Trophy

Trophy (Lat. tropæum; Gr. tropaion, from trepō, 'I put to flight') was a memorial of victory erected on the spot where the enemy had turned to flight. Among the Greeks (with the exception of the Macedonians, 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 vessels, set up on the nearest coast. It was considered wrong to destroy such a trophy, and equally wrong to repair it. In early times the Romans decorated the buildings at Rome with the spoils of the vanquished. Of this practice we have a familiar instance in the rostra or beaks set up in the forum. 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 naming of many streets in Paris (Austerlitz, Jena, Magenta, Solferino, &c.), the Waterloo Bridge in London, the Sedan-festival in Germany, the Russian cannon set up in English towns, &c.