Roman Triumph (Paperback)

High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The Roman triumph (triumphus) was a civil ceremony and religious rite of ancient Rome. Its origins and development remain obscure: ancient Roman historians placed the first triumph in the mythical past. The triumph publicly celebrated and sanctified the military achievements of an army commander who had won great military successes, or originally and traditionally, one who had successfully completed a foreign war. In the Republican tradition, the triumphing general was ritually elevated to near-divine or near-kingly status for the day of the triumph, and thereafter retained the right to be described as vir triumphalis (roughly, "man honoured with triumph") for the rest of his life. After his death he was represented at the funeral of every descendant by a hired actor wearing his death-mask (imago) and clad in the all-purple, gold-embroidered triumphal toga picta ("painted" toga).