It’s time to do a bio on Titus Flavius Vespasianus. He wasn’t very ambitious as a young man and only joined the Cursus Honorum because his mother drove him to it through sarcasm, constantly taunting him that he wasn’t as good as his older brother. He had a thing for ex-slaves and was once, when governor of North Africa, pelted with turnips during a riot and forced to sell mules to pay off his debts. And of course Nero once stuffed horse shit down his toga. So a really auspicious start.