Editing Roman triumph (section)

==Sources==
[[File:CILI(2)p47fgtXXFastitriumphales.jpg|thumb|right|Segment XX of the ''Fasti triumphales'', a portion recording triumphs during the [[First Punic War]]]]
The ''[[Fasti Triumphales]]'' (also called ''Acta Triumphalia'') are stone tablets that were erected in the [[Forum Romanum]] around 12 BCE, during the reign of Emperor Augustus.<!---note that there is still some debate as to whether Augustus was the first emperor---> They give the general's formal name, the names of his father and grandfather, the people(s) or command province whence the triumph was awarded, and the date of the triumphal procession. They record over 200 triumphs, starting with three mythical triumphs of Romulus in 753 BCE and ending with that of [[Lucius Cornelius Balbus the Younger|Lucius Cornelius Balbus]] (19 BCE).<ref>Romulus' three triumphs are in Dionysius of Halicarnassus (''Antiquitates Romanae'', 2.54.2 & 2.55.5). Dionysius may have seen the ''Fasti''. Livy (1.10.5–7) allows Romulus the ''[[spolia opima]]'', not a "triumph".  Neither author mentions the two triumphs attributed by the Fasti to the last king of Rome, Tarquin. See Beard, 74 and endnotes 1 &2.</ref> Fragments of similar date and style from Rome and provincial Italy appear to be modeled on the Augustan ''Fasti'', and have been used to fill some of its gaps.<ref>Beard, 61–62, 66–67. The standard modern edition of the Fasti Triumphales is that of [[Attilio Degrassi]], in ''Inscriptiones Italiae'', vol. XIII, fasc. 1 (Rome, 1947)</ref>

Many ancient historical accounts also mention triumphs. Most Roman accounts of triumphs were written to provide their readers with a moral lesson, rather than to provide an accurate description of the triumphal process, procession, rites, and their meaning. This scarcity allows only the most tentative and generalised (and possibly misleading) reconstruction of triumphal ceremony, based on the combination of various incomplete accounts from different periods of Roman history.