The Menorah in the Siege of Jerusalem on the Arch of Titus Essay

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Introduction

When Titus led the Roman army into Jerusalem in 70 AD to put down the Jewish rebels who had controlled the city for the four years following the riots of 66 AD, the Roman Army showed no mercy: it came to destroy the Judean Free Government that had formed and to reassert Roman primacy. The result was the destruction of the Temple, the capture of some 700 Jews[footnoteRef:2] all of whom were marched back to Rome in captivity, and the obtainment of the spoils of war—one of which was the Jewish menorah of Biblical significance: the menorah that was said to have been created by divine instruction and to have burned miraculously. The menorah was a sacred object for the Jews and for that reason its possession by the Romans was seen by the latter as a sign of total subjugation of the former. And for that reason it was depicted on the Arch of Titus to celebrate the Roman victory and humiliation of the enemy Judeans. But what happened to the actual menorah following the Roman possession of it? History is silent on the matter, though there are some among today’s Jews who suspect the menorah may still be in Rome.[footnoteRef:3] This paper will discuss the Arch of Titus and the menorah’s multiple levels of significance in the siege of Jerusalem on the Arch of Titus. [2: W. Shaw Caldecott, “The Temple Spoils Represented on the Arch of Titus,” Palestine Exploration Quarterly, 38, 4 (1906), 306.] [3: Fine, Steven. “The Temple Menorah: Where Is It?.” Biblical Archaeology Review 30, no. 4 (2005);Kanael, Baruch. “Ancient Jewish coins and their historical importance.” The Biblical Archaeologist 26, no. 2 (1963), 38-62.]

Background

The Arch of Titus was commissioned by the Emperor Domitian in honor of his older brother Titus who led the siege against Jerusalem in 70 AD. Domitian was the last of the Flavian emperors and was keen to celebrate the achievements of last of his dynasty. Erected in 82 AD in Rome on the Via Sacra—the Sacred Way—near the Coliseum, the Arch was a symbol of a dying dynasty’s last achievements for the Empire. Titus led his triumph over the very spot where the Arch was built. Domitian’s most beloved architect Rabirius is most likely the one who designed the Arch of Titus, though there is no substantial surviving documentation to say for sure. It is built in the Roman style with large columns of stone and spandrels on the tops of the arch, where Nike—the goddess of Victory can be seen.[footnoteRef:4] On the south panel inside the Arch can be seen the spoils obtained from the Temple burned to the ground by the Romans in Jerusalem. The menorah is a main feature of this panel and is carried on the shoulders of the Roman soldiers. On the north panel can be seen Titus in his triumph. [4: Paul Artus, Art and Architecture of the Roman Empire (NY: Bellona Books: 2006), 45.]

The Arch is 50 feet high and 44 feet wide. The inner archway is 27 feet high and 17 feet wide.[footnoteRef:5] The style of the Arch was one intended to show off the feats of the individual honored by it: it was large and formidable and designed to be seen from far off. Rabirius, who also contributed to the erection of the Coliseum, paid particular attention to capturing in chiseled stone the depiction of the scene of Titus’s Triumph—the soldiers bearing off the sacred items of the Jews—the menorah in particularly, with its seven branches—an image that has become iconic. Displaying the spoils of the Siege of Jerusalem, the Arch of Titus has stood as a monument for thousands of years to the destruction of the Temple and the Roman triumph over the Jews that contributed to the Jewish diaspora. [5: Peter Aicher, Rome Alive: A Source Guide to the Ancient City, vol. 1, (Bolchazy-Carducci: 2004), 51; Josephus, Jewish Wars, Books 4–7. Vol. 3. Trans. H. Thackeray. Cambridge MA: Harvard University. Loeb Classical Library, 1979, 210.]

The Significance of the Menorah

The significance of the menorah in the Siege of Jerusalem located on the Arch of Titus is that it represented for the Romans that object which was so sacred to their enemy, the Jews. By carrying it away, it was like the Greeks carrying away the statue of Athena from the Trojan temple: that which was special to the Jews was now the property of the Romans.

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It was an image that represented the subjugation and devastation of the Jewish people, brought low by the mighty Roman Empire. It was meant to humiliate them.[footnoteRef:6] The Romans themselves had no spiritual or religious interest in the menorah. They knew that it was a symbol of the Jew’s beliefs, that it held a special place in their history, in their customs, in their sacred rites, and in their Temple—and for that reason they were content to bear it off on their shoulders, in the way an opposing team runs away with the other team’s flag or hoop. By carving it in stone on the Arch of Titus, the Romans showed that the menorah was now there’s—just like Jerusalem was once again there’s: the Jewish rebels had been put down once and for all and scattered or enslaved. [6: Samuel Ball Platner, A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome, rev. Thomas Ashby. (Oxford: 1929), p. 45-4]

For the Jews, the menorah had very much significance and seeing it carved into stone on the Arch could not have been and in fact was not a welcome sight.[footnoteRef:7] In recent centuries, however, there has been speculation among Jewish scholars that the menorah represented on the Arch is not even an authentic representation of the menorah of the Temple because of the pictures of animals and sea creatures at its base, which would have been forbidden by Temple law.[footnoteRef:8] Rabbi Herzog, for instance, notes that in the Jewish tradition, the menorah was three-footed—unlike the one depicted in the Arch.[footnoteRef:9] Thus, if the Arch depiction is accurate—the Romans did not obtain the menorah of the Temple but something else. In the Book of Exodus, a description of the menorah as dictated by God to the Hebrews is given. It plainly describes what it should look like: [7: Kon, Maximilian. “The menorah of the Arch of Titus.” Palestine Exploration Quarterly 82, no. 1 (1950): 25-30.] [8: Heinrich Strauss, “The History and Form of the Seven-Branched Candlestick of the Hasmonean Kings,” Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, 22 no. ½ (1959), 6.] [9: J. H. Herzog, “The Menorah on the Arch of Titus,” in Essays in Memory of S. M. Mayer, Jerusalem, 1956, 5.]

Make a lampstand of pure gold. Hammer out its base and shaft, and make its flowerlike cups, buds and blossoms of one piece with them. Six branches are to extend from the sides of the lampstand—three on one side and three on the other. Three cups shaped like almond flowers with buds and blossoms are to be on one branch, three on the next branch, and the same for all six branches extending from the lampstand. And on the lampstand there are to be four cups shaped like almond flowers with buds and blossoms.[footnoteRef:10]  [10: Exodus: 25:31-34.]

The menorah on the Arch is depicted differently and is shown with a hexagonal base that is double-stepped, with each step identical (except in size) to the other. The panels on the bases depict the sea creatures that Rabbi Herzog proclaimed to be blasphemous and that would never have been allowed in the Temple menorah. As the menorah served a sacred place in the Jewish rites in the Temple—the lamps of the menorah being lit every day from olive oil that was specially consecrated and used to keep the Temple lit through the night, there can be little doubt that the menorah depicted in the Arch of Titus is different from the one that would have been used in the Temple.

Indeed, one of the stories surrounding the menorah….....

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