page_title: Menorah (Temple)
section_title: After the 455 Sack of Rome
hierarchical_section_title: Menorah (Temple) / History and fate / After the 455 Sack of Rome
caption_attribution_description: English: Sacking of Rome Italiano: Sacco di Roma 455 Русский: Нашествие Гензериха на Рим. Холст, масло Государственная Третьяковская галерея, Москва
context_page_description: The menorah is described in the Bible as the seven-lamp ancient Hebrew lampstand made of pure gold and used in the portable sanctuary set up by Moses in the wilderness and later in the Temple in Jerusalem. Fresh olive oil of the purest quality was burned daily to light its lamps. The menorah has been a symbol of Judaism since ancient times and is the emblem on the coat of arms of the modern state of Israel.
context_section_description: Its fate during and after the 455 Sack of Rome is unknown. While it may have been melted down or broken into chunks of gold by the conquerors, it has been variously claimed that it was destroyed in a fire; that it was taken to Carthage, and then to the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire at Constantinople, or that it sank in a shipwreck. Another persistent rumor is that the Vatican has kept it hidden for centuries. Some claim that it has been kept in Vatican City, others that it is in the cellars of the Archbasilica of St. John Lateran.
  Most likely, the menorah was looted by the Vandals in the sacking of Rome in 455 CE, and taken to their capital, Carthage. The Byzantine army under General Belisarius might have removed it in 533 and brought it to Constantinople. According to Procopius, it was carried through the streets of Constantinople during Belisarius' triumphal procession. Procopius adds that the object was later sent back to Jerusalem where there is no record of it. It could have been destroyed when Jerusalem was pillaged by the Persians in 614.
  In the Avot of Rabbi Natan, one of the minor tractates printed with the Babylonian Talmud, there is a listing of Jewish treasures, which according to Jewish oral tradition are still in Rome, as they have been for centuries.
  The objects that were crafted, and then hidden away are these: the tent of meeting and the vessels contained therein, the ark and the broken tablets, the container of manna, and the flask of anointing oil, the stick of Aaron and its almonds and flowers, the priestly garments, and the garments of the anointed [high] priest.
  But, the spice-grinder of the family of Avtinas [used to make the unique incense in the Temple], the [golden] table [of the showbread], the menorah, the curtain [that partitioned the holy from the holy-of-holies], and the head-plate are still sitting in Rome.
caption: Painting on Genseric sacking Rome by Karl Bryullov (1833-1836), depicting the Menorah taken away by the Vandals.
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