His first recorded mention was his election as consul in 235 BC, alongside Gaius Atilius Bulbus, a plebeian who had already been consul in 245 BC. Eutropius and Cassiodorus—who relied on Livy—described Titus as the consul "prior", which means the Centuriate Assembly elected him before Atilius.Titus was sent to Sardinia, which had just come under Roman control in the aftermath of the First Punic War (264 BC – 241 BC). The war indemnity demanded by Rome was so high that Carthage could not pay its mercenaries, who rebelled. While Carthage was fighting the mercenaries in Africa, its mercenaries stationed in Sardinia decided to rebel as well. Rome initially refused to support the Sardinian rebels, but in 237 BC Rome prevented Carthage from reclaiming the island on the pretext that its army had actually turned against Rome. Titus' mission was therefore to pacify the island, which he did successfully. He received a triumph for his victory over the rebels as a result. Several ancient authors tell that after his victory, Titus closed the doors of the Temple of Janus, symbolically meaning that Rome and its neighbours were at peace. It was only the first time that the temple was closed since the reign of Numa Pompilius—the legendary second king of Rome—and remained so for eight years; its gates then stayed open until Augustus closed them again after the Battle of Actium in 31 BC. However, Livy says that this event took place "after the First Punic War", so some modern scholars place it in 241 BC, when Aulus Manlius Torquatus—Titus' uncle—was consul in order to celebrate the end of the First Punic War. This view has however been contested.