[637] Tac. Ann. iii. 74 “Tiberius ... Blaeso tribuit, ut imperator a legionibus salutaretur, prisco ergo duces honore, qui bene gesta republica gaudio et impetu victoris exercitus conclamabantur.” The earliest instance recorded is that of the elder Scipio Africanus (Liv. xxvii. 19). At the close of the Republic the title might be conferred by the Senate. Cic. Phil. xiv. 4, 11 (to emphasise the fact that Antonius was a public enemy Servilius had proposed supplicationes) “Sed hoc primum faciam, ut imperatores appellem eos, quorum virtute ... periculis ... liberati sumus.” For who, he asks, has not been called imperator within the last twenty years “aut minimis rebus gestis, aut plerumque nullis”? (cf. Cic. ad Att. v. 20, 3).
[638] Dio Cass. xxxvii. 40.
[639] For the consular tribune see p. 114.
[640] An important exception is recorded in Liv. vii. 11 (360 B.C.). Here the consul triumphs after the abdication of the dictator, and the honour is clearly a concession of the latter.
[641] Liv. xxviii. 9 (207 B.C.).
[642] In this case the lesser honour of an “ovation” was sometimes granted (Liv. xxvi. 21; xxviii. 9).
[643] Liv. xxxix. 29 (185 B.C.).
[644] Gell. v. 6; Val. Max. ii. 8, 7. In this case, too, the ovation was sometimes granted, e.g. in the slave-wars of 99 and 71 B.C. (Cic. de Orat. ii. 47, 195; Gell. v. 6). For this reason Caesar’s triumph in 46 was over Gaul, Egypt, Pontus and Africa; that of Augustus in 29 over Dalmatia and Egypt. In neither case was it held over the citizens whom they had crushed.
[645] Val. Max. ii. 8, 1.
[646] Liv. xxxiii. 23; xlii. 21.