The Architecture of the Roman Triumph

This book offers the first critical study of the architecture of the Roman triumph ancient Rome's most important victory ritual. Through case studies ranging from the republican to imperial periods it demonstrates how powerfully monuments shaped how Romans performed experienced and remembered triumphs and consequently how Romans conceived of an urban identity for their city. Monuments highlighted Roman conquests of foreign peoples enabled Romans to envision future triumphs made triumphs more memorable through emotional arousal of spectators and even generated distorted memories of triumphs that might never have occurred. This book illustrates the far-reaching impact of the architecture of the triumph on how Romans thought about this ritual and ultimately their own place within the Mediterranean world. In doing so it offers a new model for historicizing the interrelations between monuments individual and shared memory and collective identities.