Colosseum, Roman Forum and Titus Arch

A guided tour of the Colosseum, the Roman Forum and the Arch of Titus — the three monuments that, taken together, tell you why there has been a Jewish community in Rome for two thousand years.

This is the standard ancient Rome itinerary, walked in a different order and read from a different side.

The Arch of Titus

It was raised around 81 CE to commemorate the sack of Jerusalem. On the inner relief, Roman soldiers carry the spoils of the Temple through the streets in triumph: the seven-branched menorah, the table of the showbread, the silver trumpets. It is the earliest surviving depiction of the Temple menorah, and it is on a victory monument.

Roman Jews refused to walk beneath that arch for centuries. In 1948, when the State of Israel was declared, the community walked under it deliberately — in the opposite direction to the procession carved above them.

Can you visit the Arch of Titus on its own?

Not really, and this is the thing people get wrong when they plan it.

The Arch stands at the eastern end of the Roman Forum, inside the fenced archaeological area. There is no separate entrance and no separate ticket for it: you go in through the Forum with the combined Colosseum ticket, which is timed. So a visit that is genuinely about the Arch still has to be planned around the Colosseum slot.

The second thing people get wrong is the direction. The relief everybody comes for is on the inside of the passageway, on the south face, above head height. Walk through at normal pace, looking ahead, and you will miss it completely. It needs somebody to stop you underneath and point upward, and it needs a few minutes of standing still.

If you want the detail before you come, I have written it out in full: what the menorah relief on the Arch of Titus actually shows — what each object in the procession is, what the arch was for, and why the same menorah carved at Ostia Antica a few decades later means something entirely different.

The Colosseum, and who paid for it

Vespasian began the amphitheatre shortly after the Jewish War and it opened in 80 CE under his son Titus. A reconstructed dedicatory inscription records that it was built ex manubiis, from the spoils — and the labour force included Jewish captives brought back from Judea. Rome’s Jewish population grew sharply in this period for the worst possible reason.

Standing in the arena and knowing that changes what the building is.

What the tour covers

• The Colosseum, inside
• The Roman Forum, with the Arch of Titus at its eastern end
• The Palatine Hill, included on the same ticket
• The Temple of Peace, where the Temple treasures were displayed after the triumph

Practical information

• Entry to the Colosseum is by timed slot and tickets are pre-arranged. The archaeological area is a single combined ticket
• The site is almost entirely outdoors and unshaded. Between June and September, morning slots are the only sensible choice
• The Forum and Palatine involve uneven ancient paving and a climb
• The arena floor and the underground level can be added, subject to availability

This tour sits naturally either side of the Jewish Ghetto tour — one is where the community began, the other is where it was confined fifteen centuries later. Background reading: Jewish Rome.

Questions people ask about this tour

What does “in the Jewish perspective” actually mean?
That the Colosseum, the Forum and the Arch of Titus are read as one story: the arch shows the Temple treasures of Jerusalem carried in triumph, and the Colosseum was built from the spoils of that same war. Most tours mention the arch in passing; this one is built around it. What the menorah relief shows is worth reading before you come.

Are the entry tickets included?
Tickets are booked in advance as part of the arrangement — entry is timed and sells out in season, so the slot is fixed when the tour is.

How long does it take, and how hard is the walking?
About three hours: the Arch of Titus, the Forum, the Palatine slopes and the interior of the Colosseum. Uneven ancient paving throughout — proper shoes, and in summer the earliest slot of the day.

Can the tour be done in Hebrew?
Yes — in English, Hebrew or Italian, with guides who read the site through the sources. Tell me your language when you write.