This early dating is centered on the preterist interpretation of chapter 17, where the seven heads of the " beast " are regarded as the succession of Roman emperors up to the time of the fall of Jerusalem in 70 AD, Caligula through Vespasian.

It is not known how many Roman legions were sent ; only one legion, the II Augusta, commanded by the future emperor Vespasian, is directly attested to have taken part.

The fate of the menorah used in the Second Temple is recorded by Josephus, who states that it was brought to Rome and carried along during the triumph of Vespasian and Titus.

Vespasian is remembered by Josephus, in his Antiquities of the Jews, as a fair and humane official, in contrast with the notorious Herod the Great whom Josephus goes to great lengths to demonize.

* Judea: The Jewish Revolt – Vespasian lays siege to Jerusalem, the city is captured the following year by his son Titus.

* Josephus, Jewish rebel leader, is dragged before Vespasian and becomes his historian.

* Vespasian starts the building of the Colosseum ; the amphitheatre is used for gladiatorial games and public spectacles, such as sea battles, re-enactments of famous battles, and dramas of Classical mythology.

Vespasian is wounded in the foot by an arrow fired from the city wall.

* Titus is awarded with a triumph, accompanied by Vespasian and his brother Titus Flavius Domitian.

* Titus is made praetorian prefect of the Praetorian Guard and receives pro-consular command and also tribunician power, all of which indicates that Vespasian will follow the hereditary tradition of succession.

* Antiochus IV of Syria is deposed by emperor Vespasian.

* Temple of Peace, also known as the Forum of Vespasian, is built in Rome.

The work is dedicated to the emperor Titus, son of Pliny's close friend, the emperor Vespasian, in the first year of Titus's reign.

The life of Caenis and her love-story with Vespasian is portrayed in Lindsey Davis ' novel The Course of Honour.

He took the side of Roman Emperor Vespasian when the latter was proclaimed emperor in 70 ; and he is then spoken of as the richest of the tributary kings.

Although authors such as Anne Perry wrote in the genre during the next decade, it wasn't until about 1990 that the genre's popularity saw a fairly quick ascent with works such as Lindsey Davis's Falco novels, set in the Roman Empire of Vespasian ; Elizabeth Peters's Amelia Peabody novels, in which the main character is not only a Victorian lady but an early feminist and an archaeologist working in early 20th century Egypt ; Steven Saylor's " Roma Sub Rosa " novels, set in the Roman Republic at the time of Julius Caesar ; John Maddox Roberts's SPQR series set during the Roman Republic ; and P. C. Doherty's various series, including The Sorrowful Mysteries of Brother Athelstan, the Hugh Corbett medieval mysteries, partly indebted to the hardboiled tradition, and the Canterbury Tales of Mystery and Murder.

The Aventine Hill is portrayed as a rough working-class area of ancient Rome in the popular Falco series of historical novels written by Lindsey Davis about Marcus Didius Falco, a ' private informer ' who occasionally works for the Emperor Vespasian and lives in the Aventine.

A surviving English translation of the sermon is also preserved in the manuscript British Library, Cotton Vespasian D. xiv.

The work is extant in just one surviving manuscript, British Museum Cotton Vespasian A XIV, folios 175v to 177v.

The accuser, who was condemned to death in the reign of Roman Emperor Vespasian for his conduct on this occasion, is a standing example of ingratitude and treachery.

* Sulpicia Praetextata, the wife of Crassus, is mentioned at the commencement of the reign of Vespasian, in AD 70.

A fruitless search for silphium by Romans in the reign of the emperor Vespasian is an amusing sub-plot of the crime novel Two for the Lions by Lindsey Davis.

: July 1-With support of Gaius Licinus Mucianus, Governor of Syria and Tiberius Alexander, Prefect of Egypt, Vespasian is urged to revolt and take the throne.

In his bid for imperial power, Vespasian joined forces with Mucianus, the governor of Syria, and Primus, a general in Pannonia.

Vespasian accepted, and through negotiations by Titus, joined forces with Gaius Licinius Mucianus, governor of Syria.

The Roman army was joined by the twelfth legion, which was previously defeated under Cestius Gallus, and from Alexandria Vespasian sent Tiberius Julius Alexander, governor of Ægyptus, to act as Titus's second in command.

Eight cohorts of Batavian veterans joined their countrymen, and the troops sent by Vespasian to the relief of Vetera threw in their lot with them.

When Marcus Antonius Primus, the general of Vespasian, was marching upon Rome ( 69 AD ), he joined the ambassadors that were sent by Vitellius to the victorious general, and going among the soldiers of the latter, preached about the blessings of peace and the dangers of war, but was soon made to stop.

These early arrivals would have been joined by those who had been enslaved by the Romans under Vespasian and Titus, and dispersed to the extreme west during the period of the Jewish-Roman War, and especially after the defeat of Judea in 70.

The Roman province by that name had been on hiatus from 27 BC and re-established by Emperor Vespasian only in 72 AD.

Vespasian died in 79 and was succeeded by Titus, whose own reign came to an unexpected end when he was struck by a fatal illness in 81.

As a military commander, Vespasian gained early renown by participating in the Roman invasion of Britain in 43.

Vespasian was assigned to lead the Roman army against the insurgents, with Titus — who had completed his military education by this time — in charge of a legion.

When Otho was defeated by Vitellius at the First Battle of Bedriacum however, the armies in Judaea and Egypt took matters into their own hands and declared Vespasian emperor on 1 July 69.

Order was properly restored by Mucianus in early 70 but Vespasian did not enter Rome until September of that year.

Vespasian proceeds at the head of the family, dressed as pontifex maximus, followed by Domitian with Domitia Longina, and finally Titus, also dressed in religious regalia.

The family procession was headed by Vespasian and Titus, while Domitian, riding a magnificent white horse, followed with the remaining Flavian relatives.

Although he made no pretence regarding the significance of the Senate under his absolute rule, those senators he deemed unworthy were expelled from the Senate, and in the distribution of public offices he rarely favoured family members ; a policy which stood in contrast to the nepotism practiced by Vespasian and Titus.

The most extensive account of the life of Domitian to survive was written by the historian Suetonius, who was born during the reign of Vespasian, and published his works under Emperor Hadrian ( 117 – 138 ).

* The Marcus Didius Falco series of crime novels ( 1989 — ) by Lindsey Davis, set during the reign of Vespasian.

He initially fought against the Romans during the First Jewish – Roman War as the head of Jewish forces in Galilee, until surrendering in 67 to Roman forces led by Vespasian after the six-week siege of Jotapata.

The Romans ( commanded by Flavius Vespasian and his son Titus, both subsequently Roman emperors ) asked the group to surrender, but they refused.

After the prediction became true he was released by Vespasian who considered his gift of prophecy to be divine.

His claim to the throne was soon challenged by legions stationed in the eastern provinces, who proclaimed their commander Vespasian emperor instead.

Once he realised his support was wavering, Vitellius prepared to abdicate in favour of Vespasian, but was executed in Rome by Vespasian's soldiers on 22 December 69.

On 20 December, Vitellius was defeated, and the following day Vespasian was declared Emperor by the Roman Senate.

While under the emperor's patronage, Josephus wrote that after the Roman Legio X Fretensis, accompanied by Vespasian, destroyed Jericho on 21 June 68, Vespasian took a group of Jews who could not swim ( possibly Essenes from Qumran ), fettered them, and threw them into the Dead Sea to test the sea's legendary buoyancy.

There followed the famous Year of Four Emperors, a brief period of civil war and instability, which was finally brought to an end by Vespasian, 9th Roman emperor, and founder of the Flavian dynasty.