God's Gold (18 page)
Authors: Sean Kingsley
In other words, Vespasian and the Flavian dynasty transformed the architectural face of Rome. This was another essential strategy. By AD 67,
the greed and poor financial planning of the emperor Nero had bankrupted the Eternal City. War in Asia Minor from AD 54 to 63 and in Britain during AD 60â61 had diminished the imperial gold reserves. The army was behind in paying its soldiersâa fatal sin. To make matters worse, Rome itself looked tattered, its marble veneer streaked black by the great fire of AD 64. Despite this serious predicament, Nero had continued to please himself with gross extravagance: costly leisure pursuits, a tour of Greece, theatrical performances, racing, and palace building. His relentless pursuit of personal gratification spread across the Mediterranean, where he ransacked provinces in search of the finest works of art, which he imported for his palace in Rome for his own pleasure, not for the entertainment of the people.
To finance his public relations campaign and the rebuilding of Rome, Vespasian needed to raid the Temple of Jerusalem. As many assets as possible had to be liquidatedâand fast. The new emperor estimated that 4 billion sesterces were required to pick the state up off the floor, the equivalent of about $4.25 billion today. The annual taxation of the provinces yielded 800 million sesterces ($854 million). Thus, the equivalent of five years' revenue was urgently needed. Back in Italy Vespasian was already liquidating public property and increasing rates of taxation. New census programs were organized in Egypt and Gaul to assess the empire's productive capability, and mines previously considered exhausted were reopened as government concerns, especially in gold and lead-rich Spain.
In Judea, Vespasian continued the asset stripping. Rich Jewish estates were sold to the highest bidder and the Temple tax that previously went to the Temple was now diverted as an annual poll tax, the
Fiscus Judaicus,
to the Temple of Capitoline Jupiter in Rome. Free Jewish males between the ages of twenty and fifty, women up to age sixty-two, and children over age three paid 8 sesterces. If the Jewish population across the Roman Empire totalled 5 to 6 million, a new tax windfall of 40 to 48 million sesterces was created ($42 million to $51 million).
Despite these swift initiatives, there was still not nearly enough cash. The Temple treasure of the Jews, however, was a godsend, the
answer to all of Vespasian's prayers. A demand for ready cash was the main reason why, ultimately, Jerusalem had to fall. Titus's preference for a peaceful surrender was honest; the Jews' inflexibility cost them their lives, liberty, and homeland. I am also convinced that Titus had no plans to burn down the Temple. The Temple treasure, however, was quite another matter. Rome needed the Jewish treasure chestâthis was nonnegotiable.
Vespasian, commander of the Roman forces during the First Jewish Revolt, AD 66â70, and founder of the Flavian dynasty. In AD 69 he was appointed emperor of Rome and returned to the Eternal City to take the throne. (
Museum of Roman Civilization, Rome
)
Founding a dynasty required enormous finances. Vespasian left his son, Titus, in charge of razing Jerusalem to the ground and plundering the treasures of the Jewish Temple. ( ©
CNG, Inc
)
Map of ancient sites associated with the Temple treasure of Jerusalem. Most of the Temple spoils were quickly turned into cash. The greatest symbols of faith survived for more than 500 years.
In AD 80, Titus celebrated the Flavian dynasty's victory over Israel with a triumphal monument built on the summit of the Sacred Way in Rome's Forum, the Arch of Titus.
A relief on the Arch of Titus shows the greatest symbols of Judaism paraded along the streets of Rome in Vespasian and Titus's triumph of AD 71 (
from left to right
): the seven-pronged gold candelabrum and the gold and bejeweled Table of the Divine Presence, with a pair of silver trumpets tied to its front.
Rome's 50,000-seat Colosseum, the greatest entertainment facility of the ancient world. Epigraphic evidence reveals that it was built in AD 72 from spoils Vespasian had looted from the Temple of Jerusalem.
Herod's Temple in Jerusalem, first century AD; the Holy of Holies, which housed the candelabrum and Table of the Divine Presence, rises at the right. (
Z. Radovan, www. BibleLandPictures. com
)
The fortified tower and water channels at Qumran, the site where the Dead Sea Scrolls are traditionally believed to have been written, as well as the Copper Scroll and its list of sixty-one buried items from the Temple, worth up to $3 billion, according to some estimates.
Many scholars believe the Temple treasure of Jerusalem was spirited away to the Dead Sea and hidden around the Essene settlement of Qumran. A vast number of
mikvaot,
ritual baths, superficially suggest the site was occupied by pious Jews.
Royal spoils looted from Lachish, Israel, by Assyrian soldiers in 701 BC, including two cylindrical cult stands. The candelabrum described in Exodus, and found in King Solomon's Temple, would have resembled this form. Wall relief, King Sennacherib's palace, Nineveh. (
From Ussishkin, 1982, fig. 83
)
By 165 BC, the candelabrum in the Temple of Jerusalem had evolved into the seven-pronged form. It was this antique that Titus seized in AD 70, complete with a pedestal adorned with pagan images of eagles and sea monsters.
