Roman Triumph - Triumph As Imperial Privilege

Triumph As Imperial Privilege

The triumphal destination was the temple of Jupiter Capitolinis (Capitoline Jupiter), to whom the victor offered his laurel crown and two perfect white bulls as a thanks-offering. The distinctive "kingly" (or possibly, godly) costume and appearance of the vir triumphalis had been traditionally reserved for his temporary elevation on his day of triumph.

In the few years that led up to the Principate, these restrictions were eroded. Julius Caesar was granted the right to wear the laurel wreath and “some elements” of triumphal dress at all festivals - Cassius Dio adds that Caesar wore the laurel wreath “wherever and whenever,” excusing this as a cover to his baldness.

Following Caesar's murder, Octavian assumed permanent title of imperator and inaugurated his well prepared principate under the name Augustus in 27 BCE. Only the year before he had blocked the senatorial award of a triumph to Marcus Licinius Crassus, despite the latter's acclamation in the field as Imperator and his eminent merit by all traditional criteria - barring only full consulship. Augustus claimed the victory as his own but permitted Crassus a second, listed on the Fasti for 27 BCE, by which time Augustus was abolishing various proconsulates to form his own Imperial provinces. Crassus was also denied the rare (and in his case, technically permissible) honour of dedicating the spolia opima of this campaign to Jupiter Feretrius. Inscriptions on the Fasti Triumphales come to a seemingly abrupt full-stop in 19 BCE, by which time the triumph had been absorbed into the Augustan Imperial cult system in which only the emperor - the supreme Imperator (or very occasionally, a close relative who had glorified the Imperial gens) - would be accorded such a supreme honour. Those outside the Imperial family, like Aulus Plautius under Claudius, might be granted a "lesser triumph," or ovation.

Thereafter the number and frequency of triumphs fell dramatically. Only 5 are known up to 71 CE, none between the triumph of Claudius over Britain (44 CE) and Trajan's posthumous triumph of 117-8 CE, and none from then until the triumph of Marcus Aurelius over Parthia in 166 CE. For this period as for all others, historical sources presume a shared experience with their readership, despite the increasing rarity of Triumphal ceremony. Instead of ceremonial detail they offer statistics (which may or may not be wildly inflated) and lessons in virtue. There is little reason to prefer one version to another - few, if any, are primary sources. Most were compiled long after the triumph had been fully co-opted into a Imperial-monarchic system of government which to an earlier Republican would have seemed very un-Roman indeed.