Vespasian: Emperor with a sense of humor

[guy]

 

Vespasian’s reign (AD 69-79) is thought to have been a successful one. Besides his military successes, he was known for his sharp sense of humor. Below is an article that examines this sense of humor:

 

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Vespasian’s legacy includes the Colosseum, one of the new wonders of the world, public urinals being named after him (e.g. vespasienne in France), and the phrase: “Money doesn’t smell.”

 

Urinal from Pompeii

 

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Vespasian was a son of a moneylender and tax collector, therefore he knew how to get money. Soon after taking the throne, Vespasian began taxing everything.

His most notorious tax was called vectianal urinae (In Latin tax on urine).

Throughout Roman cities, urine was collected in big jars on the streets. Men peed into these jars and the urine was sold to launderers and farmers. The buyers of the urine had to pay tax.

As a side note, the most expensive was Portuguese urine.

 

https://historyofyesterday.com/vespasian-c6efa0939670

https://medium.com/short-history/vespasian-money-doesnt-smell-81ffc8742a25

 

Here is an excellent article with Vespasian anecdotes that reflect his sense of humor:

http://www.jasperburns.com/gasvesp.html

 

 

 

 

Edited July 9, 2022 by guy

[caesar novus]

I have never agreed with the modernized portraits; they don't capture the demeanor at all especially around the mouth. Mouth areas tend to be super expressive of a persons life history and life focus, unless they live a soft life unlike an emperor who knows he won't die peacefully. These pictures tend to show vapid banal modern expressions vs the glorious sculptures.

Have you ever seen a person you know well freshly dead, with no cosmetics done? In my experience the entire personality was gone like turning into a generic person, something you don't see from just sleep. Have you seen a military officer with that distant look of a fighter pilot - they have to have insane foresight even apart from combat and have  a signature 20 mile stare. You can look at another variation and say, oh that is probably a high performance helicopter pilot with a very alert 2 mile stare. It's people shaped by highly unforgiving environments, not any joe six pack who flies piston airplanes or helicopters. 

It used to be very noticable before globalization that you could see a different demeanor even in parts of Europe that was just plain impossible in a same-ethnic American. Even now, you might see that from mountain villages say in Albania. The Roman demeanor in realistic sculpture is just wow to me, and I hate to see it dumbed down.

 

Edited July 10, 2022 by caesar novus

[caldrail]

I wouldn't place too much faith on 'realistic' sculpture. More often they were idealistic in their portrayals or used as propaganda. The famous scowl of Caracalla for instance is deliberate, it was meant to convey the subject was a hard man who took no nonsense from anyone. Did Caracalla never laugh? Also, we know that Roman politicians did not have the same demeanour that the modern breed tend to have. They wee much more theatrical and demonstrative in debates and oratory, this was expected in Roman society to demonstrate emotion behind the speech, like ripping open a toga to reveal wounds and reminding the audience that he too has fought for Rome! In some cases, statues of previous elite Romans had new heads installed or merely re-shaped the old one to suggest the new subject.