ABSTRACT

Vespasian’s career was a product of the social revolution that accompanied the change from Republic to Augustan Principate. Not only Marxist class but rank kept Roman society stable. Lines between Roman and non-Roman, slave and free, between plebs and the equestrian and senatorial orders, and between these orders, were reinforced under the Principate. But deserving men could cross them and look forward to seeing sons and grandsons crossing others. Permeability strengthened the system.