Arch of Titus

Feel the stones under your feet first. These are the dark, worn paving blocks of the Sacra Via, the Sacred Way, the oldest main street of ancient Rome. They tilt and buckle, and the ground climbs gently here. At the top of that rise stands a single arch of pale stone, alone against the sky. Behind you, the curved wall of the Colosseum fills the view. Ahead, the ruins of the Roman Forum fall away toward the Capitoline Hill. This is the Arch of Titus, and it has stood on this spot for more than nineteen centuries.

Start with the man it honours. Titus was the elder son of the emperor Vespasian, a tough soldier who seized power after a year of civil war. Before he became emperor himself, Titus led the Roman army against a major Jewish revolt in Judaea. In the year 70, after a long siege, his legions captured Jerusalem and destroyed the Second Temple, the centre of Jewish worship. Titus later ruled Rome for only about two years. He died in 81, and the city remembered him as a popular, generous ruler.

Here is the first detail many visitors miss. Titus never saw this arch. It was built after his death by his younger brother, Domitian, who became emperor next. Look up at the large inscription on the side facing the Colosseum. The Latin reads, in translation: the Senate and People of Rome, to the deified Titus Vespasian Augustus, son of the deified Vespasian. That word, deified, matters. It tells you Titus had already been declared a god. So this monument is both a victory arch and a memorial.

Now look at the shape. This is a single arch, one opening, with no smaller side passages. It is compact compared with the later, larger arches in the Forum. The columns on its faces carry capitals that mix two older styles. The curling scrolls come from the Ionic order, and the acanthus leaves come from the Corinthian. Romans called this blend the Composite order, and this arch is one of the earliest surviving examples of it. Architects copied the overall design for centuries, and later arches, including the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, drew on it.

Step inside the passage. This is where the arch tells its story. On the two inner walls are deep marble relief panels, carved so that the figures seem to move through the stone. They show the triumph, the grand victory parade that Vespasian and Titus held in Rome in the year 71. In a Roman triumph, the army marched through the city with prisoners and treasure. The procession followed a route through the city that included this stretch of the Sacred Way, so these carvings show a scene that once passed close by.

Look at the panel on the south side, on your left as you face the Forum. Roman soldiers, crowned with laurel, carry the spoils taken from the Temple in Jerusalem. The great seven-branched lampstand, the menorah, rises above their shoulders. You can also see long silver trumpets and a sacred table. The soldiers lean forward, as if they are about to pass through a carved gateway at the right edge. It is one of the few ancient images of these Temple objects, made by people who may have seen them.

Here is a second surprise. Today the marble looks plain and pale, but it was once painted. Researchers have scanned this panel and found traces of yellow ochre on the menorah. That suggests the lampstand was coloured to look like gold. Imagine the whole scene in colour, with bright clothing, gilded treasure, and a blue background. Roman monuments were rarely the bare white stone we see now. Paint has simply faded away over the centuries, leaving only small chemical clues.

On the opposite wall, the scene changes. Titus rides in a four-horse chariot. A winged figure of Victory stands behind him and holds a wreath over his head. Other figures walk beside the horses. Scholars usually identify them as personifications, symbolic figures that stand for ideas such as the spirit of Rome and the honour of the Roman people. Notice how the horses seem to turn outward toward you. The sculptors used deep and shallow carving to create a sense of space, a technique that was quite advanced for its time.

Now tilt your head back and look at the ceiling of the passage. It is divided into square, sunken panels called coffers, each with a carved rosette. In the very centre is a small relief that is easy to miss. It shows Titus being carried up to the heavens on the back of an eagle. This is his apotheosis, the moment a Roman emperor becomes a god. Stand directly beneath it, and you are standing under the exact point where the arch announces his divinity.

The arch survived because it was put to other uses. In the Middle Ages, a powerful Roman family called the Frangipane built a fortress in this area and made the arch part of it. Houses and walls pressed against its sides, and parts of the structure were cut away. Over time it became damaged and unstable. By the early nineteenth century, much of the outer structure had been lost, and only the central core was still holding together.

Then comes the third surprise, and it is right in front of you. In the 1810s and 1820s, the architect Giuseppe Valadier restored the arch for Pope Pius the Seventh. He rebuilt the missing parts, but he used travertine, a warmer, honey-coloured limestone, instead of the original marble. He also left the new columns simpler. That was deliberate. Anyone could see which parts were ancient and which were new. Restorers today still follow this principle. The inscription on the Forum side records this papal restoration.

For the Jewish community of Rome, this arch has carried a heavy meaning. It shows the destruction of the Temple and the start of a long exile. Many accounts say that Roman Jews traditionally avoided walking beneath it. After the State of Israel was founded in 1948, members of the community are said to have gathered here and walked through the arch, reversing that old custom. The menorah on this panel also helped inspire the design of the official emblem of Israel.

Before you move on, step back a little way down the slope toward the Forum. Look at the arch as a whole again. You can now read its layers: the bright ancient marble of the centre, the warmer travertine at the sides, the dark stones of the road beneath. Listen to the voices of other visitors, the crunch of gravel, perhaps the call of a gull overhead. Then walk on down the Sacred Way, following the same stones where that victory parade once passed.