ABSTRACT
Nero's death in 68 threatened the Empire with the same kind of destructive competition for preeminence that had destroyed the late Republic. The office of princeps became a revolving door through which four emperors passed in rapid succession as a result of assassination and civil war in 69. If the process had continued, the Roman Empire would have been irreparably damaged. Titus Flavius Vespasianus was able to halt it and earned the reputation of being the second founder of the Principate. Vespasian greatly strengthened the defenses of the northern frontiers by restoring to eight the number of legions serving along the Rhine in Upper and Lower Germany. Later, those two military commands, which had been attached to Gaul, became individual provinces. Vespasian's greatest claim to fame was his success in handling fiscal problems. After Vespasian's death, the senate at once conferred on Titus the usual honors and titles belonging to the princeps, although not without some qualms and misgivings.
