Roman Triumph Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Among the most-dicussed findings of the past decades' excavations in the 'Valle del Colosseo' in Rome are the remains of an Augustan-time version of the 'Meta Sudans', one of largest monumental fountains of the city, situated below the north-eastern slope of Palatine Hill. While the symbolic message of the fountain's architecture and decoration have been well-explained in a series of recent studies as those of a triumphal monument (Apollo Agyieus = Apollo Actius), this article attempts to reconstruct the cultural symbolism of the fountain square in the urban life of Rome, thus shifting the view from the architect's intentions ('Baumeisterperspektive') to the cultural practices attested at this spot of the city, to which communal and imperial festivities (compitalia, religious processions) belong just as well as individual daily activties in urban traffic or private water supply.
The archeological record suggests that the fountain had some relation to the sacred precint of the Roman brass players ('aenatores Romani') across the street. That the activities (from training to religious performance) of musicians around this precint dominated the public connotations of the whole fountain square is demonstrated by the remarks of Seneca - who regards the Meta Sudans as a place of excessive instrumental noise - as well as Propertius, who envisions the area as a symbol of the antagonism of aetiological (Apollonian) and erotic (Dionysiac) poetry in his fourth book of elegies.

- by Thomas G M Blank
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- Augustan Poetry, Roman Religion, Seneca, Propertius
- by Lasse Hodne
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- Petrarch, Allegory, Time and Eternity, Roman Triumph
- by Christoph Heilig
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- New Testament, Postcolonial Studies, Postmodernism, Lexicography
- by Tanja Itgenshorst
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- Roman Republic, Roman Triumph, Hellenization, Aemilius Paullus
- by Adrian Stähli
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- Cultural History, Cultural Studies, Roman History, History and Memory
- by Bente Kiilerich
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- Art History, Late Antique Archaeology, Byzantine Studies, Late Antiquity

This paper extends one published in 2006 where I addressed the question: can we estimate the proportion of coined gold and silver in Hellenistic times out of the total amount of available precious metals? There a rather coherent answer emerged from different approaches to the problem: only a small proportion (not more than 25%) of all the available precious metals was monetized. In this paper, on the other hand, I try to estimate the amount of gold in ancient Greece that was not converted in coins. Such an enquiry clearly entails large uncertainties. My focus is on the weights of extant Greek gold jewellery, the total sum of which I estimate to be c. 70kg (+/- 30kg?). When compared with the total weight of the great treasures of the period (Vergina, Thracian royal tombs, Georgia [Vani]: c. 25kg), this estimate seems reasonable. Other avenues for research are presented (providing still other estimates) for what appears to be a stimulating new perspective on the problem of metal availability and coinage, which will further help us to build a better and narrower framework for our speculations.

- by Allan Georgia
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- Practice theory, Imperial Rome, Ritual Theory, Bourdieu

This article analyses the major events that intervened during Appius Claudius Pulcher's career, notably his consulship in 143 BC and his censorship in 136 BC. Differently from the traditional opinion (which is based on Cassius Dio's account), here it is asserted that the campaign against the Salasses in Cisalpine Gaul (143-140 BC) is led by the consul with the approval of the senate, which even decides to consult the Sibylline Books in order to remedy the defeat suffered by the Romans. Then, Appius' final triumph, funded by himself and contested by his opponents, effaces his reputation as an imperator victus and, some years later, helps him to complete his cursus honorum with the censorship. This article, indeed, sets a relationship between the census figures of the 2nd century BC, their historical context, and the prior military fortune of the censors. Among the reasons that might explain the variations of census data in the 2nd c. BC, such a comparison shows how the wartime background and, perhaps, the personal reputation of the magistrates may affect the tendency of the incensi to register themselves at the census. In such a context, Appius' triumph may be considered also as a way to encourage citizen registration (preparatory to military recruitment) when the Numantine War puts Rome in serious trouble.

- by Mattia Pietro Balbo
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- Roman Republic, Roman Triumph, Cisalpine Gaul, Gracchi

Augustus’ success in implementing monarchical rule at Rome is often attributed to innovations in the symbolic language of power, from the star marking Julius Caesar’s deification to buildings like the Palatine complex and Forum Augustum to rituals like triumphs and funerals. This book illumines Roman subjects’ vital role in creating and critiquing these images, in keeping with the Augustan poets’ sustained exploration of audiences’ role in constructing verbal and visual meaning. From Vergil to Ovid, these poets publicly interpret, debate, and disrupt Rome’s evolving political iconography, reclaiming it as the common property of an imagined republic of readers. In showing how these poets used reading as a metaphor for the mutual constitution of Augustan authority and a means of exercising interpretive libertas under the principate, this book offers a holistic new vision of Roman imperial power and its representation that will stimulate scholars and students alike. (forthcoming with Cambridge University Press, spring 2018)

- by Nandini Pandey
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- Discourse Analysis, Latin Literature, Roman History, Iconography

As its name implies, Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem in Mark 11:1-11 is often interpreted as a satire of the Roman ritual of the military triumph. In contrast with the parades of Roman generals celebrating their conquest of imperial foes, Jesus' triumph hails the imminent arrival of God's kingdom. However, scholars have suggested that authorial intent is only half the equation of satire and we must also consider its wider reception by audiences other than those for whom the text was written. This article locates Jesus' triumphal entry among other mock triumphs of Republican and Imperial Rome, arguing that an unsympathetic (i.e. elite, Roman, and non-Christian) audience would be unlikely to see the scene as satirical or "subversive" in the manner scholars often suggest. Rather, they would likely have regarded the scene as more akin to depictions of slaves and other socially marginalized figures who were unaware of their own inability to achieve military excellence.

- by Christopher B Zeichmann
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- Synoptic Gospels, Christianity and Rome, Satire & Irony, Gospel of Mark
- by David D. M. King
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- Gospel of Mark, Jesus, Roman Triumph, Crucifixion
- by Annemarie Catania
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- Roman Triumph, Roman Sarcophagi, Dionysos, Triumphi
- by Jean-Luc BASTIEN
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- Renaissance, Painting, Architectural History, Italian Renaissance Art
- by Kia Sinervä
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- Roman History, Roman Republic, Roman Empire, Ancient Warfare
- by Carsten Hjort Lange
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- Roman History, Late Antiquity, Roman imperial history, Augustus
- by Jean-Luc BASTIEN
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- Roman Religion, Roman Temples, Augustus, Ritual Procession

At the end of the Republic, the Romans regarded Triumph as the most magnificent ceremony and the status of the triumphant general as the highest attainable. This rite, officially awarded by the Senate, permitted the general to make a processional entry into the city of Rome and glorify his prestigious victory in front of his fellowcitizens. However, the critical analysis of sources reveals that the data related to Triumphs are unreliable. The first Triumph of Romulus was reconstructed by Augustus for ideological reasons : to emphasize the paralell between himself and the founder of the Urbs. Moreover, during the third century BC, families made up fake Triumps which were then integrated into annal and epigraphs. Such inventions mostly concern the period 322 BC -291BC -because it was at this point in time that Triumphs became highly political as the Romans adopted the Theology of victory current in the hellenistic world. Military victory was what the nobilitas, the emerging Roman aristocraty, valued most and its celebration, the Triumph, became the occasion for asserting the hereditary dimension of victory and power. In the third century BC, the desire for Triumph intensified, which led the Senate to impose stricter rules and conditions. The resulting conflicts between the senate and the generals explains the emergence of new ceremonies such as the Ovatio and the Triumph on Mount Alban. Triumphant generals had a variety of ways of commemorating their victories and reminding the Romans of them, especially at election time. But the most efficient way was the building of temples financed by spoils of war. The adoption of new cults enabled them to celebrate divine protection, under which they fell, but also to integrate the memory of their victories in both the history and architecture of Rome. Indeed, close historical examination often reveals an interesting ‘coincidence’ between the dates of the consecration of temples and those of the Triumphs.

- by Jean-Luc BASTIEN
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- Roman History, Religion and Politics, Roman Religion, Roman Republic
- by Marialetizia Buonfiglio
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- Archaeology, Classical Archaeology, Roman History, Archeologia

This paper provides an introduction to the aim and purpose of the volume. Starting from an overview of the history of research on the Roman triumph, we take a closer look at the most significant stages of historical development of the ritual itself: the consequences of its monopolization by the first Roman princeps, its forms and functions in the high empire, its transformation in the era of a decentralized empire, and its development under the Christian monarchs.

- by Henning Börm and +1
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- History, Ancient History, Classics, Roman History

Justinian’s triumphal column was the tallest free-standing column of the pre-modern world and was crowned with arguably the largest metal equestrian sculpture created anywhere in the world before 1699. The Byzantine empire’s bronze horseman towered over the heart of Constantinople, assumed new identities, spawned conflicting narratives, and acquired widespread international acclaim. Because all traces of Justinian’s column were erased from the urban fabric of Istanbul in the sixteenth century, scholars have undervalued its astonishing agency and remarkable longevity. Its impact in visual and verbal culture was arguably among the most extensive of any Mediterranean monument. This book analyzes Byzantine, Islamic, Slavic, Crusader, and Renaissance historical accounts, medieval pilgrimages, geographic, apocalyptic and apocryphal narratives, vernacular poetry, Byzantine, Bulgarian, Italian, French, Latin, and Ottoman illustrated manuscripts, Florentine wedding chests, Venetian paintings, and Russian icons to provide an engrossing and pioneering biography of a contested medieval monument during the millennium of its life.

- by Jean-Luc BASTIEN
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- Political Sociology, Classical Archaeology, Roman History, Political Science
- by Margaret M. Miles
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- Cicero, Greek Sicily, Looting Art, Roman Triumph

A new fragment of the Severan marble plan of Rome allows a better knowledge of the Circus Flaminius. A series of discoveries documented during the excavations for the foundations of the Synagogue contributes to a better definition of the... more

- by Morgan Magonara
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- History, Ancient History, Roman History, Roman Law

Abstract: According to Livy (33.27.3-5), in 196 BCE the proconsul Lucius Stertinius set up three arches (fornices) upon his return from the victorious campaigns in Hispania Ulterior: two were built in the Forum Boarium in front of the Temples of Fortuna and Mater Matuta, while the third one was erected in the Circus Maximus. The three fornices, funded from the (proceeds of the) spoils (de manubiis) of the war, were surmounted by one – or more – gilded bronze statues/standards (signa aurata). Stertinius’s arches are the earliest recorded examples of a monumental type destined to gain enormous success in the decades to come, especially from the Augustan age onwards. Yet unlike the two fornices in foro bovario, the single fornix of Stertinius in maximo circo has usually been treated by scholars in a most cursory and perfunctory fashion. Particularly interesting is the issue of the precise position of Stertinius’s arch within the Circus Maximus, especially in connection with the vexed question of the route of the triumphal procession in the Vallis Murcia. By a process of elimination, it will be concluded that this honorary structure was most likely located in the centre of the south-east curved end of Rome’s most famous arena for chariot racing. Thus it is conceivable that the Fornix Stertinii may have been a precursor of the triumphal arch dedicated to Titus in 81 CE, an arch built to commemorate the Flavian capture of Jerusalem (70 CE) and the ensuing triumph de Iudaeis (71 CE). ********** Riassunto: Secondo la testimonianza di Livio (33.27.3-5), nel 196 a.C. il proconsole Lucio Stertinio fece erigere tre archi (fornices) al suo ritorno dalle campagne vittoriose nella Spagna Ulteriore: due furono costruiti nel Foro Boario, di fronte ai templi della Fortuna e della Mater Matuta, mentre il terzo venne innalzato nel Circo Massimo. I tre fornices, finanziati con i proventi del bottino di guerra (de manubiis), erano sormontati da una o più sculture di bronzo dorato (signa aurata). Gli archi di Stertinio sono i più antichi esempi di un tipo monumentale destinato a conoscere un immenso successo nei decenni successivi, soprattutto a partire dall’età augustea. A differenza però dei due fornices in foro bovario, il singolo fornix di Stertinio in maximo circo ha ricevuto finora scarsa attenzione critica ed è stato trattato in maniera alquanto sommaria e superficiale. Di particolare interesse risulta essere il problema della posizione dell’arco di Stertinio all’interno del Circo Massimo, specialmente in rapporto alla dibattuta questione del percorso del corteo trionfale nella Valle Murcia. Procedendo per esclusione, si giunge alla conclusione che il monumento onorario era verosimilmente ubicato al centro del lato curvo di sud-est del gigantesco edificio per spettacoli. Sembra dunque lecito ipotizzare che il Fornix Stertinii possa aver preceduto l’arco trionfale dedicato a Tito nell’81 d.C., eretto per celebrare la conquista flavia di Gerusalemme (70 d.C.) e il successivo trionfo sui Giudei (71 d.C.).

- by Sven Schipporeit
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- Roman Religion, Urban Studies, Roman Epigraphy, Urbanism of Rome
- by Henning Börm
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- History, Ancient History, Classics, Roman History

Andrea Mantegna's much-admired nine-panel monumental cycle Triumphs of Caesar (1480s-1506?) celebrates imperial power by visualizing in meticulous detail a Roman triumph. Though their precise historical subject remains elusive, the panels are replete with careful representations of authentic, known ancient objects. At the same time, a triumphal column surmounted by a colossal bronze horseman that features prominently on one of the panels remains a historiographic mystery. I argue here that the legacy of two intellectuals steeped in knowledge of Byzantium, Manuel Chrysoloras and Cyriac of Ancona, provided the inspiration for this prominent elevated horseman. Memories of the triumphal column of Justinian, the Constantinopolitan signifier of empire, were instrumental in Mantegna's decision to populate his historical landscape of old Rome with a colossal monument. Mantegna inserted the column into his monumental vision of ancient Rome to elide the historical space between the Old and the New Rome, and in doing so implicitly expanded the category of monuments redolent of Rome's imperial past.
Manteqna's antiquarian relocation of Constantinople's greatest imperial monument to Rome brought Manuel Chrysoloras's ideas full circle. Chrysoloras elevated monuments of the past as worthy evidence. Cyriac of Ancona made them worthy of admiration, demonstrating their value to antiquarian pursuits and alerting scholars to the enormous importance of visual and epigraphic evidence. After the fall of Constantinople, the lost monument was granted new life in intellectual spaces between the real and the imagined, the antiquarian and the allegorical. It took Andrea Mantegna to give this lost monument a place in history. Taking the greatest and most cross-culturally significant Byzantine sculptural monument, he projected it back into the past of Rome and into a vision of Roman and Western history cherished by antiquarians.

This paper focuses on how Roman commanders, while still overseas and in the field, managed the capitulation of the defeated enemy in preparation for triumph. Lucius Mummius’ deeds in Greece as consul and proconsul after the sack of Corinth offer some of the best evidence concerning the delicate questions that faced Roman commanders when assembling the booty: what artworks should be removed and shipped to Rome (and Italy) as evidence of victory, and what should be left in situ in order to avert the ongoing resentment of the Greek communities. Several documents and anecdotes describe Mummius’ activity and convey different attitudes towards him. The role of these artworks in his political plans, both in Italy and overseas, reveal a complex pattern from which we can identify their key-role in the aftermath of the Achaean war (146 BC). First, he razed Corinth and punished a great number of Achaean and Beotian towns by removing some of their artworks. Then, he not only offered many artifacts as ornamenta to the temples in the urbs or to the local communities in Italy, but he also relocated some statues in Greece to benefit sanctuaries and cities which had supported Rome during the war. Moreover, Mummius usually abstained from removing the anathemata, although some he rededicated in his name to the gods. At the end of the article Mummius’ conduct is compared to Scipio Aemilianus’ policy of repatriation of anathemata stolen by the Carthaginians and to the use of Greek artworks by Octavian after Actium.

On the base of a passage of Claudianus the so called Arco di Portogallo on the via Lata-Flaminia in Rome is identified as an entrance in the Pomerium used by emperor Honorius. The arch is probably the imperial Porta Triumphalis built by emperor Domitian after Vespasian’s enlargement of the Pomerium. There is a ritual and ceremonial connection with the temple of the Fortuna Redux which – on the base of several reliefs – can be located immediately outside the new Porta Triumphalis.

- by Joerg Ruepke
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- Roman Triumph, Funeral Rites, Ritual Practices

Many of the wars of the Late Republican period were largely civil conflicts, and there was thus a tension between the traditional expectation that triumphs should be celebrated for victories over foreign enemies and the need of the great commanders to give full expression to their prestige and charisma, and to legitimate their power. Most of the rules and conventions relating to triumphs thus appear to have been articulated as the development of Roman warfare brought new issues to the Senate’s attention. This paper will examine these tensions and the ways in which they were resolved. The traditional war-ritual of the triumph and the topic of civil war have both received renewed interest in recent scholarship. However, attempts to define the relationship between them have been hampered by comments in the ancient evidence that suggest the celebration of a triumph for victory in a civil war was contrary to traditional practices. Nevertheless, as this paper will argue, a general could expect to triumph after a civil war victory if it could be represented also as over a foreign enemy (the civil war aspect of the victory did not have to be denied); only after a victory in an exclusively civil war was this understood to be in breach of traditional practices.

- by Carsten Hjort Lange
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- Roman History, Civil War, Civil Wars (Roman Republic), Augustus
- by Carsten Hjort Lange
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- Roman History, Civil Wars (Roman Republic), Augustus, Late Roman Republic
- by Katarzyna Balbuza
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- Roman History, Political Ideology, Roman Triumph, Triumph

This paper tries to make sense of the strange case of the victories of C. Carrinas over the Morini and the Suebi in 30/29 BC, for which a triumph was awarded to both him and Octavian. Although a strict interpretation of the augural law (represented e.g. in Cic. div. 2, 9 and nat. deor. 2, 76–77) regarded the promagistrates as deprived of the auspices, centuries of practice and the triumph of Carrinas himself show that proconsuls were considered as having valid military auspices. What the sources tell us, is that in many cases a proconsul could accept to be subordinated to the auspices of a consul, notwithstanding their parity of imperium. Therefore, what Octavian tried to do was to have the preeminence of his auspices recognised by the senate with the concession of a triumph for Carrinas’ victories. Nevertheless the assembly did not completely conceded to Octavian and had the independent position of the proconsul confirmed by the award of a triumph to him as well. Finally, the case of Cossus Cornelius Lentulus, subordinated to the auspices of Augustus during his proconsulship of Africa in AD 6–8, shows that Caesar’s heir finally found a way to obtain the superiority that he had sought at the end of the triumvirate.

- by Alberto Dalla Rosa
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- Ancient History, Roman History, Roman Religion, Ancient Religion