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

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. 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 of the Temple was that it was miraculous and kept burning right up to about 40 years prior to the Temple’s destruction (which would have been at about the time of Christ’s emergence into public life), according to the Talmud, as a sign that God was still with Israel.[footnoteRef:11] This light symbolized the light of God for the Jews, as described in Samuel 3:3.[footnoteRef:12] The light of the Hannakah festival was similar in that it also served as a symbol of hope, of memory, of commemoration of the Maccabean victory over the Greeks. Light has been used by religions throughout the world for centuries as a sign of spirituality, of longing, expectation, and hope—and the menorah was no different as it was lit through the night to show that God was present with the Jews even in the darkest hours. [11: Talmud Tractate Yoma, 39b ] [12: Birnbaum, Philip A Book of Jewish Concepts. (New York: Hebrew Publishing Company, 1975). pp. 366–367]
The Significance of Commemorating the Spoils of War
The significance of commemorating the spoils of war was that it gave honor to the victors in the war and showed the “winnings” of the battle—the items and objects that were deemed important or special in the eyes of the defeated and that held a special cultural or historical value that could be exploited by the conquerors. It also added to the legacy of the conquerors. In the case of Titus, it added to his legacy and stature to be the one to be commemorated as the leader who destroyed the Temple, subjugated the Jews and made off with their sacred items that they used to communicate their services to their God. As Fine notes, “Josephus writes that the Temple trophies were displayed in Rome after the procession. According to him, they were exhibited in the magnificent Temple of Peace.”[footnoteRef:13] This type of exhibition was consistent with all propaganda efforts by authorities throughout history. [13: Fine, Steven. “The Temple Menorah: Where Is It?.” Biblical Archaeology Review 30, no. 4 (2005), 8.]
Indeed, all throughout history, the spoils of war have been commemorated by the victors. The Hellenistic Greeks, for instance, depicted their battles in their temples, though their architecture typically told the stories of their people’s legendary foundings—such as the Pergamon Altar constructed during the reign of Eumenes II. The Romans, however, had a special flair for depicting their accomplishments in battle. Constantine mirrored his achievements by having his own Arch erected to commemorate his achievement in obtaining the throne, and in doing so he copied the style of the Arch of Titus.
Depicting the spoils of war was simply a way for the victors to tell another side of the story of their heroics—a way of viscerally communicating to the plebes a sense of what was won and how it was obtained. For Domitian, commemorating the spoils served another purpose: it showed that Titus was divine over the non-Roman Jews: their religion was not equal to the divinity of Titus, as stipulated on the Arch itself, which declares: “Senatus Populusque Romanus divo Tito divi Vespasiani filio Vespasiano Augusto”[footnoteRef:14]—or, “The Roman Senate and People (dedicate this) to the divine Titus Vespasianus Augustus, son of the divine Vespasian.” [14: Arch of Titus, Rome.]

The Menorah Then and Now
The earliest depiction in art of the menorah is believed to be that of the Arch of Titus, though the depiction provided in the Old Testament’s Book of Exodus provides the literary substance of what the menorah was supposed to look like. However, there are Jewish coins that date back to the 1st century BC that show a seven-branched menorah.[footnoteRef:15] The story of the menorah in the Bible was almost certainly influenced by ancient thinking, as the Bible was a history of the Jewish people and a book that set out their belief system and their direct contact with God: in many ways, it was like the Greeks’ epic poems—The Odyssey and The Iliad, which described the life of the gods and goddesses and their intervention in the affairs of the Greeks. The Bible described God’s intervention in the lives of the Hebrews. This was a customary form of explanation among the ancients as to their origin stories and how they came to be; it provided a cultural significance for them. [15: Kanael, Baruch. “Ancient Jewish coins and their historical importance.” The Biblical Archaeologist 26, no. 2 (1963): 38-62.]

The menorah as an object that gave light held a special significance because light in connection with God was a common theme throughout the Bible and it represented God’s grace and presence among the Hebrews. Everything about the menorah had a symbolic meaning, including its seven candlesticks, which represented the seven days of creation, as well as the sum of the spiritual and the material—the spiritual being 3 and the material being 4. Pythagoras gave the number 7 a special significance in mathematical terms, and all of these inputs were carried over from culture to culture over the centuries. The number 7 has also referred to the seven deadly sins, the seven theological virtues, the seven continents, the seven schools of education, and so on. It is a number that has meaning for cultures around the world, for societies past and present; and thus it should be no surprise to find the God of the Jews insistent on its application on the menorah that is meant to represent God’s light for the Jews—a symbol of His constant presence among them.
The history of the menorah and what influenced its story in the Bible is unknown, but the Zoroastrians in Persia conducted a celebration of fire like the Jewish Hannakah, which could have influenced the depiction of the menorah in the Bible. Used to commemorate the Maccabean victory over the Greeks in the 2nd century BC, the festival of lights of the Jews connects to the menorah as a light-giving instrument but its religious significance is made stronger thanks to the Mosaic tradition of the Hebrews’ liberation from the Egyptians and the menorah lighting the way of the Jews as they make their way to the promised land. Rituals that use light are still very much in existence today, among various religions, as it symbolizes faith, spirit, and grace.
Today, the menorah’s whereabouts are unknown, though some Jews believe it may still be in Rome.[footnoteRef:16] The Roman authorities have allowed Hebrew researchers to search the Vatican’s libraries for the menorah, but to no avail.[footnoteRef:17] Yet, the idea that it would be in Rome is based on the various stories and legends about its handling after the Roman Empire became Christian under Constantine, how the menorah was transferred to Constantinople, and then given back to the Jews, some say, by Justinian.[footnoteRef:18] Were the menorah still in Rome today, it would signify a clear division between Christians and Jews today, with the possessors of the menorah acting like Titus: holding the spoils of war in a demonstration of authority over the subjugated people. [16: Fine, Steven. "The Temple Menorah: Where Is It?." Biblical Archaeology Review 30, no. 4 (2005), 3.] [17: Fine, Steven. “The Temple Menorah: Where Is It?.” Biblical Archaeology Review 30, no. 4 (2005), 9] [18: Fine, Steven. “The Temple Menorah: Where Is It?.” Biblical Archaeology Review 30, no. 4 (2005), 11.]

Conclusion
The menorah in the siege of Jerusalem as depicted in the Arch of Titus holds a special significance on multiple levels. For Titus, it was a victory over a rebellious people and the menorah on the Arch was a sign of their subjugation. For the Jews, it was a sign of their hope in God, of their belief in His constant love and presence among them, especially in their Temple where they performed their sacred rites. For other cultures, the menorah has been used in various forms as a way to give light—and light has been the symbol of spirituality. In one sense, whoever holds the menorah holds the power of the people—and that may be why it is such a powerful symbol in the first place.
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