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Books : The Roman Triumph
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Rating: 
- Just a big parade
Here is the problem, the sources are two thousand years old and generation upon generation of scholars have tilled the same soil in search of new growth. The roots are the usual suspects, the Roman literary doyens. This is supplemented by new bits of fragmented archaeology. What you have is, more or less, what you are going to get. Classical academic historians must struggle for originality, often cannibalistically devouring each other's work.
The triumph was simply a procession to honour Roman military victors, display the spoils and enhance the individual's prestige getting to the top of the career ladder. It is one of the most enduring - but inaccurately depicted - images of ancient Rome. Hollywood loves it. It was a big parade, rowdy and colourful with plenty of alcohol. Distil the text and obvious aspects emerge. It was an event that provoked fun, resentment as well as respect. There was money to be made from it. The triumph was represented in Roman art, and has captured artistic attention since. However, as Beard says, "there is no reliable modern guide to the triumph during the Roman participates, over the three centuries between the reign of Augustus and the beginning of the Christian empire - and one should probably include the last three centuries BCE as well."
Dr Beard has written a book that seeks to fill this gap. How? At the conclusion of the book, I felt there was enough substantive material for a short essay, 25 pages (the origins of the book are her essay "Triumph of the Absurd" she notes on page 419). One reviewer states " How much do we really know about Rome's supreme honour, and how much is myth and invention? Not much and quite a lot, it turns out." That has not deterred Dr Beard. Her book stretches to 333 pages supported by 84 pages of notes (some 25% of the book is notes, why not have a web page linked to the book, spare the trees, save the planet....!). Apparently, there were 320 triumphs celebrated in Rome with the majority being in the Republic, Emperors were reticent to focus glory on potential rivals.
This is a hard book to finish. Dr Beard makes a virtue of her methodology, saying what she has written is as much about how we know as much as what we know. She tells us just as mathematicians do, she will show her workings. Clever stuff for High Table but this is self-indulgent. Perhaps I fail to see the elegance of her arguments, but for me the Empress has no clothes.
Rating:
- Excellent
Not only well written but interesting and incisive. It is true that knowledge of the Roman period is needed for a full understanding of the text but I feel nothing that is beyond what is possible. I Speak holding A-levels in Latin and Greek but nothing more.
A whole hearted recommendation
Rating:
- Hypothesis - but what else could be done?
Not a book for the faint hearted! A good knowledge of the Republic and the early Empire is essential to enable gain from this work. The evidence for the subject is thin, but the author demonstrates how an understanding of this aspect of Roman culture can be built up through scholarly guesswork. She is carefull to explain how her conclusions are drawn, as well as the little that can be descibed as 'fact'.
- Just a big paradeHere is the problem, the sources are two thousand years old and generation upon generation of scholars have tilled the same soil in search of new growth. The roots are the usual suspects, the Roman literary doyens. This is supplemented by new bits of fragmented archaeology. What you have is, more or less, what you are going to get. Classical academic historians must struggle for originality, often cannibalistically devouring each other's work.
The triumph was simply a procession to honour Roman military victors, display the spoils and enhance the individual's prestige getting to the top of the career ladder. It is one of the most enduring - but inaccurately depicted - images of ancient Rome. Hollywood loves it. It was a big parade, rowdy and colourful with plenty of alcohol. Distil the text and obvious aspects emerge. It was an event that provoked fun, resentment as well as respect. There was money to be made from it. The triumph was represented in Roman art, and has captured artistic attention since. However, as Beard says, "there is no reliable modern guide to the triumph during the Roman participates, over the three centuries between the reign of Augustus and the beginning of the Christian empire - and one should probably include the last three centuries BCE as well."
Dr Beard has written a book that seeks to fill this gap. How? At the conclusion of the book, I felt there was enough substantive material for a short essay, 25 pages (the origins of the book are her essay "Triumph of the Absurd" she notes on page 419). One reviewer states " How much do we really know about Rome's supreme honour, and how much is myth and invention? Not much and quite a lot, it turns out." That has not deterred Dr Beard. Her book stretches to 333 pages supported by 84 pages of notes (some 25% of the book is notes, why not have a web page linked to the book, spare the trees, save the planet....!). Apparently, there were 320 triumphs celebrated in Rome with the majority being in the Republic, Emperors were reticent to focus glory on potential rivals.
This is a hard book to finish. Dr Beard makes a virtue of her methodology, saying what she has written is as much about how we know as much as what we know. She tells us just as mathematicians do, she will show her workings. Clever stuff for High Table but this is self-indulgent. Perhaps I fail to see the elegance of her arguments, but for me the Empress has no clothes.
Rating:
- ExcellentNot only well written but interesting and incisive. It is true that knowledge of the Roman period is needed for a full understanding of the text but I feel nothing that is beyond what is possible. I Speak holding A-levels in Latin and Greek but nothing more.
A whole hearted recommendation
Rating:
- Hypothesis - but what else could be done?Not a book for the faint hearted! A good knowledge of the Republic and the early Empire is essential to enable gain from this work. The evidence for the subject is thin, but the author demonstrates how an understanding of this aspect of Roman culture can be built up through scholarly guesswork. She is carefull to explain how her conclusions are drawn, as well as the little that can be descibed as 'fact'.