Titus Flavius (Rome)

Titus, son of Vespasian, fought under his father in the Judean campaign from 67 and took over command when Vespasian left to claim the imperial throne in 69. In the spring of 70, around Passover, he besieged Jerusalem with four legions, surrounded the city with a siege wall to starve it, and broke through its three walls one after another. The Temple burned in the month of Av. Josephus, who watched from the Roman camp, claims Titus wanted to spare it (War 6.236–266), while the later Christian writer Sulpicius Severus, possibly drawing on Tacitus, says he ordered its destruction.

In 71 he and Vespasian celebrated a triumph in Rome, parading the menorah, the showbread table and captives including Simon bar Giora, a scene carved on the Arch of Titus. He ruled as emperor from 79 to 81. The Talmud (Gittin 56b) calls him "Titus the wicked," telling that he slashed the curtain of the Holy of Holies and died after a gnat gnawed at his brain for seven years. The destruction is mourned every year on Tisha B'Av.