Dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

1054 SPOLIA. SPORTULA.
riots, standards, beaks of ships andl thile like, which M. Crassus, in the fifth consulship of Octavianus
nmight be preserved and displayed. (See Doeder- (u. c. 29), slew Deldo, king of the Bastarnae, he
lein,;at. L an. vol. iv.. 337; Ramshorn, / Lae t Sy.,was not considere'd to have gained spolia opima
p. 869 H abicht, Sis Iaidwro te bicl, n. 7o5'.) because acting under the auspices of another (Dion
In the heroic ages 1o victory was considered Cass. li. 24; connparo u al.: Max. iii. 2. -~ 6), and
complete unless the conquerors could succeed is Plutarch (llarcel.1 8) expresslyasserts that Ronmain
stripping the bodies of the slain, the spoils thus history up to his own time-afforded but three exobtained being viewed (like scalps uamong the taiples. The first were said to have been won by
North American Indians) as the only unquestion- Romulus fenom Acro, king otf the Caenincnscs. th(u
able evidence of successful valour u and we find in second by Aulus Cornelius Cossus from Lar ToluinHomer tihat vwheA two champions cane foirward to nius king' of the N cientes, the thu'd by 5i. Claudius
contend in' single combat, the niamner in which thie Marcellus from Viridomaris (or Bplrd4apTor as he
body and arms of the vanquished were to be dis- is called by Plutarch), king of the Gaesatae. In
posed of forined tlhe'subject of a' regular compact all these calses, in accordance with the original
between the parties. (Hoin. i. Iii. m 75, &c., xxii. institution, the spoils were dedicated to Jupiter
254, &c.)- Among the Romans, spoils taken in Feretrius. The honours of spolia opima were voted
battle were considered the miost honourable of all to Julius Caesar during his fifth consulship (B. c.
distinctions; to have twice stripped an enemiy, in 44, the year of his death),,but it was not even
ancient times, entitled the soldier to pronmotion pretended that he had any legitimate claim to this
(Val. -a. ii. 7. ~ 14), and during the seconsd distinction. (Dion Cass. xliv. 4.) (The question
Punic wmir, Fabius when filling up the nniuerous with regard to the truie definition of spolia opima
vacancies in the senate caused by the slaughter at is discussed with great learning by Perizonius?
Cannae mid by other disastrous defeats, after ha- Animad. Ilist. c 7) [W. R.
ing selected such as had borne some of the great SPONI)A. [Lscuis, p. 674, b.]
offices of state, namned those next "lqui spolia ex SPO'NDEO. GOuito TOIONES, p. 817, b.]
hoste fixa domi hsaberent, ant civicam coronais SPO'CNGIA. [PICTLRx, p. 905, a.]
accepissent." (Liv. xxiii. 23.) Spoils collected oni SPONSA, SPONSUS. [MCistrao xt!',
the battle field after an engagement, or found in a p. 741, b.]
captured town were eniployed to decorate the tenm- SPONSA'LIA. 1[MXT sI,~m-Zs, p. 741, b.]
pies of the gods, triumphal arches, porticoes, and SPONSOR. [JIu'riRCFssIo, p. 640, b.]
other places of public resort, and sometimes in the SPO~TULA. InthedasofRoman freedom
hour of extrenme iieed served to arm the people clients were in the habit of testifying respect for
(Liv. Xxii. 57, xxiv. 21, x. 47; Val. Max. Yiii. their patron by tlhronging his airiirn at an earl6. ~ 1;Sil. Ital. x. 599), but those which were hour, and escorting him to places of public resort
gained by individual prowess were considered the when he went abroad. As uni acksnowledgment-of
undoubted property of the successful combatant, these courtesies some of the number wmere usually'and were exhibited in the most conspicuous part invited to partake of the eveninig ieal. Afterthe
of his dwvelling (Polyb. vi. 39), being hung up in extinction of liberty the presence of such guests,
the atrium, suspended from the door-posts, or at- who had now lost all political importance, was
raiged in the vestibuium, witlh appLropriate inscrip- soon regarded as an irksome. restraint, while at the
isons. (Liv. x. 7, xxxviii. 43; Cic. Philipp. ifi.. 28; same time mnany of thile noble and wealthy -ere
Suet. Nero, g88; Virg. Ace. ii. 504, iii. 286, unwilling to sacrifice the pompous display of a nuTibull. i. 1.54; Propert. iii. 9. 26; Ovid. Ar. An. merous body of retainers. Hence the practice ias
ii. 743; Sil. Ital. vi. 446.) They were regarded as introduced under the empire of bestowinSg on each
peculiarly sacred, so that even if the house was client, mwhen he presented himself for his morning,old the new possessor was niot permitted to re- visit, a certain portion of.food as a substitute and
move them. (Pin. II. A. xxxv. 2.) A remarkable compensation for the occasional invitation to a
instance of this occurred in the "rostrata doms" regular supper (coeoze recta), and this dole, being
of Pompey, which was decorated with the beaks carried off in a little basket provided for the purof ships captured in his mmar against the pirates; pose, received the name of syqorleda. Hence also it
this house passed into the ihands of Antonius the is ternied by Greek writers on Roman affair
triumvir. (Cic. Philti)p. 1. c.), and was eventually E?7rvov ayrb sraupigog, mvlhich however must not be
inherited by the emperor Gordian, in whlose time confounded smith- the aeruvov a'7rb osrupiaof of
it appears to have still retained its ancient orna- earlier authors, which wvas a sort of pic-nic. [CoExNA,
ments. (Capitolin. Gordian. 3.) But while on tihe p. 304, b.] For the sake of convenience it soon
one hand it was unlawful to remove spoils, so it became common to give an equivalent in money,
was forbidden to replace or relair thenimwhen they the sum established by general usage being a hunhad fallen down or beconie decayed through age dred quadrantes. (Juv. i. 120; -Martial. x. 70, 75.)
(Plutarch, Quiest. Rosi. 37), the object of this Martial indeed often speaks of this as a shabby
regurlation being doubtless to guard against the pittance (eetsstm miselli quetdradu es, iii. 7, compare
frauds of false pretenders. i, 60, iii. 14, x 74), which, homwever, hlie did not
Of all spoils the most important were. the S1polse scorn himself to accept (x. 75), but at the same
sOpiea, a term applied to those only wvhich thile timne does not fitil to sneer at an upstart who encommandei'-in-chief of a IRoman army stripped in a deavoured to distinguish hsimself by a largess to a
field of bttle from the leader of the foe. (Liv. iv. greater amount on his birthday (x. 28). The do.
20.) Festus (s. v. Opi0sea) givesthe sanse clefini- nation in money, however, did not entirely supertion as Livy, but'adds "MhI. Varro nit opima spolia sede the sportula given in kind, for we find in
esse [etiam] si maiipu!aris miles detraxerit dum- Juvenal a lively description of a great man's vestimodo duci hostium," a statement, if correctly bule crowded w ith dependents, each attended by a
quoted, directly at variance with the opinion slave bearing a portable kitchen to receive the
generally received and acted upon. Thus when viands and keep themn hot while they wiere carried