Emperor Titus Historical Source Analysis

Titus Flavius Vespasianus was born in 39 CE as the elder son of the future emperor Vespasian, and gained fame during the Jewish War that began in 66 CE. After Vespasian became emperor in 69 CE, Titus continued the campaign in Judaea and commanded the Roman forces that captured Jerusalem in 70 CE after a long siege. Ancient writers reported that he divorced Marcia Furnilla after political pressure connected to her family’s ties with opponents of Nero, and later rumours claimed that illness or poisoning caused his death, with suspicion often directed toward his brother Domitian, who succeeded him as emperor. 

“Augustus, became sole ruler. Augustus died in A. D. 14. Subsequent emperors during the first century were: Tiberius (A. D. 14-37), Caligula (A. D. 37-41), Claudius (A. D. 41-54), Nero (A. D. 54-68), Galba, Otho and Vitellius (A. D. 69), Vespasian (A. D. 69-79), Titus (A. D. 79-81), Domitian (A. D. 81-96), Nerva (A. D. 96-98), Trajan (A. D. 98-117)... 

 “[The Roman province of] Judea was administered by Roman procurators till A.D. 41, when all Palestine was given to [the Jewish king] Herod Agrippa...  

After A.D. 44, procurators were again in control. The misgovernment of the [Roman] procurators [of Judea] led to the great revolt in A. D. 66. After four years of war, Jerusalem was taken by the Roman army in A. D. 70. The temple was destroyed, and the offering of sacrifices ceased.” 

Contextual statement:

J. Gresham Machen was an American New Testament scholar and Presbyterian minister who taught at Princeton Theological Seminary in the early twentieth century. He wrote during the Fundamentalist–Modernist controversy in American Protestantism and later helped found Westminster Theological Seminary after leaving Princeton in 1929. When he discussed early Christianity and the Roman world, he wrote for modern readers with strong religious aims, so his selection of evidence often pushed a confessional interpretation. 

Bibliographical reference: 

Machen, J. G. (1915). The literature and history of New Testament times. Presbyterian Board of Publication and Sabbath School Work. p. 10 & 23. Retrieved from: https://archive.org/stream/literaturehistor00mach/literaturehistor00mach_djvu.txt  

“Meanwhile [Vespasian] took to wife Flavia Domitilla, formerly the mistress of Statilius Capella, a Roman knight of Sabrata in Africa, a woman originally only of Latin rank, but afterwards declared a freeborn citizen of Rome in a suit before arbiters, brought by her father Flavius Liberalis, a native of Ferentum and merely a quaestor s clerk. By her he had three children, Titus, Domitian, and Domitilla. He out-lived his wife and daughter ; in fact lost them both before he became emperor. After the death of his wife he resumed his relations with Caenis, freed-woman and amanuensis of Antonia, and formerly his mistress; and even after he became emperor he treated her almost as a lawful wife... 

Contextual statement: 

Suetonius (Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus) was a Roman writer from the equestrian class who wrote in the early second century CE. He moved in elite circles through patrons such as Pliny the Younger, then worked in the imperial administration under Emperor Hadrian, including a senior post connected to official correspondence and access to records. He wrote The Lives of the Caesars after the Flavian period, in a Rome where emperors controlled archives and reputations, and his biographies mixed official detail with court gossip and moral judgement. 

Bibliographical reference: 

Suetonius. Life of Vespasian, 2. (Trans, J. C. Rolfe. (1914). Loeb Classical Library. Vol. 2, pp. 284–286). Retrieved from: https://archive.org/stream/suetonius01rolfgoog/suetonius01rolfgoog_djvu.txt 

“There were some dreadful disasters during his reign, such as the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in Campania [that buried Pompeii and Herculaneum], a fire at Rome which continued three days and as many nights, and a plague the like of which had hardly ever been known before. In these many great calamities he showed not merely the concern of an emperor, but even a father's surpassing love, now offering consolation in edicts, and now lending aid so far as his means allowed. He chose commissioners by lot from among the ex-consuls for the relief of Campania; and the property of those who lost their lives by Vesuvius and had no heirs left alive he applied to the rebuilding of the buried cities.”  

Contextual statement: 

Suetonius (Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus) was a Roman writer from the equestrian class who wrote in the early second century CE. He moved in elite circles through patrons such as Pliny the Younger, then worked in the imperial administration under Emperor Hadrian, including a senior post connected to official correspondence and access to records. He wrote The Lives of the Caesars after the Flavian period, in a Rome where emperors controlled archives and reputations, and his biographies mixed official detail with court gossip and moral judgement. 

Bibliographical reference: 

Suetonius. Life of Titus, 8. (Trans, J. C. Rolfe. (1914). Loeb Classical Library. Vol. 2, pp. 333). Retrieved from: https://archive.org/stream/suetonius01rolfgoog/suetonius01rolfgoog_djvu.txt 

“And now, since [Titus] was no way able to restrain the enthusiastic fury of the soldiers, and the fire proceeded on more and more, he went into the holy place of the temple [in Jerusalem], with his commanders, and saw it, with what was in it, which he found to be far superior to what the relations of foreigners contained, and not inferior to what we ourselves boasted of and believed about it. But as the flame had not as yet reached to its inward parts, but was still consuming the rooms that were about the holy house, and Titus supposing what the fact was, that the house itself might yet he saved, he came in haste and endeavored to persuade the soldiers to quench the fire, and gave order to Liberalius the centurion, and one of those spearmen that were about him, to beat the soldiers that were refractory with their staves, and to restrain them; yet were their passions too hard for the regards they had for Caesar, and the dread they had of him who forbade them, as was their hatred of the Jews, and a certain vehement inclination to fight them, too hard for them also. Moreover, the hope of plunder induced many to go on, as having this opinion, that all the places within were full of money, and as seeing that all round about it was made of gold. And besides, one of those that went into the place preventedCaesar, when he ran so hastily out to restrain the soldiers, and threw the fire upon the hinges of the gate, in the dark; whereby the flame burst out from within the holy house itself immediately, when the commanders retired, and Caesar with them, and when nobody any longer forbade those that were without to set fire to it. And thus was the holy house burnt down, without Caesar's approbation.”  

Contextual statement: 

Flavius Josephus was a Jewish priest from Jerusalem who became a commander in Galilee during the Jewish revolt against Rome (66–70 CE). After his capture, he attached himself to the Flavian household and later lived in Rome with imperial patronage, writing accounts of the war for Greek and Roman readers. His narrative about Titus and the fall of Jerusalem came from a participant who wrote under the eyes of the victors, which matters for how he described Roman actions and Jewish rebels. 

Bibliographical reference:

Josephus. The Wars of the Jews, VI.4. (Trans. William Whiston. (1915)). pp. 248–249. Retrieved from: 

https://ia800400.us.archive.org/0/items/theWarsOfTheJews/The_Wars_Of_The_Jews.pdf