Titus
c. 39 CE–c. 81 CE · Rome
Titus (39–81 CE) was the second Flavian emperor, the elder son of Vespasian, born in Rome. As a general under his father he commanded the Roman siege of Jerusalem in 70 CE, which ended the First Jewish Revolt with the sacking of the city and the destruction of the Second Temple; the event is commemorated on the posthumous Arch of Titus in Rome, whose relief depicts the Temple spoils being carried in triumph. As emperor he dedicated the Colosseum (in 80 CE) and was remembered for his relief efforts after the eruption of Mount Vesuvius (79 CE) and a fire in Rome, ruling little more than two years before his death.
Did you know?
The Roman who destroyed the Temple nearly married a Jewish princess
Titus — the Roman general who besieged Jerusalem and destroyed the Second Beis HaMikdash in 70 CE — carried on a years-long relationship with Berenice, a great-granddaughter of Herod and a princess of the Jewish Herodian house. The Roman historian Suetonius records that Titus even promised to marry her; only when he became emperor in 79 CE did opposition in Rome force him to send her away — "against his will and against hers."
Meet Berenice →How we know
Berenice (b. 28 CE), daughter of Agrippa I and sister of Agrippa II, of the Herodian dynasty; Titus (39–81 CE), Roman commander at the siege of Jerusalem, emperor 79–81 CE. Suetonius, Life of Titus 7: Titus loved Berenice, was said to have promised her marriage, then dismissed her from Rome on his accession. Purely first-century historical dates, so it holds under the mesorah.
Life journeyclick any stop, or use ←/→
RomeרומאItaly
We know they were here, but the specifics of what they did at this stop aren’t recorded yet in our corpus.
About Rome
Rome, on the Tiber in central Italy, grew from an Iron Age settlement into the capital of the Roman Republic and then of an empire that by the 1st century CE ruled the whole Mediterranean. Its Jewish community, attested from the 2nd century BCE, is among the oldest in Europe. Christian tradition holds that the apostles Peter and Paul died there, and the city became the seat of the popes. After the Western Empire ended in 476 it passed to Gothic kings, to Byzantium and then to papal rule as capital of the Papal States, until it became the capital of unified Italy in 1871. Vatican City, independent since 1929, lies within it.
In Rome at the same time
Pliny, the Elder, Silius Italicus, Tiberius Catius, Musonius Rufus, Quintilian, Martial, Valerius Flaccus, Gaius
Across the traditions, in Rome at the same time
In the same place & time
Sages whose lives overlapped with Titus’s in the same cities, drawn from their recorded journeys.
Across the traditions
In the same tradition
Pliny, the Elder, Silius Italicus, Tiberius Catius, Musonius Rufus, Quintilian, Martial, Valerius Flaccus, Gaius, Statius, P. Papinius (Publius Papinius), Plutarch, Domitian, Epictetus, Juvenal, Tacitus, Cornelius, Pliny, the Younger, Suetonius, Florus, Lucius Annaeus, Favorinus of Arelate
The world in their lifetime
Thinkers and teachers of other traditions whose lives overlapped with Titus’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn purely from recorded birth and death years.
Works
No works attributed in the corpus yet.