Down below the inscription plaque, we see the freeze
which purports to represent this great procession or parade that
took place when, when Titus returned from Jerusalem and
had his triumphal procession along the sacred way and, and
up to the Capitoline hill and the Temple of Jupiter.
And you can see that the artist has has
made the figures fairly small, but at the same
time has, has made each one distinct from the
other, so that this is more readable from the ground.
And then below that, the decoration of the keystone.
And then in either spandrel, or triangular area
at either side of the keystones, we see victories,
flying female figures of victory, that are of course making reference in a
general way to this great victory that, that Titus had over Jerusalem.
Important from the architectural standpoint are
the columns and especially the capitals.
I show you a detail of one of the preserved, there are two
again, but one of the two preserved capitals from this side of the arch.
The arch, the side that
faces the Colosseum and you see it here.
And it's a distinctive capital that we have not seen before.
It's a capital that actually combines the Corinthian and the Ionic
because you can see the Corinthian acanthus leaves growing up here.
Flowers as we see in, in the usual Corinthian order,
and then prominent volutes of the Ionic order up above.
We refer to this
as the composite capital, the composite capital.
Combining Corinthian and Ionic.
We see it quite infrequently, in Roman architecture, but we do
see it on occasion so it's good for you to know about.
In the center of the bay I mentioned that there were two great figural panels.
And these figural panels make reference to to Titus' victory over Jerusalem,
to this important event, from the point of
view of the Flavians, that gave their dynasty legitimacy.
And we see one of those here.
We actually see an image of Titus in
his chariot and he's riding alone without his father.
He's riding along in his chariot with the
exception of a female figure who accompanies him.
And you can see that female figure is
winged and she is a personification of victory,
so she is heralding the victory that he has had in Jerusalem.
And in fact, she holds a laurel wreath
above his head, crowning him because of that victory.
The chariot is led by four horses who are whizzing by as you can see here.
And they are led at the front by a woman in a helmet and military costume.
Who might well be Roma, the personification
of Rome herself and what is she doing?
She's welcoming Titus back to Rome after his great victory over Jerusalem.
Over here two other figures, a ma-, two other male figures, both headless today.
But one of them in a toga and the other figure with a
bare chest, and a mantle wrapped over the lower part of his body.
Because we have the same figures in other reliefs
we know, despite the fact that they are headless,
that these are personifications of the Senate.
There's the dressed person, the person in
toga is the Senate, the ge-n-i-u-s, like genius.
The genius senatus, or the spirit of the senate.
And this, the genius populi Romani, which
was the, the representative of the Roman people.
So keep in mind, again, it was the senate and people of
Rome that put up the arch to Titus as the son of the
divine Vespasian.
And we see themselves, or
their personifications, represented in this scene.
More interesting from our standpoint, vis-à-vis architecture, is the
other scene on the other side of the central bay.
Where we see the Roman soldiers, or a group
of Roman soldiers, bringing back spoils, booty, trophies from Jerusalem.
Things that they have stolen from the temple
in Jerusalem.
And you can see the famous seven-branched candelabrum that they are carrying here.
The weight is so great that it is
that there, there shoulders bend under that weight.
And we also see them with a table over here that has a number
of sacrificial implements and so on that
were taken also from the temple in Jerusalem.
So they carry these along in this parade for the
people to see.
For those in Rome to see to get a, a real, a palpable sense of
what it meant to have this victory, and of the spoils that are being brought back.
And you can see that the, this is represented very illusionistically.
And you can see that they seem to be walking through an arch that is also
represented here, a very interesting scene indeed, and
you'll recall what, what they did with those foils.
They took those spoils, and they put them in the Templum
Pacis that we talked about last time, or Forum Pacis that
we talked about last time, that served essentially as a kind
of museum where the people of Rome could see these images.
So once again, the Flavians always showing an
affinity for, and an interest in the people of
the city, the people of the city that
they were trying, of course, to court favor from.
So, we're seeing Domitian who, again,
was the commissioner of this monument continuing
on in the same vein as Vespasian and Titus, honoring this victory of that
gave legitimacy to the Flavian dynasty, but also always acknowledging and
thinking of the impact that is going to have on the senate and the people of Rome.
The Central Bay, if you stand
right below it and look up, you will see the vault of the interior of the arch.
And you can see that it has a coffered
ceiling, as we've seen so often in Roman monuments.
Quite well preserved with the coffers and then the rosettes in the center.
And if I show you another detail of that, you'll get an
even better sense of it and also of how ornate the decoration is.
We've talked about the fact that
the Flavians had a particular interest in very ornate decoration.
And you can see that as well here.
In fact, the drill has been so, used
so extensively that it almost dematerializes the vault
I think, in a very interesting way, creating
a kind of overall tapestry of dark and light.
And then in the center, a panel that is surrounded by a garland.
And in the center of that panel,
a depiction, you could probably barely see it from where you sit, but
a depiction of Titus being carried to heaven on the back of an eagle.
In this case, Titus is not in military dress, but in a toga.
He's on the back of an eagle with outstretched wings,
and that eagle is taking him up to the heavens.
What this is is a representation
of apotheosis, a-p-o-t-h-e-o-s-i-s, apotheosis or divinization.
The divinization, because the Romans believed that they
could make humans into gods after their death.
The making of Titus into a god after his death and the depiction of, the material
depiction of him actually being carried to heaven on the back of an eagle.
A very powerful image, and the fact that it is
in arch vault of this vault here, has lead scholars to
suggest that it is possible that the arch of Titus in Rome served as Titus' tomb.
And that seems to be corroborated by the fact that behind the attic, or
inside the attic of the arch, is a staircase as well as a chamber.
And I show both of them to you here.
A spiral staircase and a chamber.
A chamber that might well have served as a burial chamber for
an urn of Titus.
The urn was never found, was not found in
the excavation of this monument, so we can't prove this.
But I think it's very possible that this
arch served as a tomb for the emperor Titus.
Diana E.E. KleinerDunham Professor of History of Art and Classics at Yale University
