The Arch of Titus

The Arch of Titus, the most beautiful of its kind in Rome, has always been an object of special hatred to the Jews, and one can hardly blame them when its history is considered.

About fifty years before the birth of Christ, Pompey entered Jerusalem and defiled the Temple. He also brought to Rome a number of Jews to serve as slaves in the city, and these became the ancestors of the present denizens of the Ghetto, or Jewish quarter. More than a century later (70 A. D.) the Emperor Titus captured Jerusalem; he despoiled it of everything which he considered capable of adding to the glories of his triumph. He carried back to Rome, besides a large train of Hebrew prisoners, the seven-branched candlestick, the tables of the Law, the trumpet with which the jubilee was proclaimed, the golden veil, and a number of the most sacred utensils of the Temple worship. He set his prisoners, and the Jews who had grown up in the Ghetto, to the work of building an arch, every detail of which should commemorate the destruction of Jerusalem, and the degradation of the Jews as a people. No more humiliating task could have been assigned them, and it accomplished the end for which it was designed, namely, the breaking of their spirit, and not theirs only, but that of all succeeding generations of the Jews. The ornamentation of the arch was also in furtherance of this object. On the inner walls were two reliefs. That on the south side showed a part of the triumphal procession after the Emperor's return to Rome, with the spoils of the Jewish temple being carried for deposit in Vespasian's Temple of Peace. On the north side was depicted the Emperor himself, in his triumphal car drawn by four horses, surrounded by his guards and suite, Victory holding a crown over his head, and the goddess Roma guiding the reins. On the frieze was represented the sacred river Jordan, under the symbol of an old man borne on a bier. On the crown was a representation of the Apotheosis of the Emperor. From the day the arch was raised until the present time, no Jew has ever willingly passed under it, and even now a Jewish cab-driver will, at the risk of losing his fare, refuse a passenger's request to drive him through the Arch of Titus. He will drive all around the arch, or he will get down from the box and let his horse go through while he himself walks round, but to do more than this, no gold will tempt him. Jewish mothers are especially particular not to let their children run under the Arch in their play, lest a curse fall upon them for disregarding the ignominy heaped upon their forefathers by a pagan prince. But this ignominy did not cease with pagan Rome. Jews still suffered humiliation in many forms after Rome became the abode of the head of the Roman Church.

Among other methods of humiliation was the requirement that they should take part in the ceremony connected with the accession of every new Pope. In 1119 the form prescribed was as follows: A deputation of their men were to present themselves to his Holiness during the triumphal procession to the Lateran, singing songs in his praise, and carrying on their shoulders a copy of the Pentateuch, written on parchment, bound in gold, and covered with a veil, which on bended knees they offered him, beseeching his gracious protection. The Pope would take the book, read a few words from it, and then, putting it behind him, say: "We affirm the law, but we curse the Hebrew people and their exposition of it." By degrees various parts of this ceremony were omitted, on consideration that the Jews would ornament with costly carpets and hangings some of the streets through which the procession was to pass. But later, for fear that these ancient foes of the Church were not suffering enough reproach, it became the custom to force the Jews to decorate, with their choicest tapestries, silks, and embroideries, the hated Arch of Titus. It was stipulated that the hangings should have embroidered on them, against a gold ground, certain emblems designated by the Pope, with Latin texts from the Old and New Testaments, confirmatory of the truth of the Christian faith. This whole ceremony was omitted for the first time at the installation of Pius IX. (1846), and was never again enforced. One imposition on Jews that has not long ceased was obliging them to go in crowds into the church nearest to the Ghetto, and there to hear a sermon preached for their conversion. Still frescoed on that church wall is a friar looking toward the Ghetto, and on a speaking scroll streaming out of his mouth is inscribed: "All day long have I stretched out my hands to a disobedient and gainsaying people." Romans, x., 21. Having such traditional cause for wishing ill to the Arch, it is no wonder that, in the Middle Ages, when the Arch, the Coliseum, and other notable buildings or ruins on the Palatine and Cielian hills were robbed of their identity (being connected by masonry and formed into a gigantic fortress by the Frangipani family), the Jews, who were compelled to do part of the work, rendered a willing obedience. In this fortress, of which the Arch formed the entrance, Urban II. dwelt in 1093, under the protection of Giovanni Frangipani. The order for the restoration of the Arch was given by Pius VII. (1800-1823). In freeing it from the masonry in which it had been encased, there was danger of its collapsing, so that it had to be well stayed by props and bracing beams. The architect, Stern, replaced the lost marbles at the top and sides in travertine, thus not only securing the arch, but restoring it almost to its pristine elegance. But the Arch restored is still an object of loathing to the race whose captivity and sufferings it commemorates.

During the Middle Ages this Arch was known as the "Arch of the Seven Candlesticks," from the bas-relief representing the spoils of Jerusalem. The seven-branched candlestick of massive gold, the golden table, and the silver trumpets were said to have been thrown into the Tiber from the Milvian bridge during the flight of Maxentius, after his defeat by Constantine on the Via Flaminia.

The size of the candelabrum, as here represented, appears to be nearly a man's height; so that in form and in size these bas-reliefs perfectly correspond with the description of Josephus, and are the only authentic representations we have of these sacred objects.

The total height of the Arch is about 57 feet, 12 feet of which forms what is termed the attic, above the crown of the Arch (see Conciergerie).