ABSTRACT
Vespasian’s origin, the contentions of 70 and 71, and Flavian occupation of the regular consulship, will have alienated the senate. L.Homo rightly called it a fundamental organ of state, a prime piece on the board. It remained the source of leading administrators and generals, and as its political functions diminished this aspect became more important. So too the symbolic. Josephus makes Agrippa II warn Claudius against massacring the House in the struggle for power in 41: Claudius will have no one to rule. Vespasian needed no warning. His treatment of the order has won high praise-and tributes for his transformation of it.1
