Picturing the Roman triumph: putting the Fasti Capitolini in context.

In 1546, there was a notable discovery in the Roman Forum, in front of the remains of the temple of Antoninus and Faustina (Fig. 1). It was a find to match that of the famous sculpture of Laocoon forty years earlier; (1) and it was no less significant for the understanding (and re-creation) of ancient Rome in the sixteenth century. The story of this discovery follows the classic pattern of the unearthing of the Roman past in the renaissance. It came about by chance digging--for some lime kilns, we are told. Very quickly artists and antiquarians were on the scene, including (or so…