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The spolia opima ("rich spoils") were the armour, arms, and other effects that an ancient Roman general stripped from the body of an opposing commander slain in single combat. The spolia opima were regarded as the most honourable of the several kinds of war trophies a commander could obtain, including enemy military standards and the peaks of warships. [1]
For the majority of the city's existence, the Romans recognized only three instances when spolia opima were taken. The precedent was imagined in Rome's mythical history, which tells that in 752 BC Romulus defeated and stripped Acron, king of the Caeninenses, following the Rape of the Sabine Women. [2] In the second instance, Aulus Cornelius Cossus obtained the spolia opima from Lars Tolumnius, king of the Veientes, during Rome's semi-legendary fifth century BC. [3]
The third and most historically grounded occurred before the Second Punic War when Marcus Claudius Marcellus (consul 222 BC) galloped forward beyond his battle line and speared the Celtic warrior Viridomarus, a king of the Gaesatae, before stripping him of his armour on the battlefield. [4]
The ceremony of the spolia opima was a ritual of state religion that was supposed to emulate the archaic ceremonies carried out by the founder Romulus. The victor affixed the stripped armor to the trunk of an oak tree, carried it himself in a procession to the Capitoline, and dedicated it at the Temple of Jupiter Feretrius. [5]
To dedicate the spoils to Jupiter Feretrius, one needed be the commander of a Roman army. Thus, Titus Manlius Torquatus, Valerius Corvus and Scipio Aemilianus, though they all slew enemy leaders in single combat (the first two against Gauls and Aemilianus against a king in Hispania), were not considered to have won the spolia opima. [6]
During the early years of the imperial regime, in 27 BC, M Licinius Crassus (grandson of the triumvir) after victories in Macedonia requested a triumph and right to dedicate spolia opima due to his slaying of an enemy chieftain in hand-to-hand combat. Dedication rights were denied by Augustus. [7] [8] Crassus' illustrious political lineage made him a potential rival to Augustus. While Crassus' triumph was granted, it was required to be a joint triumph with Augustus who may have argued he deserved it due to his also holding imperium in Macedonia. [9]
Nero Claudius Drusus, a Roman general of the first century BC and member of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, sought out Germanic chieftains to face in single combat during his campaigns. Sources suggest that he may have eventually been able to take the spolia opima. [10] [11]
The Roman triumph was a civil ceremony and religious rite of ancient Rome, held to publicly celebrate and sanctify the success of a military commander who had led Roman forces to victory in the service of the state or, in some historical traditions, one who had successfully completed a foreign war.
Nero Claudius Drusus Germanicus, also called Drusus the Elder, was a Roman politician and military commander. He was a patrician Claudian on his birth father's side but his maternal grandmother was from a plebeian family. He was the son of Livia Drusilla and the legal stepson of her second husband, the Emperor Augustus. He was also brother of the Emperor Tiberius, father to both the Emperor Claudius and general Germanicus, paternal grandfather of the Emperor Caligula, and maternal great-grandfather of the Emperor Nero.
The gens Livia was an illustrious plebeian family at ancient Rome. The first of the Livii to obtain the consulship was Marcus Livius Denter in 302 BC, and from his time the Livii supplied the Republic with eight consuls, two censors, a dictator, and a master of the horse. Members of the gens were honoured with three triumphs. In the reign of Augustus, Livia Drusilla was Roman empress, and her son was the emperor Tiberius.
Marcus Claudius Marcellus, five times elected as consul of the Roman Republic, was an important Roman military leader during the Gallic War of 225 BC and the Second Punic War. Marcellus gained the most prestigious award a Roman general could earn, the spolia opima, for killing the Gallic military leader and king Viridomarus in single combat in 222 BC at the Battle of Clastidium. Furthermore, he is noted for having conquered the fortified city of Syracuse in a protracted siege during which Archimedes, the famous mathematician, scientist, and inventor, was killed, despite Marcellus ordering the soldiers under his command not to harm him. Marcus Claudius Marcellus died in battle in 208 BC, leaving behind a legacy of military conquests and a reinvigorated Roman legend of the spolia opima.
The gens Claudia, sometimes written Clodia, was one of the most prominent patrician houses at ancient Rome. The gens traced its origin to the earliest days of the Roman Republic. The first of the Claudii to obtain the consulship was Appius Claudius Sabinus Regillensis, in 495 BC, and from that time its members frequently held the highest offices of the state, both under the Republic and in imperial times.
The equites constituted the second of the property-based classes of ancient Rome, ranking below the senatorial class. A member of the equestrian order was known as an eques.
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Publius Valerius Poplicola or Publicola was one of four Roman aristocrats who led the overthrow of the monarchy, and became a Roman consul, the colleague of Lucius Junius Brutus in 509 BC, traditionally considered the first year of the Roman Republic.
Marcus Livius Salinator was a Roman general and politician who fought in the Second Punic War, most notably during the Battle of the Metaurus.
The Forum of Augustus is one of the Imperial fora of Rome, Italy, built by Augustus. It includes the Temple of Mars Ultor. The incomplete forum and its temple were inaugurated in 2 BC, 40 years after they were first vowed.
Lars Tolumnius was the most famous king of the wealthy Etruscan city-state of Veii. He is best remembered for instigating, and decisively losing, a war with the neighboring Roman Republic.
The Roman–Etruscan Wars, also known as the Etruscan Wars or the Etruscan–Roman Wars, were a series of wars fought between ancient Rome and the Etruscans. Information about many of the wars is limited, particularly those in the early parts of Rome's history, and in large part is known from ancient texts alone. The conquest of Etruria was completed in 265–264 BC.
Caenina was a town nearby ancient Rome, in Latium.
Aulus Cornelius Cossus was a Roman general in the early Republic. He is famous for being the second Roman, after Romulus, to be awarded the spolia opima, Rome's highest military honour, for killing the commander of an enemy army in single combat. Only three Romans ever achieved this feat, but a fourth winner was officially denied the honour by a jealous Consul Caesar Octavianus who insisted the honour was limited exclusively to Roman commanders. Cornelius Cossus proved otherwise.
The Roman–Sabine wars were a series of wars during the early expansion of ancient Rome in central Italy against their northern neighbours, the Sabines. It is commonly accepted that the events pre-dating the Roman Republic in 509 BC are semi-legendary in nature.
The Roman-Aequian wars were a series of wars during the early expansion of ancient Rome in central Italy against their eastern neighbours, the Aequi.
The Temple of Jupiter Feretrius was, according to legend, the first temple ever built in Rome. Its site is uncertain but is thought to have been on the Capitoline Hill.
The Battle of Fidenae was fought in 437 BC between the Roman Republic, led by the dictator Mamercus Aemilius Mamercinus, and the combined forces of Fidenae and Veii, led by Lars Tolumnius.
Aulus Cornelius Cossus Arvina was a Roman politician and general who served as both consul and Magister Equitum twice, and Dictator once in the mid 4th century BC.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location (link){{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)[They] challenged enemy leaders and killed them, but because they had performed these deeds under the auspices of their general, they did not present their spoils as an offering to Jupiter Feretrius.