Note 1223 — Chapter IV · PRE-IMPERIAL CAREER OF THEODORA: THE CONSORT OF JUSTINIAN
Reading edition
Dion Cass., lxvi, 14. As a proof of the meanness of Vespasian, he relates that Titus expostulated with his father on the unseemliness of maintaining a tax on the collection of urine, whereupon the Emperor, drawing a handful of gold from his pocket, tendered it to his son, saying, “Smell, does it stink?” cf. Suetonius, 23.