This image was captured in a time capsule by the eruption of Vesuvius during the brief reign of Titus. Titus ruled for two years, two months and twenty days. Exactly two months after he succeeded his father as Emperor, Vesuvius erupted. Since recent earthquakes rocking the area prior to the eruption damaged much of Herculaneum, and the other pool in the same gymnasium was under repair at the time, the fact that this pool had been filled and working when Vesuvius erupted implies it had been recently restored. As this public works was originally built by Augustus and numerous violent quakes had preceded the eruption in the previous months, it is probable that the restoration necessary to repair this pool had been commissioned by the Flavian emperors themselves.
Here is another 1st Century “pre-Christian” Flavian artifact. It is an intaglio that pre-dates any accepted archeological evidence of Christianity. It is a hand-carved opposite and indented image (suggesting that it may have been used by a wealthy Flavian or a Flavian official as a seal):
Hand-carved reverse of dolphin-and-anchor motif, 1st Century
Yet another extraordinary correlation with Jesus Christ appears when we look deeper into why the Emperor Titus would chose nautical imagery, especially considering that his campaign in Judea took place mostly in the desert.
Titus was a talented general whose signal achievements as a military leader were his deeds during the Jewish Revolt of 66-73 CE, which earned him a Roman Triumph and ultimately the imperial chair in Rome. The Judean conflict was not a naval affair, with one notable exception: the reduction of the Jewish towns and cities around a certain very small landlocked body of water: the Sea of Galilee.
After a minor engagement with Titus’s forces, the city of Tiberias on the shore of Galilee surrendered, but the rebel leader, Jesus ben Saphat (Saphias), fled with his insurgents to a town called Tarichaeae, also on the lake’s shore. Leading an elite cavalry unit, Titus bravely gave them chase to the plain outside that city’s walls.
Badly outnumbered there, Titus sent for reinforcements of 400 horses and 2,000 archers. Yet, after a rousing harangue from General Titus, the Roman forces rallied even before help could arrive. Once they did, Titus took Tarichaeae in a creative and bold assault, crossing over the Sea of Galilee on a hastily constructed fleet of rafts and striking the town’s unfortified waterfront. Thousands of rebels from the town were driven into the sea, where the Romans mercilessly wiped them out.
Writer Joseph Atwill has observed that the Roman army that day was literally “fishing for men” on the Sea of Galilee after the future Emperor Titus had figuratively driven the “demons” into its waters. Atwill has noted other parallels between Jesus’s and Titus’s activities, as well, that seem more than coincidental. (18)
According to Roman historian Barbara Levick:
The importance of the engagement [at Tarichaeae] in Roman eyes, and perhaps its importance for Titus’ glory, may be indicated by the number of ships in the joint triumphal procession of 71, and allusions to it on the coinage… (19)
So the use of nautical symbols by Titus on his coins, Levick argues, was inspired in part by his heroic deeds on the Sea of Galilee—just as we have seen Christians adopted the same symbols in part to celebrate Jesus’s miracles on the same small body of water.
Christian use of this symbol and its near-simultaneous use in Roman imperial propaganda is simply inexplicable by any conventional understanding of Christianity’s origins. The correlation between the deeds of Jesus and those of Titus only adds more improbability to the already incredible coincidence. And, of course, the dating of the Gospels themselves coincides with the reign of the Flavians, after their victory over Judea.
Detail from the Arch of Titus as Romans plunder the Temple, c. 81 CE
Since the dolphin-and-anchor motif was still circulating on Flavian coins while Christians used this iconography in their earliest catacombs, we are compelled to take a closer look at the cults of the deified Flavian emperors, Vespasian and Titus. (Their successor, Domitian, was never deified.)
Rome’s first dynasty of emperors, the Julio-Claudians, boasted an exalted ancestry with family trees extending well back into the days of the Roman republic. As previously noted, the Julii even claimed one of their ancestors was the Goddess of Love herself, Venus, via the legendary Trojan prince Aeneas. Aeneas was reported to have fled to the coast of Italy following the fall of Troy, a journey celebrated in the contemporary poet Virgil’s masterwork, The Aeneid. We also know that Augustus’s own imperial cult claimed him to be a son of the Greek god Apollo. Caligula later associated himself with a wide variety of deities, including, perhaps, both Jupiter and Venus.
The first imperial dynasty did such a thorough job of exterminating itself through real and imagined plots, a string of executions, murders, purges and forced suicides, that by the collapse of Nero’s reign in 68 CE there were very few left who could claim descent from Augustus, whether by birth or by adoption. Consequently, a nasty civil war broke out after Nero’s fall, with leading generals and political figures vying for the suddenly open imperial seat, even as the unrest in Judea was still being subdued by Vespasian and Titus.
In the space of a year-and-a-half, Rome went through four successive new emperors as the armies of the contending princes faced off against each other and the population of the ruptured empire nervously anticipated the outcome. The Empire’s survival hung in the balance during this period that came to be known as “The Year of Four Emperors.”
Meanwhile, Vespasian had been entrusted by Nero with the considerable force of three legions and significant auxiliaries to prosecute the Jewish War. Therefore, when Nero died, Vespasian suddenly found himself to be one of the leading contenders for the throne, despite the fact that he was a man of relatively humble background. (Although Vespasian and his older brother had both achieved consulships, they had been the first of their family to enter the Senate.)
So, when Vespasian made his bid for power, he faced a serious problem of legitimacy. At this point in Roman history few considerations apart from military prowess mattered in the contest for the top spot, but conservative opinion still resisted the notion that might alone could make right. Romans required divine support and providential sanction for their emperors, as well.
The ancient Romans undertook no major action without consulting the auspices, entreating the gods for their support, and asking them whether a successful outcome could be expected. The goddess of destiny, Fortuna, indicated her divine favor through success on the battlefield. Yet supernatural sanction could be revealed in many other ways.
Vespasian
Given his humble origins, Vespasian would require every “legitimizing” prop he could employ. To found a new dynasty of emperors, he would need to show divine favor that included not only himself but his sons, as well. To achieve this, he seems to have undertaken unprecedented and extraordinary steps for any Roman ruler. For example, Vespasian is the only Roman emperor who is reported to have actually performed miracles during his earthly existence.
Vespasian performed these feats at the Temple of Serapis in Alexandria. (20) Moreover, they were healing miracles. And they happened to be exactly the same healing miracles that Jesus performs in the New Testament.