The Architecture of the Roman Triumph

Monuments, Memory, and Identity

Maggie L. Popkin

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN:
  9781107103573
• eBook ISBN:
  9781316578711
• Topic: Art
• Subtopic: History of Ancient Art

This book offers the first critical study of the architecture of the Roman triumph, ancient Rome's most important victory ritual. Through case studies ranging from the republican to imperial periods, it demonstrates how powerfully monuments shaped how Romans performed, experienced, and remembered triumphs and, consequently, how Romans conceived of an urban identity for their city. Monuments highlighted Roman conquests of foreign peoples, enabled Romans to envision future triumphs, made triumphs more memorable through emotional arousal of spectators, and even generated distorted memories of triumphs that might never have occurred. This book illustrates the far-reaching impact of the architecture of the triumph on how Romans thought about this ritual and, ultimately, their own place within the Mediterranean world. In doing so, it offers a new model for historicizing the interrelations between monuments, individual and shared memory, and collective identities.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-title
• Title page
• Copyright information
• Dedication
• Table of contents
• List of Figures
• List of Tables and Color Plates
• Acknowledgments
• Color Plates
• Introduction: The Triumph, Memory, and ‘‘Being Roman’’ in the City of Rome
• Chapter One The Triumphal Route
• Chapter Two Building Memories: The Era of the Punic Wars (264-146 B.C.)
• Chapter Three Spectacle and Memory: The Reign of Trajan, Optimus Princeps (A.D. 98-117)
• Chapter Four Monuments and Memory Distortion: The Reign of Septimius Severus (A.D. 193-211)
• Conclusion
• Appendix: Victory Monuments Built along the Triumphal Route during the Punic Wars: Topography, Dating, and History
• Notes
• References
• Index