TITUS (T. Flavius Vespasianus Augustus) ROMAN EMPEROR
Son of Vespasian, born in Rome on 30 December 39 AD, died at Aquae Cutiliae (now Cotilia, near Rieti) on 13 September 81 AD.
He completed his military training as *tribunus militum* in Germany, Britain, and finally in the East as *legatus* of the XV *Apollinaris* legion (Suetonius, *Vesp.*, 4; Flavius Josephus, *Bell. Jud.*, III, 4 sqq.) alongside his father during the Jewish War. When Vespasian was proclaimed emperor by the legions, Titus remained as his lieutenant to conclude the military operations against the Jews (Tacitus, *Hist.*, V, 1; Suetonius, *Tit.*, 5). The Jewish historian Flavius Josephus, in Books V and VI of his *Jewish War*, recounts the dramatic defense of Jerusalem by its defenders, who, though tormented by hunger, resolutely resisted the final assault of the legions. The Roman soldiers had to struggle to break through the last resistance of the citadel. The Temple had been set on fire, even against Titus’ own wishes; upon its ruins he was acclaimed *imperator* (Flavius Josephus, VI, 6). Sulpicius Severus, however, reports (Chron., II, 30, 6) that the destruction occurred on Titus’ advice out of hatred for both the Jewish and Christian religions, since the Christians derived from the Jews: *radice sublata stirpem facile perirarum*. Great was the spoil and the number of prisoners sold or deported. From that moment the Jewish diaspora began.
Once the war was concluded, Titus celebrated its triumph, which was immortalized in the Arch of Titus completed by his brother Domitian. The decorative panels of the arch depict precisely the sacred vessels taken from the Temple as trophies: the table for the showbread, the silver trumpets, and the seven-branched candelabrum (v. Ch. Huelsen, *Das Forum Romanum*, 2nd ed., Rome 1905, p. 222 sqq). This last object, in the Middle Ages, curiously gave its name to the arch known as the *arcus septem lucernarum*.
Later associated with the Empire by his father, Titus held the highest state offices and succeeded him on 24 June 79 AD. Severe and almost merciless in suppressing crimes of *lèse-majesté* while his father’s colleague, upon assuming the imperial purple he proved mild and tolerant, seeking almost to mitigate the somewhat absolutist regime established by Vespasian and continued by Domitian. His brief reign was marred by the eruption of Vesuvius, which buried Pompeii, Herculaneum, and Stabiae, and by a devastating fire that burned Rome for three days; yet he met these disasters with promptitude. He also had a liaison—viewed with suspicion by the people, who recalled the evil arts of Eastern queens (Dio Cassius, LXVI, 15, 4)—
Titus, Roman emperor — Togate statue of Emperor Titus (1st century) — Vatican Museums, New Wing.
with Queen Berenice, daughter of Agrippa I, king of Judaea (v. Wilcken, in *Pauly-Wissowa*, III, 1, cols. 287–89). The relationship later ceased, whether for reasons of state or because the queen was older than he.