Primary Sources on the Triumph

[SOCL]

As taken from Shelton's As the Romans Did, p 251-52:

• A parade celebrating a military victory is called a triumph and takes the following form. Whenever a great and noteworthy victory was achieved, the general was immediatley hailed by his soldiers as imperator. He would bind sprigs of laurel around the fasces and give them to runners to carry to the city and announce the victory. When he returned home, he would assemble the Senate and ask it to have a triumph voted for him. And if he obtained a favorable vote from the Senate and from the popular assembly, the title imperator was also ratified from him. If he was still in the office which he held when he won the victory, he remained in that office for the celebration of the triumph. If, however, his term of office had expired, he assumed some other title appropriate to the office, because it was forbidden to allow a triumph for a private citizen.
  
  Dressed in triumphal garb and wearing bracelets on his arms and a crown of laurel on his head, and holding a branch in his right hand, he summoned the people together. Then he praised the soldiers who had served under him, both collectively and, in some cases, individually, and made them gifts of money and honored them also with military decorations, presenting arm bracelets to some and spears (but without iron tips) to others, and crowns--some gold, some silver--each crown bearing the name of the honored individual and a representation of his particular brave deed. If he was the first over the wall, for example, his crown bore the likeness of a wall. A man who won a sea battle received a crown adorned with ships. A man who was outstanding in a cavalry charge received a crown with an equine motif. But a soldier who had saved the life of a fellow citizen in battle or in some other danger or in a siege won the greatest praise and received a crown of oak leaves, which was considered a much greater honor than all the crowns of silver and gold. And these decorations were given not only to individuals distinguished for their valor, but also to units and even to whole legions.
  
  A large amount of the booty was also distributed to the soldiers who had served in the campaign.* However, some triumphal generals also gave it to the entire populace and defrayed the expenses of the triumph and made the booty public property. If any was left over, they spent it on temples, porticoes, and other public works.
  
  When the ceremonies had been completed, the triumphant general mounted his chariot. This chariot, however, did not resemble a racing chariot or a war chariot; it was constructed to look like a round tower. And the general did not stand alone in the chariot, but, if he had children or relatives, he took the girls and the male infants in the chariot with him and put the older male relatives on the chariot horses. If there were many relatives, they rode in procession on horses, as out-riders for the general. None of the other people in the triumph was mounted; all marched along wearing laurel wreaths. However, a public slave rode in the chariot with the general, holding above his [the general's] head a crown with precious gems set in gold. And the slave kept saying to him, "Look behind!" warning him to consider the future and events yet to come, and not become haughty and arrogant because of present events.
  
  ...Thus arranged, they entered the city. At the head of the procession were the spoils and trophies, placards bearing representations of captured forts, cities, mountains, rivers, lakes, and seas, indeed all the things they had captured. And if one day was sufficient for the exhibition of these things, fine. If not, the exhibition continued for a second or even third day. When all the men [legionaries] ahead of him had reached the concluding point of the procession, the general [who was at the end of the procession] finally was escorted to the Roman Forum.
  
  He ordered some of the captives to be led to prison and executed, and then he drove up to the Captiol. There he performed certain religious rites and made offerings. And he dined in the porticoes there. Toward evening he was escorted to his home to the accompaniment of flutes and Pan's pipes. And such were the triumphs of old.**
  
  --Zonaras, Epitome 7.21

*Shelton in a footnote (#60) relates: "The emperors dispensed with this practice because it encouraged soldiers to fight for the sake of booty and to attack without provocation. Also, it made successful generals (those who could provide much booty) far too powerful and popular among the solders. As compensation, the emperors would periodically make cash awards, called donatives, which came from the imperial treasury and were thus dissociated from a particular general or a particular campaign." This points to the fact that despite Zonaras' living in 11th/12th Century, he was clearly here writing about the republican era, as is presented further...

**Shelton in a footnote (#66) relates: "of old: of the republican period."

Be careful using Zonaras' account, or at least admit the problems in using him as a source in your paper, namely because he is so far seperated from the era he writes about, meaning that he may very likely be making inferences or perhaps adding details based on his own observations of contemporary Byzantine triumphs in Constantinople. In any event, the exert serves to at least give you some sort of primary source with some rather interesting details. I highly suggest, though, that you try to find an extant copy of Zonaras as the bit I posted is only an exert found in Shelton. And obviously, any text in brackets (i.e. [text]) was either added in by Shelton or by myself to clarify something in particular.

Also, I suggest to all students of Roman history to find a copy of Shelton. It is probably the best way to quickly find primary source information by category and further a sort of pseudo-encyclopedia for locating further information. Bibliographic material and such were given in an earlier post.

I hope that helps, Marshal!

[Kate Gilliver]

Cornelius Balbus' triumph is recorded in the Fasti Triumphales Capitolini, an inscription listing Roman triumphators found in the Forum & dating to the Augustan period. Photo of the relevant bit here!.

The Oxford Classical Dictionary notes that as well as being the last man outside the imperial family to hold a triumph, Cornelius Balbus was the first triumphator not to have been born a Roman citizen. I'm musing here, but it may be that such a man could not have been considered any threat to the Princeps in popularity or auctoritas so could have a triumph without causing the same concern as others from well established senatorial families. On the other hand, Sempronius Atratinus had also had a triumph over Africa only 2 years before, so I wouldn't push that suggestion too far.

Without the procession, the public adulation and popularity will be gone, and probably also the close associations with Jupiter (no matter what the ornamenta implied - something Augustus might be keen to ensure since he was the man closely associated with the gods (and permanently so).