ABSTRACT
The traditional parade was given the flavour of a Roman triumph by the inclusion of twelve trumpeters 'portans buccines tournez à la forme antique', and wearing laurel crowns, ushering in the equestrian figures of Honour, Triumph, and the winged figure of Fame, holding a bucina and wearing a costume decorated with tongues. Suceeding triumphal cars contained Hercules Gallicus, Hebe and Lucina, with appropriate attributes; by contrast, most of the inscriptions used on the triumphal route were taken from the Bible. François had written to the city councils of Poitiers and Orleans, instructing them to receive the emperor magnificently, and Poitiers obeyed him to the letter, with arches predominating in an antiquarian triumph. A mention in the accounts of payment for a chariot triomphant suggests that there may have been an attempt to portray a Roman triumph. The dominant architectural feature was the triumphal arch, of which there were as many as seven, in Doric, Corinthian and Composite styles.
