the procession’s original function. For example, a circular course right
around the city, reminiscent of various purificatory ceremonies of lus-
tration, might suggest a similar purificatory purpose for the early tri-
umph (and fit nicely with one strand of ancient scholarship, which sees
the prominence of laurel in the ceremony as connected with its role in
purification).43
But matching up the various passing allusions to the route in ancient
literature to the topography of the city on the ground has proved ex-
tremely difficult. Mapping the triumph is a much more tendentious
process than any of the more self-confident scholarly reconstructions
Constructions and Reconstructions
93
care to hint. I shall not summarize here all the twists and turns of the ar-
guments for and against different routes, as they have been played, re-
played, and sometimes literally re-enacted over the last five hundred
years. I want instead, by looking closely at one or two controversial de-
tails, to reflect on why the apparently simple question “Where did the
triumph go?” has proved so difficult to answer.
This is, once again, a fascinating case study in historical method. It
also raises important issues of conservatism and innovation in the ritual
practice of the triumph, which have implications for Roman ritual cul-
ture more generally. How conservative a ritual was the triumph? How
rigid were the rules or conventions governing its performance? What
does “conservatism” mean in the case of a ceremony carried out over
more than a thousand years, through the streets of a city that was itself
transformed over that period from a rural village of wattle and daub to a
cosmopolitan capital—with all the display architecture, extravagant ur-
ban planning, and squalid slums that go with it?
Every attempt to reconstruct the triumphal route must start from the
account by the Jewish historian Josephus of the triumph of the emperor
Vespasian and Titus in 71 ce. Josephus himself had been a participant in
the Jewish war, had defected to the Roman side, and, if not an eyewit-
ness to the triumph, then was at least drawing on contemporary ac-
counts. His is the only description of a triumphal procession to provide
more than a series of snapshots of the performance and to offer a con-
nected narrative and something approaching a route map for at least the
start of the occasion.
All the soldiery marched out, while it was still night, in proper order and
rank under their commanders, and they were stationed on guard not
at the upper palace but near the Temple of Isis. For it was there that the
emperor and prince were resting that night. At break of day Vespasian
and Titus emerged, garlanded with laurel and dressed in the traditional
purple costume, and went over to the Portico of Octavia. For it was
here that the senate, the leading magistrates and those of equestrian
rank were awaiting their arrival. A platform had been erected in front of
Th e
R o m a n Tr i u m p h
9 4
the colonnade, with thrones of ivory set on it. They went up to these
and took their seats. Straightaway the troops broke into applause, bearing
ample testimony one and all to their leaders’ valor. They were unarmed,
in silken costume, garlanded with laurels. Acknowledging their applause,
although the men wanted to continue, Vespasian gave the signal for
silence.
When it was completely quiet everywhere, he rose, covered most of his
head with his robe, and uttered the customary prayers. Titus prayed like-
wise. After the prayers, Vespasian briefly addressed the assembled com-
pany all together and then sent the soldiers off to the traditional breakfast
provided by the emperors. He himself meanwhile went back to the gate
which took its name from the fact that triumphs always pass through it.
Here he and Titus first had a bite to eat and then, putting on their trium-
phal dress and sacrificing to the gods whose statues are set up by the gate,
they sent off the triumphal procession, riding out through the theaters so
that the crowds had a better view.
At this point Josephus changes focus to enthuse about the displays of
spoils and special stunts in the procession. He does not pick up the route
again until Vespasian and Titus are on the Capitoline, waiting for the
shout that would indicate their celebrity prisoner had been put to death
in the prison (carcer) in the Forum, at the foot of the hill.44
The general area of the start of this procession is clear enough from
Josephus’ description. The Portico of Octavia is firmly located in the
south of the Campus Martius, between the surviving theater of Marcellus
and the theater and porticoes of Pompey; the Temple of the Egyptian
goddess Isis, from which a considerable quantity of Egyptian and
Egyptianizing statuary and bric-à-brac has been unearthed, was some
five hundred meters to the north, just east of the Pantheon. Vespasian
and Titus, in other words, were conducting the preliminaries in the
Campus Martius, outside the pomerium, while the procession proper
presumably moved on its way southward, past the western slopes of the
Capitoline and into the Forum Boarium (the so-called “Cattle Market”;
see Plan). Beyond that, despite all the apparently precise details of
Josephus’ narrative, the locations or movements of the procession are
very hard to pin down. It is to fill that gap, between text and map, that
Constructions and Reconstructions
95
some of the most seductive but unreliable scholarly certainties have been
generated.45
Where, for example, did Vespasian and Titus spend the night, guarded
by the serried ranks of their troops? Josephus’ Greek (just like my trans-
lation) could mean that they lodged in the Temple of Isis. If so, it would
seem a significant choice: a careful allusion to the fact that in the civil
wars of just two years earlier, Titus’ younger brother Domitian was said
to have escaped his opponents thanks to an ingenious disguise as an at-
tendant of the Egyptian goddess.46 What better place for this new impe-
rial team to sleep over than the temple of the goddess whose protection
had saved the young hope of the dynasty?47 Yet the Greek can equally
well mean that Vespasian and Titus spent the night “near the Temple of
Isis.” At this point practical modern logic has often come into play. The
pair of generals, plus their army, would need a good deal of space, more
than the Temple of Isis could possibly provide. Somewhere close by (the
exact location is not absolutely certain) was the so-called villa publica: a building originally connected with the Roman census, used occasionally
to house ambassadors and with surrounding parkland large enough to
hold an army levy.
Neither Josephus nor any other ancient writer mentions the villa
publica in connection with the triumph. But this has not stopped mod-
ern scholars from confidently identifying the villa publica as the place
where the Flavian pair lodged on this occasion. More than that, it
has not stopped them from identifying it as the traditional place where
triumphing generals stayed on the eve of their celebration: the build-
ing “whose function it was,” as one recent authority has it, “to accom-
modate the generals and victorious armies before the triumph.” Another
even imagines the returning general plus army “wait[ing] in the Villa