Vespasia Polla (also known as Vespasia Pollia, born c. 15 BC, fl 1st century AD) was the mother of the Roman emperor

Vespasian Vespasian (; ; 17 November AD 9 – 23 June 79) was Roman emperor from 69 to 79. The last emperor to reign in the Year of the Four Emperors, he founded the Flavian dynasty, which ruled the Empire for 27 years. His fiscal reforms and consolida ...

, and grandmother to the emperors Titus and

Domitian Domitian ( ; ; 24 October 51 – 18 September 96) was Roman emperor from 81 to 96. The son of Vespasian and the younger brother of Titus, his two predecessors on the throne, he was the last member of the Flavian dynasty. Described as "a r ...

. Polla came from an equestrian family at Nursia.

Suetonius Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus (), commonly referred to as Suetonius ( ; – after AD 122), was a Roman historian who wrote during the early Imperial era of the Roman Empire. His most important surviving work is ''De vita Caesarum'', common ...

identifies her father as the Vespasius Pollio who was a three-time

military tribune A military tribune () was an officer of the Roman army who ranked below the legate and above the centurion. Young men of Equestrian rank often served as military tribunes as a stepping stone to the Senate. The should not be confused with the ...

and a '' praefectus castrorum''. Her brother rose as high as the

praetor ''Praetor'' ( , ), also ''pretor'', was the title granted by the government of ancient Rome to a man acting in one of two official capacities: (i) the commander of an army, and (ii) as an elected ''magistratus'' (magistrate), assigned to disch ...

ship. The Vespasii were regarded as an old family of great renown, and Suetonius notes a site called ''Vespasiae'' where many of their monuments had been built. This site was located on a mountaintop near the sixth

milestone A milestone is a numbered marker placed on a route such as a road, railway, railway line, canal or border, boundary. They can indicate the distance to towns, cities, and other places or landmarks like Mileage sign, mileage signs; or they c ...

on the road between Nursia and Spoletum (present-day

Spoleto Spoleto (, also , , ; ) is an ancient city in the Italian province of Perugia in east-central Umbria on a foothill of the Apennines. It is south of Trevi, north of Terni, southeast of Perugia; southeast of Florence; and north of Rome. H ...

).Suetonius, ''Life of Vespasian'', 1.2-3. Vespasia married a tax collector Titus Flavius Sabinus, and survived him. Their daughter Flavia Vespasia died in her infancy. One son, also named Titus Flavius Sabinus, served as

consul Consul (abbrev. ''cos.''; Latin plural ''consules'') was the title of one of the two chief magistrates of the Roman Republic, and subsequently also an important title under the Roman Empire. The title was used in other European city-states thro ...

in 47. After her husband died she never remarried. Sabinus achieved the senatorial rank, but Vespasian put off doing so. Suetonius (Life of Vespasian, 2.2) states that:

Flavian family tree

References

{{Reflist Flavian dynasty Mothers of Roman emperors