This [399]proved the [400]ruin of the nation, and of the very name of the Jews. The [401]calamity was indeed so [402]violent, and the [403]miseries they [404]suffered so [405]various, that it was [406]visible they were [407]punished for the [408]horrid [409]murder of the [410]only begotten son of God; for a [411]dreadful [412]famine [413]forced the [414]besieged to [415]live on human [416]flesh; mothers to [417]eat their own children; and eleven hundred thousand [418]persons (a thing hardly ever [419]heard of before), [420]perished in that [421]siege. The city was [422]finally [423]razed to the ground. Vespasian, in the third year of his reign [424]triumphed, with his son Titus, over the Jews; upon which he [425]shut up the [426]temple of [427]Janus. He [428]died in his ninth [429]consulship whilst he was [430]giving [431]audience to some [432]ambassadors, having lived sixty-nine years, one month and seven days, and reigned eight years.

Titus, who [433]succeeded his father, is [434]deservedly [435]ranked among the best [436]emperors, although before he [437]came to the [438]empire, he was [439]thought a man of a cruel [440]temper, [441]covetous, and [442]depraved. But upon his [443]advancement, he was so much [444]altered for the better, that he [445]deserved the [446]title of the [447]delight of [448]mankind. He was [449]remarkable for great [450]mildness, and [451]easy temper, and never [452]sent any one away [453]dissatisfied; and [454]remembering once at [455]supper that he had [456]done nobody any [457]kindness that day, he told all those who were about him that he had [458]lost a day. In his reign, in the year of Christ 80, there was a [459]dreadful [460]eruption of [461]flames and [462]ashes out of [463]mount Vesuvius, which [464]flew as far as Africa, Syria, and Egypt; and the two towns of Pompeii and [465]Herculaneum[A] were [466]utterly [467]ruined by it. This good emperor died in the year of Christ 81, two years and three months after he had [468]succeeded his father, and in the one and fortieth year of his [469]age, not without the [470]suspicion of having been [471]poisoned by his [472]brother Domitian.

Titus was very much [473]lamented both by the senate and people: and their [474]concern for his death was very much [475]increased by his brother and [476]successor Domitian, the worst prince of all that [477]came before, or [478]followed after him. At first he made some [479]show of [480]clemency and [481]justice, but soon [482]discovered his [483]temper, and [484]imitated Nero in [485]cruelty, [486]rapine, and [487]debauchery. He [488]ordered himself to be [489]called God, and was at last [490]destroyed by means of a [491]plot, in the year of Christ 96, after he had reigned fifteen years.

FOOTNOTES