Triumphal Procession Research Articles

The Roman Destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem: An Intercultural Conflict between Pietas and Politics

Intercultural encounters in modern and ancient times carry the potential for conflict and it can be assumed that the mechanisms that lead to hostilities between different ethnic or cultural groups follow similar patterns. In the long history of ancient Rome conflicts based on religious differences were, in contrast to current times, the exception. It seems that one of those cases was the Jewish rebellion in 66-73 CE which resulted among others in the destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem and the diaspora of Jews across the Mediterranean. The available sources on the conflict are contradictory. On one side they suggest that the Romans respected the religious feelings and traditions of the Jews but on the other side, after the defeat of the rebels, the temple and the city walls were razed. In the triumphal procession to celebrate the successful campaign, sacred objects of the Jews were presented as spoils of war.
 The present article aims to explore which of both perspectives is more representative of the ancient reality and what constituted the underlying patterns of the conflict. In order to analyse the available information, insights from the psychology of cross-cultural encounters are applied. It is being argued that the combination of the interpretatio Romana, the translation of foreign deities to the pantheon of Roman gods and goddesses, with the concept of pietas, the dutiful devotion to those gods, was a foundation that prevented for the most part conflicts based on religious differences in the ethnically and culturally heterogeneous Roman Empire. However, Roman and Jewish society and culture can be understood as antithetical concepts with almost no cultural links. In this fundamental state of opposition small and rather irrelevant events can contribute to the occurrence of conflicts that may be, due to the lack of commonalities between both groups, difficult to solve.

The Flouting of Powers, the Making of Peace, and the Conquering of Death by the Roman Hercules and the Colossian Christ

Abstract: Colossians contains plausible allusions to Hercules. While there are additional parallels in the letter from Jewish literature and other Greco-Roman stories, few come as close to Hercules with respect to the composite picture of Christ as the heavenly Son of God, who conquered the powers of darkness, marched in a triumphal procession, reconciled his enemies, brought peace to the world and hope to his followers. Moreover, the unparalleled popularity of Hercules in the ancient world makes it likely that some viewed Hercules’s legend as a lens and point of comparison with Christ’s death. Further, the Hercules myth was specifically used to propagate Rome’s preeminence over the nations. In this article, I survey the associations made between Jesus and Hercules in the early church and in recent scholarship. Next, I summarize Hercules Furens and Hercules on Oeta to set up a comparison with comments about Christ in Colossians before discussing possible ramifications of considering the myth in the background of the letter and making final conclusions. I argue that, due to the widespread infatuation with Hercules in the first century, the Colossian believers would likely have recognized any comment about Christ that resembled something in Hercules’s story. Furthermore, because of the role the legend played in Roman ideology, an inclusion of plausible allusions to the hero in the background of Colossians reinforces an imperial-critical reading of the letter.

상상력과 사랑

This paper reads P. B. Shelley’s unfinished poem The Triumph of Life (1822), which recounts the poet’s visionary experience of beholding the triumphal procession of Life, in relation to his claims about imagination and love in A Defence of Poetry (1821). For Shelley, imaginative faculty forms the basis of a feeling of sympathy for others, which develops into love. This notion of sympathetic imagination appears to be the key to understanding the poem, especially the significance of Rousseau who guides the narrator through the apocalyptic vision. The principal purpose of this article is to elucidate the role of Rousseau in the Triumph, whom Shelley considers to be essentially a poet, i.e. a man of imagination. To Shelley’s way of thinking, Rosseau is proven highly imaginative in developing radical political ideas which had their roots in his fervent desire to remedy the ills of the world, and which profoundly impacted the outbreak of the French Revolution. However, Rousseau’s encounter with the vision of the “shape all light,” a malevolent spirit who offers him the cup of nepenthe, blots out his memories of the past, hence trampling the spark of imagination in his mind. For his ability to imagine ideal conditions for human existence is based upon his criticism of the harsh realities of the world—criticism being an act of remembering the past. However, Rousseau’s liberation from the chariot of Life is attained by his unswerving loyalty to democratic ideals, which holds true for Shelley.

Eternal Victory

Starting in the ninth century but gaining momentum the late tenth century Byzantium reclaimed its territories in the East: capturing Crete, Antioch, and northern Palestine. These victories were celebrated with triumphal processions in Constantinople. New chants were written specifically to be performed in the Great Church and the palatine chapels. Some of the poetry and music was composed by the emperor himself. Analyzing the melodic contour of some of these songs shows how they strategically used the acoustics of the dome to offer a glittering vision of power. And the same time, the figural mosaics in Hagia Sophia and in the palatine chapels gave an anthropomorphic concreteness to the experience of the divine in the reverberant sound. None of these figural programs survives. Yet, a monastery near Thebes (Greece), Hosios Loukas, preserves one of the most extensive Byzantine mosaic cycles. As this analysis will reveal, it channels the Constantinopolitan liturgy and enables us to explore how chant and figural images operated together to shape a vision of the resurgent empire.

Marie de Bourgogne/ Mary of Burgundy: figure, principat et postérité d’une duchesse tardo-médiévale/ ‘Persona’, Reign, and Legacy of a Late Medieval Duchess. Sous la direction de Michael Depreter, Jonathan Dumont, Elizabeth L’Estrange et Samuel Mareel

Duchess Mary of Burgundy (1457–1482) can rightly be called a princess in the shadow. Only very few authentic images of her survive and little research has been undertaken so far to shed light on this important historical figure. This edited volume with its twenty-four individual contributions aims at filling this deplorable gap. The only daughter of Charles the Bold (1433–1477), she was heir to the powerful conglomerate of territories called Burgundy. Mary died at the age of only twenty-five, leaving her little time to develop a public image. She thus left few traces as an active patron of the arts. Several representations of the young duchess can be found in contemporary manuscripts, the window miniature in the Vienna Book of Hours being the most famous. However, no mention is made here of the duchess’s portrait in the Berlin Book of Hours; this manuscript was passed by her husband, Emperor Maximilian I to their daughter, Margaret of Austria, in 1483. In Part One, the emphasis is on the authority of Mary of Burgundy as a legitimate heir to Burgundy, being a princesse naturelle. Several suitors tried to incorporate the rich Netherlands into their territory by securing a union with the young sovereign. ­Inherent legal issues are discussed from different angles by Jonathan Dumont, Élodie Lecuppre-Desjardin, and Kathleen Daly; meanwhile, iconographic models such as the concept of a ‘City Maiden’ are studied by Lisa Demets in contemporary texts. The 1477 Bruges tableau vivant with Queen Penthesilea demonstrates for Olga Karaskova the difficulty of finding suitable symbols to represent a young female sovereign. The discussion of how to visualize the power of a female head of state is discussed further in Andrea Pearson’s close analysis of Mary’s equestrian seals. Part Two is concerned with Mary’s household, her councillors, the court as an institution, and the economic situation. In this context, Federica Veratelli investigates the presence of Italian administrators at the Burgundian court and the significance of Italian luxury goods. In Part Three, five essays discuss the afterlife of Mary of Burgundy as a historical figure in later centuries, from the funerary rites in 1482 up to the twentieth century. Pierre-Gilles Girault argues that Margaret of Austria’s response to the premature death of her mother was to play an active political role as Countess of Bresse and regent of the Netherlands, instrumentalizing the Brou Church to express her aspirations. Dominique Le Page studies the ways in which Mary was viewed in the old Duchy of Burgundy across four centuries. To balance the emphasis on French and Netherlandish history, an essay on the visual and textual examples of sixteenth-century Habsburg propaganda (Der Weißkunig, Theuerdank, and The Triumphal Procession) would have been ­worthwhile. In the conclusions by Éric Bousmar and Jelle Haemers, a brief reference is made to ­Maximilian’s use of art for the purpose of propaganda. In all, this is a ­high-calibre collection of essays that critically investigate Mary of Burgundy and provide ­numerous new insights into her life and her reputation through the centuries.

March, October, the Yoke and the Arch: A Study of Boundaries in Ancient Roman Belief

This study attempts an alternate look at what is sometimes a quick study of an ingrained “Roman aggression” placed in the opening chapter of a typical Roman history, re-evaluating the “us-them” element in Roman thinking during their primeval “homesteading” era, and some of the motived often imputed to tribal Roman culture that have been used to explain their expansion in Italy (and after). From the pomoerium, or spiritual/physical boundary of the farm or the community, the frequently cleansed and inspected line between the settled and peaceful homesteaded or urbanized place and the dangerous, unsettled outlands beyond, where potential raiders or enemies – hostes – and the spirit that animated them dwelt. Romans punctuated this boundary with shrines, openings (carefully guarded by archaic spiritual means) and, at key moments during the year, by religious activity intended to keep them safe. These activities and checkpoints are clues to the way Romans saw the boundaries, and may even correct some false impressions we have of important features in their urban landscape. The checkpoints of passage through this boundary between human community and outworld were gate-like temples (guarded by Janus) or a similar structure called a “iugum,” and both underlie the structure we today call a “triumphal arch.” Understanding how Romans (or archaic Italians) felt about community boundaries may help correct the image we have of this arch, and what it meant, and in fact our image of them. Early Roman boundary-passage customs use these artifacts for related forms of expiation, cleansing and pacification, a character shared by the treatment of defeated armies and in fected persons, even meaning in the triumphal procession, which had much more to do with cleansing the contagious guilt (or infected violence) of a returning army than it did with celebrating a victory. More than a century ago the Roman historian-anthropologist William Warde Fowler attempted clear modern perspectives on early Romans, aggression-defense, and their ideas of boundaries. This article is also a tribute to some of his key, forgotten insights. Keywords: ancient urban studies, Archaic Italy, Roman rituals, Roman anthropology, Roman aggression

From the Heart of the Father to the Ends of the Earth: The Participation of the Church and the Baptized in the Mission of Jesus.

Mission has its origin in the inner life of God; their relationships with one another define the Persons of the Trinity. The Son is eternally generated by the Father, eternally proceeding from Him. When he becomes human, this identity becomes mission. Those united to Jesus through Baptism share in his missionary personality, not only corporately as the whole Church but individually as well. Beginning with the Second Vatican Council, and developed by subsequent papal teaching, the Church has rediscovered her missionary nature with clearer reference to Christ and the Gospel, and in more direct relation to the world and its needs. The Church's proclamation is most compelling when it is embodied by witnesses who have verified by experience the fulfillment of their humanity in a lived Christianity. This proposal is never a one-sided matter, but always involves an awareness of solidarity and reciprocity, an experience of encounter and discovery, and so becomes a journey of accompaniment and conversion for the bearer of the message. This is the rationale for widespread participation in missionary activities in the Church. Because of its affinity with the healing ministry of Jesus, medicine offers a unique possibility in this regard. Precisely because of the good they can accomplish and the challenges they can provoke, medical missions present a privileged opportunity for witness and generosity, but also for a new perspective and a changed heart for the participants. Together with those whom they serve, missionary disciples have the joy of joining the triumphal procession of Christ back into the heart of the Father.

Triumphal arch and triumphal procession as antiquity identification means in European society in the 15-17 centuries

The article considers the European society’s tendency to identify with the antique culture and establish the ruling power through symbolic architectural objects such as triumphal arches. Along with this, triumphal processions are briefly characterized in connection with the significant historical events of the 15th-17th centuries. The authors emphasize that the triumphal arch was a symbol of the great Roman Empire’s might for the contemporaries and the generations to come; and that the festive triumphal processions and performances reflected the mass infatuation with antiquity and striving to identify with it. The tendency manifested itself in many European countries, i.e. Italy, France, the Netherlands, Germany, and Russia.

Another Temple, Another Vessel

Our understanding of the Arch of Titus and its representation of the temple vessels has been influenced deeply by Josephus’s account of the triumphal procession in Rome following the destruction of the Jerusalem temple. This article presents a more Romanist view of the circumstances and meaning behind the Arch of Titus with the aim of merging them with the prevailing interpretations of the monument that lean more heavily on Josephus’s account. The author argues that overreliance on Josephus has created distortions in how we interpret the meaning and importance of the imperial triumph, the Arch of Titus, and the temple vessels. While these vessels had singular meaning for Judaism, these vessels did not have the same significance culturally or religiously in Rome. Alternatively, it is suggested that the Arch represented restoration and economic revival for a new dynasty.

Corippus’ Triumphal Ethnography: another look atIohannisII.28–161.

AbstractThe so-called ‘catalogue of tribes’ in Corippus,Iohannis,II.28–161 is central to the historical ethnography of Moorish North Africa in Late Antiquity, yet the sources behind this passage and its poetic function have never been directly addressed. The present paper argues that Corippus derived this material from the trophies carried in the triumphal procession that marked the successful conclusion of John Troglita's campaigns in 548. The evocation of this ceremony at the outset of Corippus’ narrative corresponds to the ironic tone which permeates the work, but also explains the eccentric form of the material included within the catalogue. The paper concludes with some observations about the implications of this for modern understanding of Moorish ‘tribal’ society in the later Roman and early Byzantine period.

Triumphing over Dante in Petrarch's Trionfi

Triumphing over Dante in Petrarch's Trionfi Leah Schwebel In his biographical account of famous Greeks and Romans (ca. 100–120), Plutarch reveals a competitive aspect of the Roman triumph: a military procession in which a victorious, laureled general enters the city on a chariot led by his captives. While Romulus celebrated his triumph on foot, Plutarch notes, the Etruscan kings proceeded in a chariot drawn by four white horses.1 Not to be outdone, Pompey went so far as to attempt to ride into Rome on a chariot pulled by four elephants. He could not fit the elephants through the gates, however, and had to settle for the customary outfit of a horse-drawn chariot.2 Plutarch's account of these sequential, progressively more elaborate processions into the city suggests that the Roman triumph operated in ancient Rome as an exercise in allusive rivalry. Victors authorized their triumphs by placing them in the context of previous triumphal processions, meanwhile striving to outperform their predecessors by riding into Rome on even grander mounts. As Mary Beard explains, it was "part of the history of the triumph to be judged against, to upstage or be upstaged by, the triumphs of predecessors and rivals."3 This allusive rivalry carried over into poetic descriptions of military triumphs, which would often include a statement of superiority over previous authors or processions, with the poet suggesting in some cases that other writers are prisoners in his personal triumph. This function of the triumph has its roots in antiquity. Describing his muse's chariot riding forth in victory, for example, Propertius draws on features of the triumph to suggest the superiority of his elegiac subject over poems and poets of war: ah valeat, Phoebum quicumque moratur in armis!exactus tenui pumice versus eat,quo me Fama levat terra sublimis, et a menata coronatis Musa triumphat equis,et mecum in curru parvi vectantur Amores, [End Page 89] scriptorumque meas turba secuta rotas.quid frustra immissis mecum certatis habenis? [Begone the man who detains Phoebus with themes of war! Let my verse run smoothly, perfected with fine pumice, whereby soaring Fame uplifts me from the earth, and the Muse that is born of me triumphs with garlanded steeds; with me in the chariot ride little Loves, and a throng of writers follows behind my wheels. Why do you loosen rein and vainly compete with me?]4 Calling for the laurel crown (3.1.19), the prize given to military victors and poets alike, Propertius portrays himself as a triumphant general riding on a chariot with his muse and subject, while other writers hang at his wheels in defeat. The practice of using the triumph to engage previous writers in contest continued in the Middle Ages. Describing the triumph of the church, Dante compares the chariot he sees approaching to those of Scipio Africanus, Augustus, and even the Sun. None equal the spectacle of his poetic subject, he notes, nor can compare to the glory of what he witnesses: Non che Roma di carro così bellorallegrasse Affricano, o vero Augusto,ma quel del Sol saria pover con ello. [Not only did Rome never gladden Africanus or Augustus with so glorious a chariot, but that of the Sun would be poor beside it.]5 In Book 9 of the Africa, Francesco Petrarca implicitly counters Dante's claim. Far from being inferior to any procession, he insists, the triumph of Scipio Africanus is more magnificent than any triumph held in Rome. In a scene of triple triumph, Petrarch recounts how Scipio, Ennius, and he himself are rewarded with laurel crowns and processions greater than any Rome has ever witnessed (9.387–88). Like Propertius, Dante and Petrarch invoke the poetic triumph as a mode of intertextual commentary, to suggest the superiority of their own material over that of their predecessors.6 Establishing the splendor of his poetic subject in relation to previous writings, each author uses the triumph as a literary trope, first to recall earlier works, and then to assert the comparatively greater importance of the scene he alone describes. [End Page 90] The allusive rivalry of the poetic triumph plays out on a grand scale in Petrarch...

‘Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori’: the practical and symbolic treatment of the Roman war dead

In literary sources death in Roman battle was often portrayed as glorious, yet how the bodies of the war dead were treated was far removed from this ideal. This paper focuses on this dichotomy, and the seeming contradictions in attitudes and behaviours. In ancient Rome, the war dead were little remembered, respected and mourned for. After battle the bodies of dead soldiers were hastily gathered and disposed of en masse. There were no war memorials that listed the names of the dead, no military war cemeteries that acted as places of pilgrimage, little battlefield tourism and no annual commemorative rituals. This stands in stark contrast to the tombstones set up by soldiers in peacetime, to the arches and columns that celebrated victories in the city of Rome, to the triumphal processions that filled its streets and the tales of military bravery that formed literary set pieces. On the one hand to die for Rome was presented as glorious, on the other hand the reality was bloody, brutal and seemingly soon forgotten. This paper investigates how the bodies of soldiers were treated post-battle, uniting the limited archaeological evidence with a range of literary texts. Why was the basic treatment of military corpses deemed acceptable, and how were those corpses manipulated in real, and literary, games of power and politics?

Who is Carrying the Temple Menorah? A Jewish Counter-Narrative of the Arch of Titus Spolia Panel

The Arch of Titus, constructed circa 81 CE under the emperor Domitian, commemorates the victory of the general, then emperor Titus in the Jewish War of 66–74 CE. Located on Rome’s Via Sacra, the Arch has been a “place of memory” for Romans, Christians and Jews since antiquity. This essay explores the history of a Jewish counter-memory of a bas relief within the arch that depicts the triumphal procession of the Jerusalem Temple treasures into Rome in 71 CE. At least since the early modern period, Jews—as well as British Protestants—came to believe that the menorah bearers of this relief represent Jews, and not Roman triumphadors. This essay addresses the history of this widespread belief, particularly during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and continuing in contemporary Israel.

Last of the naval triumphs: revisiting some key Actian honours

In 29 B.C., after his victories over Marcus Antonius (cos. 44, 34) and Cleopatra at Actium and in Egypt, Caesar Octavi(an)us, or Imperator Caesar Divi f., as he then wanted to be known, returned to Rome as the uncontested master of the Roman world. He did so in a carefully managed pageant that culminated with his triple triumph on 13, 14 and 15 Sextilis (the month later renamed Augustus in his honour) and the opening of the Temple of Divus Iulius in the Forum Romanum shortly thereafter, on the 18th. These ceremonies marked the culmination of his claim — a pompous declaration already made in the autumn of 36 in the aftermath of Naulochus — that he had put an end to war on “land and sea” throughout the world. While the relevant entries in the Fasti Triumphales are lost, Cassius Dio produces a fairly accurate précis of Octavian's triple triumph. The first day was the triumph over the Pannonians and the Dalmatians, the Iapydes and their neighbours, and some German and Gallic tribes; the second day commemorated the naval victory at Actium, the ; the third and final triumph, the most costly and magnificent of them all, was over Egypt. Dio clarifies that the Egyptian spoils proved so rich and bountiful that they covered the expense and lustre of all three triumphal processions.

The Trophy Tableau Monument in Rome: from Marius to Caecilia Metella

The trophy tableau is a ubiquitous, but often neglected, motif in Roman art consisting of a mannequin of arms and armor with prisoners of war bound at its feet. Surviving examples of such tableaux are seen first on coins, then on the Tomb of Caecilia Metella, and thereafter routinely in imperial sculpture: for example, the trophy-with-captives motif appears on a well-executed relief of a Severan triumphal procession dating to the later second century CE (Museo Nazionale Romano, Palazzo Altemps, Inv. no. 8640); and again on the Arch of Constantine, dating to 315 CE. This article offers a cultural history of the tableau monument type, which I believe to be a Marian innovation connected with his Gallic campaigns. In constructing the history of the tableau I explore a diverse array of evidence including texts, sculpture, and coinage. Particularly, I present a new reading of a remarkable series of Republican coins that reveal the nuances of the monument type’s development. Moreover, I use the history of the tableau as a lens for reexamining the triumphal relief on the monumental Tomb of Caecilia Metella (ca. 25 BCE) on the Via Appia, an artwork that I believe directly impacted the use of the tableau in later monumental sculpture. The traditional reading of the tomb associates the relief with the achievements of the Licinii Crassi, the family of Caecilia Metella’s husband, who was probably a son of the triumvir M. Licinius Crassus. I suggest instead that the relief emphasized the military achievements of Caecilia’s father’s ancient plebian family, the Caecilii Metelli. If this reading is accurate, then it was the Metelli who instituted the increasingly popular trend of using Gallic-looking war materiel to indicate generically “barbarian” foes, an important shift in not only trophy iconography but in the iconography of Roman warfare and conquest in general.

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The reading of triumphal entries’ emblems: emblems as footnotes

Triumphal entries of the 16th and 17th centuries were composed of triumphal processions incorporating grand ephemeral monuments. At the bottom of these at eye level it was common to find emblems. While the form and nature of the triumphal procession, by moving from one monument to the next along the assigned route, produced a ‘progressive viewing experience’, the emblems, in stark contrast, compelled the viewer to take a pause in order to decode their meaning, a process that involved careful analysis and reflection. The use of emblems seems thus to represent a distinct interest and disposition, which appears to contradict the dynamic nature of the triumphal procession. This article explores the use of emblems by considering them as ‘visual footnotes’, hallmarks of scholars and literati. Consistent with early modern textual and literary practice, the analysis of the emblems in relation to the pageant as a whole, and especially of the ephemeral artistic monuments, allows the identification of the humanistic ‘universal’ discourse to emerge from the local and civic ad-hoc arguments. In addition, similarly to modern academic footnotes, they were addressed and aimed to benefit the ‘reading’ procedure by exposing the sources, justifications and enhancement of what was established by the main imagery, albeit directed at a selected few — the literati.

Рецепция античных сюжетов и форм в художественных заказах императора Максимилиана I Габсбурга

Influence of Classical antiquity upon official art at the court of the Emperor Maximilian I of Habsburg is an actual problem that has never been specially considered before. Subjects, images and forms elaborated in the Classical world are displayed in the works of art designed by German artists according to Maximilian’s order. It is evident, for instance, in his cenotaph (1511–1563, Innsbruck, Hofkirche), woodcut series “Triumphal Procession” (1516–1519) and “Arch of Honor” (1515), illustrations to the Emperor’s autobiographical novel “Weisskunig” (ca 1512–1519). Certain historical and mythological characters played a special role in the Emperor’s self-presentation — Roman emperors and mythological characters like Apollo, muses, and satyrs are among them. Various Classical subjects and forms were highly valued by the Emperor, his counselors and artists. Maximilian I paid attention to Classical military and ecclesiastical history. Scholars, who worked out the programme of the Emperor’s official art and propaganda by means of fine arts, considered Classical period as a cradle of science, education and fine arts. Artists took Classical and modern Italian pieces of art, which were regarded as genuine Classical art works, for a model. Ancient and also Italian Renaissance coins, medals and woodcuts are possible sources of Classical forms for the masters from Maximilian’s milieu. A. Durer and some other masters of his circle attempted to reconstruct Classical regulations on depicting human being’s proportions. This search and efforts are also evidet in the works, created for Maximilian I.

Paul's Triumphal Procession Imagery (2 Cor 2.14–16a): Neglected Points of Background

This article seeks a fresh assessment of Paul'spompa triumphalisimagery at 2 Cor. 2.14–16a by probing a number of neglected aspects of both lexical and cultural background. Included are (1) an analysis of the use of θριαμβεύω in the Greco-Roman literature, with special attention given to claims made concerning the word's use with direct objects; (2) a lexicology of ὀσμή and εὐωδία in literatures of the period; and (3) a probing of the language of ‘salvation’ in the passage, with attention given to a feature of the triumphal procession parades that has until now failed to garner attention in investigations of the passage.

De triomf van de tiran - Triumphi als kritiekmiddel in Romeinse literatuur

Of all the rituals of ancient Rome none was more spectacular than the triumph. Scholarly attention has long been devoted to the origins and circumstances of this ritual, but lately the role of the triumph in moral discourse has also come into focus. Emperors could gain great military prestige from celebrating a triumphus, yet this prestige could (posthumously) be undermined by hostile historians and biographers who used descriptions of triumphal processions to cast unpopular emperors in a negative light. Discussing in particular the ‘bad triumphs’ of Nero, Elagabalus, and Gallienus, but also considering many other cases, this article explores how triumphal descriptions could be employed as literary weapons. Ancient authors did not hesitate to emphasize, distort, or invent certain aspects of the ritual to suit their purposes. In fact, the triumphal idiom proved such a powerful tool for the delegitimation of emperors that it was even employed to situations which did not constitute triumphal celebrations at all. Hence the cultural elite sought to control the meaning of the ritual and to establish whether emperors counted as benign rulers or tyrants.