The arch of Titus is located on the Via Sacra, the sacred path of Rome on top of a rise overlooking the great form, the center of the universe, the center of the empire. The arch is just up the hill from a temple of peace built by Vespasian, where he put all of the great art of the world to signify the renewed Roman peace that he had created in the wake of the Jewish Revolt of 66 to 74. But particularly really after 70, because after 70 it was a matter of skirmishes in places like Masada, which are well known. Now, the arch then hovers over the city of Rome and makes a very clear statement. Its Latin inscription says that this is dedicated to Titus, the son of Vespasian. One who would come through the arch toward the forum from the Colosseum, that other great monument built to the Jewish revolt, would pass toward the arch, look at the inscription above, he would see the image of the Jordan River being brought into the city, becoming part of the Roman empire. To his right, the general Titus, son of Vespasian, riding on a chariot pulled by four horses with the goddess of victory crowning him over his head. Now we know that in such events there was often a slave who held a wreath over the emperor's head as he wound his way through the cities of Rome in celebration of his great victory and his great honor. On the other side, the most famous of all of the panels, showing a triumphal arch in its upper section, images of victory, above two quadriga, four house chariots, one probably representing Titus and the other representing Vespasian. [MUSIC] And we're going to begin with the rather strange quote, which I will read now. So I turned again, said this author, to the figures on the stone, the shadows of the night had been gathering meanwhile, and had enveloped everything with their gloom. And yet, do I believe to have seen their limbs move, ere they hardened again, into stone. And to have caught a ray of that flaming eye ere it was covered and it again became extinct. Now this is a piece of a story by a rather important scholar, uniquely a scholar of Romanian folklore, Jewish folklore, Samaritan folklore. The Chief Rabbi of London Sephardic community and a majo,r major early Zionist leader, a fellow named Moses Gaster, in a community kind of magazine published in 1900. Now Gaster, like many Jews and Christians to this day, errantly identified those wreathed Roman soldiers of the Arch of Titus as Jewish prisoners carrying the holy appurtenances of the Jerusalem Temple into their shared exile. In this fantasy, these ancient Jews have come to life. They're in the process in the section that I've read of returning to their stony state after communicating directly with Gaster and inviting him to walk together with them in Titus' triumphant parade. What is fascinating about this passage for us today is Gaster's sense of observation and his experience of the Arch of Titus. Gaster saw the reliefs change with the changes of light at the sun's set. And these transformations sparked his imaginative foray into the Roman past. This effect was not completely accidental. Following the topography of Rome's Via Sacra, which is where the Arch of Titus is located, the arch is aligned at something like 30 degrees off the east west axis, which takes full advantage then of shadows against the bar relief. It is this sense of light of what can be seen and imagined when viewing the Arch of Titus reliefs under the changing rays of the sun, that sets the context for our discussion today. And it's a sense that I noticed as our team was at the arch of Titus in 2012. Hour after hour, anybody who has done an archeological project knows how any hours you are on the site, watching the light change over these objects and that was a real gift to me at least. The arch of Titus in Rome on the Via Sacra, the Holy Road, leading to the Forum is truly at the center of the Roman universe. This object built on a hill overlooking the Roman Forum could be seen from every place in the Forum. This sleek, classical building stated as nothing else could, that Titus had triumphed, the new dynasty had triumphed, had preserved the Roman peace, had built the Roman peace.
