54 JULY/AUGUST 2019feelings about the battles involving Pompey and
his allies. Caesar was mindful of this, especially
during the fourth triumph. According to Ap-
pian, Caesar “took care not to inscribe any Ro-
man names in his triumph (as it would have been
unseemly in his eyes and base and inauspicious
in those of the Roman people to triumph over
fellow-citizens).” He was astute enough to avoid
any mention of Pompey. The former leader re-
mained much loved and Caesar had to watch his
step. Even so, Caesar did allow this campaign to
be represented in posters.
Parading captured foreign enemies before the
populace was enthusiastically welcomed. Tra-
ditionally, they would be presented in chains or
cages before the crowds and then executed. It
had been six years since Vercingetorix’s defeat,
and the Gallic commander had been in prison
ever since. As part of his triumph, Caesar pa-
raded the vanquished leader through the streets
of Rome and then had him executed on Capi-
toline Hill.
Not all of Caesar’s defeated enemies met such
a fate. During the Egyptian triumph, Cleopatra’sA
FTER DEFEATING the sons of Pompey and their supporters
at the Battle of Munda in 45 B.C., Caesar was granted
a fifth triumph in October, but this one was more po-
litically complicated than the others. His previous four
triumphs celebrated wins over outsiders in Gaul, Egypt, Pontus,
and Africa. According to first-century A.D. historian Plutarch, the
fifth triumph “vexed the Romans as nothing else had done. For it
commemorated no victory over foreign commanders or barbar-
ian kings, but the utter annihilation of the sons and the family of
the mightiest of the Romans.” Celebrating the downfall of one of
Rome’s most celebrated generals and his family felt disrespectful
to many. Caesar’s inability to see how poorly this triumph reflected
on him helped hasten his own downfall. Although he was made
dictator for life in early 44 B.C. a few months after the fifth triumph,
Caesar did not have long to enjoy it. Senators who opposed him
and his ambition organized an assassination plot, and Caesar was
murdered five months later that year on March 15.FIFTH AND
FINAL TRIUMPH
THE ROMAN TEMPLE IN CORDOBA, SPAIN, IS NEAR
WHERE CAESAR DEFEATED THE REMNANTS OF POMPEY’S
SUPPORTERS AT MUNDA IN MARCH 45 B.C. THIS VICTORY
WAS CELEBRATED IN HIS FIFTH TRIUMPH.
ALBUM