Image Details

Titus’s triumphal return from a vanquished Jerusalem in 70 C.E. was commemorated on his arch, not far from the Colosseum. Along the inside panel, just visible in the photograph of the arch , victorious soldiers display the items captured from the Temple, including the sacred candelabrum (menorah) and other ritual artifacts (see detail). But what became of the wealth had long remained a mystery. With the decipherment of the Colosseum’s original inscriptions, we may now know the answer: The phrase “ex manubiis”—from the spoils—likely refers to the spoils taken by the Romans from Jerusalem and its Temple.