7 April 2010

Image of an Emperor: Vespasian


"He was of middle stature, well set, and with limbs compact and strongly made. His countenance was like that of a man in the act of straining himself. Whereupon, one of those witty fellows, upon the emperor's request that he make a jest respecting himself, retorted, 'That I will - when you have finished your business at the stool.' His health was excellent, though he did nothing more to preserve it than vigorously rub his neck and other parts of his body at regular times, in the tennis court attached to the baths, besides fasting one day in every month".

[Suetonius, Vespasian, 20]