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 In the late eleventh and twelfth centuries, Rome lay within the Papal States, the territorial domain of the Catholic Church, though its temporal glory as an empire had long faded. The city sprawled across its famous hills along the Tiber River, a landscape of crumbling ancient monuments, medieval fortifications, and Romanesque churches that dominated the skyline. The Jewish community of Rome was among Europe's most ancient, tracing roots to the second century BCE, and it flourished in a precarious but resilient position under papal authority; while confined to restricted quarters and subject to discriminatory laws, Roman Jews maintained a sophisticated intellectual and commercial life, with Hebrew scholarship and biblical commentary flourishing despite—or perhaps because of—the community's isolation. The Jewish quarter itself, densely packed and vibrant, became a center of learning where skilled scribes copied manuscripts and rabbinical discussions drew on centuries of local tradition. What made Rome extraordinary for Torah study was not merely its learned scholars but the tangible presence of antiquity itself: the community lived amid the ruins of pagan temples and Roman law, giving their interpretations of Jewish law a unique resonance, as if they were rebuilding Jewish civilization in the very streets where Roman power had once reigned supreme.
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.