Titus and Vespasian

Titus and Vespasian is a late‐fourteenth‐century Middle English rhyming poem that focuses thematically on the sacrament of penance. The event that forms the basis for the poem, the Roman destruction of Jerusalem in 70 CE under the leadership of Titus and Vespasian, was reinterpreted by Christian writers to symbolize the triumph of Christianity over Judaism and, eventually, God's vengeance on the Jews for their rejection and purported murder of Christ. The poem, one of many iterations of the fall‐of‐Jerusalem legend, is a multifaceted narrative of miracle, legend, and history in which anachronistically Christianized Romans act as agents of divine vengeance. In the didactic formula of the poem, the Jews, recalcitrant sinners ungrateful to God, provide a negative model for Christian readers, teaching them the importance of asking Christ for forgiveness. As an example of a late medieval devotional poem produced for a lay audience, Titus and Vespasian also demonstrates the significance of Jews and Judaism in post‐Expulsion English literature.