The majestic triumphal arch on the Via Sacra, dedicated to Emperor Titus, was constructed in the years following his death in 81 CE. The monument celebrates his victory in the Bellum Iudaicum of 70 CE, the capture of Jerusalem, and the annexation of Judaea to the Roman Empire.
At the centre of the coffered vault is a depiction of the divinization of the deceased emperor, shown flying upon an eagle. On the inner sides of the archway are reliefs representing the two main moments of the triumphal procession: the arrival of the emperor, crowned by the goddess Victory and surrounded by his soldiers, and the parade of the spoils looted from the Temple, intended to be preserved and displayed in the nearby Forum of Peace, donated by the Flavians to the city. Among these spoils, the menorah, the large solid gold seven-branched candelabrum, stands out.
Roman Jews would never walk under this arch; it was only after the birth of the State of Israel that the archway was crossed, this time symbolically, in the opposite direction to that originally taken by the procession.
Via Sacra, 00186 Roma
