Image Details

Erich Lessing

The Triumphal Arch of Titus on Rome’s Via Sacra memorializes the Roman Legion’s sacking of Jerusalem in 70 C.E. Titus stormed the Temple, slaughtered captives, defiled the Temple court with a ritual Roman sacrifice and then burned the city to the ground. The arch was erected posthumously by “the Roman Senate and People to Deified Titus Vespasian Augustus, son of Deified Vespasian” to celebrate this conquest. Inside the archway, on the north side (not shown), a bas relief shows the Emperor Titus at the head of the victorious procession through the city of Rome in 71 C.E. He sits in a quadriga (a chariot drawn by four horses), accompanied by the goddesses Roma and Victoria and followed by representations of the Senate and the people.