Titus became the Emperor of the Roman Empire upon the death of his father Vespasian in 79 C.E. Titus died shortly after taking power in 81 C.E. and his brother Domitian rose to take his place. In 85 C.E., Domitian erected the Arch of Titus as both a memorial to his brother and as a reminder of the defeat of the First Jewish Revolt.

The arch depicts the triumphal procession of laurel-crowned Romans carrying off sacred treasures from the Temple in Jerusalem, after the Roman conquest of Jerusalem in 70 C.E. After the procession, the treasures were placed in the Temple of Peace in the Forum of Vespasian, and possibly remained there for four centuries. As Appian wrote, "this city, Jerusalem, had been destroyed in the days of Pompey; it was afterward rebuilt, and Vespasian again destroyed it, and Hadrian did the same in our 'time.'"

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