Divus Titus

Suetonius

De Vita Caesarum

Divus Titus

The Lives of the Caesars Divus Titus

I. TITUS, of the same surname as his father, was the delight and darling of
the human race; such ability had he, by nature, art, or good fortune, to win the
affections of all men, and that, too, which is no easy task, while he was emperor;
for as a private citizen, and even during his father’s rule, he did not escape
hatred, much less public criticism. He was born on the third day before the Kalends
of January [December 30, 41 C.E.], in the year memorable for the death of Gaius
[Arkenberg: Caligula], in a mean house near the Septizonium [Some building of
seven stories; the famous Septizonium on the Palatine was the work of Septimius
Severus] and in a very small dark room besides; for it still remains and is on
exhibition.

II. He was brought up at court in company with Britannicus and taught the same
subjects by the same masters. At that time, so they say, a physiognomist was brought
in by Narcissus, the freedman of Claudius, to examine Britannicus, and declared
most positively that he would never become emperor; but that Titus, who was standing
near by at the time, would surely rule. The boys were so intimate too, that it
is believed that when Britannicus drained the fatal draught, Titus, who was reclining
at his side, also tasted of the potion and for a long time suffered from an obstinate
disorder. Titus did not forget all this, but later set up a golden statue of his
friend in the Palace, and dedicated another equestrian statue of ivory and attended
it in the processions in the Circus, where it is still carried to this day.

III. Even in boyhood his bodily and mental gifts were conspicuous and they
became more and more so as he advanced in years. He had a handsome person, in
which there was no less dignity than grace, and was uncommonly strong, although
he was not tall of stature and had a rather protruding belly. His memory was extraordinary,
and he had an aptitude for almost all the arts, both of war and of peace. Skillful
in arms and horsemanship, he made speeches and wrote verses in Latin and Greek
with ease and readiness, and even off-hand. He was besides not unacquainted with
music, but sang and played the harp agreeably and skillfully. I have heard from
many sources that he used also to write shorthand with great speed and would amuse
himself by playful contests with his secretaries; also that he could imitate any
handwriting that he had ever seen and often declared that he might have been the
prince of forgers.

IV. He served as military tribune both in Germania and in Britannia, winning
a high reputation for energy and no less for integrity, as is evident from the
great number of his statues and busts in both those provinces and from the inscriptions
they bear. After his military service he pleaded in the Forum, rather for glory
than as a profession, and at the same time took to wife Arrecina Tertulla, whose
father, though only a Roman eques, had once been prefect of the Praetorian cohorts;
on her death he replaced her by Marcia Furnilla, a lady of a very distinguished
family, but divorced her after he had acknowledged a daughter which she bore him.
Then, after holding the office of quaestor [67 C.E.], as commander of a legion
he subjugated the two strong cities of Tarichaeae and Gamala in Judaea, having
his horse killed under him in one battle and mounting another, whose rider had
fallen fighting by his side.

V. Presently he was sent [68 C.E.] to congratulate Galba on becoming ruler
of the state, and attracted attention wherever he went, through the belief that
he had been sent for to be adopted. But observing that everything was once more
in a state of turmoil, he turned back, and visiting the oracle of the Paphian
Venus, to consult it about his voyage, he was also encouraged to hope for imperial
power. Soon realizing his hope [By the accession of his father Vespasian] and
left behind to complete the conquest of Judaea, in the final attack on Jerusalem
he slew twelve of the defenders with as many arrows; and he took the city on his
daughter’s birthday, so delighting the soldiers and winning their devotion that
they hailed him as Imperator and detained him from time to time, when he would
leave the province, urging him with prayers and even with threats either to stay
or to take them all with him. This aroused the suspicion that he had tried to
revolt from his father and make himself King of the East; and he strengthened
this suspicion on his way to Alexandria by wearing a diadem at the consecration
of the bull Apis in Memphis, an act quite in accord with the usual ceremonial
of that ancient religion, but unfavorably interpreted by some. Because of this
he hastened to Italia, and putting in at Rhegium and then at Puteoli in a transport
ship, he went with all speed from there to Rome, where as if to show that the
reports about him were groundless, he surprised his father with the greeting,
“I am here, father; I am here.”

VI. From that time on he never ceased to act as the emperor’s partner and even
as his protector. He took part in his father’s triumph and was censor [73 C.E.]
with him. He was also his colleague in the tribunician power and in seven consulships
[70, 72, 74-77, 79 C.E.]. He took upon himself the discharge of almost all duties,
personally dictated letters and wrote edicts in his father’s name, and even read
his speeches in the Senate in lieu of a quaestor. He also assumed the command
of the Praetorian Guard, which before that time had never been held except by
a Roman eques, and in this office conducted himself in a somewhat arrogant and
tyrannical fashion. For whenever he himself regarded anyone with suspicion, he
would secretly send some of the Guard to the various theaters and camps, to demand
their punishment as if by consent of all who were present; and then he would put
them out of the way without delay. Among these was Aulus Caecina, an ex-consul,
whom he invited to dinner and then ordered to be stabbed almost before he left
the dining-room; but in this case he was led by a pressing danger, having got
possession of an autograph copy of an harangue which Caecina had prepared to deliver
to the soldiers. Although by such conduct he provided for his safety in the future,
he incurred such odium at the time that hardly anyone ever came to the throne
with so evil a reputation or so much against the desires of all.

VII. Besides cruelty, he was also suspected of riotous living, since he protracted
his revels until the middle of the night with the most prodigal of his friends;
likewise of unchastity because of his troops of catamites and eunuchs, and his
notorious passion for Queen Berenice [Arkenberg: Of Judaea], to whom it was even
said that he promised marriage. He was suspected of greed as well; for it was
well known that in cases which came before his father he put a price on his influence
and accepted bribes. In short, people not only thought, but openly declared, that
he would be a second Nero. But this reputation turned out to his advantage and
gave place to the highest praise, when no fault was discovered in him, but on
the contrary the highest virtues. His banquets were pleasant rather than extravagant.
He chose as his friends men whom succeeding emperors also retained as indispensable
alike to themselves and to the State, and of whose services they made special
use. Berenice he sent from Rome at once, against her will and against his own.
Some of his most beloved paramours, although they were such skillful dancers that
they later became stage favorites, he not only ceased to cherish any longer, but
even to witness their public performances. He took away nothing from any citizen.
He respected others’ property, if anyone ever did; in fact, he would not accept
even proper and customary presents. And yet, he was second to none of his predecessors
in munificence. At the dedication [80 C.E.] of the amphitheatre [Arkenberg: The
Colosseum] and of the baths which were hastily built near it, he gave a most magnificent
and costly gladiatorial show. He presented a sham sea-fight too in the old naumachia
[See Aug. xliii.1], and in the same place a combat of gladiators exhibiting five
thousand wild beasts of every kind in a single day.

VIII. He was most kindly by nature, and whereas in accordance with a custom
established by Tiberius, all the Caesars who followed him refused to regard favors
granted by previous emperors as valid, unless they had themselves conferred the
same ones on the same individuals, Titus was the first to ratify them all in a
single edict, without allowing himself to be asked. Moreover, in the case of other
requests made of him, it was his fixed rule not to let anyone go away without
hope. Even when his household officials warned him that he was promising more
than he could perform, he said that it was not right for anyone to go away sorrowful
from an interview with his emperor. On another occasion, remembering at dinner
that he had done nothing for anybody all that day, he gave utterance to that memorable
and praiseworthy remark: “Friends, I have lost a day.” The whole body of the people
in particular he treated with such indulgence on all occasions, that once, at
a gladiatorial show, he declared that he would give it, “not after his own inclinations,
but ;hose of the spectators”; and what is more, he kept his word. For he refused
nothing which anyone asked, and even urged them to ask for what they wished. Furthermore,
he openly displayed his partiality for Thracian gladiators and bantered the people
about it by words and gestures [By humorously pretending to wrangle with those
who favored other gladiators than the Thracians], always, however, preserving
his dignity, as well as observing justice. Not to omit any act of condescension,
he sometimes bathed in the baths which he had built, in company with the common
people. There were some dreadful disasters during his reign, such as the eruption
of Mount Vesuvius in Campania [79 C.E.], a fire at Rome which continued three
days and as many nights [79 C.E.], and a plague the like of which had hardly ever
been known before [80 C.E.]. 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. During the fire in Rome he made no remark
except “I am ruined” [Implying that it was his personal loss, which he would make
good], and he set aside all the ornaments of his villas for the public buildings
and temples, and put several men of the equestrian order in charge of the work,
that everything might be done with the greater dispatch. For curing the plague
and diminishing the force of the epidemic there was no aid, human or divine, which
he did not employ, searching for every kind of sacrifice, and all kinds of medicines.
Among the evils of the times were the informers and their instigators, who had
enjoyed a long standing licence. After these had been soundly beaten in the Forum
with scourges and cudgels, and finally led in procession across the arena of the
amphitheatre, he had some of them put up and sold, and others deported to the
wildest of the islands. To further discourage for all time any who might think
of venturing on similar practices, among other precautions he made it unlawful
for anyone to be tried under several laws for the same offence, or for any inquiry
to be made as to the legal status of any deceased person after a stated number
of years.

IX. Having declared that he would accept the office of pontifex maximus for
the purpose of keeping his hands unstained, he was true to his promise; for after
that he neither caused nor connived at the death of any man, although he sometimes
had no lack of reasons for taking vengeance; but he swore that he would rather
be killed than kill. When two men of patrician family were found guilty of aspiring
to the throne, he satisfied himself with warning them to abandon their attempt,
saying that imperial power was the gift of fate, and promising that if there was
anything else they desired, he himself would bestow it. Then he sent his couriers
with all speed to the mother of one of them, for she was some distance off, to
relieve her anxiety by reporting that her son was safe; and he not only invited
the men themselves to dinner among his friends, but on the following day at a
gladiatorial show he purposely placed them near him, and when the swords of the
contestants were offered him [The weapons of gladiators were regularly examined
by the “editor”, or giver of the games, to see if they were sharp enough; cf.,
Dio, 68.3, who tells a similar story of the Emperor Nerva], handed them over for
their inspection. It is even said that inquiring into the horoscope of each of
them, he declared that danger threatened them both, but at some future time and
from another, as turned out to be the case. Although his brother never ceased
plotting against him, but almost openly stirred up the armies to revolt and meditated
flight to them, he had not the heart to put him to death or banish him from the
court, or even to hold him in less honor than before. On the contrary, as he had
done from the very first day of his rule, he continued to declare that he was
his partner and successor, and sometimes he privately begged him with tears and
prayers to be willing at least to return his affection.

X. In the meantime he was cut off by death, to the loss of mankind rather than
to his own. After finishing the public games, at the close of which he wept bitterly
in the presence of the people, he went to the Sabine territory somewhat cast down
because a victim had escaped as he was sacrificing and because it had thundered
from a clear sky. Then at the very first stopping place he was seized with a fever,
and as he was being carried on from there in a litter, it is said that he pushed
back the curtains, looked up to heaven, and lamented bitterly that his life was
being taken from him contrary to his deserts; for he said that there was no act
of his life of which he had cause to repent, save one only. What this was he did
not himself disclose at the time, nor could anyone easily divine. Some think that
he recalled the intimacy which he had with his brother’s wife; but Domitia swore
most solemnly that this did not exist, although she would not have denied it if
it had been in the least true, but on the contrary would have boasted of it, as
she was most ready to do of all her scandalous actions.

XI. He died in the same farmhouse as his father [The old homestead at Cutilae,
near Rheate; see Vesp. xxiv. That this continued to be a villa rustica is implied
in Vesp. ii.1], on the Ides of September, two years, two months and twenty days
after succeeding Vespasian, in the forty-second year of his age [September 13,
81 C.E.]. When his death was made known, the whole populace mourned as they would
for a loss in their own families, the Senate hastened to the Curia before it was
summoned by proclamation, and with the doors still shut, and then with them open,
rendered such thanks to him and heaped such praise on him after death as they
had never done even when he was alive and present.

Source:

From: J. C. Rolfe, ed., Suetonius, 2 Vols., The Loeb Classical Library (London:
William Heinemann, and New York: The MacMillan Co., 1914), II.321-339.

Scanned by: J. S. Arkenberg, Dept. of History, Cal. State Fullerton. Prof.
Arkenberg may have modernized the text.