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TRIUMPH (triumphus)

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Originally appearing in Volume V27, Page 297 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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TRIUMPH (triumphus) , amongst the See also:ancient See also:Romans, the highest See also:honour bestowed upon a victorious See also:general. Originally it was only granted on certain conditions, which were subsequently relaxed in See also:special cases. Only those who had held the See also:office of See also:dictator, See also:consul or See also:praetor were entitled to the distinction; the See also:war must have been brought to a definite conclusion, resulting in an See also:extension of the boundaries of the See also:state; at least 5000 of the enemy must have been slain; the victory must have been gained over a See also:foreign enemy, victories in See also:civil war or over rebels not being counted. The See also:power of granting a triumph rested with the See also:senate, which held a See also:meeting outside the See also:city walls (generally in the See also:temple of See also:Bellona) to consider the claims put forward by the general. If they were considered satisfactory special legislation was necessary to keep the general in See also:possession of the imperium on his entry into the city. Without this, his command would have expired and he would have become a private individual the moment he was inside the city walls, and would have had no right to a triumph. Consequently he remained outside the pomoerium until the special See also:ordinance was passed; thus See also:Lucullus on his return from See also:Asia waited outside See also:Rome three years for his triumph. The triumph consisted of a See also:solemn procession, which, starting from the Campus Martins outside the city walls, passed through the city to the Capitol. The streets were adorned with garlands, the temples open, and the procession was greeted with shouts of lo triumphe 1 At its See also:head were the magistrates and senate, who were followed by trumpeters and then by the spoils, which included not only arms, See also:standards, statues, &c., but also representations of battles, and of the towns, See also:rivers and mountains of the conquered See also:country, See also:models of fortresses, &c. Next came the victims destined for See also:sacrifice, especially See also:white oxen with gilded horns. They were followed by the prisoners who had not been sold as slaves but kept to See also:grace the triumph; when the procession reached the Capitol they were taken off to See also:prison and put to See also:death. The See also:chariot which carried the victorious general (triumphator) was crowned with See also:laurel and See also:drawn by four horses.

The general was attired like the Capitoline See also:

Jupiter in See also:robes of See also:purple and See also:gold borrowed from the See also:treasury of the See also:god; in his right See also:hand he held a laurel See also:branch, in his See also:left an See also:ivory See also:sceptre surmounted by an See also:eagle. Above his head the See also:golden See also:crown of Jupiter was held by a slave who reminded him in the midst of his See also:glory that he was a mortal See also:man. Last came the soldiers shouting lo triumphe and singing songs both of a laudatory and scurrilous See also:kind. On reaching the temple of Jupiter on the Capitol, the general placed the laurel branch (in later times a See also:palm branch) on the See also:lap of the See also:image of the god, and then offered the thank-offerings. A feast of the magistrates and senate, and sometimes of the soldiers and See also:people, concluded the ceremony, which in earlier times lasted one See also:day, but in later times occupied several. Generals who were not allowed a See also:regular triumph by the senate had a right to triumph at the temple of Jupiter Latiaris on the See also:Alban See also:Mount. Under the See also:empire only the emperors celebrated a triumph, because the generals commanded under the auspices of the emperors (not under their own) merely as lieutenants (legati); the only honour they received was the right of wearing the triumphal insignia (the robes of purple and gold and the See also:wreath of See also:bay leaves) on holidays. After the See also:time of See also:Trajan, when all consuls were allowed to See also:wear the triumphal See also:dress on entering office and in festal processions, the only military See also:reward for a successful general was a statue in some public See also:place. The last triumph recorded is that of See also:Diocletian (A.D. 302). A See also:naval or maritime triumph was sometimes allowed for victories at See also:sea, the earliest being that celebrated by C. See also:Duilius in honour of his victory over the Carthaginians in 26o B.C.

See See also:

Mommsen, Romisches Staatsrecht (1887), i. 126–136; See also:Marquardt, ROmische Staatsverwallung (1884), ii. 582–593; H. A. Gott, De triumphi romani origins, permissu, apparatu, via (1854); S. See also:Peine, "De ornamentis triumphalibus" (1885), in C. E. Ascherson's Berliner Sludien, ii.

End of Article: TRIUMPH (triumphus)

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