?uick succession Gadara, Peraea, western Judaea, dumoea, and the neighbourhood of Jericho were besieged by the Romans. Afterwards the attack on Jerusalem was prepared. In the troublous period following the death of Nero, Titus played an important part. He has the chief credit of the reconciliation of Mucian, governor of tlie province Syria, and Vespasian. Titus was also adopted by the old king Agrippa, and both visited Achaia in the winter of 68-69. The attitude of these power- ful men in the East towards the kaleidoscopic changes in the West was complicated by the long delay in the arrival of news. The news of the death of Galba (15th Jan. 69) and the arming of Vitellius led Titus to hope that he would succeed his father, and he returned by Asia Minor, Rhodes, and Cyprus to Syria. Already the attractions of the Jewish princess Berenice had begun to in- fluence him. Meanwhile Vespasian and Mucian had got the Jewish and Syrian army to swear allegiance to Otho. However, on the news of Vitellius' success against Otho, the soldiers forced Vespasian to undertake the Empire. There is no doubt that the popularity of Titus helped them to
this decision, and later Titus accompanied Vespas- ian to Alexandria to strengthen his position there. In the year 70 Titus was commander-inchief, in which year also he held his first consulsliip, along with Vespasian. The details of the final attack on Jerusalem and of the preliminaries to it are well known from the pages of Josephus, BJ v. and vi. This author had for some time oeen on friendly terms with Titus. The siege was one of the most stubborn in history, but the Jews were eventually defeated. Return home by sea was impossible during the winter, and Titus went from Ciesarea Philippi to Caesarea Stratonis, then to Berytos. His visit to other Syrian cities was made all the more pleasant by the report of the splendid re- ception which his father had received in Italy. By Syrian Antioch he went to Zeugma on the Eu- phrates, where he received an embassy from the Parthian king. From Zeugma he returned, prob- ably via Tarsus, to Antioch, Jerusalem, and Alex- andria (reached probably in May 71). After sending the fifth and fifteenth legions back to their former garrisons and selecting 700 captives for his triumph, he took the usual route by sea from Alexandria past Rhegium to Puteoli (see Roads and Travel), and thence to Rome. The joint triumph of Vespasian and Titus took place probably in June, the month of his arrival. Some of the most conspicuous objects in the triumphal procession are represented on the reliefs of the still existing Arch of Titus in the Forum at Rome (see art. Rome).
There had been originally a question among the soldiers in the East whether Vespasian or 'Titus should be made Emperor. Their decision was for Vespasian, with the full understanding that Titus should succeed his father. Titus' military success, with the plunder thence accruing, made him popu- lar with the soldiers, but he remained on the best of terms with his father. Already in 69 both Titus and Domitian received Imperial titles from their father, and early in Vespasian's reign, in 71, Titus was recognized as co-emperor. It is not necessary to follow here the details of his otticial career and the titles he held in the course of that part of it which lies within his father's period as princeps. In 79 Titus crushed a conspiracy against his father by putting the ringleader Alien us, a friend of his own, to death. The Jewish queen Berenice had come to Rome with her brother Agrippa in 75. Titus' fondness for her, though she was thirteen years his senior (see Berenice), was notorious ; but the Romans had still much of the same strong feeling against close association between their rulers and foreign women that they had shown in the days of Julius Caesar and Cleo- patra, and Titus felt compelled to dismiss her.
At the commencement of his reign anticipations were not pleasant. For he had shortly before shown signs of tyranny as well as of licentiousness. It is highly probable that disease had already begun its work on him. Vespasian having died on 24th June 79, Titus was thirty-nine years old when his sole rule as Emperor began. At once he named his brother Domitian his partner and suc- cessor ; but this did not imply the double rule of two equals, as Domitian seemed to expect it would. He gave an unanticipated impression of mildness, and seems in every way to have realized his re- sponsibility and reformed his previous manner of life. The great Stoic philosopher, Musonius Rufus, whose fragmentary writings (ed. O. Hense, Leipzig, 1905) preach the noblest ethics of classical antiquity, was recalled to Rome, though Vespasian had banished him. Agricola's success in Britain continued (see under Vespasian). It was in this reign that the great eruption of Vesuvius took place, on 24th August 79. Herculaneum (better
TITUS, EPISTLE TO
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form Herculanum), Pompeii, and Stuliiiv were overwhelineil (see Herrlich, in Klio, iv. [l!Mi4]'J0n 11'.). Titus journeyed to Campania and remained tliere till next year, doing all that he could to help. His action provides an ancient counterpart to the services of Kinfj Victor Emmanuel on the occasions of the earthquakes of Messina and Avezzano. The fjreat aqueduct, Aqua Marcia, which had fallen into ruins, w,as repaired, and the Konian supply of pure water tlius notably increased (cf. Statins, Siluii:, I. V. '2()11'. )■ Titus also superintended road- building in Italy, Dalmatia, and Nuniidia, as in- scrijjtions prove. In the year 80, durin" the absence of Titus in Campania above referred to, a great iiart of Konie was destroyed by lire. A con- siderable nun\ber of the most splendid buildings were destroyed in the contlagration. Large sums were put at the disposal of the Emperor by private persons, iirinces, and towns, to enable him to restore them. He did not hesitate to furnish some of them from the Imperial palaces. A pestilence having broken out in Home, the Emperor was as instant in help as he continued to be in face of the distress in Campania. Amidst great festivities the wonderful amjihitheatre, which we know as the Colos.seum {see art. Kome), was dedicated, along with public hot baths. The combats of wild beasts and gladiators, the mimic naval battles, and the exhibition of gifts lasted one hundred days. To this j'ear belong also various imjirovements to roads in Italy, Spain, Galatia, and Lycia. Agricola acquired additional territory for Rome in Britain. In the same year in the East a false Nero appeared, and obtained considerable support for a time. The impostor was in reality a certain Terentius Maximus, a native of the province Asia, who was like Nero in appearance. To this episode there may be a reference in l!ev 13^. In the year 81 we learn of further repairs to aqueducts in Italy, and of new roads in Cyprus. The Emperor's health had begun to fail seriously in the preceding year. The ancient authorities mention an attack of fever. Domitian, it was rumoured, had poisoned him, or at least had hindered his recovery from illness by neglecting the orders of the physician. Certain 1}- Domitian left Titus' bedside in the Sabine land for Rome before the end, which took place on 13th September in the forty-second year of his age, after a reign of two years, two months, and twenty days.