Arch of Titus: Redeeming the spoils

On 10 February 1949, the State of Israel adopted an official emblem after running a design competition held the previous year. Today, the emblem is recognisable on an array of items, including the Presidential Standard, Mossad’s badge, flags and bunting, and the cover of every Israeli passport. In this article, we explain the story behind the emblem, its significant symbolism, and how it provides us with an important message about Israel’s victory over its enemies.  

You may notice from the above date that the emblem was adopted during the height of Israel’s War of Independence, when the newly formed Israeli state had to fight for its survival against invading Arab armies. By declaring independence, Israel had regained sovereignty over the Land promised to them as an eternal inheritance, and the Jewish people were now returning after being dispersed across the globe. However, with the enemies of Israel outraged about its existence, the Jewish people would have to defend the Land of Israel with a determination never to be uprooted from their historic homeland again.

It is appropriate, therefore, that the emblem design chosen by the State of Israel points to a time in history when the Jewish people were under attack by another antisemitic enemy.

In AD 70, the Roman general Titus took over from Vespasian in the siege of Jerusalem. Titus tried attacking the defensive walls around Jerusalem, and eventually concluded that victory would come by starving out the Jews barricaded inside. Those who tried to escape were tortured. After Passover that year, Titus gave the order to attack, catapulting boulders into the city, ramming the walls with battering rams, and fighting Jewish defenders in hand-to-hand combat. Eventually, after months of attacking Jerusalem, the Roman troops set fire to the Temple and Titus ordered the complete destruction of the city. Troops plundered the Temple, taking gold and silver spoils. Titus distributed the spoils among his troops in celebration and forced many captured Jews to fight gladiator battles for entertainment.

Titus returned to Rome with around 50,000 Jewish slaves and hoards of spoils. It was a centrepiece of Roman Imperial culture for Roman generals to parade their campaign success in a triumphal procession, displaying their captives and looted goods. The ritual of triumph and retelling of battlefield victory caught the public’s imagination and boosted their support for overseas warfare. Meanwhile, the wealth and plunder gave them a fascinating window into the spectacle of far-away lands. Titus’s triumphant entry was one of the most spectacular processions that Rome had ever seen. The thousands of Jewish slaves and plundered spoils were paraded victoriously for several days as Rome’s citizens lined the streets in awe.

Titus’s triumphant procession was so memorable that an arch commemorating the parade was commissioned by his brother, Emperor Domitian, in Titus’s honour in AD 81 (Titus died in AD 80). Located in the Forum, the heart of ancient Rome, the arch still stands on the main processional route and is decorated with friezes depicting Titus’s victory parade. On the arch, Titus is depicted as a deity – soaring on the wings of an eagle. One of the reliefs depicts Jewish slaves, bent over in the procession carrying treasures from Jerusalem upon their shoulders, including the easily recognisable seven-branch menorah from the Jewish Temple, the shewbread table, and trumpets (originally painted yellow ochre). Make no mistake, the commission was not just a celebration of victory, it was a deliberate effort to humiliate the Jewish people. Depicting weak enslaved Jews carrying the Holy Temple’s golden menorah through Rome was in every way antisemitic.

Visitors to the arch today may also make another observation. The carved procession of Jews carrying the Temple items is moving in the direction of the Colosseum, which is just across the road from the Roman Forum. It is as if the architect is purposely leading us in that direction. The Colosseum had not been built when the procession of Jewish slaves took place; however, the connection is not coincidental. The Colosseum was directly funded from the spoils of the Roman siege of Jerusalem. The building of the Colosseum began between AD 70-72, immediately after the destruction of Jerusalem, and was completed in AD 80, a year before the unveiling of the arch. Revisionist history plays down this important fact, but it is well documented that the Colosseum was built to commemorate the destruction of Jerusalem and was funded by Jerusalem’s plunder, possibly including items from the Temple. Some historians have gone further in saying that some of the construction materials were also from Jerusalem. Moreover, it is widely accepted that it was built largely by Jewish slaves that had been taken captive (some of whom gained freedom for their labour).

Where are the treasures of the Temple today? Were they melted down, or are they safely stored? Some historians as recently as 2022 reported that there is evidence supporting speculation that they are hidden under the Vatican. All we know for certain is that the Arch of Titus shows the Temple items arriving in Rome, and they have never been returned.

The Jewish people, however, have returned. Despite centuries of continued persecution of the Jewish people, the Jews are back in their historic homeland with Jerusalem as their capital. When the national emblem was designed, Israel took the Roman architect’s exact depiction of the menorah that is carved on the Arch of Titus. By doing so, they made it a symbol of defiance over antisemitism and victory over Israel’s enemies. It tells the story of Jewish restoration to the Land of their inheritance. What was stolen from the Jewish people has returned – Jewish sovereignty over Jerusalem. What the antisemites lauded as victory over Jerusalem and carved as a memory in ancient stone is now a symbol of Jewish identity on every Israeli’s passport. The nation of Israel lives – Am Yisrael Chai! 

In addition to the ‘Arch of Titus’ menorah, Israel’s emblem features two olive trees either side of it. This points to the vision given to the prophet Zechariah, encouraging him that the rebuilding of the temple would only be accomplished by God’s spirit and not by human might or power.

Zechariah 4:1-6 states:

“Now the angel who talked with me came back and wakened me, as a man who is wakened out of his sleep. And he said to me, “What do you see?”

So I said, “I am looking, and there is a lampstand of solid gold with a bowl on top of it, and on the stand seven lamps with seven pipes to the seven lamps. Two olive trees are by it, one at the right of the bowl and the other at its left.” So I answered and spoke to the angel who talked with me, saying, “What are these, my lord?”

Then the angel who talked with me answered and said to me, “Do you not know what these are?”

And I said, “No, my lord.”

 So he answered and said to me:

“This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel:

‘Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ Says the Lord of hosts.

The emblem of Israel reminds us that the foundation of Israel’s existence is by God’s will alone. The enemies of Israel have tried to derail God’s sovereign plan and purpose, but ultimately they will not succeed. God will restore His people – but it will not be by might or power – it will be by the miraculous move of His Spirit.