Spolia
The Roman term for the arms taken from an enemy defeated in single combat, and also for
those portions of the captured armour which were promised by the general to soldiers who
distinguished themselves. The word is not greatly different in meaning from
exuviae, while
praeda covers all kinds of booty, and
manubiae is properly the part that falls to the commanding general. They were
hung up in a temple, with a dedicatory inscription (
Verg.
Aen. iii. 288), or in the vestibule of the house, where they remained,
even if the house passed into other hands. Spolia opīma
were the arms taken from the hostile general by a Roman leader commanding under his own
auspices, and were consecrated to Iupiter Feretrius on the Capitol. This is said to have been
first done by Romulus, who is the traditional founder of the sanctuary of Feretrius (
Livy, i. 10). They were legitimately won on only two subsequent
occasions by Aulus Cornelius Cossus from the king of Veii, and by M. Claudius Marcellus from
the king of the Gaesatae (
Plut. Marc. 8).