laurel wreath and a branch of laurel in his right hand.  Upon his head they also place a crown of some kind of wood having inscribed upon it his exploits or his experiences.  A public slave, standing in the back part of the chariot holds up the crown, saying in his ear:  “See also what comes after.”  Bells and a whip dangle from the pole of the chariot.  Next he runs thrice about the place in a circle, mounts the stairs on his knees and there lays aside the garlands.  After that he departs home, accompanied by musicians. (Tzetzes Epist. 107, p. 86.)

[Therefore the following words of Zonaras (7, 21) correspond nearly with those of Dio, concerning the popular anger against Camillus on account of his triumph (according to Plutarch’s Camillus, Chap. 7).—­Editor]

The celebration of the triumphal festivities, which they called thriambos, was of somewhat the following nature.  When any great success, worthy of a triumph, had been gained, the general was immediately saluted as imperator by the soldiers, and he would bind twigs of laurel upon the rods and deliver them to the runners to carry, who announced the victory to the city.  On arriving home he would assemble the senate and ask to have the triumph voted him.  And if he obtained a vote from the senate and from the people, his title of imperator was confirmed.  If he still held the office in the course of which he happened to be victorious, he continued to enjoy it while celebrating the festival; but if the term of his office had expired, he received some other name connected with it, since it was forbidden a private individual to hold a triumph.  Arrayed in the triumphal dress he took armlets, and with a laurel crown upon his head and holding a branch in his right hand he called together the people.  After praising his comrades of the campaign he presented some both publicly and privately with money:  he honored them also with decorations, and upon some he bestowed armlets and spears without the iron; crowns, too, he gave to some of gold and to others of silver, bearing the name of each man and the representation of his particular feat.  For example, either a man had been first to mount a wall and the crown bore the figure of a wall, or he had captured some point by storm, and a likeness of that particular place had been made.  A man might have won a battle at sea and the crown had been adorned with ships, or one might have won a cavalry fight and some equestrian figure had been represented.  He who had rescued a citizen from battle or other peril, or from a siege, had the greatest praise and would receive a crown fashioned of oak, which was esteemed as far more honorable than all, both the silver and the gold.  And these rewards would be given not only to men singly, as each had shown his prowess, but were also bestowed upon cohorts and whole armies.  Much of the spoils was likewise assigned to the sharers in the campaign.  Some have been known to extend their distributions even to the entire populace and have gone to expense for the festival and obtained public appropriations:  if anything was left over, they would spend it for temples, porticos or for some public work.