The Temple Treasure

• 71CE - Titus caries the Temple Treasure from Jerusalem to Rome


• 75CE - Vespasian builds the Temple of Peace in Rome to house the Temple Treasure.


• 455CE - The Vandal King Genseric sacks Rome and carries theTemple Treasure to Carthage


• 533CE - Belisarus, general of Emperor Justinian, recaptures the Temple Treasures when he defeats Carthage and sends them to Byzantium.


• 533CE - Justinian fears the Temple Treasure may bring evil and returns it to the Christian Churches in Jerusalem


• 614CE - Persians sack Jerusalem, kill the inhabitants and destroy the Christian Churches


• 631CE - Abbot Modestus restores the holy places in Jerusalem and becomes Patriarch of Jerusalem

Gelimer of Carthage entrusted the treasure to the scribe Boniface, a Libyan and native of Byzacium. Trapped in harbor at Hippo Regius, Boniface struck a deal with Belisarus to transfer the treasure to him.

A Jew, seeing the treasure, approached one known to the emperor and said, "These treasures I think it inexpedient to carry into the palace in Byzantium. Indeed it is not possible for them to be elsewhere than in the place where Solomon, the king of the Jews, formerly placed them. For it is because of these that Gizeric captured the palace of the Romans, and that now the Roman army has captured the Vandals."
Procopius (545CE) "History of the Wars"