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A PAGAN TEMPLE FOR A MENORAH. Emperor Vespasian ordered the Temple of Peace to be built in Rome following the capture of Jerusalem. He decorated it with old masterpieces and also deposited the pillaged Temple treasures there, according to Josephus. But no source mentions the Temple Menorah. A second-century rabbi Simeon ben Yohai claims to have seen the Menorah when in Rome—most likely in this Temple of Peace, which Pliny considered among the most beautiful buildings in Rome. The temple was destroyed by fire in 192 C.E. and then restored. Today little remains of the Temple of Peace.