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"Conjectures and conclusions grow from and around the triumphus like kudzu. It takes the mighty vorpal sword of Mary Beard to clear a path through this jabberwocky jungle, snicker-snack. She stands in the great tradition of myth-puncturing Latin classicists - scholars like Richard Bentley, Basil Gildersleeve, A. E. Housman. or Ronald Syme - when she points out that almost all the established views on the triumph are dubious or plain wrong... Her prose, for all its learning, is jaunty. Her book is, in short, a triumph." - Garry Wills, New York Review of Books "A book that manages to be simultaneously both brilliantly subtle and splendidly swaggering." - Tom Holland, Sunday Times"
- Marc Lambert, Scotland on Sunday, 6 January 2008
"But 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. Beard's brilliant analysis
locates the ritual in the shifting political, social and martial worlds of Rome.
Illuminating moments abound..."
--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
myth and invention? Not much and quite a lot, it turns out. Beard's brilliant analysis
locates the ritual in the shifting political, social and martial worlds of Rome.
Illuminating moments abound..."
--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This is not a book which sets out to describe or explain the institution of the triumph, but rather to interrogate how we 'do' history, especially when all the sources that we rely upon have an agenda of their own. The triumph, then, is used here as an example of the slippery nature of reconstructing an alien culture, which can only be done through others' previous reconstructions.
Beard can be quite eccentric but this is a fascinating book which follows up on some of the discussions she sketched out in her Classics: A Very Short Introduction. I wonder if the negative reviews are the result of a mis-targeting of this books for a 'general' audience when it actually engages with, and is sited within, academic arguments that are of pressing interest to history and classics scholars?
This does include a detailed description of Pompey's great triumph but then goes on to question all the things that we think we know, as much from Hollywood representations as from classical texts.
In sum, then, this is an intelligent and enlightening engagement with the idea of the triumph and what it might mean, and be made to mean, at various points in history. But, as one would perhaps expect from a Classics professor, this is far more than a descriptive 'history' book. Excellent for older undergraduates and postgraduates or anyone interested in the construction of history. But perhaps a bit hollow for anyone looking for the 'reality' or unproblematic facts of the past.
Beard can be quite eccentric but this is a fascinating book which follows up on some of the discussions she sketched out in her Classics: A Very Short Introduction. I wonder if the negative reviews are the result of a mis-targeting of this books for a 'general' audience when it actually engages with, and is sited within, academic arguments that are of pressing interest to history and classics scholars?
This does include a detailed description of Pompey's great triumph but then goes on to question all the things that we think we know, as much from Hollywood representations as from classical texts.
In sum, then, this is an intelligent and enlightening engagement with the idea of the triumph and what it might mean, and be made to mean, at various points in history. But, as one would perhaps expect from a Classics professor, this is far more than a descriptive 'history' book. Excellent for older undergraduates and postgraduates or anyone interested in the construction of history. But perhaps a bit hollow for anyone looking for the 'reality' or unproblematic facts of the past.
17 of 24 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
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'.
22 of 37 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
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.
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.
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