DOMITIAN  131

Titus  was  sacceeded  by  his  brother  Domitian,  who
was  all  but  thirty  years  of  age.  Having  no  male
issue,  Titus  had  perforce  treated  him  unofficially
as  his  destined  successor  ;  but  he  had  given  him  no
share  in  the  government  of  the  Empire,  and  it  was
no  secret  that  the  brothers  were  on  the  worst  of
terms.  Domitian  had  taken  Domitia,  the  daughter
of  Corbulo,  from  her  husband,  L.  ^lius  Lamia
Plautius  ^lianus,  and  after  living  with  her  for  some
years  had  ended  by  marrying  her ;  and  when  Titus,
for  reasons  of  state,  proposed  a  marriage  between
his  brother  and  his  only  daughter,  Julia,  Domi-
tian first  refused  the  alliance,  and  then,  when
his  niece  had  been  united  to  her  cousin,  Flavius
Sabinus,  made  her  his  mistress.  Titus,  with  subtle
irony,  consoled  both  the  husbands  whose  honour
Domitian  had  outraged  with  the  highest  distinc-
tions, but  he  could  never  bring  himself  to  act  with
open  hostility  towards  his  brother,  and  when  he
died  rumour  was  busy  in  Rome,  some  saying  that
Domitian  had  hastened,  if  not  actually  caused  the
Emperor's  death,  others  that  when  Titus  with  his
dying  breath  said,  "  I  have  committed  but  one  error,"
he  meant  that  he  had  failed  to  save  Rome  from  his
brother's  tyranny  by  putting  him  to  death..  At  any
rate,  Domitian,  though  unable  to  refuse  the  Senate's
demand  for  the  deification  of  Titus,  treated  his
memory,  as  far  as  he  dared,  with  scant  respect.
