"There was a golden table, which weighed many talents; also a golden candlestick, which was constructed upon a different principle from anything in use amongst us now. In the middle was the main stem, which rose out of the base; from this proceeded smaller branches, very much resembling the form of a trident; and on the top of them was a lamp, worked in brass. There were seven such in all, emblematic of the seven days of the Jewish week. The Law of the Jews was the last of those spoils in the procession" (Josephus, "Wars of the Jews," viii. v. 5). "The legs of the table were perfectly finished in the lower half, like those the Dorians put upon their couches, but the upper half of them was worked square" (Josephus, "Antiquities of the Jews," iii. vi. 6).
Two censers were placed upon the table; in front of the table are two trumpets crossed. (See Exodus xxv. 26).
These spoils were deposited by Vespasian in the Temple of Peace. After the sack of Rome, A.D. 455, the Vandal king Genseric carried them to Carthage. Belisarius recovered them, A.D. 535, and took them to Constantinople; and they were transferred from there to the Christian Church in Jerusalem (Procopius, "De Bell. Vand.," i. 5 and ii. 4).
Evagrius (iv. 17) relates that when Khosroes, king of Persia, took Jerusalem in 614, they passed into his hands; and all trace of them has been lost since then. It is altogether erroneous to suppose they were thrown into the Tiber.
On the opposite side is the Emperor Titus in a chariot drawn by four horses, preceded by Romans wearing laurel wreaths and carrying the fasces. Behind the chariot, Victory is in the act of placing a crown on the emperor's head. The vault is ornamented with square coffers and roses, and in the centre the apotheosis of Titus, in square relief.
At this point the Via Sacra was sometimes called the Clivus Palatinus, as it led up to the Palatine, on the right.
"Clœlia had her statue in the Via Sacra, as you go up to the Palatine" (Plutarch, in "Publicola").
Passing through the Arch of Titus,
On our right are some remains of the Frangipani fortress, a tower of the middle ages; a piece of the second wall of Rome; some substructions and walls, as it were supporting the Palatine Hill; and remains of the Baths and