THE HIGH-PRIEST'S BREASTPLATE 283
meaning
of the words and the character of the oracle, adds that some believed
the words to signify a single stone which changed color according as
the answer was favorable or unfavorable, while the priest was entering
the sanctuary; still he thought it possible that merely the letters of
the words Urim and Thummin were inscribed upon the breastplate.8
After the capture of Jerusalem by Titus in 70 a.D., the
treasures of the temple were carried off to Rome, and we learn from
Josephus that the breastplate was deposited in the Temple of Concord,
which had been erected by Vespasian. Here it is believed to have been
at the time of the sacking of Rome by the Vandals under Genserie, in
455, although Rev. C. W. King thinks it is not improbable that Alaric,
king of the Visigoths, when he sacked Rome in 410 a.D., might have secured this treasure.9
However, the express statement of Procopius that "the vessels of the
Jews" were carried through the streets of Constantinople, on the
occasion of the Vandalic triumph of Belisarius, in 534, may be taken as
a confirmation of the conjecture that the Vandals had secured
possession of the breastplate and its jewels.10
It
must, however, be carefully noted that Procopius nowhere mentions the
breastplate and that it need not have been included among "the vessels
of the Jews." It appears that this part of the spoils of Belisarius was
placed by Justinian (483-565) in the sacristy of the church of St.
Sophia. Some time later, the emperor is said to have heard of the
saying of a certain Jew to the
* Aureli Augustini, " Opera Omnia," vol. iii, Part I, col. 637 ; Patrologia Latinae, ed. Migne, vol. xxxviii, Paris, 1864.
" " Natural History of Precious Stones," London, 1870, p. 333.
"Procopius, ed. Dindorf, Bonnae. 1833, vol. i, p. 445; "De bello Vandalico," lib. ii, cap. 9.
