The character of Vespasian has been painted in the brightest colours. Avarice alone sullied his virtues. This must have been no slight or temporary blot, or his eulogist and client, Tacitus, would not have recorded it. It was too palpable and notorious to be concealed, and the historian found himself, however reluctantly, compelled to confess it.
VESPASIAN.
(From a coin in the Museum of Florence.)[[42]]
It is not improbable, that he inherited this vice; for his father, having saved money in the business of a collector of the revenue and retired from the office, was unable to resist the love of gain, and subsequently acquired a considerable fortune by lending money at usurious interest. The prudence and sagacity with which the young Vespasian regulated his conduct during the dangerous reigns of the brutal Caligula and Nero, indicates his penetration and sagacity. It must have been by no trifling tact and ingenuity that he escaped death for the heinous offence of appearing inattentive while the Emperor Nero was singing. The same shrewdness and insight into character enabled him while in a private station to redeem his ruined fortune by horse-dealing; a science always notorious for its unscrupulous scheming and dishonest sharp practice; and in which the hawk-nosed Syrian Arabs have ever excelled all other nations.
Titus, the successor and son of Vespasian, inherited his father’s profile, and it is a marked corroboration of our theory that avarice is the only vice attributed to that otherwise virtuous prince.
It must, however, be observed, that the Noses, both of Vespasian and his son, were not purely Jewish, but Judæo-Roman IV
I; a formation which corresponds accurately with other peculiarities in the character of those great generals, too well known to need further elucidation.
CHAPTER VII.
OF THE SNUB NOSE AND THE CELESTIAL NOSE.
Classes V and VI.—The Snub Nose and the Turn-Up (poeticè Celestial) Nose.
The form of the former is sufficiently indicated by its name. The latter is distinguished by its presenting a continuous concavity from the eyes to the tip. It is converse in shape to the Jewish Nose. N.B. It must not be confounded with a Nose which, belonging to one of the other Classes in the upper part, terminates in a slight distention of the tip; for this, so far from prejudicing the character, rather adds to it warmth and activity.
We associate the Snub and the Celestial in nearly the same category, as they both indicate natural weakness; mean, disagreeable disposition; with petty insolence, and divers other characteristics of conscious weakness, which strongly assimilate them (indeed, a true Celestial Nose is only a Snub turned up); while their general poverty of distinctive character makes it almost impossible to distinguish their psychology. Nevertheless, there is a difference between their indications; arising, however, rather from degree than character. The Celestial is, by virtue of its greater length, decidedly preferable to the Snub, as it has all the above unfortunate propensities in a much less degree, and is not without some share of small shrewdness and fox-like common sense; on which, however, it is apt to presume, and is, therefore, a more impudent Nose than the Snub.