Arch of Titus (after AD 81)

An arch on the Via Sacra in the Roman Forum, erected after Titus’s death in AD 81, under Domitian; the year of construction is unknown. The inscription on the attic reads: the senate and people of Rome to the deified Titus, son of the deified Vespasian. Inside the arch, reliefs show the triumph of AD 71 and the spoils from the Temple in Jerusalem: the seven-branched candlestick and the golden table, the same ones Josephus describes in the triumphal procession. After Domitian’s death the senate had the arches built for him torn down (Dio 68.1.1); his late brother’s arch survived and still stands today. The place appears in the Vespasian episode (chapter “The Triumph”) and the Domitian episode (chapter “The Younger Brother”).