Ahhay and welcome to Emperor of Rome, a podcast about the rulers of the ancient Roman Empire.

I'm your host Matt Smith and with me as always is Dr.

Rianna Evans, a lecturer in ancient Mediterranean studies at Latrobe University.

Just pause for a second while I look this up. We are in episode

This is episode

This is episode XX I. Titus and the Siege of Jerusalem.

When we last left Titus, he was living in the reflected glory of his father, the great

Vespasian. Coateales, I'll have me some of those but in this

episode we learn from the Romans perspective why he gets to wear the coat himself

the big victory for Titus came in the war against Judea when he laid siege to Jerusalem

and took it with a tremendous show of force. No matter where you fall for the interpretation of these

events, for the Romans it was an astounding victory and one that made Titus

a legend amongst emperors. Here's Rianin Evans. Titus was born in 39 CE right

at the end of the year 30th of December and he's born in Rome which is not the

case for lots of emperors they're often born various places around Italy and in the next

century they're going to start being born outside of Italy.

So he's a rare case of an emperor who is actually born in Rome,

but of course when he's born nobody knows he's destined to be emperor at all

because his father is a member of the equestrian ranks at that point, reasonably humble.

His father still has a lot of sway to give him a good upbringing, so he he's one of three children he's the

eldest isn't he he is the eldest yes with a sister and a brother and what kind of

upbringing does the young Titus have? Well he is close to the imperial household, so not that humble, because

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