''The Roman Triumph'' is a 2007 book by Mary Beard.

Content

The book explores the ritual of the

triumph The Roman triumph (Latin triumphus) was a celebration for a victorious military commander in ancient Rome. For later imitations, in life or in art, see Trionfo. Numerous later uses of the term, up to the present, are derived directly or indirectl ...

in ancient Roman life, opening with a discussion of

Pompey the Great Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus (; 29 September 106 BC – 28 September 48 BC), known in English as Pompey or Pompey the Great, was a leading Roman general and statesman. He played a significant role in the transformation of ...

's third triumph of 61 BC which is the most documented of all the Roman triumphs. In the course of the book she explores the triumph from a number of different angles. For example, citing writers such as

Ovid Pūblius Ovidius Nāsō (; 20 March 43 BC – 17/18 AD), known in English as Ovid ( ), was a Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a contemporary of the older Virgil and Horace, with whom he is often ranked as one of the th ...

as well as epigraphic attestations she tries to delineate what the experience of the triumph was for the common and ordinary people of Rome rather than solely the elite. She also adopts a minimalist position on the question of whether or not triumphs were bound by very detailed and specific rules and regulations, asserting instead that they were somewhat flexible in format and changed over the course of time. She also breaks down a popular theory such as the idea that the Roman general who was being honoured in the process embodied the god Jupiter Optimus Maximus himself, arguing that there is evidence for this but also counter-evidence. She then concludes with a discussion of the triumph of

Belisarius Belisarius (; el, Βελισάριος; The exact date of his birth is unknown. – 565) was a military commander of the Byzantine Empire under the emperor Justinian I. He was instrumental in the reconquest of much of the Mediterranean terri ...

in 534 which is often described as the final Roman triumph of all. Beard's analysis cuts through the enormous amount of writing about Roman triumphs to try to ascertain what their reality was as a fixture in Roman life, attempting to demystify them from the large number of what she refers to as 'rituals in ink' that have existed (whereby contemporary writers such as

Polybius Polybius (; grc-gre, Πολύβιος, ; ) was a Greek historian of the Hellenistic period. He is noted for his work , which covered the period of 264–146 BC and the Punic Wars in detail. Polybius is important for his analysis of the mixed ...

Livy Titus Livius (; 59 BC – AD 17), known in English as Livy ( ), was a Ancient Rome, Roman historian. He wrote a monumental history of Rome and the Roman people, titled , covering the period from the earliest legends of Rome before the traditiona ...

Josephus Flavius Josephus (; grc-gre, Ἰώσηπος, ; 37 – 100) was a first-century Romano-Jewish historian and military leader, best known for ''The Jewish War'', who was born in Jerusalem—then part of Roman Judea—to a father of priestly d ...

sought to glorify a particular triumph) and the large amount of secondary historical scholarship on the matter. An example of the kind of details that are heavily contested and questionable is the tradition of a slave accompanying a processing general repeatedly urging him to remember that he is mortal; this tradition is mentioned differently in accounts by Pliny, Dio or

Tertullian Tertullian (; la, Quintus Septimius Florens Tertullianus; 155 AD – 220 AD) was a prolific early Christian author from Carthage in the Roman province of Africa. He was the first Christian author to produce an extensive corpus of L ...

and is not mentioned at all in other accounts. Beard therefore argues that such stories may in fact be myth-making rather than a report of actual reality. Another aspect of the oft-repeated later depiction of the triumph includes stories of harsh treatment of captives, which Beard argues may instead have involved a reality where they were treated relatively mildly before then often becoming citizens.

References

2007 non-fiction books History books about ancient Rome {{AncientRome-book-stub