So keep in mind, again, it was the senate and people of Rome that put up the arch to Titus as the son of the divine Vespasian. And this, the genius populi Romani, which was the, the representative of the Roman people. The genius senatus, or the spirit of the senate. There's the dressed person, the person in toga is the Senate, the ge-n-i-u-s, like genius. Because we have the same figures in other reliefs we know, despite the fact that they are headless, that these are personifications of the Senate. But one of them in a toga and the other figure with a bare chest, and a mantle wrapped over the lower part of his body. Over here two other figures, a ma-, two other male figures, both headless today. Who might well be Roma, the personification of Rome herself and what is she doing? She's welcoming Titus back to Rome after his great victory over Jerusalem. And they are led at the front by a woman in a helmet and military costume. The chariot is led by four horses who are whizzing by as you can see here. And in fact, she holds a laurel wreath above his head, crowning him because of that victory. And you can see that female figure is winged and she is a personification of victory, so she is heralding the victory that he has had in Jerusalem. He's riding along in his chariot with the exception of a female figure who accompanies him. We actually see an image of Titus in his chariot and he's riding alone without his father. And these figural panels make reference to to Titus' victory over Jerusalem, to this important event, from the point of view of the Flavians, that gave their dynasty legitimacy. In the center of the bay I mentioned that there were two great figural panels. We see it quite infrequently, in Roman architecture, but we do see it on occasion so it's good for you to know about. We refer to this as the composite capital, the composite capital. Flowers as we see in, in the usual Corinthian order, and then prominent volutes of the Ionic order up above. It's a capital that actually combines the Corinthian and the Ionic because you can see the Corinthian acanthus leaves growing up here. And it's a distinctive capital that we have not seen before. The arch, the side that faces the Colosseum and you see it here.
I show you a detail of one of the preserved, there are two again, but one of the two preserved capitals from this side of the arch. Important from the architectural standpoint are the columns and especially the capitals. And then in either spandrel, or triangular area at either side of the keystones, we see victories, flying female figures of victory, that are of course making reference in a general way to this great victory that, that Titus had over Jerusalem. And then below that, the decoration of the keystone.
And you can see that the artist has has made the figures fairly small, but at the same time has, has made each one distinct from the other, so that this is more readable from the ground. Down below the inscription plaque, we see the freeze which purports to represent this great procession or parade that took place when, when Titus returned from Jerusalem and had his triumphal procession along the sacred way and, and up to the Capitoline hill and the Temple of Jupiter. So these letters were inscribed and then bronze letters were attached to them so that the inscription would gleam in the sunshine and so that you could see it from considerable distance. The reason that those is that those were where bronze letters were actually attached. And if, and if you, you can see all of these little holes that are located in some of the letters. So the senate and people of Rome, put this up to the divine Titus, the son of the divine Vespasian.
So the divinity of both of these men, both of whom were made gods at their death, is alluded to here. There is an F for filius right over here. The senate and people of Rome who put this up to the divine Titus. It's interesting because it tells us that it was the senate and people of Rome.
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