Triumphal Procession in Rome

Josephus

The Jewish War 7.123–162

ca. 75

While it was still night all the military had marched out under their officers by companies and cohorts, and taken up their position, which was not on this occasion round the gates of the Upper Palace, but close by the temple of Isis: this was where the victorious generals were spending that night. At the very break of dawn Vespasian and Titus came…

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Defeat of the Jews played an important role in bolstering Vespasian’s legitimacy when he came to power during the Roman civil war in 69 CE. To commemorate Vespasian and Titus’ subjugation of Judaea, special coins with the inscription IUDAEA CAPTA (“Judaea captive”) were minted. Josephus describes the grand celebratory triumph of Vespasian and Titus in Rome in 71 CE—quite literally a spectacle. Scholars suggest that the grandeur of the event was more appropriate to the celebration of a conquest of new lands than to the subjugation of territory that was already part of the empire. Josephus recounts the enormous floats designed to retell the story of the rebellion and the Roman victory, the spoils taken from Judaea and the Temple, and the procession to the temple of Jupiter on the Capitol, where Simon bar Giora is executed as the enemy commander in chief. After the triumphs, Vespasian builds a temple in which to display artistic masterpieces, including those taken from the Temple of the Jews.

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Creator Bio

Josephus

37–100

Flavius Josephus was born into a prominent Jewish priestly family and served as a general stationed in the Galilee during the First Jewish Revolt (66–73 CE). He was captured by the Romans and eventually integrated into the Flavian imperial aristocracy, who commissioned him to compose chronicles of the Jewish–Roman war and the history of the Jews. Josephus’ works, all written in Greek, include The Jewish War, Jewish Antiquities, Against Apion, and his autobiography, Life of Josephus. These writings provide important insights into the Judaisms of the Second Temple period and include one of the few surviving accounts of the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE.

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