Roman Bookshelf -Russell Forbes

ARCH OF TITUS
S. Russell Forbes - Rambles in Rome - 1882

On the ridge of the Velia hill, which forms a continuation of the Palatine, and separates the hollow of the Forum from that of the Colosseum, a triumphal arch was erected (though not till after his death and deification) to Titus, the conqueror of Jerusalem. The reliefs, still preserved within the arch, are among the most remarkable of the kind existing in Rome as to the position they occupy in the history of art and of the world. We find here not only the emperor standing in the triumphal chariot in which he advanced to the Temple of Jupiter Capitolinus, but also the table of the shewbread, and the seven-branched candlestick, borne in this triumphal procession as the most precious spoils of the Jewish temple.
" There was a golden table, which weighed many talents; also a golden candlestick, which was constructed upon a different principle from anything in use amongst us now. In the middle was the mainstem, which rose out of the base ; from this proceeded smaller branches, very much resembling the form of a trident; and on the top of them was a lamp, worked in brass. There were seven such in all, emblematic of the seven days of the Jewish week. The Law of the Jews was the last of those spoils in the procession " (Josephus, " Wars of the Jews," viii. v. 5).
" The legs of the table were perfectly finished in the lower half, like those the Dorians put upon their couches, but the upper half of them was worked square " (Josephus, " Antiquities of the Jews," iii. vi. 6).
Two censers were placed upon the table; in front of the table are two trumpets crossed. These spoils were deposited by Vespasian in the Temple of Peace.
After the sack of Rome, A.D. 455, the Vandal king Genseric carried them to Carthage. Belisarius recovered them, A.D. 535, and took them to Constantinople; and they were transferred from there to the Christian Church in Jerusalem (Procopius, "De Bell. Vand.," i. 5 and ii. 4).
Theodoret relates that when Khosroes, king of Persia, took Jerusalem in 614, they passed into his hands ; and all trace of them has been lost since then. It is altogether erroneous to suppose they were thrown into the Tiber.
On the opposite side is the Emperor Titus in a chariot drawn by four horses, preceded by Romans wearing laurel wreaths and carrying the fasces. Behind the chariot, Victory is in the act of placing a crown on the emperor's head. The vault is ornamented with square coffers and roses, and in the centre the apotheosis of Titus, in square relief.