Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Triumphus

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Rich, Anthony (1849). The illustrated companion to the Latin dictionary, and Greek lexicon. p. vi. OCLC 894670115. https://archive.org/details/illustratedcompa00rich. 

TRIUM'PHUS (θρίαμβος). A triumph, or grand military procession, in which a victorious general and his troops entered the city after the successful termination of an important war, commencing at the porta triumphalis, then passing through the Velabrum and Circus Maximus, along the Via Sacra and Forum up to the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus on the Capitoline hill. It was headed by the entire body of the senate, who went out to meet the troops and conduct them into the city. Next followed the brass band, playing upon trumpets and horns (wood-cuts s. CORNICEN, TUBICEN), who preceded a file of carriages laden with the spoils taken from the enemy, intermixed with portable stages, on which those most remarkable for value or beauty of workmanship were prominently displayed (wood-cut s. FERCULUM, 2.), to attract the observation of the public, whilst the quantity and value of the spoils and the names of the conquered provinces were placarded upon boards affixed to tall poles (wood-cut s. TITULUS, 1.), and carried by the side of the objects described upon them. Then came a band of pipers (TIBICINES) in advance of the victim intended for sacrifice  — a white bull decorated with fillets of wool round the head (wood-cut s. INFULATUS), and a broad band of richly-dyed cloth across its back (wood-cut s. DORSUALIA). Behind the victim walked a body of priests and their attendants with the sacrificial implements. After them the arms, standards, and other insignia of the conquered nations were displayed, immediately in advance of the princes, leaders, and their kindred taken captives in the war, followed by the entire number of ordinary prisoners in fetters. Next came the lictors of the general, in their civic costume, the toga, and with their brows and fasces wreathed with laurel (wood-cuts s. LICTOR and FASCES, 4.), who formed a body immediately in advance of the triumphant general, dressed in his triumphalia, and standing in a circular car drawn by four horses (wood-cut s. CURRUS, 4.). On his brow he wore a wreath of laurel, and behind him in the car stood a public servant, who held over his head a massive crown of gold studded with jewels (wood-cut s. CORONA, 1.). His youngest children were placed in the car with him; whilst those who had attained to manhood rode on horseback beside the car, or upon the horses which drew it. Behind the general marched the superior officers, the Legati, Tribuni, and the Equites, all on horseback; and the procession was finally closed by the entire body of the legions, carrying branches of laurel in their hands, and chaplets of the same shrub round their heads, alternately singing songs in praise of their general, and cutting jokes at his expense. During the course of the route the procession passed under a temporary arch designed for the purpose and erected across the street, which in early times was taken down after the fête; but latterly it was replaced by a permanent structure of marble or stone (wood-cut s. ARCUS, 5.).

2. Triumphus navalis. A public procession in celebration of a great naval victory, the arrangements of which are not represented in any works of art, nor detailed in writings. Liv. xvii. Epit.