Triumph And Apotheis In Norman's The Arch Of Titus

Through this reading, Norman states that the Arch of Titus is a narrative memorial recording the Roman triumph and apotheosis. It is so immersive that the spectators can experience the events when they pass through. Further, she claims that there is a close connection between the two spectacles. She argues that the deification of the emperor in the apotheosis is based on his triumph.
Norman makes a convincing argument about the link between the triumph and the apotheosis. She uses textual source, visual evidence, and comparison to solidly support her idea that the emperor’s deification starts from the triumph. To begin with, Norman claims that several triumph elements appears in the funeral. She uses Augustus’s funeral to serve as a reference for Titus’s. According to textual source, in Augustus’s funeral, …show more content…
The similarities between the two spectacles serve as persuasive evidence for their connections. The triumph passes ancestral monuments, linking past, present, and future. While the apotheosis shows the horizontal human axis and the vertical divine one, associating human with deity. Both spectacles move backward and forward through space and time. Also, the orientations of the sculptures on the Arch project the connection between the triumph and the apotheosis. The reliefs of the two spectacles all follow the path of the procession, in opposite directions. Norman makes comparison between the triumph and the apotheosis and finds similarities that bond them together, which makes the argument more convincing.
In addition, Norman uses visual evidence of the Arch of Titus to demonstrate the connection between the triumph and the apotheosis. For example, Titus is dressed in the same tunic and toga in both the triumphal relief and the apotheosis panel. Also, the same eagle is carved on both scenes. The visual evidence serves as the direct source to support Norman’s argument, therefore, it is solid and