One of the best things about this book is that it critically looks at all the "traditions" surrounding the triumph and finds that much of what we "know" about it is questionable, at best. Prominent among those is the bit about the slave standing behind the triumphing general holding the crown and whispering, "Remember, you are mortal" is stitched together from two or three sources, none of which agree with the others on all points and only two questionable representations in art.

Mary Beard also has a nice bit in discussing the origins of the triumph, pointing out that the Romans had a plethora of theories "Here too we find a much wider range of 'origin accounts' than the cherry-picking practiced by modern scholars usually admit."

A delightful book. The only problem is, that given that it is an uncorrected page proof copy, there is no index.