Assignment III, CLST 260
Assignment III: Option A
CLST 260, Spring 2015
Due in class March 30th; if you are taking the one week extension you must tell
us by 12 midnight of March 29th
Length: 1,000-1,500. This assignment is worth 15% of your grade.
Plan a Roman triumph.
You have been ordered to plan the triumph of the Emperor Trajan, returning
from victories in Dacia in 105; the plan must be in his hands in one week; the
triumph must take place a week after that. Based on our knowledge of the
Roman triumph and using only the technology of the day, write up your plan
for his triumph. You will want to consult the readings and the reconstructions
of the triumphal route on mapping the Roman triumphal route).
You should include the following elements:
1. Floats: they should have items representing Dacia – and money from the
victory on display, so you will need to know what Dacia produced, its
major towns and rivers (these would be carried in effigy – in the shape of
the defeated gods), and so forth, in order to be able to have the
appropriate floats
2. Images: paintings were carried in the triumph: what will you represent on
yours, if you have them? Statues were also carried.
3. Where Trajan set out from and where he went on his route. (Remember
this needs to be a realistic triumphal route based on what we know of the
Roman triumph. You can’t end your triumph with everyone going for a
swim in the Tiber. They have to end up on the Capitoline Hill.)
4. The army. Where are they? Where will they be marching?
5. The sacrificial animals and the priests.
6. Time allotted for the triumph with break downs for certain parts - not for
every single element but think about how long it will take 50 floats to
travel a kilometre before you decide you can get this all done in four
hours; some triumphs took several days. And remember that you can only
hold a triumph in the light of day – you can’t have one going through the
night, no matter how efficient it may be.
Some other things to consider:
7. You may add other traditional elements (dress, chants, captives, etc.) as
you see fit.
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Assignment III, CLST 260
8. This is for the emperor: if you don’t hand him a good and spectacular
plan, he may feed you to the lions. Or worse. But on the positive side,
your budget is unlimited, although your technology is not.
9. And, speaking of technology, let me repeat: you can only use the
technology available to the Romans of the period. You cannot invent new
technology or steam power, or anything of that sort. Not even if you insist
you’re the Doctor. You do have access to near unlimited man and woman
power, though – people on hand with all sorts of skills. You can also use
those slaves and freedmen and others employed by the imperial
administration to help out.
10. You cannot you knock down any major public buildings, private
residences, or the triumphal gate, no matter how good it would make
your triumph.
11. The format this takes is up to you – you could write out a narrative or lay
out the plan point style, or any other format that seems effective and easy
to follow.
Lastly:
12. List the sources you are basing your elements/figures on. And figure in
that every Roman emperor tries to outdo the ones that went before, so
Trajan would like the most spectacular triumph ever and he figures
you’re the person to do it.
13. Don’t forget citations and references! They are important and leaving
them out will affect your grade.
Useful resources and links:
Here is a link to an ancient account of Trajan’s War in Dacia by Cassius Dio
(Epitome of Roman History). You will be able to get a sense for the main events in
the war and know what you will have to represent.
I recommend consulting Oxford Reference Online (you have access to it through
the UBC library) for information on Roman Dacia. The Wikipedia entry for
Roman Dacia has some issues, even though it looks staggeringly awesome. If you
want to understand the war against Dacia and how that might have been
represented in Rome, look at Trajan’s Column, created to commemorate Trajan’s
victory. (The site linked has multiple images; there’s also a very good app that
takes you around the column.)
This effort from the history network is mainly fascinating because of the
depiction of the ancient Dacians, who clearly were very much into moustache
wax going by this picture. It goes very much into the warfare, rather than give
you much of great use for this project.
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