Marcellus   

they besieged him. But Marcellus having returned, and the Gaesatae
retiring as soon as they were certified of the death of the king and
the defeat of his army, Milan was taken. The rest of their towns,
and all they had, the Gauls delivered up of their own accord to the
Romans, and had peace upon equitable conditions granted to them.
Marcellus alone, by a decree of the senate, triumphed. The triumph
was in magnificence, opulence, spoils, and the gigantic bodies of
the captives most remarkable. But the most grateful and most rare
spectacle of all was the general himself, carrying the arms of the
barbarian king to the god to whom he had vowed them. He had taken
a tall and straight stock of an oak, and had lopped and formed it
to a trophy. Upon this he fastened and hung about the arms of the
king, arranging all the pieces in their suitable places. The procession
advancing solemnly, he, carrying this trophy, ascended the chariot;
and thus, himself the fairest and most glorious triumphant image,
was conveyed into the city. The army adorned with shining armour followed
in order, and with verses composed for the occasion, and with songs
of victory celebrated the praises of Jupiter and of their general.
Then entering the temple of Jupiter Feretrius, he dedicated his gift;
the third, and to our memory the last, that ever did so. The first
was Romulus, after having slain Acron, king of the Caeninenses: the
second, Cornelius Cossus, who slew Tolumnius the Etruscan: after them
Marcellus, having killed Britomartus, king of the Gauls; after Marcellus,
no man. The god to whom these spoils were consecrated is called Jupiter
Feretrius, from the trophy carried on the feretrum, one of the Greek
words which at that time still existed in great numbers in Latin:
or, as others say, it is the surname of the Thundering Jupiter derived
from ferire, to strike. Others there are who would have the name to
be deduced from the strokes that are given in fight; since even now
in battles, when they press upon their enemies, they constantly call
out to each other, strike, in Latin feri. Spoils in general they call
Spolia, and these in particular Opima; though, indeed, they say that
Numa Pompilius, in his commentaries, makes mention of first, second,
and third Spolia Opima; and that he prescribes that the first taken
be consecrated to Jupiter Feretrius, the second to Mars, the third
to Quirinus; as also that the reward of the first be three hundred
asses; of the second, two hundred; of the third, one hundred. The
general account, however, prevails, that those spoils only are Opima
which the general first takes in set battle, and takes from the enemy's
chief captain whom he has slain with his own hand. But of this enough.
The victory and the ending of the war was so welcome to the people
of Rome, that they sent to Apollo of Delphi, in testimony of their
gratitude, a present of a golden cup of an hundred pound weight, and
gave a great part of the spoil to their associate cities, and took
care that many presents should be sent also to Hiero, King of the
Syracusans, their friend and ally.
When Hannibal invaded Italy, Marcellus was despatched with a fleet
to Sicily. And when the army had been defeated at Cannae, and many
thousands of them perished, and a few had saved themselves by flying
to Canusium, and all feared lest Hannibal, who had destroyed the strength
of the Roman army, should advance at once with his victorious troops
to Rome, Marcellus first sent for the protection of the city fifteen
hundred soldiers from the fleet. Then, by decree of the senate, going
to Canusium, having heard that many of the soldiers had come together
in that place, he led them out of the fortifications to prevent the
enemy from ravaging the country. The chief Roman commanders had most
of them fallen in battles; and the citizens complained that the extreme
caution of Fabius Maximus, whose integrity and wisdom gave him the
highest authority, verged upon timidity and inaction. They confided
in him to keep them out of danger, but could not expect that he would
enable them to retaliate. Fixing, therefore, their thoughts upon Marcellus,
and hoping to combine his boldness, confidence, and promptitude with
Fabius's caution and prudence, and to temper the one by the other,
they sent, sometimes both with consular command, sometimes one as