OVATION

An inferior kind of triumph, which, according to the ancient Roman custom, was granted to distinguished military leaders. The name is said to be derived either from ovare {to cry 0! ), the cry of the soldiers; or from ovis, a sheep, the animal sacrificed on such occasions instead of bullocks. According to Dionysius of Halicarna us, the first ovation was celebrated by P. Post hum i us Tubertus (A.c. 503), some years after the expulsion of the kings. Some antiquaries imagine the distinction between the triumph and the ovation to have originally consisted, not in the greater or le degree of honour, but in the latter being strictly appropriated to succe es by which peace was obtained, or to distinguish brilliant achievements in time of peace. Thus we find that ovations were permitted, though triumphs were not, in civil wars. An ovation was celebrated by Mark Antony and Octavius to solemnize their reconciliation. [s. 876]