Rome - Colosseum and the Arch of Titus

Steven walking toward the Colosseum. 
Just another ancient monument along the streets of Rome. 

Interior of the Colosseum.

After a tour of the immense Colosseo (Colosseum), an architectural marvel, but also the scene of much brutality, we walked next door to the Roman Forum, the seat of the Roman Empire.   The entrance to the Forum is marked by the Arch of Titus, a 50-foot arch that has inspired triumphal arches the world over, including the Arc de Triiomphe in Paris.  It also clearly shows that Rome was financed and built on the backs of the people it conquered. 

The (nearly) two thousand year old Arch of Titus 

The Arch of Titus was constructed in c. AD 82 by the Emperor Domitian shortly after the death of his older brother Titus to commemorate Titus' sacking of Jerusalem  in AD 70.

Interior of Arch of Titus.  Note the Menorah being carted away.

Wikipedia informs me the Arch provides one of the few contemporary depictions of Temple period artifacts, including a huge seven-branched menorah. Wikipedia also tells me that until Israel was founded in 1948, Jews refused to walk under this arch and the arch was never mentioned in rabinnical sources.  However, the Israelis had the final triumph, as the menorah in this arch served as the model for the menorah used on the emblem of the State of Israel.  As explained in the Jewish Virtual Library, "the menorah is returned from the Arch of Titus, where it symbolizes defeat, humiliation and disgrace, and is installed in a place of honor on the emblem of the State [of Israel]..."