As everyone knew, Ancient Rome's triumphal ceremony was a grand armed parade meant to flaunt victory and merit.
It usually began by crossing the Rubicon, passed through the city gates and along the streets from the famous Campus Martius, received the cheers, praise, and worship of all citizens, and finally ended at the Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus atop Capitoline Hill.
During this process, the general at the center of the triumph and the army under his command would raise banners and placards high, displaying to Roman citizens the spoils they had seized from their enemies, including carts loaded with valuables and slaves bound by ropes and shackles.
Some prisoners would also be killed in the temple as sacrifices to the gods.
The rest would be sold off to estate owners, slaveholders, and even gladiatorial schools.
In short, many generals of the Roman Republic had used triumphal ceremonies to expand their influence among the populace, then demand greater power from the Senate, even becoming dictators.
Of course, most of these detailed descriptions of triumphal ceremonies came from records dating to the European Renaissance.
As for what the truth had been, and how much of it was fabrication and falsehood, only heaven knew.
After all, the true heir to the Roman Empire—the Eastern Roman Empire, or the Byzantine Empire—had long since been utterly destroyed by the Ottoman Sultan in the fifteenth century.
Even the Slavs, who had merely married a princess, dared to call themselves Rome's legitimate heirs, while the Ottoman Sultan had given himself titles such as "Caesar of Rome."
As for those "filial descendants" in Europe and the United States, whenever they spoke of the origins of their own history, they inevitably tried to tie it back to Ancient Rome.
Its political significance and cultural influence had long surpassed