Aureus - Titus TR P IX IMP XV COS VIII P P

Titus held the tribunician power for the ninth time and his fifteenth imperatorial acclamation in 80 AD — a year of catastrophic consequence. Vesuvius had erupted the previous August, burying Pompeii and Herculaneum. While this aureus was being struck, Rome itself burned in a three-day fire, and an outbreak of plague swept the city. Titus responded with conspicuous generosity, personally directing relief efforts and drawing on the treasury to rebuild.

His eighth consulship, also recorded in the title string, was held with no colleague — a pointed assertion of sole authority in a reign that lasted just twenty-six months total.