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
