Dio's Rome, Volume 6: An Historical Narrative Originally Composed in Greek During the Reigns of Septimius Severus, Geta and Caracalla, Macrinus, Elagabalus and Alexander Severus: and Now Presented in English FormCassius Dio Cocceianus
History
Dio's Rome, Volume 6: An Historical Narrative Originally Composed in Greek During the Reigns of Septimius Severus, Geta and Caracalla, Macrinus, Elagabalus and Alexander Severus: and Now Presented in English Form
Cassius Dio Cocceianus
Rome -- History
4. ¶Democracy consists not in all winning absolutely the same prizes,
but in every man's obtaining his deserts. [Footnote: Seemingly an excerpt
from a speech of one of the optimates, though possibly a remark by Dio
himself.] (Mai, p.154.)
[Frag. XXIII]
1[lacuna]. to have happened as the law of triumphs enjoins, about which
Dio Cocceianus writes. And if it seems to you an irksome thing to delve
into books of ancient writers, at all events I will explain cursorily,
as best I may, the entertainments pertaining to the triumph. They cause
the celebrator of the triumph to ascend a car, smear his face with earth
of Sinope or cinnabar (representing blood) to screen his blushes, fasten
armlets on his arms, and put a laurel wreath and a branch of laurel in
his right hand. Upon his head they also place a crown of some kind of
wood having inscribed upon it his exploits or his experiences. A public
slave, standing in the back part of the chariot holds up the crown,
saying in his ear: "See also what comes after." Bells and a whip dangle
from the pole of the chariot. Next he runs thrice about the place in a
circle, mounts the stairs on his knees and there lays aside the
garlands. After that he departs home, accompanied by musicians. (Tzetzes
Epist. 107, p. 86.)
[Therefore the following words of Zonaras (7, 21) correspond nearly
with those of Dio, concerning the popular anger against Camillus on
account of his triumph (according to Plutarch's Camillus, Chap.
7).--Editor]
The celebration of the triumphal festivities, which they called
_thriambos_, was of somewhat the following nature. When any great
success, worthy of a triumph, had been gained, the general was
immediately saluted as imperator by the soldiers, and he would bind
twigs of laurel upon the rods and deliver them to the runners to
carry, who announced the victory to the city. On arriving home he
would assemble the senate and ask to have the triumph voted him. And
if he obtained a vote from the senate and from the people, his title
of imperator was confirmed. If he still held the office in the course
of which he happened to be victorious, he continued to enjoy it while
celebrating the festival; but if the term of his office had expired,
he received some other name connected with it, since it was forbidden
a private individual to hold a triumph. Arrayed in the triumphal dress
he took armlets, and with a laurel crown upon his head and holding a
branch in his right hand he called together the people. After praising
his comrades of the campaign he presented some both publicly and
privately with money: he honored them also with decorations, and upon
some he bestowed armlets and spears without the iron; crowns, too, he
gave to some of gold and to others of silver, bearing the name of each
man and the representation of his particular feat. For example, either
a man had been first to mount a wall and the crown bore the figure of
a wall, or he had captured some point by storm, and a likeness of that
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account