TRIUMPH (triumphus)  , amongst the ancient Romans, the highest honour bestowed upon a victorious general . Originally it was only granted on certain conditions, which were subsequently relaxed in special cases . Only those who had held the office of dictator, consul or praetor were entitled to the distinction; the war must have been brought to a definite conclusion, resulting in an extension of the boundaries of the state; at least 5000 of the enemy must have been slain; the victory must have been gained over a foreign enemy, victories in civil war or over rebels not being counted . The power of granting a triumph rested with the senate, which held a meeting outside the city walls (generally in the temple of Bellona) to consider the claims put forward by the general . If they were considered satisfactory special legislation was necessary to keep the general in possession of the imperium on his entry into the city . Without this, his command would have expired and he would have become a private individual the moment he was inside the city walls, and would have had no right to a triumph . Consequently he remained outside the pomoerium until the special ordinance was passed; thus Lucullus on his return from Asia waited outside Rome three years for his triumph . The triumph consisted of a solemn procession, which, starting from the Campus Martins outside the city walls, passed through the city to the Capitol . The streets were adorned with garlands, the temples open, and the procession was greeted with shouts of lo triumphe 1 At its head were the magistrates and senate, who were followed by trumpeters and then by the spoils, which included not only arms, standards, statues, &c., but also representations of battles, and of the towns, rivers and mountains of the conquered country, models of fortresses, &c . Next came the victims destined for sacrifice, especially white oxen with gilded horns . They were followed by the prisoners who had not been sold as slaves but kept to grace the triumph; when the procession reached the Capitol they were taken off to prison and put to death . The chariot which carried the victorious general (triumphator) was crowned with laurel and drawn by four horses .

The general was attired like the Capitoline

Jupiter in robes of purple and gold borrowed from the treasury of the god; in his right hand he held a laurel branch, in his left an ivory sceptre surmounted by an eagle . Above his head the golden crown of Jupiter was held by a slave who reminded him in the midst of his glory that he was a mortal man . Last came the soldiers shouting lo triumphe and singing songs both of a laudatory and scurrilous kind . On reaching the temple of Jupiter on the Capitol, the general placed the laurel branch (in later times a palm branch) on the lap of the image of the god, and then offered the thank-offerings . A feast of the magistrates and senate, and sometimes of the soldiers and people, concluded the ceremony, which in earlier times lasted one day, but in later times occupied several . Generals who were not allowed a regular triumph by the senate had a right to triumph at the temple of Jupiter Latiaris on the Alban Mount . Under the empire only the emperors celebrated a triumph, because the generals commanded under the auspices of the emperors (not under their own) merely as lieutenants (legati); the only honour they received was the right of wearing the triumphal insignia (the robes of purple and gold and the wreath of bay leaves) on holidays . After the time of Trajan, when all consuls were allowed to wear the triumphal dress on entering office and in festal processions, the only military reward for a successful general was a statue in some public place . The last triumph recorded is that of Diocletian (A.D . 302) . A naval or maritime triumph was sometimes allowed for victories at sea, the earliest being that celebrated by C . Duilius in honour of his victory over the Carthaginians in 26o B.C .

See

Mommsen, Romisches Staatsrecht (1887), i . 126–136; Marquardt, ROmische Staatsverwallung (1884), ii . 582–593; H . A . Gott, De triumphi romani origins, permissu, apparatu, via (1854); S . Peine, "De ornamentis triumphalibus" (1885), in C . E . Ascherson's Berliner Sludien, ii .