acknowledged that Domitian met with the just reward of his avarice and
cruelty. Titus Flavius Petro, a townsman of Reate [721], whether a
centurion or an evocatus [722] of Pompey's party in the civil war, is
uncertain, fled out of the battle of Pharsalia and went home; where,
having at last obtained his pardon and discharge, he became a collector
of the money raised by public sales in the way of auction. His son,
surnamed Sabinus, was never engaged in the military service, though some
say he was a centurion of the first order, and others, that whilst he
held that rank, he was discharged on account of his bad state of health:
this Sabinus, I say, was a publican, and received the tax of the fortieth
penny in Asia. And there were remaining, at the time of the advancement
of the family, several statues, which had been erected to him by the
cities of that province, with this inscription: "To the honest
Tax-farmer." [723] He afterwards turned usurer amongst the Helvetii, and
there died, leaving behind him his wife, Vespasia Pella, and two sons by
her; the elder of whom, Sabinus, came to be prefect of the city, and the
younger, Vespasian, to be emperor. Polla, descended of a good family, at
Nursia [724], had for her father Vespasius Pollio, thrice appointed (442)
military tribune, and at last prefect of the camp; and her brother was a
senator of praetorian dignity. There is to this day, about six miles
from Nursia, on the road to Spoletum, a place on the summit of a hill,
called Vespasiae, where are several monuments of the Vespasii, a
sufficient proof of the splendour and antiquity of the family. I will
not deny that some have pretended to say, that Petro's father was a
native of Gallia Transpadana [725], whose employment was to hire
workpeople who used to emigrate every year from the country of the Umbria
into that of the Sabines, to assist them in their husbandry [726]; but
who settled at last in the town of Reate, and there married. But of this
I have not been able to discover the least proof, upon the strictest
inquiry.