The citizens of Rome had the opportunity of watching the physical enactment of military ceremonial and the national celebration of military victories. The triumph was the most spectacular and important of aU Roman military ceremonies, with a tradition going back to the early Republic. The victorious general put on ceremonial dress consisting of a purple cloak and star-spangled toga, and rode in a chariot at the head of his army, behind which trudged prisoners of war, along the processional route to the Capitoline hill and the temple of Jupiter Best and Greatest. This had once been the climax of the career of aristocrats in the Republic, but after 19 BC no one in private station was allowed to hold a triumph. The emperor alone enjoyed this honour, or, by his permission, a member of his family. The triumph continued to be respected because it took place relatively rarely, and was usually a celebration of genuine military success, in which the emperor had himself taken part.127 Thus Claudius argued that only the conquest of Britain could bring a proper triumph, for triumphs were earned only in victories over unconquered peoples and kingdoms.128 Between 31 BC and AD 235 there were only thirteen triumphs celebrated by nine emperors, with five holding more than one triumph. It was perhaps a mark ofVespasian’s need to build up prestige quickly for his dynasty that he and his son Titus triumphed for the suppression of the Jewish rebellion of AD 66, rather than a war of conquest.
The ceremony of the triumph was heavily militaristic, with a special breakfast for the soldiers, a speech by the emperor, a full military parade and the acclamation of the emperor as general. There followed the parade of the spoils of war, with a pictorial account of the campaign carried on tableaux, and then the public execution of the enemy leader. The triumph brought emperor and soldiers together in their most honourable function of waging war for the good of Rome, and presented the emperor as a great military leader, the directing force of the campaign. However, the ceremonies also involved the senate and equites, and the whole people had a chance to view the spectacle.129 The high point of the day was undoubtedly the personal appearance of the emperor. Tertullian, writing in the third century ad, thought that ‘in that most exalted chariot’ he was at the very height of his glory, and the golden triumphal chariot also impressed the Greek sophist Philostratus.130 The coming together of the emperor and the whole Roman people in celebration is brought out by Josephus in his vivid account of the triumph of Vespasian and Titus over his own people: ‘All that day the city of Rome celebrated the victory in the campaign against its enemies, the end of civil war, and the beginning of hopes for a happy future.’131 Here we see how the military presentation of a Roman victory blended in with political ideology.
Emperors astutely managed and exploited the popular acclaim and publicity associated with military ceremonies by staging gladiatorial and other shows and making a great public holiday. After the Dacian Wars, Trajan arranged spectacles lasting for 123 days in which approximately 11,000 animals were killed and 10,000 gladiators fought.132 Septimius Severus celebrated his victory against the Parthians with distributions of money to the people, and seven days of elaborate games and spectacles.133 Gradually, more military ceremonies were revived or invented, where the emperor could be in public view. Whereas Augustus had preferred to enter and leave the city discreetly, by the late second century the arrival (adventio) or departure (profectio) of the emperor was a formal military procession, celebrated on coins and sculpture.134 Already in the Julio-Claudian era special events were staged to emphasize the emperor’s military success and the power of Rome. Claudius displayed two kings captured in war: Mithridates of the Bosphorus and the British king Caratacus.135 According to Tacitus, Caratacus inspired real public interest. The people were summoned ‘as if to a remarkable spectacle’, the praetorians paraded in full armour, Claudius presided in military dress on a high platform; and, when Caratacus and his family were brought in, the emperor formally tried and eventually pardoned him. In ad 66 a similar spectacle was staged at which Nero crowned Tiridates king of Armenia. There was a parade of soldiers in full armour with their military standards, and then Nero in triumphal dress welcomed Tiridates in the presence of the senators and the people drawn up in ranks, and was acclaimed general with a great roar. He then made a speech and an interpreter translated Tiridates’ reply. Although the Romans had won no substantial victories in the east, the imperial imagery was again of Roman power and the emperor’s military splendour. Even writers normally hostile to Nero spoke of a magnificent event.136
These celebrations and spectacles of course took place in Rome but, like coins, imperial names and titles, served to export far and wide around the provinces news of the emperor as a successful war leader. Important men in Roman society traditionally recorded their life and achievements on relatively simple stone inscriptions set up in life and also after death. These monuments usually identified their name, family and tribe, and then set out posts, magistracies and commands held in public life, and often benefactions made to local communities. Emperors, too, belonged to the upper classes, and inscribed stones became another expression of imperial ideology, over which they had a significant degree of control. Inscriptions were easy to reproduce, and could carry an emperor’s titles, attributes and record of achievement, which were attached to his name whenever it was read out or carved in Rome, Italy, the provinces, and of course in military camps. The inscribing of the full imperial titulature combined a visual and verbal language to express concepts of authority, grandeur and unsurpassed achievement.
Augustus had daringly adopted the battlefield acclamation of imperator (general) as his forename, styling himself Imperator Caesar Augustus, which marked out his unparalleled military achievements.137 From Nero’s time all emperors consistently used this name, which became virtually a designation of power. Augustus also continued to receive acclamations as imperator, in many cases for successes gained by his generals, which were added to his titles and amounted to twenty-one by the end of his reign. Augustus thought highly of these honours: ‘I celebrated two ovations and three curule triumphs, and I was twenty-one times saluted as imperator.’13® Eventually senators found the way to this honour blocked, as Augustus granted it to only a few close friends. The last acclamation as imperator made to a senator was in ad 22.139 Emperors, however, accumulated imperator acclamations throughout the first two centuries. The Flavian dynasty, which came to power disreputably through civil war, amassed fifty-nine between them.140 Pliny in his speech in praise of Trajan (Panegyric) stated the ideal by comparing Trajan to leaders of old ‘on whom battlefields covered with the slain and seas filled with victory conferred the name imperator.141 In practice, the title was now simply a mark of imperial military honour that was often exploited and abused. Claudius had twenty-seven acclamations, but several of these were for the British campaign, although traditionally a commander was acclaimed only once for the same war.142 But when the emperor was present on campaign the acclamation could still be staged with all the Roman flair for spectacle. A scene from Trajan’s column depicts the victorious emperor, accompanied by his officers, addressing his troops at the end of the First Dacian War. The soldiers are drawn up with their standards, and raise their right arms aloft to acclaim Trajan.143
The ‘surname from courage’ (cognomen ex virtute) given to a victorious commander was usually derived from the name of the people he had defeated. Emperors adopted this practice and added the names of defeated peoples to their nomenclature.144 Traditionally, an emperor accepted such a cognomen only if he had taken personal leadership of the military campaign and won a genuine victory. Thus Dio notes that when Trajan captured the Parthian capital Ctesiphon in ad 116 ‘he established his right to the title Parthicus’ (Conqueror of the Parthians).145The formal process for the granting of the honour can be seen from an inscription referring to the same event:
On 20 (or 21) February a despatch decked with laurel was sent to the senate by Imperator Trajan Augustus. For this reason he was named conqueror of the Parthians, and for his safe deliverance a decree of the senate was passed, offerings were made at all the shrines, and games were carried on.146
Senatorial commanders were soon excluded from such honours, which became the personal preserve of the emperor.147 By the second century ad emperors usually took personal charge of all significant military campaigns,148 and these ‘surnames from courage’ became more common. Trajan, for example, held three (Germanicus, Dacicus and Parthicus) and Marcus Aurelius five (Armeniacus, Medicus, Parthicus Maximus, Germanicus, Sarmaticus). The cheapening of the honour meant that emperors had to find something better, and by the late second century the adjective Maximus had appeared as an indication of surpassing achievement. Therefore Parthicus Maximus means ‘Greatest Conqueror of all time of the Parthians’. The cumulative effect of these names was impressive, and physically they will have taken up a lot of space on inscriptions, coming after the emperor’s other names and attributes and before family connections, magistracies, priesthoods, and the all-embracing ‘Father of the Fatherland’ (Pater Patriae). They were traditional, but also sounded romantic with their evocation of far-off peoples, and brought the usual message of overwhelming Roman power and the personal military leadership of the emperor.
World History
