went songs and paeans of victory in honour of the gods and their leader.  Thus he proceeded till he reached the temple of Jupiter Feretrius.  Here he dismounted, and dedicated his spoils, being the third, and, up to our day, the last who ever did so:  first comes Romulus, with the spoils of Acron of Caeninum; second, Cornelius Cossus offered the spoils of Tolumnius the Etruscan; third, Marcellus offered these spoils of Britomartus, the king of the Gauls; after Marcellus, no man.

The god to whom they are offered is called Jupiter Feretrius, according to some, from the trophy being carried upon a feretrum, or bier, as it is called in the Greek tongue, which then was much mixed with the Latin; but according to others, it is an attribute of Jupiter the Thunderer, for the Romans call striking ferire.  Others say that the name comes from striking the enemy; for even now in battle when they are pursuing the enemy they keep shouting, “Feri,” that is, “Strike,” to one another.  The word for ordinary spoils is spolia, but for these spolia opima.  Yet it is said that Numa Pompilius speaks of first, second, and third degrees of spolia opima, ordering the first to be offered to Jupiter Feretrius, the second to Mars, and the third to Quirinus; and that for the first the prize is three hundred ases, two hundred for the second, and one hundred for the third.  But the most common story runs that those spoils alone are spolia opima which are taken at a pitched battle, and first of all, and by the general of the one side from the general of the other.  But of these things enough.

The Roman people were so overjoyed at that victory and the end of the war that they made from the money paid to ransom captives, a golden statue, and sent it to Apollo at Delphi as a thank-offering, and gave a magnificent share of the booty to their allies, and even sent many presents to Hiero the king of Syracuse, their friend and ally.

IX.  When Hannibal invaded Italy, Marcellus was sent with an army to Sicily:  but when the disaster at Cannae took place, where many thousand Romans perished, and only a few fugitives collected at Canusium, it was expected that Hannibal would at once march to attack Rome, as he had cut off the greater part of the army.  Marcellus at once sent a garrison of fifteen hundred men to guard the city, and afterwards, in obedience to a senatus-consultum, went to Canusium, and taking command of the fugitives collected there, led them out of their fortified camp, to show that he would not deliver up the country to the enemy.  The Romans had lost many of their most capable leaders in the wars, and Fabius Maximus, who had the greatest reputation, was blamed by them for sloth and want of enterprise because of his excessive caution in avoiding a defeat.  Thinking, therefore, that he was an excellent general for defence, not for attack, they cast their eyes upon Marcellus, and in order to combine his vigour and daring with the cautious