Jerusalem: The Biography

* * Vespasian’s coins boasted ‘JUDAEA CAPTA’ with the female figure of Judaea seated, bound, at the foot of a palm tree while Rome leaned on his spear above her. The fate of the Jerusalem treasures is mysterious. In 455, Genseric, King of the Vandals, sacked Rome and tookthe Temple treasures to Carthage, where they were later captured by Emperor Justinian’s general Belisarius, who in turn brought them to Constantinople. Justinian sent the candelabra backto Jerusalem, but it must have been looted by the Persians in 614; at any rate, it vanished. The Arch of Titus, completed by Titus’ brother Domitian, shows the arms of the candelabra lengthened and turned upwards to resemble a trident: it may have been altered or it may be the artist’s mistake. Ironically the Romanized candelabra (except the pagan symbols) became the basis for the modern Jewish menorah, the candelabra used at Hanukkah and as the insignia of Israel.