Vespasian and Titus Triumph. A.R. 820.

This is one of a group of drawings by British artist and book illustrator Edward Francis Burney, depicting scenes from Greek and Roman history and mythology. One of the inscriptions on the margin, November No. 12, seems to refer to the month in a calendar for which Burney created this frontispiece drawing. He executed many headpieces of this kind for pocket calendars and memorandum books between 1796 to 1829. [See correspondence between Patricia Crown and Edward Morris, in the docket file] The menorah on the left of the image indicates that this parade is in celebration of Titus's victory in capturing Jerusalem in 70 CE. Vespasian is Titus's father who succeeded Vitellius in 69 CE as the fourth and last emperor of the Year of Four Emperors (68 - 69 CE).