Editing Roman triumph (section)

==Evolution==
===Origins and Regal era===
[[File:Triumph of Bacchus - Sousse (edit).jpg|thumb|left|''The Triumph of [[Bacchus]]'', a [[Roman mosaic]] from [[Africa Proconsolaris]], dated 3rd century CE, now in the [[Sousse Archaeological Museum]], Tunisia]]
The origins and development of this honour are obscure. Roman historians placed the first triumph in the mythical past; some thought that it dated from [[Founding of Rome|Rome's foundation]]; others thought it more ancient than that. Roman etymologists thought that the soldiers' chant of ''triumpe'' was a borrowing via [[Etruscan language|Etruscan]] of the [[Ancient Greek|Greek]] ''[[thriambus]]'' (''θρίαμβος''), cried out by [[satyr]]s and other attendants in [[Dionysus|Dionysian]] and Bacchic processions.<ref>Versnel considers it an invocation for divine help and manifestation, derived via an unknown pre-Greek language through Etruria and Greece. He cites the chant of "''Triumpe''", repeated five times, which terminates the ''[[Carmen Arvale]]'', a now-obscure prayer for the help and protection of [[Mars (mythology)|Mars]] and the [[Lares]]. Versnel, pp. 39–55 (conclusion and summary on p. 55).</ref> Plutarch and some Roman sources traced the first Roman triumph and the "kingly" garb of the ''triumphator'' to Rome's first king [[Romulus]], whose defeat of King Acron of the [[Caenina (Town)|Caeninenses]] was thought coeval with Rome's foundation in 753 BCE.<ref>Beard et al, vol. 1, 44–45, 59–60: see also Plutarch, Romulus (trans. Dryden) at The Internet Classics Archive [http://classics.mit.edu/Plutarch/romulus.html MIT.edu]</ref> [[Ovid]] projected a fabulous and poetic triumphal precedent in the return of the god [[Bacchus]]/Dionysus from his conquest of India, drawn in a golden chariot by tigers and surrounded by [[maenads]], satyrs, and assorted drunkards.<ref>Bowersock, 1994, 157.</ref><ref>Ovid, ''The Erotic Poems'', 1.2.19–52. Trans P. Green.</ref><ref>Pliny attributes the invention of the triumph to "Father [[Liber]]" (identified with Dionysus): see Pliny, ''Historia Naturalis'', 7.57 (ed. Bostock) at Perseus: [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Plin.+Nat.+7.57 Tufts.edu]</ref> [[Arrian]] attributed similar Dionysian and "Roman" elements to a victory procession of [[Alexander the Great]].<ref>Bosworth, 67–79, notes that Arrian's attributions here are non-historic and their details almost certainly apocryphal: see Arrian, 6, 28, 1–2.</ref> Like much in Roman culture, elements of the triumph were based on Etruscan and Greek precursors; in particular, the purple, embroidered ''[[Toga|toga picta]]'' worn by the triumphal general was thought to be derived from the royal toga of Rome's Etruscan kings.

For triumphs of the Roman regal era, the surviving Imperial ''Fasti Triumphales'' are incomplete. After three entries for the city's legendary founder [[Romulus]], eleven lines of the list are missing. Next in sequence are [[Ancus Marcius]], [[Tarquinius Priscus]], [[Servius Tullius]], and finally [[Lucius Tarquinius Superbus|Tarquin "the proud"]], the last king. The ''Fasti'' were compiled some five centuries after the regal era, and probably represent an approved, official version of several different historical traditions. Likewise, the earliest surviving written histories of the regal era, written some centuries after it, attempt to reconcile various traditions, or else debate their merits. [[Dionysius of Halicarnassus|Dionysius]], for example, gives Romulus three triumphs, the same number given in the ''Fasti''. Livy gives him none, and credits him instead with the first ''[[spolia opima]]'', in which the arms and armour were stripped off a defeated foe, then dedicated to Jupiter. Plutarch gives him one, complete with chariot. Tarquin has two triumphs in the ''Fasti'' but none in Dionysius.<ref>Beard, p. 74.</ref> No ancient source gives a triumph to Romulus' successor, the peaceful king [[Numa Pompilius|Numa]].

===The Republic===
Rome's aristocrats expelled their last king as a tyrant and legislated the monarchy out of existence. They shared among themselves the kingship's former powers and authority in the form of [[Roman Magistrate|magistracies]]. In the Republic, the highest possible magistracy was an elected consulship, which could be held for no more than a year at a time. In times of crisis or emergency, the Senate might appoint a [[Roman dictator|dictator]] to serve a longer term; but this could seem perilously close to the lifetime power of kings. The dictator [[Marcus Furius Camillus|Camillus]] was awarded four triumphs but was eventually exiled. Later Roman sources point to his triumph of 396 BCE as a cause for offense; the chariot was drawn by four white horses, a combination properly reserved for Jupiter and Apollo – at least in later lore and poetry.<ref>Beard, p. 235.</ref> The demeanour of a triumphal Republican general, and the symbols he employed in his triumph, would have been closely scrutinised by his aristocratic peers, alert for any sign that he might aspire to be more than "king for a day".<ref>Flower, Harriet, "Augustus, Tiberius, and the End of the Roman Triumph", ''Classical Antiquity'',  2020, 39 (1): 1–28 [https://doi.org/10.1525/ca.2020.39.1.1]</ref>

In the Middle to Late Republic, Rome's expansion through conquest offered her political-military adventurers extraordinary opportunities for self-publicity; the long-drawn series of wars between Rome and Carthage – the [[Punic Wars]] – produced twelve triumphs in ten years. Towards the end of the Republic, triumphs became still more frequent,<ref>Beard, p. 42; four were clustered in one year (71 BCE), including Pompey's second triumph.</ref> lavish, and competitive, with each display an attempt (usually successful) to outdo the last. To have a triumphal ancestor – even one long-dead – counted for a lot in Roman society and politics. [[Cicero]] remarked that, in the race for power and influence, some individuals were not above vesting an inconveniently ordinary ancestor with triumphal grandeur and dignity, distorting an already fragmentary and unreliable historical tradition.<ref>Cicero, ''Brutus'', 62.</ref><ref>See also Livy, 8, 40.</ref><ref>Beard, 79, notes at least one ancient case of what seems blatant fabrication, in which two ancestral triumphs became three.</ref>

To Roman historians, the growth of triumphal ostentation undermined Rome's ancient "peasant virtues".<ref>Beard, 67: citing Valerius Maximus, 4.4.5., and Apuleius, Apol.17</ref> [[Dionysius of Halicarnassus]] ({{Circa|60 BCE}} to after 7 BCE) claimed that the triumphs of his day had "departed in every respect from the ancient tradition of frugality".<ref>Dionysus of Halicarnassus, ''Roman Antiquities'', 2.34.3.</ref> Moralists complained that successful foreign wars might have increased Rome's power, security, and wealth, but they also created and fed a degenerate appetite for bombastic display and shallow novelty. Livy traces the start of the rot to the triumph of [[Gnaeus Manlius Vulso (consul 189 BC)|Gnaeus Manlius Vulso]] in 186, which introduced ordinary Romans to such [[Galatia]]n fripperies as specialist chefs, flute girls, and other "seductive dinner-party amusements". Pliny adds "sideboards and one-legged tables" to the list,<ref>Livy, 39.6–7: cf Pliny, ''Historia Naturalis'', 34.14.</ref> but lays responsibility for Rome's slide into luxury on the "1400 pounds of chased silver ware and 1500 pounds of golden vessels" brought somewhat earlier by [[Lucius Cornelius Scipio Asiaticus|Scipio Asiaticus]] for his triumph of 189 BCE.<ref>Beard, p. 162.</ref>

The three triumphs awarded to [[Pompey the Great]] were lavish and controversial. The first in 80 or 81 BCE was for his victory over King [[Hiarbas (king)|Hiarbas]] of [[Numidia]] in 79 BCE, granted by a cowed and divided Senate under the dictatorship of Pompey's patron Sulla. Pompey was only 24 and a mere equestrian.<ref>Beard, 16; he was aged 25 or 26 in some accounts.</ref> Roman conservatives disapproved of such precocity<ref>Dio Cassius, 42.18.3.</ref> but others saw his youthful success as the mark of a prodigious military talent, divine favour, and personal brio; and he also had an enthusiastic, popular following. His triumph, however, did not go quite to plan. His chariot was drawn by a team of elephants in order to represent his African conquest – and perhaps to outdo even the legendary triumph of Bacchus. They proved too bulky to pass through the triumphal gate, so Pompey had to dismount while a horse team was yoked in their place.<ref>Pliny, ''Historia Naturalis'', 8.4: Plutarch, ''Pompey'', 14.4.</ref> This embarrassment would have delighted his critics, and probably some of his soldiers – whose demands for cash had been near-mutinous.<ref>Beard, 16, 17.</ref> Even so, his firm stand on the matter of cash raised his standing among the conservatives, and Pompey seems to have learned a lesson in populist politics. For his second triumph (71 BCE, the last in a series of four held that year) his cash gifts to his army were said to break all records, though the amounts in Plutarch's account are implausibly high: 6,000 ''[[sesterces]]'' to each soldier (about six times their annual pay) and about 5&nbsp;million to each officer.<ref>Beard, 39–40, notes that the introduction of such vast sums into the Roman economy would have left substantial traces, but none are evidenced (citing Brunt (1971), 459–460; Scheidel (1996); Duncan-Jones (1990), 43, & (1994), 253).</ref>

Pompey was granted a third triumph in 61 BCE to celebrate his victory over Mithridates VI of Pontus. It was an opportunity to outdo all rivals – and even himself. Triumphs traditionally lasted for one day, but Pompey's went on for two in an unprecedented display of wealth and luxury.<ref>Beard, 9, cites Appian's very doubtful "75,100,000" drachmae carried in the procession as 1.5 times his own estimate of Rome's total annual tax revenue (Appian, ''Mithradates'', 116).</ref> Plutarch claimed that this triumph represented Pompey's domination over the entire world – on Rome's behalf – and an achievement to outshine even [[Alexander the Great|Alexander]]'s.<ref>Beard, 15–16, citing Plutarch, Pompey, 45, 5.</ref><ref>Beard, 16. For further elaboration on Pompey's 3rd triumph, see also Plutarch, ''Sertorius'', 18, 2, at Thayer [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Lives/Sertorius*.html Uchicago.edu]: Cicero, Man. 61: Pliny, Nat. 7, 95.</ref> Pliny's narrative of this triumph dwells with ominous hindsight upon a gigantic portrait-bust of the triumphant general, a thing of "eastern splendor" entirely covered with pearls, anticipating his later humiliation and decapitation.<ref>Beard, 35: Pliny, Historia Naturalis, 37, 14–16.</ref>

===Imperial era===
[[File:Tapís flamenc amb escena de triomf romà, fumoir del palau del marqués de Dosaigües.JPG|thumb|left|[[Flemish people|Flemish]] [[tapestry]] in the [[smoking room]] of the [[Palace of the Marqués de Dos Aguas]]]]

Following Caesar's murder, his adopted son Gaius Octavian assumed the permanent title of ''imperator'' and became the permanent head of the Senate from 27 BCE (see [[principate]]) under the title and name [[Augustus (honorific)|Augustus]]. Only the year before, he had blocked the senatorial award of a triumph to [[Marcus Licinius Crassus (consul 30 BC)|Marcus Licinius Crassus the Younger]], despite the latter's acclamation in the field as Imperator and his fulfillment of all traditional, Republican qualifying criteria except full consulship. Technically, generals in the Imperial era were [[Legatus|legates]] of the ruling Emperor (Imperator).<ref>Beard, pp. 297–298.</ref> Augustus claimed the victory as his own but permitted Crassus a second, which is listed on the ''Fasti'' for 27 BCE.<ref>Syme, 272–275: [https://books.google.com/books?id=fj8oQ4lzteIC&dq=%22descendants+of+crassus%22+intitle:augustan+intitle:aristocracy+inauthor:syme&pg=PA270 Google Books Search]</ref> Crassus was also denied the rare (and technically permissible, in his case) honour of dedicating the ''[[spolia opima]]'' of this campaign to [[Jupiter (mythology)|Jupiter Feretrius]].<ref>Southern, 104: [https://books.google.com/books?id=v8dOBMbVW1cC&dq=Crassus+Triumph+Augustus+spolia+opima&pg=RA2-PA104 Google Books Search]</ref>

The last triumph listed on the ''Fasti Triumphales'' is for 19 BCE. By then, the triumph had been absorbed into the Augustan [[Imperial cult (ancient Rome)|imperial cult]] system, in which only the emperor<ref>Very occasionally, a close relative who had glorified the Imperial ''gens'' might receive the honor.</ref> would be accorded such a supreme honour, as he was the supreme ''[[Imperator]]''. The Senate, in true Republican style, would have held session to debate and decide the merits of the candidate; but this was little more than good form. Augustan ideology insisted that Augustus had saved and restored the Republic, and it celebrated his triumph as a permanent condition, and his military, political, and religious leadership as responsible for an unprecedented era of stability, peace, and prosperity. From then on, emperors claimed – without seeming to claim – the triumph as an Imperial privilege. Those outside the Imperial family might be granted "triumphal ornaments" (''Ornamenta triumphalia'') or an ovation, such as [[Aulus Plautius]] under [[Claudius]]. The senate still debated and voted on such matters, though the outcome was probably already decided.<ref>Suetonius, ''Lives'', Claudius, 24.3: given for the [[Roman conquest of Britain|conquest of Britain]]. Claudius was "granted" a triumph by the Senate and gave "triumphal regalia" to his prospective son-in-law, who was still "only a boy." Thayer: [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Suetonius/12Caesars/Claudius*.html Uchicago.edu] {{webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20120630034237/http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Suetonius/12Caesars/Claudius*.html |date=2012-06-30 }}</ref> In the Imperial era, the number of triumphs fell sharply.<ref>Beard, 61–71.</ref>

Imperial panegyrics of the later Imperial era combine triumphal elements with Imperial ceremonies such as the consular investiture of Emperors, and the ''[[Adventus (ceremony)|adventus]]'', the formal "triumphal" arrival of an emperor in the various capitals of the Empire in his progress through the provinces. Some emperors were perpetually on the move and seldom or never went to Rome.<ref>On triumphal entrances to Rome in the fourth century, see discussion in Schmidt-Hofner, pp. 33–60, and Wienand, pp. 169–197.</ref> Christian emperor [[Constantius II]] entered Rome for the first time in his life in 357, several years after defeating his rival [[Magnentius]], standing in his triumphal chariot "as if he were a statue".<ref>Beard pp. 322–323.</ref> [[Theodosius I]] celebrated his victory over the usurper [[Magnus Maximus]] in Rome on June 13, 389.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.livius.org/person/theodosius-i/|title=Theodosius I – Livius|website=www.livius.org|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150429115503/https://www.livius.org/person/theodosius-i/|archive-date=2015-04-29}}</ref> [[Claudian]]'s panegyric to Emperor [[Honorius (emperor)|Honorius]] records the last known official triumph in the city of Rome and the western Empire.<ref>{{cite book |author=Claudian|title=Panegyricus de Sexto Consulatu Honorii Augusti|year=404|url=https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/L/Roman/Texts/Claudian/De_VI_Consulatu_Honorii*.html|access-date=21 August 2013}}</ref><ref>Beard, 326.</ref> Emperor [[Honorius (emperor)|Honorius]] celebrated it conjointly with his sixth consulship on January 1, 404; his general [[Stilicho]] had defeated [[Visigoths|Visigothic]] King [[Alaric I|Alaric]] at the battles of [[Battle of Pollentia|Pollentia]] and [[Battle of Verona (402)|Verona]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Gibbon|first=Edward|title=The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire|chapter=Chapter XXX|pages=39–41|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YmABAAAAQAAJ&q=triumph+404+a.d.+honorius&pg=PA39|year=1776–1789 |access-date=21 August 2013|quote=After the retreat of the barbarians, Honorius was directed to accept the dutiful invitation of the senate, and to celebrate, in the Imperial city, the auspicious aera of the Gothic victory, and of his sixth consulship.}}</ref> In Christian [[martyrology]], [[Saint Telemachus]] was martyred by a mob while attempting to stop the customary [[gladiator]]ial [[Ludi|games]] at this triumph, and gladiatorial games (''munera gladiatoria'') were banned in consequence.<ref>{{cite book|last=Wace|first=Henry|title=Dictionary of Christian Biography and Literature to the End of the Sixth Century A.D., with an Account of the Principal Sects and Heresies|chapter=Entry for "Honorius, Flavius Augustus, emperor"|year=1911|url=http://www.ccel.org/ccel/wace/biodict.html?term=Honorius,%20Flavius%20Augustus,%20emperor|access-date=21 August 2013|quote=The customary games took place with great magnificence, and on this occasion St. Telemachus sacrificed himself by attempting to separate the gladiators.|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141021100724/http://www.ccel.org/ccel/wace/biodict.html?term=Honorius,%20Flavius%20Augustus,%20emperor|archive-date=21 October 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Theodoret|author-link=Theodoret|year=449–450|title=Ecclesiastical History|chapter=Book V, chapter 26|url=http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/27025.htm|access-date=21 August 2013|quote=When the admirable emperor was informed of this he numbered Telemachus in the array of victorious martyrs, and put an end to that impious spectacle.|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130920225816/http://newadvent.org/fathers/27025.htm|archive-date=20 September 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Foxe|first=John|title=Actes and Monuments (a.k.a. Foxe's Book of Martyrs)|chapter=Chapter III, section on "The Last Roman 'Triumph.'"|url=http://www.ccel.org/f/foxe/martyrs/fox103.htm|year=1563|access-date=21 August 2013|quote=[F]rom the day Telemachus fell dead&nbsp;... no other fight of gladiators was ever held there.|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130530160943/http://www.ccel.org/f/foxe/martyrs/fox103.htm|archive-date=30 May 2013}}</ref> In 438 CE, however, the western emperor [[Valentinian III]] found cause to repeat the ban, which indicates that it was not always enforced.<ref>{{cite book |last=Dell'Orto |first=Luisa Franchi |title=Ancient Rome: Life and Art |year= 1983 |publisher=Scala Books |isbn=978-0-935748-46-8 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nv1-AAAAIAAJ |page=52}}</ref>

In 534, well into the [[Byzantine Empire|Byzantine era]], [[Justinian I]] awarded general [[Belisarius]] a triumph that included some "radically new" [[Christianity|Christian]] and Byzantine elements. Belisarius successfully campaigned against his adversary Vandal leader [[Gelimer]] to restore the former [[Roman province of Africa]] to the control of [[Byzantine Empire|Byzantium]] in the 533–534 [[Vandalic War]]. The triumph was held in the Eastern Roman capital of [[Constantinople]]. Historian [[Procopius]], an eyewitness who had previously been in Belisarius's service, describes the procession's display of the loot seized from the [[Temple of Jerusalem]] in 70 CE by Roman Emperor [[Titus]], including the [[Menorah (Temple)|Temple Menorah]]. The treasure had been stored in Rome's [[Temple of Peace, Rome|Temple of Peace]] after its display in Titus' own triumphal parade and its depiction on [[Arch of Titus|his triumphal arch]]; then it was seized by the [[Vandals]] during their [[Sack of Rome (455)|sack of Rome]] in 455; then it was taken from them in Belisarius' campaign. The objects themselves might well have recalled the ancient triumphs of [[Vespasian]] and his son [[Titus]]; but Belisarius and [[Gelimer]] walked, as in an [[ovation]]. The procession did not end at Rome's [[Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus|Capitoline Temple]] with a sacrifice to Jupiter, but terminated at [[Hippodrome of Constantinople]] with a recitation of Christian prayer and the triumphant generals prostrate before the emperor.<ref>Beard, 318–321. Procopius' account is the source for a "marvelous set piece" of Belisarius' triumph, in [[Robert Graves]]' historical novel [[Count Belisarius]].</ref>