18

To celebrate his thirtieth birthday, the Emperor decided to tour Greece. He would liberate Hellus (which meant it would be exempt from tribute). This tour of Greece would celebrate the world’s first artistic games at which, of course, Nero would win all the significant first prizes. It was in Greece that Nero came under the influence of a Satanist and magician; a Greek named Karkinos.

Under the magus’ influence, an already seriously flawed character slipped into madness. He came to believe that his role in life was to become an artist of the highest aesthetic and spiritual standing. As a living deity his destiny and duty was to demonstrate by example. People were told to abandon accepted morality and copy his example. Nero, utterly without morals, announced anything was allowed; that the moral laws of society were an invention and were to be discarded.

In the Grecian artistic games, the senators and their wives were invited to participate in competitions embracing music, poetry and chariot racing - three categories based on the Greek festivals of antiquity. What was not part of Greek antiquity were elderly Roman matriarchs being forced to lose their dignity, capering in an unseemly manner on the stage, whilst their equally elderly husbands, powerful and respected senators, found themselves in clumsy combat in the gladiatorial arena.

Not to be outdone, Nero himself pranced about on the stage in the feminine roles; a particular practice that scandalised a senate heartily sick of its ruler. More than a few minds were secretly scheming as to how they might rid themselves of the monster who had the power of life and death over them, who offended their sensibilities and insulted all the virtues and morality that embodied what it was to be Roman. They had put up with Nero’s scandalous incestuous relationship with his mother, but refused to support him when he scandalised the whole of Roman society, by marrying a freedman called Doryphorus in a ceremony complete with dowry and bridal veil. The couple celebrated their marriage by indulging in one of Nero’s favourite pastimes of dressing up in the skins of tigers and disembowelling men and women tied to stakes. This revolting behaviour reached its peak at a banquet turned orgy, given in Nero’s honour by Tigellinus. The entertainment took place on a raft, moored on a lake owned by Marcus Agrippa. The raft had been towed by gilded barges rowed by degenerates and unfortunates; the disfigured and malformed.

On the quays, brothels had been stocked with high ranking courtesans who had to vie for trade with lower ranking prostitutes, male and female, who solicited competitively, indicating by lewd posturing and gesturing their unnatural and bizarre sexual services. That which caused the most offence had been the panders offering children of all ages for their use. The sexually inexperienced youngsters stared about in bewilderment and incomprehension - and eventually terror as their role became apparent.

Like all dictators, Nero worried about possible rivals. He began to imagine enemies everywhere as his behaviour massively alienated the senatorial class. Increasing paranoia deepened his suspicions. Prominent senators were charged with imaginary crimes and executed if they refused to commit suicide. Nero wasn’t the first emperor to employ a system called bonadamnatorum. Condemning men to death and confiscating their estates and all their worldly possessions; the dependents of his victims left penniless and banished from the empire on pain of death if they ever returned. In sixty five, Nero had ordered the Empire’s best general, Corbulo, to return from the east and then ordered him to kill himself. Tragically, in the following year, Nero recalled the commanders of the legions in Lower and Upper Germany, the talented Scribonius brothers, Rufus and Proculus, ordering them to commit suicide or face execution. This brought about the demise of Rome’s three outstanding generals, whose loyalty to Rome and the Emperor was unswerving.

As a further safeguard against a putsch in his absence from the capital, the entire senate and their families had been invited to join him in Greece. Among these was the fifty eight year old retired general Flavius Vespasian, who had played a part in Claudius’ invasion of Britain where he had captured the Isle of Wight and later Maiden Castle, for which he was awarded the insignia of a Triumph. Made a consul in fifty one, he retired two years’ later to the country. This took him away from court and particularly Nero’s mother Agrippina, who had taken a dislike to him. With good reason, Vespasian feared the daughter of Germanicus Caesar and sister of Caligula. When Claudius died in fifty four it was from being poisoned by Agrippina, who was his second wife.

Ferociously ambitious and determined to be Empress she contrived to get Nero, her son by her first husband Domitius Ahenobarbus, accepted as heir to the purple in place of Britannicus, Claudius’ own son by his former wife Messalina.

Within a year of Nero’s succession Britannicus was dead, having fallen victim to a poisoned dish of mushrooms served to him by Agrippina. She was consolidating her hold on the Empire by sleeping with her son Nero and having herself declared Augusta - an act which eventually prompted Nero to have her assassinated.

Called out of retirement, Vespasian became governor of the province of Africa which he successfully administered for two years. While he was in Africa his wife died, leaving him with the responsibility of two sons. The eldest, Titus, a serving officer in the army; the youngest aged thirteen, Domitian, was a strange youth, with a liking for pain – other people’s - particularly when he was the cause.

Returning from Africa, Vespasian was surprised and chagrined to be invited to join the Court in Greece. The general, who was indifferent to the arts, particularly singing and music, could not find a credible excuse to turn down the royal invitation. It was during an excruciatingly boring poetry reading by Nero - one of his own of course - that a courier arrived from Judaea; a senior tribune sent by Cestius Gallus from Antioch. The crash of his hobnailed sandals on the marbled floor announced his presence, interrupting the senators, court nobles and their wives, who were gathered in an admiring circle round Nero as he proclaimed one of his excruciatingly bad poems.

Flanked on each side by Nero’s personal bodyguard, the tribune saluted and dropped to one knee. Nero, incredulous at the interruption, stared at him in silence. The entire court held its breath. The tribune cleared his throat. “My Lord Caesar, I bring greetings from your most loyal subject Cestius Gallus, Legate of Syria and Judaea”. The soldier paused before continuing. “The Legate sends you a report of the grave circumstances that have arisen in Judaea”. At this the tribune offered the scroll he had brought.

Sensing that whatever was written on the proffered report was something he didn’t want to know, the Emperor refused to take it. Instead he caught Vespasian’s eye and, with a barely perceptible nod, indicated he was to accept the unwelcome news. Vespasian dismissed the courier and waited. He made no attempt to give the message to the Emperor, though he knew without being told that it contained dire news - as indeed did Nero, who had flung himself into a chair frowning heavily, lips compressed in anger.

After what seemed an age, he held out his hand with a deep sigh and breaking the seal unrolled the report. Its contents brought him to his feet with a roar. “Rebellion”. The word was literally spat out, saliva splattering those nearest to him. “The filthy, ungrateful Jews have rebelled”.

The gasp from the assembled courtiers was lost in the tirade unleashed by the Emperor. Pounding up and down on the dais, sweat streaming down his face, he castigated his absent Legate and the rebellious Jews in equal measure. In the middle of his rant, Nero stopped as suddenly as he had started, remembering he had murdered Rome’s best generals. Who could he send to Judaea; somebody who would do the job, and would not have dreams of Empire? That man, he suddenly realised, was standing next to him; a capable soldier from an ordinary family with no political background - a safe pair of hands.

So in February, the fifty-seven-year old Vespasian was appointed to the rank of Legatus. His orders were to avenge Rome for the loss of a legion and its eagle, to punish the Jews for insulting the Emperor by ceasing to offer the daily sacrifice for Rome and for the Emperor, to set an example to the world of Rome’s power and be a lesson to those who thought to challenge it. His orders were that Israel was to cease to exist, Jerusalem to be razed to the ground and the Jewish people annihilated.

With him would go the man who would replace Gallus - Gaius Licinius Mucianus who, like Vespasian, was ‘old school’, a statesman and a soldier.

Vespasian, glad to take his leave of a court he detested and an Emperor he held in contempt, set out for Antioch via the Hellespont and Turkey. Here he took command of two legions, the Fifth Macedonica and the famous Tenth Fretensis, and marched to Ptolemais. From there he made his way to Acre and was met by King Agrippa who pledged his loyalty. Together they marched to Sepphoris, already garrisoned by Roman troops. This would be Vespasian’s headquarters for the coming campaign.

First he would gather all his forces and only when they were under his command would he move. Throughout his military life Vespasian had stuck to a policy of attacking each target with maximum force, eliminating the enemy to ensure there would be no survivors to trouble him later. Having settled at Sepphoris his first task was to send orders to his son Titus and an old friend, Tiberius Julius Alexander, who had served as a staff officer under the senior general Gnaeus Domititius Corbulo during the campaigns against the Parthians in sixty two. He was an experienced soldier who, under Claudius, had been appointed procurator of Judaea in 46–48.

Meanwhile, Judaea was an opportunity for Vespasian, who saw the war as a chance to get away from Nero. It would be Tiberius who would advise Vespasian to adopt the strategy of allowing the Jews of Jerusalem to destroy themselves. He also pinpointed the three rival leaders and their followers - Eleazar ben Simon, leader of the zealots; the private army of John of Gischala; and Simon Ben Gioras, who was supported by men from Idumaea, the southern part of Judaea that the Romans did not control. All three, Tiberius pointed out, had different agendas. John strove for political freedom. Simon on the other hand stood at the head of a Messianic movement. Eleazar was a nationalist who wanted the Romans out of Judaea, with himself in power as ruler of Jerusalem.