Bolívar would enter each capital as a conqueror, on horseback, and would be greeted by “nymphs” (as they were always called) dressed in white, who would present him with garlands. The nymphs were usually recruited from a local brothel. Bolívar’s next step would be to go to whatever congress or legislature was gathered and (as he put it in Lima in 1823) “prostrate myself at the foot of the civil power, to recognize the sovereignty of the nation and manifest my submission to it.” He would hand over his sword, the deputies would hand it back to him, and he would carry on as before. Other generals also went through these pantomimes. At the old university town of Chuquisaca, Bolivia, Antonio José de Sucre was obliged to climb into a red-and-white Roman chariot drawn by 12 young men, then to be taken through the streets hidden behind immense pyramids and obelisks made of cardboard to an “Ionic Temple,” where six nymphs in white recited poetry.

                                                                                                

—Paul Johnson, The Birth of the Modern: World Society 1815-1830