's relatives and supporters, but most of the consular governors were appointed not because they were supporters of Vespasian. They are classified as two types. One is the Othonian generals. Under the Emperor Otho, they fought against the Vitellian army in the civil war. Vespasian adopted them to get the support of the Othonian senators. The other type is the senators who held iterated consulships under Vespasian. This fact has led many scholars to conclude these senators were his confidants. But, it is doubtful whether the iterated consuls were his confidants. In the civil war, they gave no substantial support to Vespasian, with whom they do not seem to have had any plausible connection in the Julio-Claudian period. Their honorific and powerless posts from 70 to 73 suggest that Vespasian put little trust in them. Two inscriptions about Plautius Aelianus and Tampius Flavianus record that Vespsian honoured them, not because of their merits in his reign but because of merits in the Neronian period, which Nero had not rewarded enough. Vespasian was famous for his propaganda against Nero. It follows from these points that Vespasian made use of iterated consuls to show the difference between himself and Nero, and to get the supports of many other senators. A mere homo novus like him needed such propaganda to secure his throne. Thus, most of the governors in the early years of Vespasian's reign were neither his supporters nor his old friends. They were appointed governors because his partisans were not yet powerful among the senators at that time. Marcellus was honoured for his influence with other senators. He was not the real confidant of Vespasian. The second part of this paper deals with the appearance of the new powers after Vespasian's censorship in 73-74. Many scholars have considered that, by adlecting the senators to the patricians, Vespasian intended to create a new elite class. But, almost all of the new patricians whom Vespasian used as the provincial governors were originally his partisans from the civil war. After they became the consular governors, only a few other patricians were elevated as provincial governors. So Vespasian's intention toward patricians was to reward his partisans rather than to create an elite class. He intended to fill the important governorships, especially imperial consular ones, with his partisans. All governors of the imperial consular provinces from 74 onwards had been appointed consuls by Vespasian. The senators who had reached consulships before his reign were excluded from these posts. The significant evidence of this is that Othonian generals were not appointed to any governorships, and did not appear until the reign of Domitian. Iterated consuls who had reached the consulship first in Nero's reign existed in 74-75, but, as noted above, their appointment meant a political propaganda. Vespasian rapidly promoted his partisans and senators who began their careers under him, and excluded the consuls of the period from Nero to Vitellius. At the same time, Vespasian began his new policy. From Judaea, Agrippa II and his sister Berenice, who were among the main supporters of Vespasian in the civil war, came to Rome. The former received the ornamenta praetoria, and the latter co-habited with Titus. Although the Romans hated her, Vespasian did not get rid of her, and</p><p>(View PDF for the rest of the abstract.)</p>