TITUS
746
TITUS
of Rome (1 March, 499), contains the list of the names
of the presbyters and their tituli. From this and
from the report of a councU held by Gregory the
Great in 595, we know there were twenty-five tituli,
which number, with few fluctuations, remained the
same until about 1120 when it is given as twenty-
eight. Three or four of the Gregorian tituli do not
appear in the list of the council of 499, while the list
of Pope Symmachus gives five which are not found in
the council of 595. This difference is explained by
establishing the location and the surroundings of the
disputed tituU and identifying the tituli of Pope
Symmachus with those of Pope Gregory. The titular
churches are all found at a distance from the classic
centre of the City, and correspond to an epoch in
which paganism preponderated at Rome. From the
studies made and from existing monuments it is safe
to attribute the foundation of many tituli to the third
century and of most of them to the fourth.
After the presbyteral tituli came the diaconia; these are not found in Roman documents before the seventh centurj'. The Liber Pont ificalis ment ions them for the first time in the life of Benedict II (684-85). From the beginning the diaconue were charitable insti- tutions, and in a measure replaced for the Romans the frume7ilatio of Byzantine times and the doles of bread of the best days of the empire. They were established in the centre of the city, with the mate- rials, or on the site of, public edifices in a period when there was no longer a motive for building Christian churches away from the Forum or the Palatine. Under Pope Adrian (772-95) their number was fixed at eighteen. From the beginning of the twelfth cen- tury cardinal deacons adopted the names of their diaconia: and the number of eighteen was maintained until the sixteenth century. By the twelfth century cardinal deacons as well as the presbyters had long been dispensed from personal service at the tituli, since which time titulus of itself acquired a meaning analogous to that of the present time.
Duchesne, Les litres presbyteraux in Melanges d' archeologie- et d'histoire, VII (1S87) ; Jordan-Huisen, Topografie der Sladt Rom (Berlin, 1907) ; Gbisar, Rom beim Ausgang der antiken Welt (Freiburg, 1901); Marucchi, Manuals di archeologia cristiana (2nd edition, Rome, 1908); Armellini, Lezioni di archeologia (Rome, 1S9S); Kratjs in Realencyklopadie der christlichen Alter- thUmer (Freiburg, 1880-1886), s. v. AluiGI CosSIO.
Titus, Bishop of Bostra, b. about 362-371. Sozo- men (Hist, eccl., Ill, xiv) names Titus among the great men of the time of Constantius; he also tells (op. cit., V, xv) of a mean trick played upon Titus by Julian the Apostate. It was expected that the re-estabhshment of paganism would occasion riots in Bostra as it had elsewhere. Juhan wrote to Titus that he would hold him and the clergy responsible for any outbreak. Titus replied that though the Christians were equal in number to the pagans they would obey him and keep quiet. Julian then WTOte to the Bostrians urging them to expel Titus because he had calumniated them by attributing their quiet conduct not to their own good dispositions but to his influence. According to Socrates (op. cit.. Ill, xxv) Titus was one of the bishops who signed the Synodal Letter, addressed to Jovian by the Council held at Antioch (363), in which the Nicene Creed was ac- cepted, not, however, without a clause "intended somewhat to weaken and semiarianize the expression o/uooiJirios " (Hefcle, "Councils", II, p. 283; Antioch. — Synods of Antioch) . St. Jerome (Ep. Ixx) names Titus among wi'iters whose secular erudition is as marvel- lous as their knowledge of Scripture; in his "De vir. ill.", cii, he speaks of his "mighty" (fortes) books against the Manicha'an and nonnulla alia. He places his death under Valens. Of the nonnulla alia only fragments of cxegetical writings have sur\-ivod. These show that Titus followed the Aiitiochene School of Scripture exegesis in keeping to the literal as opposed to the allegorical interpretation. The
"Contra Manichaeos" is the most important work of
the kind that has come down to us, and its historic
value is very great because of the number of quota-
tions it contains from Manichiean writers. In one
passage Titus seems to favotir Origen's view that the
pains of the damned are not eternal (on this point see
especially Ceillier, "Histoire generale des auteura
sacres et ecclesiastiques", VI p. 54, who seems disposed
to acquit him of this error). The work consists of
four books of which the fourth and the greater part
of the third are only exiant in a Syriac translation.
The Greek and Syriac texts of the Contra Manich. were pub- Hshed by Lagarde (Berlin, 1S59). Earlier editions of the Greek te.xt suffer from an insertion from a work of Serapion owing to the misplacement of a leaf in the original codex. For Contra Manich, and other writings attributed to TiTua see Migne and Gallandi. The genuine exegetical fragments of this commentary were pub- lished bv Sickenberger in Texte u, Untersuchen, VI, i (new se- ries). Bardenhewer-Sh.ihan, Palrohgy (St. Louis, 1908), 270-1.
F. J. Bacchos.
Titus, Epistle to. See Timothy and Titus, Epistles to.
Titus, Roman Emperor 79-81, b. 30 Dec, 41 ; d. 13 Sept., 81 ; son of the Emperor Vespasian, and from the year 70 Caesar and coregent; he was highly educated and a brilliant poet and orator in both ■ Latin and Greek. He won militaiy fame in the war in the years 69-70, against the revol ted Jews. In April, 70, he appeared before the walls of Jerusa- lem, and conquered and destroyed the city after a siege of five months. He wished to preserve the Temple, but in the struggle with the Jews who rushed out of it a soldier threw a brand into the building. The siege and taking of the city were accom- panied by bar- barous cruelties. The next year Titus celebrated his victory by a triumph; to increase the fame of the Flavian dynasty the inscription on the triumphal arch represented the overthrow of the helpless people as an heroic achievement. The historical significance of the destruction of the Jewish state is that the Jews have since then been scattered among foreign nations. As ruler Titus was by no means popular; he shared in the voluptuousness of the Rome of that era, and was responsible for the acts of violence which occurred during the administration of his father. Conse- quently an evil reign was expected. However, in the short period of his independent authority, Titus agree- ably disappointed these anticipations. His noble benevolence was exliibited in the saj'ing that the day was lost in which he had done no one a kindness; he gained the honourable title of "amor et delicife gen- eris humani" (the darling and admiration of the human race). During his reign Italy suffered from two severe calamities. On 24 Aug., 79, the celebrated eruption of Vesuvius buried the cities of Pompeii, Herculaneimi, and Stabia?, and some months later a fearful conflagration did great damage at Rome. _ On both ocotisions Titus showed a fine Inunanitarianism. His actions were not free from ostentation and seeking after effect. He died from the effects of his luxurious life.
Schiller, Geschichtc der rSmischen Kaiserzeit, I (Gotha, 1883),
