event · E0313
Arch of Titus Menorah Relief תבליט המנורה בשער טיטוס
The spoils-procession relief inside Titus's triumphal arch in the Roman Forum: Roman soldiers carrying the menorah, the shulchan, and the chatzotzrot of the Beit HaMikdash through the streets of Rome in the triumph of 71 CE. Erected by Domitian around 81/82 CE after Titus's death, it is the most famous image of the churban's aftermath — and the source, nearly nineteen centuries later, of the menorah on the emblem of the State of Israel. Yeshiva University's Arch of Titus Project established in 2012 that the carved menorah was originally painted yellow ochre — gold. The arch stands in situ in Rome; nothing of it is in Jerusalem.
I. Who
- Hebrew
- תבליט המנורה בשער טיטוס
- Also known as
- Arch of Titus spoils panel, Sha'ar Titus
- Era
- second-temple
II. When
- Traditional
- c. 3841–3842 AM (erected under Domitian), depicting the spoils of the churban of 3830
- Civil (computed)
- 3841–3842 AM · 81–82 CE
- Academic
- c. 81/82 CE; the triumph it depicts was held in 71 CE
- Date range
- c. 81/82 CE, commemorating the triumph of 71 CE
- Duration
- ≈1 years
- Precision
- approximate
Why it matters
This is the picture of the galut's first hour: the menorah of the Beit HaMikdash on Roman shoulders, leaving. An empire carved it as a boast, and Jewish memory kept it as a wound — for centuries many Jews would not walk under the arch. Yet the same relief preserved the menorah's true form so faithfully that when a Jewish state finally rose again, it drew its emblem from the enemy's monument, reservations about the odd base and all. The stone that announced the exile ended up furnishing the symbol of the return.
V. How do we know
| Claim | Evidence | Confidence | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Arch of Titus in the Roman Forum was completed under Domitian around 81/82 CE, after Titus's death, commemorating the triumph of 71 CE over Judea; its southern inner panel shows the spoils of the Beit HaMikdash — the menorah, the shulchan (showbread table), and the chatzotzrot (trumpets) — carried in procession. | external archaeology | ★★★★★ | |
| Yeshiva University's Arch of Titus Project (2012) used UV-VIS spectrometry on the relief and recovered traces of the menorah's original yellow ochre paint — the carved menorah was shown gold, as the Temple's menorah was. | external archaeology | ★★★★★ | |
| The arch dates itself. Its attic carries the original dedication (CIL VI 945): "The Senate and People of Rome, to the deified Titus Vespasianus Augustus, son of the deified Vespasian." The word divo — "deified" — before Titus's name means the arch was completed only after his death and deification in September 81 CE, which is what fixes the monument, and with it the spoils relief, to c. 81/82 CE under Domitian. The inscription is also the Roman state's own permanent, official commemoration of the victory over Judea — the churban written into the empire's public record.
CIL VI 945 is a corpus number in the Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum, not a museum inventory; the inscription is in situ in the arch's attic. A second, lost arch of Titus in the Circus Maximus carried the more explicit "destroyed Jerusalem" text (CIL VI 944) — see Circus Maximus Arch of Titus Inscription.
|
external archaeology | ★★★★★ |
|
| Location honesty: the arch stands in situ in Rome; nothing of it is in Jerusalem, and its connection to the Israel Museum galleries is thematic only. Its menorah image — with long-noted reservations about the stepped base, which does not match rabbinic descriptions — was the model adopted for the emblem of the State of Israel in 1949. | external | ★★★★☆ |
Referenced by: Circus Maximus Arch of Titus Inscription