vouchsafed but to touch it with his heel. At first he could scarcely
believe that the thing would any how succeed, and therefore hesitated to
venture on making the experiment. At length, however, by the advice of
his friends, he made the attempt publicly, in the presence of the
assembled multitudes, and it was crowned with success in both cases
[748]. About the same time, at Tegea in Arcadia, by the direction (451)
of some soothsayers, several vessels of ancient workmanship were dug out
of a consecrated place, on which there was an effigy resembling
Vespasian.

VIII. Returning now to Rome, under these auspices, and with a great
reputation, after enjoying a triumph for victories over the Jews, he
added eight consulships [749] to his former one. He likewise assumed the
censorship, and made it his principal concern, during the whole of his
government, first to restore order in the state, which had been almost
ruined, and was in a tottering condition, and then to improve it. The
soldiers, one part of them emboldened by victory, and the other smarting
with the disgrace of their defeat, had abandoned themselves to every
species of licentiousness and insolence. Nay, the provinces, too, and
free cities, and some kingdoms in alliance with Rome, were all in a
disturbed state. He, therefore, disbanded many of Vitellius's soldiers,
and punished others; and so far was he from granting any extraordinary
favours to the sharers of his success, that it was late before he paid
the gratuities due to them by law. That he might let slip no opportunity
of reforming the discipline of the army, upon a young man's coming much
perfumed to return him thanks (452) for having appointed him to command a
squadron of horse, he turned away his head in disgust, and, giving him
this sharp reprimand, "I had rather you had smelt of garlic," revoked his
commission. When the men belonging to the fleet, who travelled by turns
from Ostia and Puteoli to Rome, petitioned for an addition to their pay,