Marcellus

He had cut the trunk of a slender oak, straight and tall, and fashioned it into the shape of a trophy; on this he bound and fastened the spoils, arranging and adjusting each piece in due order. When the procession began to move, he took the trophy himself and mounted the chariot, and thus a trophy-bearing figure more conspicuous and beautiful than any in his day passed in triumph through the city. The army followed, arrayed in most beautiful armour, singing odes composed for the occasion, together with paeans of victory in praise of the god and their general.

Thus advancing and entering the temple of Jupiter Feretrius, he set up and consecrated his offering, being the third and last to do so, down to our time. The first was Romulus, who despoiled Acron the Caeninensian[*](Cf. the Romulus, xvi. 4-7. ); the second was Cornelius Cossus, who despoiled Tolumnius the Tuscan; and after them Marcellus, who despoiled Britomartus, king of the Gauls; but after Marcellus, no man.

The god to whom the spoils were dedicated was called Jupiter Feretrius, as some say, because the trophy was carried on a pheretron, or car; this is a Greek word, and many such were still mingled at that time with the Latin[*](Cf. the Romulus, xv. 3; Numa, vii. 5.); according to others, the epithet is given to Jupiter as wielder of the thunder-bolt, the Latin ferire meaning to smite. But others say the name is derived from the blow one gives an enemy, since even now in battles, when they are pursuing their enemies, they exhort one another with the word feri, which means smite! Spoils in general they call spolia, and these in particular, opima.