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Titus Flavius Vespasianus, like Trajan and Augustus, imposed domestic peace and undertook building works in Rome. He secured and extended the borders of the Empire, and had a reputation for the simplicity of his personal life, and for policies, including a sound currency (cf. Works, 30.279 [n/a]), which produced economic stability.
The handkerchief on the capital is presumably intended as a vernicle, kept in Rome at the time the capitals were made. For its importance see Dante Paradiso 31.95. The version of the legend implied by this capital seems much closer to the Vindicta Salvatoris, or the ‘Avenging of the Saviour’, known through the Old English version in the manuscript given by Leofric to Exeter than it does to the Golden Legend, compiled by Jacobus Voragine of Genoa.
The Vindicta conflates two different stories in the Golden Legend. In the one the Roman Volusian was sent to Judea by the Emperor Tiberius who heard that there was a healer there who could cure his disease. Volusian met Veronica, and together they went to Rome with the handkerchief of Veronica imprinted with the head of Christ after she had wiped the sweat from his brow on the way to the crucifixion. The Emperor was cured, and Pontius Pilate sent for and sentenced to death. In the other story in the Golden Legend Vespasian was cured of the worms / wasps (cf vespa) in his nose after Albanus told him that he would be able to rid himself of them by belief in Jesus, ‘whom the Jews in their envy put to death’. To express his gratitude Vespasian said, ‘I am sure that he who was able to cure me is the Son of God. I will seek permission of the emperor and go with an armed band to Jerusalem, and I will overthrow all those who betrayed and killed this man.’ ‘Jerusalem became the place where the vengeance of heaven fell upon the sacrilegious city and its criminal people.’ The defeat of Jerusalem was made possible, according to the Golden Legend because Vespasian was acting ‘out of zeal for Christ’ rather than merely attempting to put down a revolt against the power of Rome. Veronica’s handkerchief is not mentioned in the Golden Legend story of Vespasian.
In the Vindicta Salvatoris, Titus (perhaps a memory of the fact that Titus historically was the son of Vespasian who was left in charge of Roman forces in Judaea) was King of Bordeaux and was cured of a cancer of the nose as a result of his meeting with Nathan and expression of belief in Christ. In gratitude he sent for Vespasian to bring 5000 men to take revenge on the Jews for killing Christ. This they did by crucifixion, piercing with lances, and selling them into slavery at thirty for a penny. Vespasian asked to see a portrait of the great healer, and was shown Veronica’s handkerchief. That is then sent to Rome where it cures the leprosy of the Emperor. (See Voragine (1993) I pp.212ff and 274)
A translation of ‘Avenging of the Saviour’ is available here. There is a summary in James (1924) pp.159-61. In both versions the stress is on the punishment of the Jewish people for the crucifixion of Christ. On the Ducal Palace it was a reminder to the Jewish community in Venice of their status, and a reminder that imperial and commercial expansion required obedience to the Christian rulers of Venice. The presentation of Trajan on the next side of this capital is called by Ruskin a ‘sermon-sculpture’. He does not refer to the story of Veronica and Vespasian. Perhaps he was not familiar with it, though the reference to the head on the handkerchief suggests that he understood the reference to Veronica. It is difficult, therefore, to know how he would have interpreted this side of the capital as a sermon in stone.
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[Version 0.05: May 2008]