Rianin, what is the deal with Titus's birthday?

There's a discrepancy in terms of when Titus was born and it's actually a discrepancy within the biography by Suetonius.

And it's easy to miss because it's at the beginning and the end of the biography. Right at the beginning, Suetonius says that Titus was born in the year that Gaius died. And he means Gaius Caligula who died in 41 CE. So you say

okay Titus was born in 41 but then at the end of the biography he says that

Titus died in his 42nd year and we know that Titus died in 81 CE so that

means he was born in 39 not in 41 right so that's a mathematical error there.

So there's a two-year discrepancy there.

We've got two possible birth years.

But he's being very cagey.

He's not being definitely saying he was born in 39. He was born in 41. He's saying the year that Gaius died

Possible that we're getting the dates wrong from the other end that we're getting the date wrong that Geis died and...

Well, it's interesting because most modern scholars take the date as 39, so they work it out

from the death date in his 42nd year, which makes his birth date 39 CE and so if you read most

modern biographies or scholarship on Titus it will say he was he was born in 39

yeah Wikipedia has clearly looked at that's He was born in 39. Yeah, Wikipedia.

He looked at that scholarship.

So where did this era come from?

Is it something that Suitonius made a mistake on?

Did he mean to possibly say during the reign of Gaius as opposed to in the year that Gaius died or is it possibly a

transcription error from a monk along the way in the Middle Ages?

If it is a transcription error, then I think it's, this is just my personal view, possibly more likely that the number is wrong in terms of saying he died in his 42nd year maybe it was

originally 40th year right it's a very easy error to make yeah not familiar with

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