with its corkscrew curls punched out using a drill instead of a chisel,
creates a dense mass of light and shadow set off boldly from the softly
modeled and highly polished skin of the face and swanlike neck. The
drill played an increasing role in Roman sculpture in succeeding peri-
ods and in time was used even for portraits of men, when much
longer hair and full beards became fashionable.ARCH OF TITUSWhen Titus died in 81 CE, only two years after
becoming emperor, his younger brother, Domitian, succeeded him.
Domitian erected an arch (FIGS. 10-2,no. 13, and 10-39) in Titus’s
honor on the Sacred Way leading into the Republican Forum Ro-
manum (FIG. 10-2,no. 11). This type of arch, the so-called triumphal
arch,has a long history in Roman art and architecture, beginning in
the second century BCE. The term is something of a misnomer, how-
ever, because Roman arches celebrated more than just military victo-
ries. Freestanding arches, usually crowned by gilded-bronze statues,
commemorated a wide variety of events, ranging from victories
abroad to the building of roads and bridges at home.
The Arch of Titus is typical of the early triumphal arch and con-
sists of one passageway only. As on the Colosseum, engaged columns
frame the arcuated opening, but their capitals are the Composite
type, an ornate combination of Ionic volutes and Corinthian acan-
thus leaves that became popular at about the same time as the
Fourth Style in Roman painting. Reliefs depicting personified Victo-
ries (winged women, as in Greek art) fill the spandrels (the area be-
tween the arch’s curve and the framing columns and entablature). A
dedicatory inscription stating that the arch was erected to honor the
god Titus, son of the god Vespasian, dominates the attic. Roman
emperors normally were proclaimed gods after they died, unless
they ran afoul of the Senate and were damned. The statues of those
who suffered damnatio memoriae were torn down, and their names
were erased from public inscriptions. This was Nero’s fate.
Inside the passageway of the Arch of Titus are two great relief
panels. They represent the triumphal parade of Titus down the
Sacred Way after his return from the conquest of Judaea at the end of
the Jewish Wars in 70 CE. One of the reliefs (FIG. 10-40) depicts Ro-
man soldiers carrying the spoils—including the sacred seven-
branched candelabrum, the menorah—from the Temple in Jeru-
salem. Despite considerable damage to the relief, the illusion of
movement is convincing. The parade moves forward from the left
background into the center foreground and disappears through the
obliquely placed arch in the right background. The energy and swing
of the column of soldiers suggest a rapid march. The sculptor re-
jected the Classical low-relief style of the Ara Pacis (FIG. 10-31) in fa-
vor of extremely deep carving, which produces strong shadows. The
heads of the forward figures have broken off because they stood free
from the block. Their high relief emphasized their different place-
ment in space compared with the heads in low relief, which are in-
tact. The play of light and shadow across the protruding foreground
and receding background figures enhances the sense of movement.
The panel (FIG. 10-41) on the other side of the passageway
shows Titus in his triumphal chariot. The seeming historical accu-
racy of the spoils panel—it closely corresponds to the Jewish histo-
rian Josephus’s contemporaneous description of Titus’s triumph—
gave way in this panel to allegory. Victory rides with Titus in the
four-horse chariot and places a wreath on his head. Below her is a262 Chapter 10 THE ROMAN EMPIRE10-39Arch of Titus, Rome, Italy, after 81 ce.
Domitian erected this arch on the road leading into the
Roman Forum to honor his brother, the emperor Titus,
who became a god after his death. Victories fill the
spandrels of the arcuated passageway.