Most do not realize that the Arch of Titus does to only contribute to one of Italy’s greatest monuments, but also symbolizes that blood and tears that contribute to the defeat of an entire nation and their beliefs. To Romans, the arch is a great memorial commemorating the defeat of the Jewish people. When a person of Jewish decent admires the majesty of the arch, it is a tower of defeat and heartache. Such an artifact can be seen modernly as merely architecture, but still exemplifies the same pain in the revolts that continued for centuries afterwards. The Arch of Titus marks to beginning to many recurring and never ending wars with Jerusalem.
This arch symbolizes one of the Jewish catastrophes in Jewish history. Before the holocaust of the Jews by Hitler in the early twentieth century, there were the series of Jewish revolts, starting in 66AD. There was to plunge into war, but an escalating series of events leading to revolts against Rome. The causes of the revolts are biased off two things, religion and rule of emperor. Rome occupied the government in Judea, and began using their right as ruler to collect taxes on Judea, except during the Sabbatical year granted by Julius Caesar. Caesar acknowledged many other privileges to the Jewish people, for instance, freedom of worship and exemption for military service. This set the Jews apart from other cultures, opening the doors for hatred, especially among the Greeks.
......cont tomorrow
Funny thing... I'm actually doing research on this for a paper right now. There were more causes than just the rule of the emperor and religion. The economy was a big part as well, especially with the completion of the construction of the Temple, which put 80,000 people out of work.
The first revolts were pretty early on too. There was a revolt by Judas the Galilean in 6 CE when Judea first became a Roman province. There was also a large pogrom in Alexandria in 38 led by Flaccus, right before Agrippa I became king of Israel (or maybe shortly after). Just before the emperor Caligula died, there was threat of a large scale revolt, because Caligula wanted to put a statue of himself inside the Temple and synagogues. There was also a huge revolt after the death of Herod the Great in which some thousands of Jews were crucified by Varus. And, of course, there were lots of brigands leading right up to the start of the official war.
~C
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Omgosh I'm so excited! I researched all that also! The problem was, it strayed away from my thesis. My goal was to stay as narrow as possible. But, its so exciting to see someone else researching it also! Theres so much, and its so fascinating!
Please use the reply link :)
Yeah, I'm pretty sure my thesis is going to be about the causes of the war, rather than dealing with the war itself. I have so much material on the causes alone, and as soon as I get a good translation of Josephus, I'll have even more. I have four books sitting on my desk, plus another two on hold at the library for researching this. And lots and lots and lots of notes from both primary and secondary sources.
~C
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