This pathbreaking analysis of Roman political culture in the middle Republic focuses on the concerns of the Roman Senate as it decided whether or not to award a victorious general triumphal honors. Miriam R. Pelikan Pittenger's strikingly original approach illuminates this process by examining several Senate debates as reported by the historian Livy. The conduct of these debates illustrates the competitive ethos in the elite and mirrors creative tensions between the magistrates, the Senate, and the people of Rome. Contested Triumphs shows how Livy dramatized the process of history in the making and vividly demonstrates how it is the struggle itself that remains most vital.