Mucianus in Syria belonged to one of the highest Roman families, the Licinii, and he was also descended from the Mucii: yet he knew that high birth had lost its influence; besides which, he was effeminate, and had tact enough to feel that he was inferior to Vespasian: they were very different men. After having formerly been on bad terms, Mucianus now held out his hand to the stern, harsh Vespasian. Mucianus, without being bad, had caught the vices of his set; he had little ambition, and deemed it wiser to be under an emperor of his own choice. Vespasian, on the other hand, was free from the faults of the great world, having rather the virtues which are peculiar to the lower classes: he had acknowledged Galba; but after his death he began to think of taking the throne for himself, being conscious that he was fit for it. Yet there was no need for him to decide in the matter himself, as Antonius Primus, with the Mœsian legions, encountered and defeated the army of the generals of Vitellius near Cremona. In Rome, the insurrection had likewise already broken out. Here Vespasian’s brother, T. Flavius Sabinus, was præfect; and his younger son, Domitian, was kept as a sort of hostage. Against these Vitellius was at first irritated; then he was frightened, and wished to capitulate; after the battle of Cremona especially, he was quite mild: but when afterwards different symptoms showed themselves, he again veered round and wanted to arrest them. They fled to the Capitol, which, however, was taken, and for the second time since Sylla, burned to ashes: Domitian had a very narrow escape. At Rome, the anarchy was complete. When in those days a man wanted to descend from his throne, he was not able to save his life; for there were no convents then, as in the Byzantine period. Vespasian’s party had been gradually forming; and it gained strength owing to the successes of the victorious army, which straightway marched to Rome, where the maddest excesses were now committed on both sides. The conquerors took possession of the city without meeting with any resistance, and Vitellius was murdered. T. FLAVIUS VESPASIANUS. TITUS. DOMITIANUS. Under these circumstances, Domitian, a very young man hardly twenty, seized upon the government in the absence of his father: his elder brother Titus remained in Judæa, and it was a long time before Vespasian came to Rome. Many ruthless deeds were done in the meanwhile, rather from personal vengeance than party motives. Although Vespasian himself had many good qualities indeed, his party was no better than the opposite one; just as it was in the latter part of the thirty years’ war, when the Swedish, French, and Imperial armies were equally lawless and destructive. The dismal history of these little men is wonderfully told by a great one, who, however, makes none of them his hero.