TROPAEA MARII
MONUMENTA MARII
monuments erected by Marius to
commemorate his victories over Jugurtha and over the Cimbri and
Teutones, which were removed by Sulla, and afterwards restored by
Caesar when aedile (
Veil. ii. 43. 4:
et restituta in aedilitate adversante
quidem nobilitate monumenta C. Marii; Suet. Caes. 1 : tropaea Gai
Mari de Iugurtha deque Cimbris et Teutonis olim a Sulla disiecta restituit;
Prop. iii. 11. 45-46: foedaque Tarpeio conopia tendere saxo /iura dare
et statuas inter et arma Mari). According to Plutarch (Caes. 6:
εἰκόνας ἐποιήσατο Μαρίου κρύψα καὶ Νίκας τροπαιοφόρους ἃς φέρων νυκτὸς εἰς τὸ Καπιτώλιον ἀνέστησεν). Caesar set up these trophies on the Capitol, and
it is probable, although not certain, that they stood there originally
(for a theory that they stood at first in the forum sub novis, based on
Cic. de orat. ii. 266; Plin.
NH xxxv. 25;
Quint. vi. 3. 38, see
Mel. 1908,
354-361). These tropaea have disappeared entirely, and are not to be
confused with the so-called Trofei di Mario, the marble statues now
standing on the balustrade of the Piazza del Campidoglio which were
brought here in 1590 from the
NYMPHAEUM (q.v.) in the Piazza di
Vittorio Emanuele.
Besides these tropaea of the Capitol, there was another set in Rome,
according to Valerius Maximus (vi. 9. 14:
cuius bina tropaea in urbe
spectantur;
ii. 5. 6:
(templum Febris) alterum in area Marianorum
monumentorum; iv. 4. 8: (domus Aeliorum) eodem loco quo nunc sunt
Mariana monumenta). This second set is evidently referred to in the
last two passages, but neither the site of the ara Febris nor that of the
domus Aeliorum is known. The temple of
HONOS ET VIRTUS (q.v.),
built by Marius from the spoils taken from the Cimbri and Teutones, is
sometimes called monumentum Marii (Cic. pro Sest. 116; pro Planc. 78;
de div. i. 59; Schol. Bob. 269, 305 Or.), and has been identified with the
monumenta Mariana of Valerius Maximus, but this is very improbable
(
Jord. i. 2. 44-45;
ii. 520-523; Rodocanachi, Le Capitole 45, 142;
BC 1914, 360-361, 363-364).
