Romans on Parade: Representations of Romanness in the Triumph
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ROMANS ON PARADE: REPRESENTATIONS OF ROMANNESS IN THE TRIUMPH DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfullment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of the Ohio State University By Amber D. Lunsford, B.A., M.A. * * * * * The Ohio State University 2004 Dissertation Committee: Approved by Professor Erik Gunderson, Adviser Professor William Batstone Adviser Professor Victoria Wohl Department of Greek and Latin Copyright by Amber Dawn Lunsford 2004 ABSTRACT We find in the Roman triumph one of the most dazzling examples of the theme of spectacle in Roman culture. The triumph, though, was much more than a parade thrown in honor of a conquering general. Nearly every aspect of this tribute has the feel of theatricality. Even the fact that it was not voluntarily bestowed upon a general has characteristics of a spectacle. One must work to present oneself as worthy of a triumph in order to gain one; military victories alone are not enough. Looking at the machinations behind being granted a triumph may possibly lead to a better understanding of how important self-representation was to the Romans. The triumph itself is, quite obviously, a spectacle. However, within the triumph, smaller and more intricate spectacles are staged. The Roman audience, the captured people and spoils, and the triumphant general himself are all intermeshed into a complex web of spectacle and spectator. Not only is the triumph itself a spectacle of a victorious general, but it also contains sub-spectacles, which, when analyzed, may give us clues as to how the Romans looked upon non-Romans and, in turn, how they saw themselves in relation to others. ii If the question at hand is one of Roman representation, then the sources for our information on triumphs become a further complication. We must consider the motivations of the authors who describe triumphs and configure them into the equation. Whether or not the author is representing the Romans in a particular way through his descriptions must be taken into account when one tries to figure out how the Romans were representing themselves and others. Although the sources of our knowledge of triumphs may cause further complications to that same knowledge, they also make the task at hand infinitely more interesting and worthy of pursuit. Because the triumph brings out so many intricate ideas and questions about the Romans, by analyzing both the specific primary texts and the idea of the triumph in general, we can better appreciate the cultural logic of what it means to be Roman as it is negotiated within the triumph. iii To Susie iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank my adviser, Erik Gunderson, for his intellectual guidance and his support in all areas of this project and in my career as a graduate student in general. I would like to thank Victoria Wohl, for her invaluable comments, which are always sharp and insightful, on the various drafts of my dissertation. I also thank Will Batstone, whose guidance and advise have helped me throughout my graduate career, and who, through our many conversations on my dissertation topic, has taken a dim idea and made it brighter, time and again. v VITA August 8, 1975..................................................Born – Brazil, Indiana 1997...................................................................B.A. Classics, Indiana University 1999...................................................................M.A. Classics, The Ohio State University 1997 – present...................................................Graduate Teaching Associate, The Ohio State University FIELDS OF STUDY Major Field: Greek and Latin vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Abstract............................................................................................................................... ii Dedication.......................................................................................................................... iv Acknowledgments................................................................................................................v Vita..................................................................................................................................... vi Chapters: 1. Introduction.....................................................................................................................1 2. Cicero’s Letters and the Unwritten Rules of the Triumph............................................13 2.1 Cicero’s Lament.........................................................................................15 2.2 What a Triumph Is All About ....................................................................17 2.3 Wanting Without Seeming to Want...........................................................22 2.4 Amicitia and the Triumph ..........................................................................31 2.5 The Trouble with Triumphs and the Trouble with Caesar.........................45 3. Livy, the Triumph, and the Spectacle of Rome ............................................................59 3.1 The Triumph as a Measure of a (Ro)man ..................................................65 3.2 Aemilius Paulus and the ‘Moment’ of the Triumph ..................................79 3.3 The Triumph as a Measure of a (non-Ro)man...........................................89 3.4 The Samnites Victorious: The Triumph Gone Wrong...............................93 vii 4. The Triumph in the Lives of Plutarch .........................................................................100 4.1 The Triumph as the Measure of a (Ro)man.............................................103 4.2 Crassus, Cleopatra, and Caesar: What Happens When Non-Romans Try to Take Over the Triumph............................................................................130 4.3 Aemilius Paulus, Perseus, and Plutarch’s Logic of the Triumph ............139 4.4 Dr. Paulus, or How Perseus Didn’t Learn to Stop Worrying and Hate the Romans ....................................................................................................140 4.5 The Power of Display: What It Means to (Not) Be Roman.....................146 4.6 The Power of Display and the Logic of the Triumph ..............................150 5. Triumphals Transformations: Poets, Love, and the Triumph....................................164 5.1 The Triumph on Stage: Plautus on the Triumph......................................165 5.2 Love Conquers War: Propertius on the Triumph.....................................170 5.3 Love Is War: Ovid on the Triumph..........................................................177 6. Conclusion ..................................................................................................................192 Bibliography ....................................................................................................................200 viii CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION In the most basic sense, the Roman triumph was a military parade that celebrated the victory of a Roman general. Plutarch tells us that Romulus celebrated the first triumph by marching to the Capitoline with the spoils of a conquered enemy king,1 and this ushered in a tradition that lasted, in fact, longer than the Roman empire itself, and well into the reign of the Catholic church.2 The procession consisted of the spoils of battle taken from the defeated enemy, including armor and weapons, and sometimes even sculpture and other artwork taken from the captured cities. The captured enemies themselves were also led in the parade; enemy kings, leaders, and generals were particularly coveted as part of the triumphal spectacle. Following the captives came the triumphing general himself, riding in a chariot, wearing the clothes of a triumphator, and accompanied by a slave, who held a wreath over the general’s head and reminded him of his mortality. The general’s army marched behind him, singing songs and making jokes at their leader’s expense. The whole procession made its way through the streets of 1 Plutarch Life of Romulus 16 2 See Payne (1962) p. 211ff. Cf. Miller (2001), who extends the life of the triumph well into the British Empire by claiming that England appropriated the idea of the triumph for their own purposes. For the triumph as it existed in imperial times, see Barini (1952), Hickson (1991), and Miller (2000). 1 Rome and up the Capitoline hill, where sacrifices and vows were made to Jupiter.3 However, this parade was not just a religious rite, a ceremony in honor of Jupiter. Indeed, at least by the time of the middle-to-late Republic, the triumph was much more important as a social and political spectacle than as a sacred ritual. In fact, the triumph was the social and political spectacle of the Republic, and every Roman with any political ambition at all wanted to play the part of the triumphator. As one might expect, this event, which was such an integral and important part of the Roman world,4 has received a fair amount of scholarly interest over the years. However, much about the triumph is as yet unknown, and probably never will be. For well over a century, scholars have puzzled and argued over the details and origins of the triumph.5 For example, near the turn of the century, two articles appeared in the same journal issue, both stating differing opinions on the triumph: R. Laqueur argued that the 3 For a comprehensive survey of sources for the elemental details of the triumphal ceremony, see Versnel (1970) especially p. 56ff. 4 Versnel (1970) p. 1: “According to Orosius no fewer than 320 triumphs