The Arch of Titus in Rome, a civil and commemorative Roman architectural work, was made by the Flavian dynasty in the 1st century, specifically in 81 AD. It therefore belongs to the classical imperial style. The author is not known since in Roman architecture the name of the patron or client remains, since the artist does not enjoy any social consideration.
It is located in the so-called Via Sacra, the main and most important street of the old imperial city, which linked the Capitol with the Colosseum, and in whose surroundings the most notable buildings of the time were grouped, between temples and palaces.
The reason for the construction of the Arch of Titus was the commemoration of the victories of the emperor Tito Flavio Sabino Vespasiano, son of the also emperor Tito Flavio Vespasiano. After besieging and conquering Jerusalem, in AD 70, times when its mythical Temple of Solomon was sacked and destroyed by Roman troops when they burned the city.
In the Middle Ages, the arch became part of the wall that surrounded Rome, being one of its entrance doors. This fact and the passage of time led to a great deterioration, losing part of its reliefs and conserving only the central arch.
In the 19th century, with the arrival of Pope Pius VIII and the spirit of renovation of the classical buildings and monuments of the capital, the restoration of the arch was entrusted to the architects Raffaele Stern and Giuseppe Valadier, who carried out the recovery work from 1818 to 1821, returning it to its original shape, reconstructing the missing sides in the travertine rock and not in the marble as it was originally.
The Arch of Titus has dimensions of 14.50 meters high, 13.50 meters wide and 4.75 meters deep. Its marble structure is simple and consists of two pillars on which a barrel vault rises, which are decorated with two columns each and blind windows.
The highlight of the Arch of Titus are the reliefs with which it is sculpted. Thus, the architrave represents the victory of Vespasian and Titus over the Jews.
