Besides his cruelty, he lay under the suspicion of giving way to habits of
					luxury, as he often prolonged his revels till midnight with the most riotous of
					his acquaintance. Nor was he unsuspected of lewdness, and his well-known
					attachment to queen Berenice, Berenice, whose name is
						written by our author and others Beronice, was daughter of Agrippa the
						Great, who was by Aristobulus, grandson of Herod the Great. Having been
						contracted to Mark, son of Alexander Lysimachus, he died before their union,
						and Agrippa married her to Herod, Mark's brother, for whom he had obtained
						from the emperor Claudius the kingdom of Chalcis. Herod also dying,
						Berenice, then a widow, lived with her brother, Agrippa, and was suspected
						of an incestuous intercourse with him. It was at this time that, on their
						way to the imperial court at Rome, they paid a visit to Festus, at Casarea,
						and were present when St. Paul answered his accusers so eloquently before
						the tribunal of the governor. Her fascinations were so great, that, to
						shield herself from the charge of incest, she prevailed on Polemon, king of
						Cilicia, to submit to be circumcised, become a Jew, and marry her. That
						union also proving unfortunate, she appears to have returned to Jerusalem,
						and having attracted Vespasian by magnificent gifts, and the young Titus by
						her extraordinary beauty, she followed them to Rome, after the termination
						of the Jewish war, and had apartments in the palace, where she lived with
						Titus, "to all appearance, as his wife," as Xiphilinus informs us; and there
						seems no doubt that he would have married her, but for the strong prejudices
						of the Romans against foreign alliances. Suetonius tells us with what pain
						they separated. who received from him, as it is reported, a promise
					of marriage. He was supposed, besides, to be of a rapacious disposition; for it
					is certain, that, in causes which came before his father, he used to offer his
					interest for sale, and take bribes. In short, people publicly expressed an
					unfavourable opinion of him, and said he would prove another Nero. This
					prejudice, however, turned out in the end to his advantage, and enhanced his
					praises to the highest pitch when he was found to possess no vicious
					propensities, but, on the contrary, the noblest virtues. His entertainments were
					agreeable rather than extravagant: and he surrounded himself with such excellent
					friends, that the succeeding princes adopted them as most serviceable to
					themselves and the state. He immediately sent away Berenice from the city, much
					against both their inclinations. Some of his old eunuchs, though such
					accomplished dancers, that they bore an uncontrollable sway upon the stage, he
					was so far from treating with any extraordinary kindness, that he would not so
					much as witness their performances in the crowded theatre. He violated no
					private right; and if ever man refrained from injustice, he did; nay, he would
					not accept of the allowable and customary offerings. Yet, in munificence, he was
					inferior to none of the princes before him. Having dedicated his amphitheatre,
						 The Colosseum: it had been four years in building. See
						VESPAS. c. ix. and built some warm baths The
						Baths of Titus stood on the Esquiline Hill, on part of the ground which had
						been the gardens of Maecenas. Considerable remains of them are still found
						among the vineyards; vaulted chambers of vast dimensions, some of which were
						decorated with arabesque paintings, still in good preservation. Titus
						appears to have erected a palace for himself adjoining; for the Laocoon,
						which is mentioned by Pliny as standing in this palace, was found in the
						neighbouring ruins. close by it with great expedition, he entertained
					the people with most magnificent spectacles. He likewise exhibited a naval fight
					in the old Naumachia, besides a combat of gladiators; and in one day brought
					into the theatre five thousand wild beasts of all kinds. If
						the statements were not well attested, we might be incredulous as to the
						number of wild beasts collected for the spectacles to which the people of
						Rome were so passionately devoted. The earliest account we have of such an
						exhibition, was A. U. C. 502, when one hundred and forty-two elephants,
						taken in Sicily, were produced. Pliny. who gives this information, states
						that lions first appeared in any number, A. U. C. 652; but these were
						probably not turned loose. In 661, Sylla, when he was praetor, brought
						forward one hundred. In 696, besides lions, elephants, and bears, one
						hundred and fifty panthers were shown for the first time. At the dedication
						of Pompey's Theatre, there was the greatest exhibition of beasts ever then
						known; including seventeen elephants, six hundred lions, which were killed
						in the course of five days, four hundred and ten panthers, c. A rhinoceros
						also appeared for the first time. This was A. U. c. 70I. The art of taming
						these beasts was carried to such perfection, that Mark Antony actually yoked
						them to his carriage. Julius Caesar, in his third dictatorship, A. U. c.
						708, showed a vast number of wild beasts, among which were four hundred
						lions and a cameleopard. A tiger was exhibited for the first time at the
						dedication of the Theatre of Marcellus, A. U. C. 743. It was kept in a cage.
						Claudius afterwards exhibited four together. The exhibition of Titus, at the
						dedication of the Colosseum, here mentioned by Suetonius, seems to have been
						the largest ever made; Xiphilinus even adds to the number, and says, that
						including wild-boars, cranes and other animals, no less than nine thousand
						were killed. In the reigns of succeeding emperors, a new feature was given
						to these spectacles, the Circus being converted into a temporary forest, by
						planting large trees, in which wild animals were turned loose, and the
						people were allowed to enter the wood and take what they pleased. In this
						instance, the game consisted principally of beasts of chase; and, on one
						occasion, one thousand stags, as many of the ibex, wild sheep (moufflons
						from Sardinia?), and other grazing animals, besides one thousand wild boars,
						and as many ostriches, were turned loose by the emperor Gordian. He was by nature extremely benevolent; for whereas all the emperors after
					Tiberius, according to the example he had set them, would not admit the grants
					made by former princes to be valid, unless they received their own sanction, he
					confirmed them all by one general edict, without waiting for any applications
					respecting them. Of all who petitioned for any favour, he sent none away without
					hopes. And when his ministers represented to him that he promised more than he
					could perform, he replied, " No one ought to go away downcast from an audience
					with his prince." Once at supper, reflecting that he had done nothing for any
					that day, he broke out into that memorable and justly-admired saying, "My
					friends, I have lost a day." "Diem
							perdidi." This memorable speech is recorded by several other
						historians, and praised by Eusebius in his Chronicles. More
					particularly, he treated the people on all occasions with so much courtesy,
					that, on his presenting them with a show of gladiators, he declared, "He should
					manage it, not according to his own fancy, but that of the spectators," and did
					accordingly. He denied them nothing, and very frankly encouraged them to ask
					what they pleased. Espousing the cause of the Thracian party among the
					gladiators, he frequently joined in the popular demonstrations in their favour,
					but without compromising his dignity or doing injustice. To omit no opportunity
					of acquiring popularity, he sometimes made use himself of the baths he had
					erected, without excluding the common people. There happened in his reign some
					dreadful accidents; an enrption of mount Vesuvius, A. U.
						C. 832, A. D. 79 . It is hardly necessary to refer to
						the well-known Epistles of Pliny the younger, vi. 16 and 20, giving an
						account of the first eruption of Vesuvius, in which Pliny, the historian,
						perished. And see hereafter, p. 499. in Campania, and a fire in
					Rome, which continued three days and three nights; The
						great fire at Rome happened in the second year of the reign of Titus. It
						consumed a large portion of the city, and among the public buildings
						destroyed were the temples of Serapis and Isis, that of Neptune, the baths
						of Agrippa, the Septa, the theatres of Balbus and Pompey, the buildings and
						library of Augustus on the Palatine, and the temple of Jupiter in the
						Capitol. besides a plague, such as was scarcely ever known before.
					Amidst these many great disasters, he not only manifested the concern which
					might be expected from a prince, but even the affection of a father, for his
					people; one while comforting them by his proclamations, and another while
					relieving them to the utmost of his power. He chose by lot, from among the men
					of consular rank, commissioners for repairing the losses in Campania. The
					estates of those who had perished by the eruption of Vesuvius, and who had left
					no heirs, he applied to the repair of the ruined cities. With regard to the
					public buildings destroyed by fire in the City, he declared that nobody should
					be a loser but himself. Accordingly, he applied all the ornaments of his palaces
					to the decoration of the temples, and purposes of public utility, and appointed
					several men of the equestrian order to superintend the work. For the relief of
					the people during the plague, he employed, in the way of sacrifice and medicine,
					all means both human and divine. Amongst the calamities of the times, were
					informers and their agents; a tribe of miscreants who had grown up under the
					licence of former reigns. These he frequently ordered to be scourged or beaten
					with sticks in the forum, and then, after he had obliged them to pass through
					the amphitheatre as a public spectacle, commanded them to be sold for slaves, or
					else banished them to some rocky islands. And to discourage such practices for
					the future, amongst other things, he prohibited actions to be successively
					brought under different laws for the same cause, or the state of affairs of
					deceased persons to be inquired into after a certain number of years.