Two Third-Century Triumphal Decennalia (ad 202 and 262)
-
Lukas de Blois
Abstract
This paper is about two third-century celebrations of decennalia, those of the emperors Septimius Severus (202 ad) and Gallienus (262 ad), which both had triumphal characteristics. Severus’ decennalia celebration was combined with Caracalla’s marriage to Plautilla, the daughter of Plautianus, Severus’ praetorian prefect. The combination of the procession, the games, the lavish gifts to people and guard, the extravagant wedding gifts, and the images and legends on gold coins that were issued at this occasion showed to an important set of receivers that Severus and his kin were financially powerful and capable of more generosity than their predecessors had been, and demonstrated how important and powerful the Severan domus divina was. Severus’ triumphal decennalia fitted in well with ancient Roman triumphal traditions and were undoubtedly well adapted to patterns of expectation about victorious imperial rituals in Rome, i.e. in the show-case of eternal Roman potential for victory. The lavish spending of money came on top of other financial outlays such as a doubling of the soldiers’ pay and expensive building activities. Severus obtained the means through windfalls in the East (Parthian War etc.), confiscations of the possessions of senators and other rich people who had chosen the wrong side in the civil wars of 193- 197, and a debasement of the silver currency. It is not very clear what Gallienus’ decennalia in actual reality amounted to. Authors of literary sources are either extremely brief about them or ridiculed them as a kind of mock-triumph that summarized and condensed the negative characteristics of Gallienus’ rule. Numismatic evidence does not give much information about the details of Gallienus’ decennalia either. There are some slight indications that Gallienus’ ten-years’ celebration emphasized the consensus universorum, including military loyalty, and some religious notions, not so much his dynasty and the concord within it, expansion of Roman territory, felicitas saeculi, and the material rewards of victory. Times had obviously been changing, and so had patterns of expectation to which emperors wished to relate.
Abstract
This paper is about two third-century celebrations of decennalia, those of the emperors Septimius Severus (202 ad) and Gallienus (262 ad), which both had triumphal characteristics. Severus’ decennalia celebration was combined with Caracalla’s marriage to Plautilla, the daughter of Plautianus, Severus’ praetorian prefect. The combination of the procession, the games, the lavish gifts to people and guard, the extravagant wedding gifts, and the images and legends on gold coins that were issued at this occasion showed to an important set of receivers that Severus and his kin were financially powerful and capable of more generosity than their predecessors had been, and demonstrated how important and powerful the Severan domus divina was. Severus’ triumphal decennalia fitted in well with ancient Roman triumphal traditions and were undoubtedly well adapted to patterns of expectation about victorious imperial rituals in Rome, i.e. in the show-case of eternal Roman potential for victory. The lavish spending of money came on top of other financial outlays such as a doubling of the soldiers’ pay and expensive building activities. Severus obtained the means through windfalls in the East (Parthian War etc.), confiscations of the possessions of senators and other rich people who had chosen the wrong side in the civil wars of 193- 197, and a debasement of the silver currency. It is not very clear what Gallienus’ decennalia in actual reality amounted to. Authors of literary sources are either extremely brief about them or ridiculed them as a kind of mock-triumph that summarized and condensed the negative characteristics of Gallienus’ rule. Numismatic evidence does not give much information about the details of Gallienus’ decennalia either. There are some slight indications that Gallienus’ ten-years’ celebration emphasized the consensus universorum, including military loyalty, and some religious notions, not so much his dynasty and the concord within it, expansion of Roman territory, felicitas saeculi, and the material rewards of victory. Times had obviously been changing, and so had patterns of expectation to which emperors wished to relate.
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Frontmatter I
- Inhalt IX
- Abkürzungen XI
- Verzeichnis der Karten XII
- Der römische Triumph in Prinzipat und Spätantike 1
-
Teil 1: Der römische Triumph im frühen Prinzipat
- The Late Republican Triumph 29
- Die Transformation des Triumphes in augusteischer Zeit 59
- Tracht, Insignien und Performanz des Triumphators zwischen später Republik und früher Kaiserzeit 83
- Die Triumphe der julisch-claudischen Zeit 103
-
Teil 2: Der römische Triumph in der hohen Kaiserzeit
- Josephus’ Portrait of the Flavian Triumph in Historical and Literary Context 125
- Die Dynamik von Herrschaftsdarstellung und Triumphideologie im ausgehenden 1. und frühen 2. Jh. 177
- Sieg und Triumph in der Zeit von Antoninus Pius bis Commodus 215
- Der Triumph im Dienste dynastischer Politik 255
- Die Stadt Rom als triumphaler Raum und ideologischer Rahmen in der Kaiserzeit 283
- Turning Victory into Defeat 317
-
Teil 3: Der römische Triumph im dezentralisierten Imperium
- Two Third-Century Triumphal Decennalia (ad 202 and 262) 337
- Zwischen Severus Alexanders Triumph über die Sāsāniden im Jahre 233 und den Triumphfeierlichkeiten Diocletians und Maximians im Jahre 303 357
- Triumph in the Decentralized Empire 397
- Die Triumphatordarstellung auf Münzen und Medaillons in Prinzipat und Spätantike 419
-
Teil 4: Der römische Triumph in der Spätantike
- Der römische Triumph und das Christentum 455
- Roma tardoantica come spazio della rappresentazione trionfale 487
- The Topography of Triumph in Late-Antique Constantinople 511
- The Decline and Fall of the Ancient Triumph 555
- Indizes (Namen, Orte, Begriffe, triumphale Inszenierungen) 569
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Frontmatter I
- Inhalt IX
- Abkürzungen XI
- Verzeichnis der Karten XII
- Der römische Triumph in Prinzipat und Spätantike 1
-
Teil 1: Der römische Triumph im frühen Prinzipat
- The Late Republican Triumph 29
- Die Transformation des Triumphes in augusteischer Zeit 59
- Tracht, Insignien und Performanz des Triumphators zwischen später Republik und früher Kaiserzeit 83
- Die Triumphe der julisch-claudischen Zeit 103
-
Teil 2: Der römische Triumph in der hohen Kaiserzeit
- Josephus’ Portrait of the Flavian Triumph in Historical and Literary Context 125
- Die Dynamik von Herrschaftsdarstellung und Triumphideologie im ausgehenden 1. und frühen 2. Jh. 177
- Sieg und Triumph in der Zeit von Antoninus Pius bis Commodus 215
- Der Triumph im Dienste dynastischer Politik 255
- Die Stadt Rom als triumphaler Raum und ideologischer Rahmen in der Kaiserzeit 283
- Turning Victory into Defeat 317
-
Teil 3: Der römische Triumph im dezentralisierten Imperium
- Two Third-Century Triumphal Decennalia (ad 202 and 262) 337
- Zwischen Severus Alexanders Triumph über die Sāsāniden im Jahre 233 und den Triumphfeierlichkeiten Diocletians und Maximians im Jahre 303 357
- Triumph in the Decentralized Empire 397
- Die Triumphatordarstellung auf Münzen und Medaillons in Prinzipat und Spätantike 419
-
Teil 4: Der römische Triumph in der Spätantike
- Der römische Triumph und das Christentum 455
- Roma tardoantica come spazio della rappresentazione trionfale 487
- The Topography of Triumph in Late-Antique Constantinople 511
- The Decline and Fall of the Ancient Triumph 555
- Indizes (Namen, Orte, Begriffe, triumphale Inszenierungen) 569
