Hip, Hip, Hooray! Trivia Quiz

Answer: Romulus

As is common with the recordings of myths and ancient history, the exact year of Romulus' triumph is uncertain and therefore varies between 753-751 B.C. For some reason however, the date seems to have been agreed upon as the first of March, or as the Romans called it, the Kalends of March. So this all raises a bit of a chicken or egg debate. The accepted date for the founding of the city of Rome is the 21st of April 753 B.C., so did the Romans celebrate a victory before their city even existed? It is more likely that the estimation of the historian Plutarch is correct when he attributed this triumph to 752 B.C., the year following the founding of Rome.

Romulus was awarded this triumph after defeating the army of Caenina, a nearby Sabine village. This war was declared by Acron, the King of the Caeninenses, after the Roman men had kidnapped their young, single women so as to make them their wives, an event which has come to be known as the rape of the Sabine women.

Far from the lavish affair they would later become, the Greek historian Dionysius of Halicarnassus imagined the triumph of Romulus to be a simple homecoming celebration. He believed that the returning victors would have been met by their women and children on the outside of the city limits before entering to be confronted with tables laid with food and wine for the men to eat freely from during their procession. Dionysius was critical of the extravagant triumphs staged in his lifetime, (first century B.C.), and referred to them as "histrionic shows" compared to those that had come centuries before.

Answer: 51% approval rating in public opinion polls

In all, four conditions had to met if a person to be awarded a triumph during the Republican period:
1) A significant victory with at least 5,000 enemy casualties.
2) The victor must be an elected magistrate, achieving the position of either dictator, consul or praetor.
3) The soldiers of a civilian army must have returned home once the war had ended.
4) Approval of the Senate.

In the case of condition one, a victory against an army of equal status and power was deemed significant. Therefore, triumphs were not awarded for victories against things such as slave uprisings or makeshift armies of elderly and untrained men. Victories resulting from Roman civil wars were also disregarded. It was after a victorious battle that the soldiers would proclaim their leader 'Imperator' in acknowledgement of his success, another requirement of this first condition. He would be referred to as Imperator right up until the day of his triumph, whereupon he was required to renounce the title before entering Rome. For the sake of consistency, and to avoid confusion with too many titles, I will be using the term Imperator throughout the interesting information sections.

Condition number two was all about the Imperator's status in Roman political society. If you had not attained a high political standing, you would not be considered worthy of a triumph, regardless of how exceptional your victory was. Of course, Rome being Rome, not everything was as simple as this. Sometimes certain circumstances led to exceptions to the rules. Around 81-80 B.C., Pompey the Great was awarded a triumph for his successful military campaign in North Africa. Aged about 24 at the time, Pompey had never held office as a magistrate, and so his request for a triumph was initially refused by the dictator Sulla. It is alleged that Sulla soon changed his mind when Pompey said to him, "You should bear in mind that more people worship the rising than the setting sun."

The third condition of the soldiers returning home once hostilities ended only applied to citizen armies, not those comprised of career soldiers. It was meant as a recognition that the war had been fought and won, and that the men were no longer required for military action (at least not until the next time).

Once the Senators were satisfied that the first three conditions had been met, they could decide whether or not a triumph had been earned. But they were not allowed to make this decision until the Imperator had formally requested a triumph for himself. Those whose efforts were considered not worthy of a triumph were usually compensated with the less spectacular celebrations known as ovations and thanksgivings.

Answer: Horse-drawn chariot

The leading group of the triumph would usually consist of the spoils of victory either being carried on the shoulders of men or being drawn along in wagons. With these would be paintings and three dimensional models of the battles that had been fought and the lands that had been conquered and claimed as Roman territory. Also in this group were entertainers such as musicians and dancers and the animals that would later be used as sacrifices. Bringing up the rear, one would expect to see shackled enemy soldiers and leaders who had been captured during the campaign.

Immediately following the first group, the Imperator, dressed in a purple toga, would stand for the entire procession in a lavishly decorated horse-drawn chariot. If he had them, his young children would travel in the chariot with him, while those old enough would ride beside on horseback. Standing behind the Imperator in the chariot was a slave who, throughout the entire procession, would hold a crown above the head of the Imperator whilst repeating the words "Look behind you. Remember you are a man." This was supposedly to ensure that he did not get carried away by the atmosphere of the celebration and start to thinking that he was being deified. The higher ranking members of the victorious army, and Roman citizens who had been rescued from slavery as a result of battles, comprised the tail end of this group.

Making up the third and final group was the rest of the men of the victorious army dressed in togas and with laurel wreaths adorning their heads. In accordance with Roman law which forbade her armies from entering the city with weapons, the men were unarmed. A highly amusing and entertaining aspect of this final group were the bawdy and risqué songs that they made up and sang that, in a respectful manner, mocked the Imperator. One example is this from the triumph of Julius Caesar in 46 B.C.:

"Romans, watch your wives, the bald adulterer's back home,
You (expletive) away in Gaul the gold you borrowed here in Rome."

Answer: Temple of Jupiter

Whilst not being a definitive representation of the route of the triumph, the following does give a feasible account of what might have transpired on such occasions.

That the beginning of the triumph was outside the walls of the city is a given, most historians agree upon the training fields of the Campus Martius as being this place. Located close to the Tiber River, the fields would have provided ample overnight camping space for the soldiers who were participating in the triumph the following day. The Imperator may have camped here too with his troops, or otherwise spent the night in one of the nearby temples. On the morning of the triumph, the Imperator would have been met by the members of the Senate, whereupon he would renounce this title. He would enter Rome through a triumphal gate, but whether this gate was a permanent fixture for public use or purpose built and only opened for such occasions is not known.

The procession would then set off in a southerly direction through the streets of Rome before reaching, and passing through the Circus Maximus. It would then continue around the southern side of the Palatine Hill and complete its loop circuit of the city by travelling in a north-westerly direction along the Via Sacra, through the Forum, and finally coming to a halt at the foot of the Capitoline Hill, the sight of the Temple of Jupiter.

Upon reaching the Capitoline, the Imperator would alight from his chariot and ascend the hill on foot. The animal sacrifices would be made, usually white bulls, and then the Imperator would enter the temple. Here he would offer a laurel wreath to the deity as a proclamation stating that he harboured no desire to become the king of Rome.

Answer: Fasti Capitolini

Originally erected and displayed in the Forum during the reign of Augustus, (27 B.C.-14 A.D.), these marble monuments were first known as the Fasti Triumphales. They were discovered and excavated in the mid-sixteenth century during an archaeological dig on the site of the Temple of Antoninus and Faustina. Although not all of the fragments have been discovered, a considerable number of them have been reconstructed to give a significant insight into a tradition of pre-empirical Rome, a tradition that continued throughout the era of the Emperors.

The stones are a documentation of triumphs celebrated in Rome, from the first in honour of Romulus, up to that of Lucius Balbus in 19 B.C. The information inscribed into the marble followed the same standard for each entry, i.e., the name of the triumphator, his family lineage, the title of the office he held, the names of the peoples or lands he defeated and the date of the triumph.

When they were first excavated in the 1500's, the fragments of the Fasti Capitolini were moved to the courtyard of the Palazzo dei Conservatori, a museum located on the Capitoline Hill, where they were reconstructed. There are suggestions that this was the responsibility of the artist Michelangelo, but this is unsubstantiated however and probably stems from his involvement in the planning of the Capitoline area around the same time period. The marbles are now displayed in the museum alongside the famous bronze sculpture of the juvenile Romulus and Remus being suckled by a she-wolf.

Answer: It was a naval battle

When Gnaeus Cornelius Scipio Asina was defeated and captured by the Carthaginians in the naval Battle of the Lipari Islands, responsibility for the remainder of the Roman fleet fell to his second in command, Caius Duilius. The ensuing Battle of Mylae brought great success for Duilius and the Romans with around 50 of the reported 130 enemy vessels either captured or destroyed.

Much of the success of the Roman crew, who were inexperienced in naval warfare, can be attributed to their employment of the device known as a corvus. This was a bridge like structure which was levered from the front of the boat to connect with enemy vessels. Sharp spikes on the underside of the corvus would pierce and grip into the wooden decks, allowing for the Roman crew to cross the bridge and fight their enemy in hand to hand combat, a style they were far more experienced and superior at.

The sawn-off beaks from the bows of the Carthaginian vessels were paraded in the triumph of Duilius amongst the spoils of war. They were later used to decorate a column in the Forum to commemorate his victory.

Answer: Asia

Pompey was first awarded a triumph in 81 or 80 B.C. for defeating the coaligned armies of Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus and King Hiarbas of Numidia, (located in modern Northern Africa). Ahenobarbus fled here following the civil war in Rome between Lucius Cornelius Sulla and Gaius Marius. Victorious in this war, Sulla sent Pompey to Africa to overcome the armies that Ahenobarbus had raised.

Triumph number two was awarded to Pompey in 71 B.C. for his victory in the Sertorian War. This was a long and drawn out war lasting from 80 - 72 B.C. It was fought in Hispania, (modern day Spain and Portugal), against a coalition of Iberians and disgruntled Romans led by Quintus Sertorius. Pompey's involvement in this war did not begin until 76 B.C., but even he failed to make significant inroads against the enemy. The decisive turning point came when Sertorius was betrayed and assassinated by his General, Marcus Perpenna Vento. With Perpenna in charge, many soldiers loyal to Sertorius defected to Pompey and assisted in the subsequent swift defeat of Perpenna.

Pompey's third and final triumph for his victory over King Mithradates VI of Pontus, (located in modern Turkey), was the grandest of all. Beginning on his 45th birthday in 61 B.C., the enormous amount of booty captured by the Romans forced them into breaking with the tradition of a one day ceremony and spreading it out over two days. Amongst the spoils were statues made of solid gold, pearls and precious gems, Mithradates' personal throne and sceptre and silver coins worth more than the entire annual tax revenue collected by Rome. Some of the pearls were used to make a portrait of Pompey's head which was also carried in the triumph procession.

Answer: Vercingetorix

Regarded as a national hero in France, Vercingetorix managed to unite many of the rival tribes and factions of Gaul for the purpose of fighting their common enemy, the Julius Caesar led Romans. Although the Gallic Wars began in 58 B.C., Vercingetorix did not come to notice until he raised an army amongst his own tribe, the Arverni, and was declared King by them in 52 B.C. Under his command the united Gallic forces were able to win a number of battles against the Romans and inflict heavy casualties. This success did not last long however and Vercingetorix surrendered to Caesar after being besieged by the Romans at the Battle of Alesia.

Vercingetorix spent the more than five years between his surrender and Caesar's triumph imprisoned. The final, cruel humiliation for him was when he was shackled and paraded through the streets of Rome to the jeers of the populace before being taken away to a private area of the Forum. Here he met the same fate as many of those before him - execution, most likely by strangulation.

Answer: Arch of Titus

The Arch of Titus was built in the early 80's A.D. to commemorate the 71 A.D. triumph of Titus for his victory in Judea the previous year. Titus shared this triumph with his father Emperor Vespasian. The arch was built by Emperor Domitian, the younger brother of Titus, following the death of his sibling in 81 A.D. Standing about fifteen metres high and thirteen metres wide, it was constructed with marble on the Via Sacra, a short distance from the Forum. The arch underwent major reconstruction in the early nineteenth century, but many of the carved reliefs still remain depicting scenes of the triumph and the spoils of war being carried on the shoulders of men.

The Arch of Constantine was built around 315 A.D. honouring his triumph for victory in the Battle of the Milvian Bridge in 312 A.D. It differed from the traditional monument in that it had three arches, rather than one, incorporated into its design. They were arranged with one large arch in the middle, with a smaller arch to each side of this. It also had larger dimensions than the norm of just over twenty metres high and twenty-five metres wide. Much of the arch was constructed from the remnants of a number of other structures that had fallen into disrepair, a practice which was not uncommon, including statues that were recarved to resemble Emperor Constantine.

Trajan's Column was not built in honour of a triumphal procession, but instead to celebrate his victory in the wars fought in Dacia, (modern Romania), in the early second century A.D. Built in 113 A.D., the free standing column comprised twenty-nine separate pieces of white marble with a band of reliefs carved into them, winding their way up the entire rise of the column. The more than 2,000 carved images depicted the story of Trajan's war against the Dacians.

The locations of such monuments has aided historians in piecing together the route of the triumphal procession. Many believe they were built in such locations so that they would be passed or even walked through during such occasions.

Answer: Constantinople

Belisarius was awarded this triumph for the defeat of the Vandals, led by King Gelimer, in North Africa. With Christianity the official religion of Rome by then, the triumph differed in many ways to those held under the old religion. The procession was undertaken on foot rather than in the traditional horse-drawn chariot, and in its setting of Constantinople the final destination was the Hippodrome sporting arena and not some temple dedicated to a pagan god. Neither animal nor human sacrifices were made at the climax of the ceremony, instead Belisarius and the captive King Gelimer prostrated themselves at the feet of Emperor Justinian. The spoils of war were still paraded however, most notably the treasures from the Sack of Jerusalem that had been plundered centuries before by Titus. These treasures had in turn been carried off by the Vandals during the Sack of Rome in 455 A.D.

The reason for some historians not accrediting Belisarius' triumph as being the last is for the simple reason that he was not Emperor. It was decreed during the empirical era that only an Emperor could be granted a triumph. This would mean that the triumph celebrated by Emperor Honorius in 404 A.D. was the last. But again this shows some discrepancy on the part of the Romans when taking into account the joint triumph celebrated by Emperor Vespasian and his non-Emperor son Titus.

While his name is not as easily recognised as those of Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar or Genghis Kahn, Belisarius was one of the most successful generals in history. In an era when the might of the Roman Empire was waning, and both the western and eastern capitals were coming under attack from all sides, during his time as Justinian's number one General, Belisarius managed to increase the size of the Roman borders by almost fifty percent. An extraordinary effort that was certainly worthy of a triumph.

The following is a list of the main sources I have referred to while compiling this quiz:

'The Roman Triumph' by Mary Beard
'The Twelve Caesars' by Suetonius (translated by Robert Graves)
'A History of Rome' by Theodor Mommsen (translated by W. P. Dickson)
'A Short History of the Roman Republic' by W. E. Heitland
'Lives' by Plutarch
'Who's Who in the Roman World' by John Hazel