The Roman Triumph

Mary Beard rightly chairs the Classics Department at Cambridge University. This work on the history of Roman triumphs should more properly be described as the ancient psychology behind the hundreds of types of triumphs across a thousand years and scores of cultures. I am stunned that one person has enough knowledge to commit this work to paper in a coherent and enjoyable manner. You will be best served if you have a working knowledge of Roman history because Ms. Beard moves quickly and expects much from her readers.She essentially deconstructs a celebration by the victorious general and, although its' origins are lost to history, handles the Etruscan roots and the eventual Christian hijacking of the ceremony with a keen eye and an even hand. Her sources are almost exclusively the ancient historians themselves. Although I went into the book with the cartoon version of the slave whispering to the general "remember you are only a man" and the idea of booty and prisoners being displayed in a parade, I came away with what I was seeking. An education. The Roman Triumph was the vehicle to go inside the minds of the ancients, as best as possible. Once there the military, practical, religious, petty personal, and propaganda values of the Triumph become much more clear. You will be reading the writings of a mind of the first order. If you are a classics scholar, I am sure you can take issue with this or that idea she proposes throughout the book; but if you are a regular Roman history reader, you have just struck gold.

This must be the definitive study of the Roman triumphs. Scholarly, and yet engrossing an entertaining.

For Mary Beard, Romans are real people. I like that immensely. A monumentally interesting and appealing read.

Lots of interesting info on the Roman triumph, but unfortunately the author gets in the way of her own topic. Statements like "The book will show..." and "I will prove..." belong in the Introduction. Instead, they're all over the place. Phrases such as "Now I'll turn my attention to" and "as we'll see in chapter 9" are littered throughout the book, leaving the reader to feel as though the actual book will, in fact, begin any minute now, we just have a few more previews to get through. I can't stand it when authors continually call attention to themselves like this. Just GET ON WITH IT. Also, whole paragraphs full of rhetorical questions (which historians should we believe? why should we believe them? how do our beliefs color who we end up believing? blah blah blah) put a frequent, and deadly, stop to the narrative. Maybe academicians like this sort of thing, but I don't think the average reader appreciates it. I know I don't. I'm halfway through the book; I'll finish it because of my interest in the subject, and in spite of the author's well-meant but exasperating prose.

This book did not keep my interest. It nit-picked the roman Triumph to death. A continous flow of information would have been helpful. But we stop at each street corner, and nit pick the corner and then proceed a little further, and nit pick some more...I still don't know the how, why or wherefor's of the triumph.

The Roman Triumph. Author: Mary Beard. 448 pages. 2007.I picked this book up at the library while I was browsing for another title. It proved to be an interesting read.The book is not a definitive treatise on what a Roman Triumph would have looked like. Rather this book is a survey of all research related to the topic of the Roman Triumph. The author choose not to provide a word picture of a triumph or to take a stand on what a triumph was, how it operated, its origins, or its meanings and purpose.What you get is a survey of theories and scholarship about the origins, the route, the parade order, the meaning, the history, and the legacy of the Roman Triumph. Some of these theories raise more questions than they answer and in a sense it is up to the reader, provided with the information, to make up their own mind.What I found especially interesting was the history of the Triumph. How what we know about the Triumph has been shaped by historians. Much of what we know as history is either political/cultural propaganda or revisionist history. In a sense it was very Orwellian with the historian using the present to project into the past as a justification for what is present. This use of history was on going through both the Republic and the Empire and clouds our understanding of what a Triumph was and how it worked. This revisionism also clouds our understanding behind the meaning or reason for a Triumph.The meaning of the Triumph is one of the more interesting fields of inquiry. The meaning is every thing from a raucous homecoming celebration much akin in spirit to mummery, to a solemn religious ritual of atonement for blood shed, to a political act of affirmation and many things in between.The book proved thought provoking and I will never think of a triumph in quite the same manner. It calls in to question how I experience and view parades and processions of all types.The book did have some drawbacks. The author had the academic tendency of constantly saying "as we will see in Chapter or later on" and other such habits of the academy. All told a book which provokes more questions then it answers and that was I think its intent.

This is much less of a "popular" book and more a thorough researched review of what is known (and of what is conjectured!). I found it absorbing, but if you expect something like "Pompeii", you may find it heavier going.

Enjoyed

Ce livre, rédigé par une grande érudite de la Rome antique, consiste en une suite d'analyses des différents aspects du triomphe romain. Il renferme par conséquent une multitude de détails sur les critères utilisés aux différentes époques pour accorder - ou refuser- le triomphe au général victorieux, sur les différentes composantes de la parade, et enfin sur la partie finale (et suites éventuelles) de la cérémonie. Le livre est donc très intéressant. Cependant, dans la mesure où il pourrait faire office de thèse de l'enseignement supérieur, il est parfois un peu ardu et exige une grande attention et un grand intérêt de la part du lecteur.

Can't put this book down !.

She writes and speaks with such quirky fluency that it's always a delight to read her work or, for that matter, to see her presenting a TV programme.