Rome Triumphant: How The Empire Celebrated Its Victories
Robert Payne
Number of quotes: 29
Book ID: 192 Page: 8
Section: 1B
THE STRONGEST POISON EVER KNOWN CAME FROM CAESAR’S LAUREL CROWN. WILLIAM BLAKE, Auguries of Innocence
Quote ID: 4421
Time Periods: 14
Book ID: 192 Page: 9
Section: 2A4
For over a thousand years Roman conquerors returning from the wars enjoyed the honour of a triumph. For a whole day, sometimes for many days, the Roman people were presented with a vast and tumultuous parade celebrating the glory of the returning general. In the procession came trumpeters and musicians and strange animals from the conquered territories, together with carts laden with treasure and captured armaments. The conqueror rode in a triumphal chariot, and the dazed prisoners walked in front of him. In imperial times the conqueror was crowned with a laurel wreath and wore a purple tunic embroidered with palms under a purple toga embroidered with stars. Sometimes his children, robed in white, stood with him in the chariot, or rode the trace-horses. A slave stood behind the conqueror, holding a golden crown over his head, and whispering in his ear a warning that all glory is fleeting.....
Even when the Romans no longer believed in their gods, the momentum acquired by the triumph was so great that it continued to be the greatest and most desirable spectacle known to the Romans.
Quote ID: 4422
Time Periods: 0123
Book ID: 192 Page: 12
Section: 4B
Perhaps Minucius Felix and St. Augustine were right when they suggested that Rome fell because there had been a tradition of bloodshed and crime and pride from the beginning. According to a late tradition, Romulus, the founder of Rome, murdered his brother and his two foster-fathers, continually exalted himself, dressed in purple, saw visitors while reclining on a couch, and was at last mysteriously murdered near a place called the Goat Marsh on a day when, according to Plutarch, “sudden strange alterations took place in the air, and the face of the sun was darkened, and it was not a peaceable night, but one shot through with terrible thunderings and winds from all quarters”. There was a murder at the beginning of Roman history: this we know for certain; the echoes of the murder can be heard throughout her history.
Quote ID: 4423
Time Periods: 035
Book ID: 192 Page: 15
Section: 4B
In historical times the Greeks rarely, if ever, permitted themselves the luxury of formal triumphs. They speak of trophies and (GREEK WORD), but never of anything corresponding to a triumphal procession.
Quote ID: 4424
Time Periods: 0
Book ID: 192 Page: 15
Section: 4B
How different were the Greek and Roman triumphs! The only Athenian procession which can in any way be compared with the Roman triumph was the Panathenaea, held in honour of the virgin goddess Athene on her birthday in July.
Quote ID: 4425
Time Periods: 0
Book ID: 192 Page: 17
Section: 2A3,4B
The Athenians rejoiced in life, and the Panathenaea was the supreme expression of their enjoyment in living together, just as the triumph was the supreme expression of the Roman pleasure in dominating others.La mort semble ne’e a’ Rome, wrote Chateaubriand. “ It seems that death was born in Rome.” And sometimes as we look upon those stern, unpitying men, grown small through the telescope of history, but still large enough to haunt us with the memory of their fearful powers, it comes to us that the triumph was a kind of dance of death, a game played on the edge of the abyss for a stake that was never worth while. The highest honour open to a Roman was the honour of a triumph: for this men fought, intrigued, suffered and died. For the honour of a triumph immense sums of money were expended, innumerable people were needlessly killed, vast treasures were dissipated, and whole countries were laid waste. The economy of Europe, Africa and Asia was mercilessly disrupted, and a hundred cities and a hundred thousand towns were pillaged, so that the conquerors could return laden with plunder to Rome and show what they had accomplished.
Quote ID: 4426
Time Periods: 01
Book ID: 192 Page: 30
Section: 5D
“Sardians for sale!” The Romans believed that Sardis, the capital of Lydia, was the original home of the Etruscans.
Quote ID: 4428
Time Periods: ?
Book ID: 192 Page: 33
Section: 4B
Servius Tullius is the first authentic historical figure in the Roman history.....
His long reign came to an end when his daughter Tullia conspired with her husband, the son of Lucius Tarquinius, to murder him. He was stabbed to death and Tullia rode in her chariot over his dead body.
Quote ID: 4429
Time Periods: 0
Book ID: 192 Page: 34
Section: 2B1
With the booty amounting to forty talents of silver, he built the temple to Jupiter Capitolinus which had been vowed by his father.....
In time the temple was to be faced with marble and roofed with gold plate, and men would speak of the aureum Capitolium fulgens - the golden and shining Capitol - but now there was only a small squat temple in the Etruscan style with a wooden entablature, with three rows of columns in front and four columns on each side. Inside there were three cellae. The middle cella contained the terracotta statue of Jupiter; that on the right contained the statue of Minerva, and that on the left the statue of Juno. All of them seem to have been Etruscan gods.
Quote ID: 4430
Time Periods: 0
Book ID: 192 Page: 73
Section: 4B
In the ninety-eight years between the battle of Zama and the destruction of the army of King Jugurtha, altogether sixty-eight triumphs were held. In every three years there were at least two triumphs.....
Triumph-hunting became a major occupation of Roman generals; and the records of those years are filled with the disputes of conquerors as they jockey for positions in the acta triumphorum.
Quote ID: 4431
Time Periods: 01
Book ID: 192 Page: 211
Section: 1A,2E4,2E5
After the physical empire came the ghostly empire; and the Roman gods fell before the single god incarnate in Jesus, crucified by an obscure provincial governor in the reign of Tiberius.....
A calendar published in Rome in A.D. 354 lists the birthdays of the apotheosized rulers from Augustus to Constantius, the consuls from the year 510 B.C. and the pagan festivals throughout the year, noting that on December 25 there were games in the Circus to celebrate “ the birth of the unconquerable sun” (natalis solis invicti). There followed a table of Easter Sundays, and the feast-days of the martyrs. Christianity and paganism walked side by side in apparent harmony; it seems not to have been impossible for a man to attend the feast of the Lupercalia in the morning and divine service in the evening.
Quote ID: 4432
Time Periods: 14
Book ID: 192 Page: 211
Section: 3C
Constantine himself appears to have lived quite satisfactorily in both worlds, offering prayers to the pagan and Christian gods with the same profound devotion. On occasion he wore the Cross on his helmet, and sometimes appeared with one of the Holy Nails set in his golden diadem. He protected Christians, but he also protected pagans; and during all his visits to Rome except perhaps the last he continued to offer public vows to Jupiter Capitolinus. On some of his coins were stamped the figures of Sol Invictus and Jupiter Conservator, while on others we see the labarum or an altar surmounted with a Cross. No one has ever succeeded in discovering his true beliefs; perhaps he had none.
Quote ID: 4433
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 192 Page: 212
Section: 3C
it was widely believed that his extreme deference to the bishops sitting in council implied a greater deference to Christ, but it is possible that he attended the councils of the pagan priests with the same humble air.
Quote ID: 4434
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 192 Page: 212
Section: 3C
now in the Pennsylvania University Museum which shows him riding in triumph, attended by his lictors. He wears a laurel crown, while a winged genius holds a crown of gold above his head. The reins hang slack from his left hand, but in his right he displays the tyche, the mysterious symbol of his possession over the city. In front of him are displayed the fasces and a sign with the ancient inscription: SPQR. We see two slaves beside the chariot, two soldiers, a woman mourning, but they are no more than artistic decoration:
Quote ID: 4435
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 192 Page: 212
Section: 3A4C
the purpose of the artist is to describe the triumph in Christian terms, and therefore he has shown the emperor gazing fondly upon the labarum, which takes the form of a long pike bearing the monogram of Christ. This gem supplies us with the first record of the Christian triumph; there were to be many others.Yet one should pause briefly over this gem and examine it a little further. It is not quite what it seems to be. Remove the labarum, and we have the Roman triumph almost as we see it on the Boscoreale cup. There is no Christian feeling in the design. One of the slaves carries the triangular knife of sacrifice, and we are made abundantly aware of a sacrificial victim, invisibly present. The sharply-turned head of the helmeted Roman who stands in front of the horses speaks with a purely pagan authority; the mourning woman represents the long procession of prisoners marching in front of the triumphal chariot. Here is the Roman triumph in all its august solemnity at the point where it dissolves into the Christian triumph, which is august and solemn in an entirely different manner.
PJ: need picture
Quote ID: 4436
Time Periods: 45
Book ID: 192 Page: 213
Section: 3A4C
In time the Gothic churches were to have portals designed after the triumphal archways, while the Roman basilicas were decorated with royal archways of glittering mosaic before the altars. At a very early period the theme of the Church militant and triumphant was announced to a people who were perfectly willing to regard Christ as the triumphator in excelsis, the last of the deified Caesars, the first imperator to rule over Heaven and earth.
Quote ID: 4438
Time Periods: 45
Book ID: 192 Page: 213
Section: 1A
Even to this day some vestiges of the triumph appear in the papal coronation. As the Pope emerges in his pontifical robes from the Chapel of St. Gregory, a master of ceremonies kneels before him, holding a golden wand tipped with burning tow, and three times he repeats the admonition: “Pater sancte, sic transit gloria mundi.” Then the tow is extinguished, and the Pope proceeds to the high altar to receive the pallium.
Quote ID: 9344
Time Periods: 47
Book ID: 192 Page: 214
Section: 3G
When he saw the crosses, Charlemagne dismounted from his horse and continued to St. Peter’s on foot; and when he reached the Vatican he climbed the steps on his knees, as Julius Caesar once climbed the steps to the Capitol, kissing each step until at last he stood beside the Pope, who was waiting for him in the portico. It was the triumph of the Pope over the earthly emperor, but the emperor also triumphed in his own way, for he marched on the right hand of the Pope to the altar and accepted the honours and titles showered on him as defensor ecclesiae and saviour of the state.
Quote ID: 4439
Time Periods: 7
Book ID: 192 Page: 214
Section: 3G
On Christmas Day Charlemagne was conducted before the tomb of St. Peter and there received the crown of the Holy Roman empire from the hands of the Pope. The words used by the celebrants at the coronation were believed to be very nearly the same as those used to greet the election of a Caesar: Carolo piissimo augusto, a Deo coronato, magno, pacifico Imperatori, Vita et Victoria. “To Charles, the most pious Augustus, crowned by God, the great and pacific Emperor, Life and Victory.” The theme of victory and triumph were never far from the imaginations of the Romans.
Quote ID: 4440
Time Periods: 7
Book ID: 192 Page: 215
Section: 3G
In the time of Charlemagne the temple of Jupiter Capiolinus still stood on the Capitol. Most, if not all, of the ancient Roman monuments remained. Visitors to Rome saw the monuments of the church rising amid the still-gleaming monuments of the Caesars.
Quote ID: 4441
Time Periods: 7
Book ID: 192 Page: 215
Section: 2E4
Paganism survived. Until the eleventh century, the afternoon of Easter Saturday in Rome was marked by the festival of Coromannia, when the archpriests of the eighteen parishes summoned the faithful to church, while the sacristans adorned in white garments, with flowers in their hair and wearing two horns like the ancient Silenus, headed the processions. These sacristans waved wands covered with bells, and danced all the way to St. John Lateran, and the archpriests rode asses back to front. In the Lateran, the Pope was presented with a clock and a doe, and gave branches of laurel, cakes and holy water in return. The Bacchanalian procession had been incorporated into the worship of Easter.
Quote ID: 4442
Time Periods: 7
Book ID: 192 Page: 215
Section: 2A4
Even the triumph remained, though it was suitably disguised. The Caesars raised triumphal arches on the Via Sacra leading to the Capitol; the Popes raised them on the roads leading to St. Peter’s, especially ad pedes pontium, at the foot of the bridges crossed by the pilgrims on their way to the Apostle’s tomb.
Quote ID: 4443
Time Periods: 4567
Book ID: 192 Page: 215
Section: 3A4C
The Ordine of Benedetto Canonico written in the twelfth century describes the triumphal procession of the Pope as he rode from the Lateran to the Vatican for his coronation. Quite deliberately, the Pope employed the triumphal progress for his own ends, and over part of the journey he travelled the same route as the ancient triumphator.
Quote ID: 4444
Time Periods: 7
Book ID: 192 Page: 216
Section: 2C
Such was the triumphal ceremony celebrated on February 22, 1198, when Pope Innocent III was crowned and at his consecration delivered a sermon in which he claimed for himself a position higher than that claimed by any triumphator before him. He claimed that he was “the Vicar of Jesus Christ, the successor of Peter, the anointed of the Lord God of Pharaoh, one whose place was between God and man, acting as intermediary between God and man, under God but above man, less than God but greater than man”. Not even the deified Caesar had claimed so high a place in the economy of heaven.
Quote ID: 4445
Time Periods: 7
Book ID: 192 Page: 217
Section: 2E4,3A4C
When the Pope threw himself down at last in prayer before the Apostle’s grave, he was exhausted, but perhaps no more exhausted than the ancient triumphatores when they placed their laurels on the lap of Jupiter Capitolinus. In the continuing story of the triumph, the prayer at the grave of St. Peter took the place of the sacrifice on the Capitol.The papal triumph was not the only expression of the ancient Roman Triumph in the Middle Ages. In the wars between the Italian city states, in poetry and painting and devotion the triumph remained, haunting men with visions of glory.
Quote ID: 4446
Time Periods: 7
Book ID: 192 Page: 218
Section: 2A4
Dante imagined the heavenly triumph of Beatrice. He saw her riding in stately progress in her triumphal chariot drawn by a griffin, “all gold insofar as he was a bird, but otherwise all white mingled with scarlet”. This heavenly beast, representing the power of God, was accompanied by many other heraldic and theological emblems. Four angelic creatures crowned with leaves and plumed with peacock feathers guarded the two-wheeled chariot; and three angels danced around the right wheel of the chariot. They were the colour of flames of emeralds, of freshly fallen snow. Four angels attended the left wheel, and these were robed in purple. There followed two aged and venerable men, who were perhaps St. Luke and St. Paul, and these in turn were followed by the four authors of the epistles and by “an old solitary man, walking as though in sleep, with sharpened features”, who seem to have been St. John of the Apocalypse.So Dante imagined his emblematic triumph in all the colours of the New Testament.
Quote ID: 4447
Time Periods: 7
Book ID: 192 Page: 220
Section: 3A4A
Meanwhile the churchly triumphs continued, and the Italians especially seemed haunted by these vast processions which imitated from a great distance the processions of the ancient emperors. Whenever the Pope ventured abroad, he rode in triumph. So we find Aeneas Piccolomini, Pope Pius II, entering Mantua through flower-decked streets in the spring of 1459. At the head of the procession rode three Cardinals followed by twelve white riderless horses with golden saddles and bridles representing the twelve apostles. There followed three immense banners, one bearing the Cross, another the keys of St. Peter and the third the heraldic arms of the Picolomini. Then came the clergy of Mantua, and another white horse bearing the Host in a golden box surrounded by candles, and then a host of nobles and ecclesiastics. Last of all came the little bent figure of the Pope resplendent in purple and jewels.Pius II, half-pagan, the most gentle of Popes, and perhaps the most intelligent, had prepared a sophisticated triumph, and had no illusions about his own magnificence. He was sufficiently Christian to prefer a Christian triumph, unlike Leo X who visited Florence fifty-four years later and rode in a triumphal chariot painted by Pontormo, accompanied by seven other chariots bearing figures from ancient mythology.
Quote ID: 4448
Time Periods: 7
Book ID: 192 Page: 228
Section: 3A4B,3A4C
Petrarch’s friend, Cola di Rienzo, saw himself as the man chosen by God to resurrect the ancient past. He claimed to be the divine agent of the renovatio, that mysterious regeneration of the earth which would bring about eternal peace under a single emperor – himself. On the fifth day of Lent in 1347, he hung from the architrave of the church of San Giorgio in Velabro a banner reading: In breve tempore Romani Torneranno al loro antico buon stato. “Soon the Romans will return to their ancient state of glory.” It seemed at first a harmless gesture, but it was to have astonishing consequences. All Rome cherished the thought of a revival of her long-lost glory: all Rome was prepared to follow in the footsteps of this son of an innkeeper and a washerwoman who proclaimed himself Tribunus Augustus and for a few months led the Romans in a frenzied effort to recapture their vanished greatness.....
The triumph took place on the first day of August, 1347. The roads between the Capitol and the Lateran were strewn with roses.
....
Already he believed himself to be the successor of Augustus, and in a loud voice he summoned kings and emperors to present themselves before the judgment seat. In particular he summoned Pope Clement VI, then in Avignon, and Electors of Germany to appear before him “to inform us on what pretext they have usurped the inalienable right of the Roman People, the ancient and lawful sovereigns of the empire”.
....
He had a deep feeling for ancient Rome and for the Roman people, who were suffering under the exactions of their rulers, the noble families of Colonna, Orsini and Savelli. His brother had been killed in a street-brawl, and the murderer was allowed to go unpunished. Cola di Rienzo therefore represented to an extraordinary degree the fierce resentments of the Romans against their rulers and against the weight of history. But resentment was turning in fantasy and then to madness.
....
Having raised an army to defend the Republic, he required money to pay his soldiers: the Romans refused to pay the taxes he imposed on them, marched to the Capitol and arrested him. At first they did not know what to do with the man who had so often addressed them brilliantly, encouraging them in their fight for freedom. They spent an hour thronging around him and gazing at him, hoping he would speak, hoping he would once more employ his eloquence to save his own life. But he was tongue-tied, gripped by fear, very pale, his face bloated, and after an hour someone struck a knife in his heart.
On the Capitoline hill, in the place where for centuries the blood of the sacred white ox had fallen, Augustus Caesar was himself being sacrificed.
Quote ID: 4449
Time Periods: 7
Book ID: 192 Page: 241
Section: 3A4C
For his reception in Rome, Pope Paul III caused a triumph to be held and ordered Raphael to erect fourteen heraldic statues on the bridge of Sant’ Angelo, and then sent him to Florence to prepare for the emperor’s triumph there. In the space of five days Raphael erected two river-gods representing the Rhine and the Danube, each of them fifteen feet high.
Quote ID: 4450
Time Periods: 7
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