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Werner Eck, Courtesy of the IAA

THE ULTIMATE WISH of every governor and general was to be awarded the ornamenta triumphalia, or “triumphal regalia,” which allowed him to wear the robes of an imperator, take certain titles and erect triumphal statues. Hadrian rarely awarded the ornamenta triumphalia, but inscriptions found in Dalmatia, Galatia and Italy (such as the one from Aquileia) show that Julius Severus, the commander of the army in Judea, and the governors from Syria and Arabia, Haterius Nepos and Poblicius Marcellus, all received the honor. The bestowing of the ornamenta triumphalia shows that it was a monumental victory for the Romans.