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Fasti Triumphales

List of Roman generals honoured with a triumph

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The Triumphales were originally engraved on marble tablets, which decorated one of the structures in the Roman forum. They were discovered in a fragmentary state as the portion of the forum where they were located was being cleared to provide building material for St. Peter's Basilica in 1546. Recognized by scholars as an important source of information on Roman history, they were taken to the Palazzo dei Conservatori on the nearby Capitoline Hill, and reconstructed. As part of the collection of the Capitoline Museums, the Fasti Triumphales are one of the most important sources for Roman chronology.

History

The Fasti Triumphales were probably engraved in 18 BC, in order to adorn the Arch of Augustus, which had recently been constructed in the forum. They were contemporary with the Fasti Capitolini, or Capitoline Fasti, a list of the chief magistrates at Rome from at least the beginning of the Republic down to the same period as the Triumphales. Alternately, they may have been built into the wall of the Regia, an ancient building that was reconstructed in 36 BC, which was the official residence of the Pontifex Maximus, and the site where the Annales Maximi, official records of Roman history from at least the fifth century BC down to the second, were stored. The Fasti Capitolini were most likely on the west and south sides of the Regia, and the Triumphales may have occupied part of the south wall.

Both lists were discovered by the scholars Onofrio Panvinio and Pirro Ligorio, as they observed the demolition of ancient structures in the forum by a local company of quarrymen working to obtain building material for St. Peter's Basilica. Some of the stone would be reused in the structure, while other portions would be used to make cement. Recognizing the value of the inscriptions, the two ordered the sinking of new trenches, in hopes of recovering additional fragments. In all, they rescued thirty pieces of the Fasti Capitolini, and twenty-six of the Triumphales, which they brought to the Palazzo dei Conservatori on the instructions of Cardinal Alessandro Farnese. The lists were then reconstructed by Ligorio and Michelangelo.

With additional excavations, the number of fragments of the Triumphales has grown to thirty-eight. The known portions of the fasti were published in the first volume of the Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum in 1863, and together with the Capitolini, they form part of the collection of the Capitoline Museums, where they are displayed in the Sala dei Fasti, the Salon of the Fasti.

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