Emperor Titus: The 3 Things That Made Titus A Good Emperor

Born30th of December, 39 AD
Died13th of September, 81 AD
Famous Quote“As for the emperors who are dead and gone, they will avenge themselves in case anyone does them a wrong, if in very truth they are demigods and possess any power.”
Known ForCompleting his fathers massive building projects, helping the sufferers of Mount Vesuvius
Region of WorldRome, Italy, 1st century AD
Further ReadingEmperor Vespasian: The 3 Things He Is Best Known For

Emperor Titus only reigned for 3 years after the death of his father Emperor Vespasian. Today the 10th emperor of Rome is remembered for the 3 things he did that made him a good emperor in the eyes of ancient historians.

According to ancient historians Titus is remembered as being a good Roman emperor due to 3 things. First, Titus worked diligently to honor his father by completing both the Colosseum and Baths of Titus in his honor. Second, Titus worked diligently to help the Roman people when Mount Vesuvius Erupted in 79 AD and those caught in the 80 Ad fire of Rome. Third, Titus also ordered a halt to any treason trials and personally guaranteed that no senator would be unjustly tried for treason.

Even though Titus only served as the Emperor for 3 years he was remembered for hundreds of years after his death. No war broke out during the reign of Titus and he was loved by the army, senate, and the people of Rome; an amazing accomplishment.

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Without further ado, here are the 3 things that made Titus a good Roman Emperor.

Titus Worked Diligently To Honor His Father By Completing Both The Colosseum And Baths Of Titus In His Honor

One of the main things that made Titus a good emperor of Rome was that he finished building the Flavian Amphitheatre in his fathers name.

The Flavian Amphitheater was started under the reign of Vespasian which was Titus’s father. However, Vespasian would die before seeing the Flavian Amphitheater fully built.

Titus would carry on his father’s name by finishing construction of what still is today the largest amphitheater ever built. Today this massive building is called by the common name of the Colosseum because in front of it there used to be a massive 103 ft. tall statue of Nero.

At the same time Titus was finishing up the construction of the Colosseum he was working on a series of public baths that would be opened along with the Colosseum in his fathers honor.

The Baths of Titus were one of the first public imperial baths opened to the people of Rome. These baths were so magnificent that they would inspire subsequent emperors to open their own public baths.

By honoring his father Titus was demonstrating the Roman virtues of pietas, humanitas, and auctoritas. To the average Roman Titus would have been seen as a good roman and emperor.

As such one of the main things that Titus did during his 3 year reign that marked him as a good emperor was finish building the Colosseum and Baths of Titus in his fathers honor.

Titus Worked Diligently To Help The People Who Suffered From The Eruption Of Mount Vesuvius In 79 AD And The Roman Fire In 80 AD

One of the main things that Emperor Titus did that made him a good Roman emperor was that he worked diligently to help the Roman people during two major natural disasters.

The first natural disaster occurred sometime in the fall of 79 AD. Mount Vesuvius near the modern city of Naples erupted in a massive volcanic explosion. This caused pyroclastic flows to come down the mountain into the Roman towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum.

These Roman towns were resort towns. Romans from around the empire would come to both Pompeii and Herculaneum to relax and swim in the Mediterranean sea.

However, when Mount Vesuvius erupted it completely destroyed these two cities. Back in Rome nobody knew what happened. One eyewitness account comes from Pliny the Younger who states that a tree trunk of black shot out of the mountain.

Titus back in Rome wanted to figure out what happened and dispatched two ex-consuls to figure out and lead relief efforts. In order to provide relief Titus would donate substantial amounts of money to help aid the survivors of the explosion.

In 80 AD a massive fire would break out in Rome. This fire would damage or destroy many buildings around Rome as well as a ton of shops and houses. Again Titus would donate substantial amounts of money to help aid the Roman people and repair the structures.

If that was not enough in 80 AD after the fire a plague broke out in the city of Rome. We don’t know much about the extent of this plague but we do know that Titus helped pay for that as well.

Even though Titus never engaged in a military campaign while he was Emperor he was not saved from strife. However, Titus would care for his people over these natural disasters and for that reason he is remembered today as a good emperor of Rome.

Titus Ordered A Halt To Treason Trials And Ordered That No Senator Would Be Unjustly Tried For Treason

One of the main things that made Titus a good Roman emperor was that upon becoming emperor he immediately put an end to trials based on treason charges.

This stunned the Roman Senate. For nearly 100 years Roman dictators and emperors all used treason trials as a way to curate the Roman Senate and remove any hostile attempts to subvert their rule.

This process started with the Roman dictator Sulla during the late Roman Republic. It would continue up through the Julio-Claudian Dynasty and eventually stop in the early middle Empire under the Emperor Titus.

Titus stated that there was no need for treason trials during his reign. He would act honorably and to support all Romans. Titus is credited as stating that so long as he acted honorably then it would not matter what other Senators did, if it was a lie it did not matter, if it was the truth he would work to fix the error.

On top of this Titus made it illegal to try a Roman citizen for the same offense using different laws. This made it so that a Roman Citizen would not spend his entire life defending themselves from a series of Roman lawsuits from wealthy senators.

As you could imagine this made Titus extremely popular with both the people and senate of Rome. Initially many Roman’s feared that Titus would become the next Nero, however within the first 3 months of his reign the same Romans would realize that Titus was a good emperor of Rome.

As such the fact that Titus was fair and made it so that no senator would be tried unjustly for treason against the state made Titus a good emperor of Rome.

Conclusion

There you have it; the 3 things that made Titus a good emperor of Rome.

The study of Titus’s reign is amazing. In a short 3 year time he managed to not only complete one of the world’s most iconic Roman stadiums but he also managed to win over the hearts of nearly all of Rome. Unfortunately he would only reign for 3 years before passing away from illness.

Here at The History Ace I strive to publish the best history articles on the internet. If you enjoyed this article then consider subscribing to the free newsletter and sharing around the web.

Further, you can check out some of the other articles below.

Sincerely,

Nick

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