A little over two years into his imperial administration, the Roman emperor Titus (r. 79-81 CE) and a retinue of followers traveled to the Sabine countryside for a respite. As they made the overland journey, Titus quickly realized something was amiss. He developed a dangerously high fever, and his servants rushed him toward a farmhouse close to Reate.
Along the way, Titus' condition worsened, and he understood that this malady would certainly claim his life, which confused the youthful emperor. He was 41 years old and believed that he had lived a life that pleased the gods, but at the height of his power, his demise was imminent. On the verge of death, he threw open his litter curtains, gazed up at the sky and exclaimed, "I have made but one mistake" (Dio 66.23.3). He died not long after on 13 September 81 CE in the very farmhouse where his father, Vespasian (r. 69-79 CE), had perished.
Cause of Death
The question of Titus' cause of death and his solitary mistake vexed ancient historians. They produced a number of theories to attempt to explain what killed him and what his sole regret was, although some of the hypotheses range from impossible to improbable. However, thanks to the diligence of modern scholars, new theories have come to light that were never considered by their Roman and Greek forebears, who often focused on court intrigue and scandals.
Given the rapid and unexpected death of a popular and relatively young emperor, many Romans in 81 CE grew suspicious that Titus had been slain. Cassius Dio (c. 164 - c. 229/235 CE) reported:
The common report is that he was put out of the way by his brother, for Domitian had previously plotted against him; but some writers state that he died a natural death. The tradition is that, while he was still breathing and possibly had a chance of recovery, Domitian, in order to hasten his end, placed him in a chest packed with a quantity of snow, pretending that the disease required, perhaps, that a chill be administered.
(Dio 66.26.2)
It is not impossible that Domitian (r. 81-96 CE) ordered such a treatment with good intentions. He, along with physicians, may have thought that this was the only way to reduce Titus' uncontrolled fever, but other ancient authors claimed that Titus died by another means: Domitian poisoned him. Flavius Philostratus (3rd century CE) even asserted that Domitian tainted Titus' food or drink with a sea-hare, but modern academics have deemed this incredibly unlikely. It also seems unlikely that Domitian caused – at least purposefully – Titus' death. The ancient writers loathed Domitian and latched onto unsubstantiated rumors that diminished his legacy. He was also an easy target, considering that he had an obvious motive: becoming emperor.
Meanwhile, a Jewish tradition found in the Gittin presents an altogether different cause of death:
A gnat came, entered [Titus'] nostril, and picked at his brain for seven years. Titus suffered greatly from this until one day he passed by the gate of a blacksmith's shop. The gnat heard the sound of a hammer and was silent and still. Titus said: I see that there is a remedy for my pain. Every day they would bring a blacksmith who hammered before him. He would give four dinars as payment to a gentile blacksmith, and to a Jew he would simply say: It is enough for you that you see your enemy in so much pain. He did this for [30] days and it was effective until then. From that point forward, since the gnat became accustomed to the hammering, it became accustomed to it, and once again it began to pick away at Titus's brain.
(Gittin 56b)
This unwanted guest, the legend avers, led to his death. "When Titus died," the Gittin continued, "they split open his head and found that the gnat had grown to the size of a sparrow" (Gittin 56b). While this presents an incredibly colorful tale, it must be false. Gnats do not behave this way or grow to the size of small birds. Moreover, there is no other evidence suggesting that physicians conducted an autopsy of Titus' brain, nor was that a general practice in Roman medicine. Meanwhile, Plutarch (c. 45/50 to 120/125 CE) suggested that Titus' love of taking baths led to his demise, which also appears suspect, unless an unknown pathogen infected him during one of his many visits to Roman baths.
Book Promotion
Emperor Titus: The Right Hand of Vespasian
Emperor, general, and Vespasian's right hand, Titus was remembered by the Romans as a leader to be celebrated and a deity to be worshiped. This book draws on the scant historical sources, the archaeological record, and modern academic commentary to present the most comprehensive available account of Titus' life. Long neglected by historians, Titus' significant role in Roman history is presented in this book in the fullest detail ever.What seems to be the case instead appears clear in the record. In September in Italy, Titus acquired a high fever that struck him down quickly. As Saul Bastomsky wrote, Titus' condition seems more than likely to have been malignant malaria. It was relatively common in Titus' time period and region, and it surges in late summer to early fall. What is more, it is marked by a high fever and can kill its victims fast. Dio wrote that some believed that Titus had died of natural causes, and malignant malaria may very well have been the culprit. Titus never stood a chance against the disease.
The One Mistake
If Titus died naturally – regardless of whether he knew it or not – what was his one mistake? Dio reported:
Some have conjectured one thing and some another. The prevailing view is that of those who say that he referred to his taking his brother's wife, Domitia. Others – and these I am inclined to follow – say that what he meant as his mistake was that he had not killed Domitian when he found him openly plotting against him, but had chosen rather to suffer that fate himself at his rival's hands, and had surrendered the empire of the Romans to a man like Domitian. (Dio 66.26.3-4).
None of these explanations seems to satisfactorily answer the question. There is no evidence that Titus carried on an affair with Domitian's wife. Even Suetonius – who relished in sharing baseless rumors as fact – admitted that this was false, stating:
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.
(Life of Titus 10.2)
Considering that it is unlikely that Domitian killed Titus, the emperor probably did not regret allowing his brother to stay alive. Asserting that Titus' one mistake was sparing Domitian likely represents more ancient attempts to malign Domitian, who probably did not have anything to do with his brother's untimely death, and Titus knew this. He even displayed the closeness he allegedly shared with his sibling on coinage during his reign.
It is impossible to know what Titus' single mistake was with certainty, but there are some more probable theories. During his time in Judaea, Titus forged a romantic relationship with the Jewish queen Berenice, and she even came to Rome and lived with Titus as if she were his wife. This rankled the Romans, who demanded that she leave, and Titus and/or Vespasian instructed her to return to the East. She obeyed, but once Titus became emperor, she returned again – only to depart once more. Titus seemed to have truly loved Berenice, and her absence caused him great pain.
If this was not the Jewish affair that occupied Titus' troubled mind at the end of his life, then the Jewish War may have. Titus waged a brutal campaign against the Jewish people after the Great Jewish Revolt of 66 CE, sacked the resplendent city of Jerusalem, and razed it and its holy Temple. However, according to Flavius Josephus (36-100 CE), Titus wished to spare the noncombatants, their great city, and especially the Temple, but not every writer agreed with Josephus' assessment. Whatever the case, matters turned out differently. Due to rampant starvation and warfare, over 1 million Jews died in Jerusalem, per Josephus, although Tacitus places the number considerably lower, and the Romans leveled the city and the sacred Temple, which to date has never been rebuilt. Titus, on more than one occasion, cried out to the gods to witness that the events were not of his making.
Many of these potential "mistakes" were of his making, as were other violent instances in his life. Vespasian appointed Titus as one of Rome's praetorian prefects – essentially the leader of the imperial bodyguard. While holding this post, he zealously protected his father from any possible threats, perhaps even from unsubstantiated ones based on flimsy evidence. Eventually, two influential Romans, Caecina and Eprius, were implicated in a scheme to kill Vespasian. These men were personal friends with Titus. He had even sparred with Caecina in his youth. Friends or not, Titus resolved to act decisively. He had Caecina killed, and Eprius, after being convicted, slit his own throat. There's no indication of how Titus felt about this, but it certainly weighed on him.
As Titus languished on his deathbed, he might have regretted sending Berenice away to appease his subjects, wreaking death and destruction on Jerusalem and the Jewish people, or causing Caecina and Eprius' untimely deaths. He may have also rued never siring a male heir with one of his paramours, even though the Roman Empire was not a hereditary monarchy.
While some ancient Roman historians largely dismissed the notion of Titus dying of natural causes and tried in vain to identify his one mistake, the truth seems to be that Titus died from an illness and had many more probable mistakes on which to obsess. After a life of merciless warfare, imperial court intrigue, judicial murder, and heartbreak, the real surprise is that Titus had only one regret.
