Trophy

Was a memorial of victory erected on the spot where the enemy had turned to flight. Among the Greeks (with the exception of the Maced on i ans, who erected no trophies) one or two shields and helmets of the routed enemy placed upon the trunk of a tree served as the sign and memorial of victory. After a sea-fight the trophy consisted of the beaks and stern-ornaments of the captured ve els, set up on the nearest coast. It was considered wrong to destroy such a trophy, and equally wrong to repair it when it had fallen down through time, for animosity ought not to be perpetual. In early times the Romans never erected trophies on the field, but decorated the buildings at Rome with the spoils of the vanquished. In later times pillars and triumphal arches were employed to commemorate victories. Besides these, in modern times, the humiliation of an enemy is rendered lasting by such devices as the bridge of Jena, of Waterloo, and by the distribution of captured cannon. Morally considered, this practice is no improvement upon the simple and perishable trophies of the ancient Greeks.