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THE ROMAN TRIUMPH

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THE ROMAN TRIUMPH

MARY BEARD

THE BELKNAP PRESS OF HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS

CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS

LONDON, ENGLAND

Copyright © 2007 by the President and Fellows

of Harvard College

All rights reserved

Printed in the United States of America

First Harvard University Press paperback edition, 2009.

Set in Adobe Garamond

Designed by Gwen Nefsky Frankfeldt

Frontispiece: Giovanni Battista Tiepolo,

The Triumph of Marius, 1729.

A re-creation of the triumphal procession of January 1, 104 bce.

Jugurtha, the defeated king of Numidia, stands a proud prisoner in

front of the chariot—threatening to upstage the victorious general

Marius in the background. To left and right are the spoils of victory—

precious vessels and sculpture, including a bust of the goddess

Cybele with distinctive turreted headdress, just as Mantegna

had envisaged in his Triumphs of Caesar (Fig. 28).

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Beard, Mary, 1955–

The Roman triumph / Mary Beard.

p.

cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-674-02613-1 (cloth : alk. paper)

ISBN 978-0-674-03218-7 (pbk. )

1. Triumph.

2. Rites and ceremonies—Rome.

3. Processions—Rome.

4. Rome—Military antiquities.

5. Triumph in art.

6. Triumph in literature.

7. Rites and ceremonies—Rome—Historiography.

I. Title.

DG89. B43 2007

394Ј. 50937—dc22

2007002575

Contents

Prologue: The Question of Triumph

1

1

Pompey’s Finest Hour?

7

2

The Impact of the Triumph

42

3

Constructions and Reconstructions

72

4

Captives on Parade

107

5

The Art of Representation

143

6

Playing by the Rules

187

7

Playing God

219

8

The Boundaries of the Ritual

257

9

The Triumph of History

287

Epilogue: Rome, May 2006

331

Plan

335

Abbreviations

336

Notes

338

Bibliography

394

Acknowledgments

418

Illustration Credits

420

Index

424

THE ROMAN TRIUMPH

p r o l o g u e

The Question of Triumph

“Petty sacrilege is punished; sacrilege on a grand scale is the stuff of tri-

umphs. ” Those are the words of Lucius Annaeus Seneca, first-century ce

philosopher and tutor of the emperor Nero. He was reflecting in one of

his philosophical letters on the unfair disparity in the meting out of

punishment and reward, and on the apparent profit that might come

from wrong-doing. 1 As we might gloss it, following the wry popular

wisdom of our own day, “Petty criminals end up in jail; big ones end

up rich. ”

In referring to the “stuff of triumphs,” Seneca meant those famous

parades through the city of Rome that celebrated Rome’s greatest victo-

ries against its enemies (or its biggest massacres, depending on whose

side you were on). To be awarded a triumph was the most outstanding

honor a Roman general could hope for. He would be drawn in a char-

iot—accompanied by the booty he had won, the prisoners he had taken

captive, and his no doubt rowdy and raucous troops in their battle

gear—through the streets of the city to the Temple of Jupiter on the

Capitoline hill, where he would offer a sacrifice to the god. The cere-

mony became a by-word for extravagant display.