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Titus Arch
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| Address:
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Via Sacra
- Rome |
Open: |
8:30 - 3:30 PM (winter) and 6 PM (summer) |
Price: |
12 Euro |
One of the panels depicts the spoils taken from the Temple, the Temple Menorah and the Table of the Shewbread shown at an angle, both of solid gold, and the silver trumpets which called the Jews to the festivals. The Romans are in triumphal procession wearing laurel crowns and the ones carrying the Menorah have pillows on their shoulders. The carry signs commemorating the victories which Titus had won.
The arch was build before Titus arrived to Rome, therefore the Menorah has semi-circled branches unlike the most widely accepted opinion of Rashi in his commentary to the Torah, where he explicitly writes that the branches extended upward in a diagonal.
The design on that arch is obviously an artist’s interpretation, and not an exact replica of the menorah of the Beis Hamikdash. This is reflected by the fact that certain elements of the menorah are omitted in this depiction. For example, the menorah had feet extending from its base,[10] and the menorah on the Arch of Titus has no feet. Similarly, the depiction contains additions, for on its shaft is the form of a sea-dragon, one of the false deities worshiped by the Romans. Accordingly, it cannot be relied on as an accurate source regarding the design of the menorah, particularly in regard to points where it contradicts the views of our people’s leading Torah authorities. |
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Map
of Titus Arch
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