It is decorated with sculpture and reliefs of various styles and time periods. The Arch of Constantine is a triple bay arch modeled after the Arch of Septimus Severus in the Roman forum. Three years later, for Constantine’s decennial celebration, the Senate unveiled one of the last imperial monuments, the Arch of Constantine.
He then made a triumphal entry into Rome, complete with all of the splendor and pomp that Rome could give to its new emperor. At the Battle of the Milvian Bridge he faced the last of these rivals, Maxentius, and handed him a sure defeat. Yet at the beginning of the fourth century a young general named Constantine had managed to defeat all but one of his rivals for power. The empire had been wracked by civil wars for years and the latest era of peace under the tetrarchy and Diocletian had come to a bloody end. He also built the first marble Triumphal Arches, giving a more permanent form to the magnificent structures.Īt the end of the third century, however, there seemed to be little reason for Rome to celebrate a Triumph. When Augustus came to power at the end of the first century BC he changed the Triumph so that only an emperor could achieve a Triumph, thereby reserving the greatest honor and highest mark of prestige for those who were seeking to concentrate power into their own hands. The fornix were wooden arches meant to commemorate specific triumphal processions and glorify the honored general. The entire parade was meant in part to honor the gods of Rome through conquest and sacrifice.Īs time progressed and the monarchy moved into the Republic, the Triumphs grew more elaborate and generals started to desire even more glory, so they started to build fornix. Sacrifices to purify the army and the city were offered to the gods both before the parade and at the peak of the Capitoline Hill at the end of the ceremony. Yet the celebrations were not simply aimed at admiring the general the ceremony was sanctioned by the Senate, giving validation to the recently ended war.
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And amidst it all rode the Imperator in his quadriga, or four horsed chariot, his skin painted red, wearing a gold-embroidered purple toga with a laurel wreath held over his head.
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The day would have been full of celebration and feasting and the distribution of largess to the troops and the people. The interesting, valuable, exotic and rare were all placed on huge carts and drug through the city as strange animals were led along behind the humiliated enemy captives. All of the spoils of the war were paraded through the streets of Rome, filled with people in their holiday best.
The Triumphs themselves were glorious affairs that are hard for us to imagine. If these qualifications were met the general could return to Rome to receive his Triumph. The triumph was only awarded to successful generals who had 1) been the presiding officer at the specific battle, 2) killed 5000 enemy troops, 3) fought against a foreign enemy, 4) been fighting a sanctioned war of conquest, and 5) if the battle had led directly to the end of the war. It was a lavish ceremony aimed at justifying the recently ended war, purifying the troops and city of the bloodguilt of war, and appeasing and honoring the gods. It was celebrated throughout Rome’s history, from the first Triumph of Romulus to the last triumph in the sixth century. The Roman Triumph was a Roman military victory celebration. Other records of these decadent and lavish victory celebrations of the Romans are found on the Triumphal Arches erected to celebrate the Triumphs as well as to glorify the Roman general honored by the ceremony. On the first, which was scarcely long enough for the sight, were to be seen the statues, pictures and colossal images… On the second, was carried in a great many chariots the finest and richest armor of the Macedonians…” These are some of the images Plutarch recalls of the Triumph of Amelius Pauleus in 168 BC.
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