Home | Category: People, Marriage and Society / Military
TRIUMPHS IN ANCIENT ROME
Roman Triumph by Rubens
A Triumph in ancient Rome was a spectacular celebration to honor the the victory of general with a grand procession in which prisoners of war and spoils of victory were paraded through the streets.
Michael Van Duisen wrote for Listverse: “In ancient Rome, a triumph was the highest honor that could be bestowed on a military man. (Although, the rite was abused in the later years of the Republic, with the aristocracy vying to outdo each other.) Various requirements, including a kill count, were set and the entire thing had to be approved, as well as paid for, by the Senate. When the Republic fell, all triumphs went to the Emperor, as he was seen as the commander-in-chief and all military honors went to him. [Source: Michael Van Duisen, Listverse, February 13, 2014]
“Basically, a long parade took place in Rome. Members of the Senate, musicians, sacrificial animals, and prisoners walked in front of the general, who had a gold crown held over his head by a slave. Bringing up the rear were his fellow soldiers, who traditionally sang songs poking fun at their commander; this was believed to ward off the evil eye. It culminated in the sacrifice of animals at the Temple of Jupiter, as well as the killing of the prisoners of war.
According to National Geographic History; The triumphs were long remembered for their pomp and splendor, but some historians believe they stirred up opposition to the conquering hero. To some, the grandstanding was at odds with Rome’s republican values of simplicity, discipline, dignity, and virtue.
Requirements for of a Triumph
Andrea Frediani wrote in National Geographic History: In the Roman Republic, generals requested triumphs, but it was the Senate that granted them—only if a victory met a series of conditions. The win had to be a major battle (with a minimum of 5,000 enemy casualties ) that ended a war. While the Senate deliberated, the general would wait outside the city gates. If he failed to qualify for a full-blown triumph, he could be granted an ovatio (ovation), a slightly lesser celebration. [Source, Andrea Frediani, National Geographic History, July 10, 2019]
Not all Roman victories resulted in triumphs. If a general won a battle but fell short of the minimum requirements, he could be honored with an ovation, a celebration on a smaller scale. Rather than ride in a chariot, the victor would march. Instead of the toga picta that was solid purple and decorated with gold stars, he would wear the toga praetexta, which was white with a broad purple border. On his head he would wear a wreath of myrtle rather than laurel, and instead of sacrificing oxen he’d have to make do with sheep. [Source, Andrea Frediani, National Geographic History, July 10, 2019]
Ending at 19 B.C., the Fasti Triumphales is an incomplete record of those who had been awarded triumphs. Stretching back to Rome’s founders, it shows that Romans believed this accolade to be as old as the city itself. The first triumph in the list is attributed to Romulus, one of the city’s legendary founders. Like many of Rome’s traditions, this connection with its mythical past helped consolidate and sanctify its institutions. The origins of the procession were probably rooted in a religious festival meant to bring about plentiful harvests. As the city grew in size, the triumphs grew in splendor.
Organization and Pageantry of Roman Triumphs
Nero's Triumphal Entry to Rome
Andrea Frediani wrote in National Geographic History: When triumphs were granted, a grand procession was held throughout the streets of Rome. Details varied over the centuries, but typically the festivities would last for an entire day. The parade followed a sacred route through the city, starting at the gate, Porta Triumphalis, proceeding to the Campus Martius (Field of Mars) and then along the Via Sacra (Sacred Way) to the temple of Jupiter on Capitoline Hill. [Source, Andrea Frediani, National Geographic History, July 10, 2019]
Politicians would proceed first, often followed by musicians and entertainers. Prisoners of war were paraded before Rome, as well as the plunder gained through the victory. For the grand finale, the general and his soldiers (the only time when the army could enter the sacred boundaries of the city) would march as crowds cheered them on.The sense of honor was overwhelming: In a city that viewed monarchs with distrust, the general would be allowed to be “king for a day.” Dressed in royal purple, he would ride in a quadriga, a carriage drawn by four horses. In his hands, he would hold an ivory scepter and a laurel branch. On his head was both a laurel wreath and a golden crown held by a slave, who was also given the task of whispering into the general’s ear reminders of his mortality.
The utmost military glory was the spolia opima, the weapons stripped from the body of an enemy chieftain killed in one-on-one combat. Roman history records only three instances of this happening. Tradition holds that Romulus, Rome’s co-founder, challenged and killed Acron, the king of the Ceninenses, in single combat. He is said to have hung Acron’s weapons in an oak tree. In the fifth century B.C., general Aulus Cornelius Cossus defeated Lars Tolumnius, king of Veii, at the Battle of the Amio. Evidence for the first two incidents is hazy, but historians do believe that in 222 B.C., Marcus Claudius Marcellus killed the Gallic king Viridomarus to claim the spoils of war.
Greg Wolff wrote in The Guardian, “A great procession sets off from the Field of Mars, the grassy meadow around which the Tiber makes a great arc. Rome's citizen army, returned from yet another victorious campaign, parades through the streets of the city. The soldiers follow an ancient route flanked by temples dedicated after previous victories, through the great circus, on into the forum until, to catcalls and fanfares, and leading barbarian kings and great piles of booty, they escort their general up to the temple of Jupiter on the Capitol. Impassively he stands in his chariot, a wreath held over his head, and behind him a slave whispers, again and again, "Remember you are mortal." Easy to forget, since he wears the clothes of a god. [Source: Greg Woolf, The Guardian, December 22, 2007, Greg Woolf is professor of ancient history at the University of St Andrews]
Mary Beard on Roman Triumphs
In a review of The Roman Triumph by Mary Beard, Greg Wolff wrote in The Guardian, Beard says the triumph was a vivid and central part of Roman culture. In fact, she argues, it was in some ways more central than we have ever realised. Triumphal imagery and triumphal language bled into the Roman games and seeped into the ceremonies that marked the election of a consul or the arrival (or through deification, the departure) of a new emperor. Triumph was inscribed into the architecture of arches, theatres and temples, and also sarcophaguses and tombs. It penetrated epic and erotic poetry and comic drama too. But almost every detail of this great ceremony is maddeningly difficult to seize upon. Everything on which we were agreed turns out to be just that little bit more difficult to demonstrate than anyone ever imagined. [Source: Greg Woolf, The Guardian, December 22, 2007]
“Beard has in her sights three processions. The first is that long historical sequence of actual celebrations. The second is a series of rich and extravagant accounts of triumphs, what she calls "rituals in ink" although they include a mass of images too, such as the Arch of Titus. Third, there is a long procession of classical scholars, who follow Beard's chariot with placards hung around their necks detailing their wild conjectures, hypotheses and claims about what the triumph "really meant".
It would be convenient if each could be examined separately, but the processions keep colliding in the winding, narrow streets of Roman cultural history. The actual triumphs are known to us only through the representations, and these are difficult to disentangle from the dense foliage of scholarly exegesis. Beard prunes ferociously. The evidence for the triumphal route is alarmingly inconsistent. The slave in the chariot whispering to the general is a modern composite, compiled of late testimony, no one piece of which tells exactly this story. The clothes borrowed from the god, the chariot itself are insecure. So is much more.
Triumphus Pacis
“Once the factoids are swept away we are left with modern attempts to create some sort of general rule-book for triumphs. How many enemies did you need to kill? What sort of general could celebrate? Who decided? Ancient writers made many claims, but their generalisations stand up no better than those of the moderns. It does not help that when a Polybius or a Livy or a Josephus sets out to describe a particular triumph, he focused on what was remarkable, extraordinary, controversial and bizarre. And who was to say what was "normal" and what excessive?
“Our witnesses concentrated on the most spectacular stagings of the triumph. Some of the most entertaining parts of Beard's boisterous demolition invite us to imagine the second and third-rate triumphs, the lines of not many captives, the displays of hardly any booty, the rather petty squabbles over spoils between generals and the soldiers on whom they depended for their cast of thousands on the big day. Grander theories fall even flatter. Was the triumph some collective rite of passage from war to peace? Was the general a sort of temporary god? Was this an ancient trace of Etruscan kingship? No, not really, probably not. Too much has been built on too little.”
Book: “The Roman Triumph” by Mary Beard (Harvard, 2007)
Triumph for Vespasian and Titus after the Jewish War
In “The Jewish War”, Book VII Josephus describe the triumph for Vespasian and Titus after their victory in the Jewish war: “So Titus took the journey he intended into Egypt, and passed over the desert very suddenly, and came to Alexandria, and took up a resolution to go to Rome by sea. And as he was accompanied by two legions, he sent each of them again to the places whence they had before come; the fifth he sent to Mysia, and the fifteenth to Pannonia: as for the leaders of the captives, Simon and John, with the other seven hundred men, whom he had selected out of the rest as being eminently tall and handsome of body, he gave order that they should be soon carried to Italy, as resolving to produce them in his triumph. So when he had had a prosperous voyage to his mind, the city of Rome behaved itself in his reception, and their meeting him at a distance, as it did in the case of his father. But what made the most splendid appearance in Titus's opinion was, when his father met him, and received him; but still the multitude of the citizens conceived the greatest joy when they saw them all three together, (i.e. Vespasian, and his sons Titus and Domitian) as they did at this time; nor were many days overpast when they determined to have but one triumph, that should be common to both of them, on account of the glorious exploits they had performed, although the senate had decreed each of them a separate triumph by himself. So when notice had been given beforehand of the day appointed for this pompous solemnity to be made, on account of their victories, not one of the immense multitude was left in the city, but every body went out so far as to gain only a station where they might stand, and left only such a passage as was necessary for those that were to be seen to go along it. [Source: Flavius Josephus: (A.D. 37- after 93), “An Imperial Triumph”, “The Jewish War”, Book VII. 3-7 A.D. 71), translated by William Whiston]
“Now all the soldiery marched out beforehand by companies, and in their several ranks, under their several commanders, in the night time, and were about the gates, not of the upper palaces, but those near the temple of Isis; for there it was that the emperors had rested the foregoing night. And as soon as ever it was day, Vespasian and Titus came out crowned with laurel, and clothed in those ancient purple habits which were proper to their family, and then went as far as Octavian's Walks; for there it was that the senate, and the principal rulers, and those that had been recorded as of the equestrian order, waited for them. Now a tribunal had been erected before the cloisters, and ivory chairs had been set upon it, when they came and sat down upon them. Whereupon the soldiery made an acclamation of joy to them immediately, and all gave them attestations of their valor; while they were themselves without their arms, and only in their silken garments, and crowned with laurel: then Vespasian accepted of these shouts of theirs; but while they were still disposed to go on in such acclamations, he gave them a signal of silence. And when every body entirely held their peace, he stood up, and covering the greatest part of his head with his cloak, he put up the accustomed solemn prayers; the like prayers did Titus put up also; after which prayers Vespasian made a short speech to all the people, and then sent away the soldiers to a dinner prepared for them by the emperors. Then did he retire to that gate which was called the Gate of the Pomp, because pompous shows do always go through that gate; there it was that they tasted some food, and when they had put on their triumphal garments, and had offered sacrifices to the gods that were placed at the gate, they sent the triumph forward, and marched through the theatres, that they might be the more easily seen by the multitudes.
Triumph of Titus and Vespasian
“Now it is impossible to describe the multitude of the shows as they deserve, and the magnificence of them all; such indeed as a man could not easily think of as performed, either by the labor of workmen, or the variety of riches, or the rarities of nature; for almost all such curiosities as the most happy men ever get by piece-meal were here one heaped on another, and those both admirable and costly in their nature; and all brought together on that day demonstrated the vastness of the dominions of the Romans; for there was here to be seen a mighty quantity of silver, and gold, and ivory, contrived into all sorts of things, and did not appear as carried along in pompous show only, but, as a man may say, running along like a river. Some parts were composed of the rarest purple hangings, and so carried along; and others accurately represented to the life what was embroidered by the arts of the Babylonians. There were also precious stones that were transparent, some set in crowns of gold, and some in other ouches, as the workmen pleased; and of these such a vast number were brought, that we could not but thence learn how vainly we imagined any of them to be rarities. The images of the gods were also carried, being as well wonderful for their largeness, as made very artificially, and with great skill of the workmen; nor were any of these images of any other than very costly materials; and many species of animals were brought, every one in their own natural ornaments.
“The men also who brought every one of these shows were great multitudes, and adorned with purple garments, all over interwoven with gold; those that were chosen for carrying these pompous shows having also about them such magnificent ornaments as were both extraordinary and surprising. Besides these, one might see that even the great number of the captives was not unadorned, while the variety that was in their garments, and their fine texture, concealed from the sight the deformity of their bodies. But what afforded the greatest surprise of all was the structure of the pageants that were borne along; for indeed he that met them could not but be afraid that the bearers would not be able firmly enough to support them, such was their magnitude; for many of them were so made, that they were on three or even four stories, one above another. The magnificence also of their structure afforded one both pleasure and surprise; for upon many of them were laid carpets of gold. There was also wrought gold and ivory fastened about them all; and many resemblances of the war, and those in several ways, and variety of contrivances, affording a most lively portraiture of itself. For there was to be seen a happy country laid waste, and entire squadrons of enemies slain; while some of them ran away, and some were carried into captivity; with walls of great altitude and magnitude overthrown and ruined by machines; with the strongest fortifications taken, and the walls of most populous cities upon the tops of hills seized on, and an army pouring itself within the walls; as also every place full of slaughter, and supplications of the enemies, when they were no longer able to lift up their hands in way of opposition. Fire also sent upon temples was here represented, and houses overthrown, and falling upon their owners: rivers also, after they came out of a large and melancholy desert, ran down, not into a land cultivated, nor as drink for men, or for cattle, but through a land still on fire upon every side; for the Jews related that such a thing they had undergone during this war. Now the workmanship of these representations was so magnificent and lively in the construction of the things, that it exhibited what had been done to such as did not see it, as if they had been there really present. On the top of every one of these pageants was placed the commander of the city that was taken, and the manner wherein he was taken. Moreover, there followed those pageants a great number of ships; and for the other spoils, they were carried in great plenty. But for those that were taken in the temple of Jerusalem, they made the greatest figure of them all; that is, the golden table, of the weight of many talents; the candlestick also, that was made of gold, though its construction were now changed from that which we made use of; for its middle shaft was fixed upon a basis, and the small branches were produced out of it to a great length, having the likeness of a trident in their position, and had every one a socket made of brass for a lamp at the tops of them. These lamps were in number seven, and represented the dignity of the number seven among the Jews; and the last of all the spoils, was carried the Law of the Jews. After these spoils passed by a great many men, carrying the images of Victory, whose structure was entirely either of ivory or of gold. After which Vespasian marched in the first place, and Titus followed him; Domitian also rode along with them, and made a glorious appearance, and rode on a horse that was worthy of admiration.
“Now the last part of this pompous show was at the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus, whither when they were come, they stood still; for it was the Romans' ancient custom to stay till somebody brought the news that the general of the enemy was slain. This general was Simon, the son of Gioras, who had then been led in this triumph among the captives; a rope had also been put upon his head, and he had been drawn into a proper place in the forum, and had withal been tormented by those that drew him along; and the law of the Romans required that malefactors condemned to die should be slain there. Accordingly, when it was related that there was an end of him, and all the people had set up a shout for joy, they then began to offer those sacrifices which they had consecrated, in the prayers used in such solemnities; which when they had finished, they went away to the palace. And as for some of the spectators, the emperors entertained them at their own feast; and for all the rest there were noble preparations made for feasting at home; for this was a festival day to the city of Rome, as celebrated for the victory obtained by their army over their enemies, for the end that was now put to their civil miseries, and for the commencement of their hopes of future prosperity and happiness.”
Triumph of Pompey
Pompey’s Triumphs
Andrea Frediani wrote in National Geographic History: Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus, better known as Pompey the Great, had taken the triumph tradition to new heights, exceeding anything the Romans had experienced before. first-century A.D. historian Plutarch described how the last of his three triumphs, which Pompey celebrated on his 45th birthday in 61 B.C., lasted for two days. Pompey paraded 300 high-ranking hostages through the city, and displayed placards boasting that he had killed or captured 12,183,000 enemies, put out of action 846 warships, and given 1,500 denarii to each of his soldiers, an amount they would normally take a decade to earn. [Source, Andrea Frediani, National Geographic History, July 10, 2019]
Writing in the second century A.D., Greek historian Appian detailed Pompey’s expensive tastes, including entering the city on a diamond-studded chariot and wearing a cloak that allegedly belonged to Alexander the Great. Golden-horned bulls were sacrificed, and the people of Rome were gifted parties, banquets, and games. The number of triumphs was certainly unusual, but Pompey’s victories had unusual qualities. Each of his victories took place on a different continent: He earned his first triumph in Africa (Libya), in 81 B.C.; his second, in Europe, in 71 B.C.; and the third, about 10 years later, in Asia Minor, where he defeated both the eastern pirates and Mithradates VI, king of Pontus and a long-standing menace to the Roman Republic.
Pompey’s Triumph After the Conquest of the East
On Pompey’s triumph in Rome (September 30th, 61 B.C.), Appian wrote: “At the end of the winter [63-62 B.C.] Pompey distributed rewards to the army, 1500 Attic drachmas [Arkenberg: about $3857 in 1998 dollars] to each soldier, and in like proportion to the officers, the whole, it was said, amounting to 16,000 talents [Arkenberg: about $229 million in 1998 dollars]. Then he marched to Ephesus, embarked for Italy, and hastened to Rome, having dismissed his soldiers at Brundisium to their homes, by which act his popularity was greatly increased among the Romans. [Source: William Stearns Davis, ed., “Readings in Ancient History: Illustrative Extracts from the Sources,” 2 Vols. (Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1912-13), Vol. II: Rome and the West, pp. 118-120, 123-127]
“As he approached the city he was met by successive processions, first of youths, farthest from the city; then bands of men of different ages came out as far as they severally could walk; last of all came the Senate, which was lost in wonder at his exploits, for no one had ever before vanquished so powerful an enemy and at the same time brought so many great nations under subjection and extended the Roman rule to the Euphrates.
“He was awarded a triumph exceeding in brilliancy any that had gone before. It occupied two successive days; and many nations were represented in the procession from Pontus, Armenia, Cappadocia, Cilicia, all the peoples of Syria, besides Albanians, Heniochi, Achaeans, Scythians, and Eastern Iberians; 700 complete ships were brought into the harbor; in the triumphal procession were two-horse carriages and litters laden with gold or with other ornaments of various kinds, also the couch of Darius [the Great], the son of Hystaspes, the throne and scepter of Mithridates Eupator himself, and his image, eight cubits high, made of solid gold, and 75,000,000 drachmae of silver coin [Arkenberg: about $193 million in 1998 dollars]. The number of wagons carrying arms was infinite and the number of prows of ships. After these came the multitude of captives and pirates, none of them bound, but all arrayed in their native costume.
“Before Pompey himself were led the satraps, sons and generals of the kings against whom he had fought, who were present — some having been captured, some given as hostages — to the number of three hundred and twenty-four. Among them were five sons of Mithridates, and two daughters; also Aristobulus, king of the Jews; the tyrants of the Cilicians, and other potentates. There were carried in the procession images of those who were not present, of Tigranes king of Armenia, and of Mithridates, representing them as fighting, as vanquished, and as fleeing. Even the besieging of Mithridates and his silent flight by night were represented. Finally, it was shown how he died, and the daughters who perished with him were pictured also, and there were figures of the sons and daughters who died before him, and images of the barbarian gods decked out in the fashion of their countries.
A tablet was borne, also, inscribed thus:
Ships with brazen beaks captured dccc:
Cities founded
In Cappadocia viii:
In Cilicia and coele-syria xx:
In Palestine the one now called seleucis.
Kings conquered:
Tigranes the Armenian:
Artoces the Iberian:
Oroezes the Albanian:
Aretas the Nabataean:
Darius the Mede:
Antiochus of Commagene.
“Pompey himself was borne in a chariot studded with gems, wearing, it is said, the cloak of Alexander the Great, if any one can believe that. This was supposed to have been found among the possessions of Mithridates. . . . His chariot was followed by the officers who had shared the campaigns with him, some on horseback, and others on foot. When he reached the Capitol, he did not put any prisoners to death, as had been customary at other triumphs, but sent them all home at the public expense, except the kings. Of these Aristobulus alone was shortly put to death, and Tigranes son of Tigranes the king of Armenia some time later.”
Triumph of Caesar
Triumphs of Caesar
Julius Caesar received an unprecedented four triumphs — for his victories in Gaul, Egypt, Pontus and Numidia in North Africa. Andrea Frediani wrote in National Geographic History: Over the course of a few weeks in 46 B.C., Caesar staged his four triumphs, beginning with the Gallic. Historians say it started with a curious incident. The first-century A.D. Roman historian Suetonius described how Caesar’s chariot broke as he paraded through city. The general nearly fell, but continued along the route “between two lines of elephants, forty in all, which acted as his torch bearers.” [Source, Andrea Frediani, National Geographic History, July 10, 2019]
Caesar’s triumphs were exceptional not only for their immense expense and grand scale, but also for the fact that he was the only person in Rome’s history to receive four, one for each of his victorious campaigns. By celebrating Caesar, Rome was also celebrating itself, because this general had enlarged and enriched the republic like no other man before him. The one who came closest was Caesar’s ally turned rival, Pompey the Great. He had received three triumphs. Although past triumphs were not the focus of Caesar’s plans, they had set a high bar, which Caesar was set to overcome with great flair.
In the Gallic triumph, Caesar’s men followed behind him. Some carried large placards depicting the most important battles and events. It was customary for them to carouse, singing songs meant to stave off the jealousy of the gods by making fun of the general’s vices. Suetonius recorded a particularly risque verse that poked fun at Caesar’s love affairs:
Home we bring our bald whoremonger; Romans, lock your wives away!
All the bags of gold you lent him
Went his Gallic tarts to pay.
In the Pontic triumph, Suetonius reported how in addition to the placards showing key battle scenes, a wagon was decorated with three simple words: Veni, vidi, vici (I came, I saw, I conquered). Rather than referring to a battle or event, Suetonius believe the phrase referred to the speed with which Caesar’s forces won.
Romans were happy to celebrate victories against foreign powers, but there were mixed feelings about the battles involving Pompey and his allies. Caesar was mindful of this, especially during the fourth triumph. According to Appian, Caesar “took care not to inscribe any Roman names in his triumph (as it would have been unseemly in his eyes and base and inauspicious in those of the Roman people to triumph over fellow-citizens).” He was astute enough to avoid any mention of Pompey. The former leader remained much loved and Caesar had to watch his step. Even so, Caesar did allow this campaign to be represented in posters.
Parading captured foreign enemies before the populace was enthusiastically welcomed. Traditionally, they would be presented in chains or cages before the crowds and then executed. It had been six years since Vercingetorix’s defeat, and the Gallic commander had been in prison ever since. As part of his triumph, Caesar paraded the vanquished leader through the streets of Rome and then had him executed on Capitoline Hill.
Suetonius wrote: “Having ended the wars, he celebrated five triumphs, four in a single month, but at intervals of a few days, after vanquishing Scipio; and another on defeating Pompeius' sons. The first and most splendid was the Gallic triumph, the next the Alexandrian, then the Pontic, after that the African, and finally the Hispanic, each differing from the rest in its equipment and display of spoils. As he rode through the Velabrum on the day of his Gallic triumph, the ae of his chariot broke, and he was all but thrown out; and he mounted the Capitol by torchlight, with forty elephants bearing lamps on his right and his left. In his Pontic triumph he displayed among the show-pieces of the procession an inscription of but three words, "I came, I saw, I conquered," [ 'Veni, vidi, vici'] not indicating the events of the war, as the others did, but the speed with which it was finished. [Source: Suetonius (c.69-after 122 A.D.): “De Vita Caesarum, Divus Iulius” (“The Lives of the Caesars, The Deified Julius”), written A.D. c. 110, Suetonius, 2 vols., translated by J. C. Rolfe, (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, and London: William Henemann, 1920), Vol. I, pp. 3-119]
In addition to the processions, Caesar spared no expense for grand entertainments for the Roman people. Appian described the action: [Caesar] put on various shows. There was horse-racing, and musical contests, and combats—one with a thousand foot soldiers opposing another thousand, another with 200 cavalry on each side, and another that was a mixed infantry and cavalry combat, as well as an elephant fight with twenty beasts a side and a naval battle with 4,000 oarsmen plus a thousand marines on each side to fight. Caesar generously rewarded his troops with 20,000 sesterces—far beyond what they would have earned in a lifetime. He also gave a magnanimous sum of 400 sesterces to every citizen, distributed food, and staged gladiatorial combats and athletic events.
Triumphs of Augustus and Nero
The Res Gestae is a list of deeds performed by Augustus. Part of it reads: “Twice have I had the lesser triumph [i.e., the ovation]; thrice the [full] curule triumph; twenty-one times have I been saluted as "Imperator." After that, when the Senate voted me many triumphs, I declined them. Also I often deposited the laurels in the Capitol, fulfilling the vows which I had made in battle. On account of the enterprises brought to a happy issue on land and sea by me, or by my legates, under my auspices, fifty-five times has the Senate decreed a thanksgiving unto the Immortal Gods. The number of days, too, on which thanksgiving was professed, fulfilling the Senate's decrees, was 890. Nine kings, or children of kings, have been led before my car in my triumphs. And when I wrote these words, thirteen times had I been consul, and for the thirty-seventh year was holding the tribunician power.
On the parade Nero ordered up himself after his fixed victories at the Olympics, Suetonius wrote: “Returning from Greece, since it was at Neapolis that he had made his first appearance, he entered that city with white horses through a part of the wall which had been thrown down, as is customary with victors in the sacred games. In like manner he entered Antium, then Albanum, and finally Rome; but at Rome he rode in the chariot which Augustus had used in his triumphs in days gone by, and wore a purple robe and a Greek cloak adorned with stars of gold, bearing on his head the Olympic crown and in his right hand the Pythian, while the rest were carried before him with inscriptions telling where he had won them and against what competitors, and giving the titles of the songs or the subject of the plays. His car was followed by his clique as by the escort of a triumphal procession, who shouted that they were the attendants of Augustus and the soldiers of his triumph. Then through the arch of the Circus Maximus, which was thrown down, he made his way across the Velabrum and the Forum to the Palatine and the temple of Apollo. All along the route victims were slain, the streets were sprinkled from time to time with perfume, while birds, ribbons, and sweetmeats were showered upon him. He placed the sacred crowns in his bed chamber around his couches, as well as statues representing him in the guise of a lyre-player; and he had a coin, too, struck with the same device. So far from neglecting or relaxing his practice of the art after this, he never addressed the soldiers except by letter or in a speech delivered by another, to save his voice; and he never did anything for amusement or in earnest without an elocutionist by his side, to warn him to spare his vocal organs and hold a handkerchief to his mouth. To many men he offered his friendship or announced his hostility, according as they had applauded him lavishly or grudgingly.”
Triumphal Entry of Vespasian in Rome
Text Sources: Internet Ancient History Sourcebook: Rome sourcebooks.fordham.edu ; Internet Ancient History Sourcebook: Late Antiquity sourcebooks.fordham.edu ; “Outlines of Roman History” by William C. Morey, Ph.D., D.C.L. New York, American Book Company (1901) ; “The Private Life of the Romans” by Harold Whetstone Johnston, Revised by Mary Johnston, Scott, Foresman and Company (1903, 1932); BBC Ancient Rome bbc.co.uk/history/ ; Project Gutenberg gutenberg.org ; Metropolitan Museum of Art, National Geographic, Smithsonian magazine, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Live Science, Discover magazine, Archaeology magazine, Reuters, Associated Press, The Guardian, AFP, The New Yorker, Wikipedia, Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopedia.com and various other books, websites and publications.
Last updated October 2024