A Roman term meaning "spoils of honor". This originally referred to the arms taken by Roman generals who killed an enemy champion in
single combat. Later, it was applied to any spoils which the commander-in-chief of a
Roman army stripped from defeated foes on the field of battle. Typically this would be a weapon, armor, jewelry or a
symbolic token of an enemy leader. It was customary to dedicate the spolia opima to the temple of
Jupiter Feretrius at
Rome.
Plutarch states in his
Life of Marcellus that spolia opima was taken in single combat only three times in Roman history:
Romulus slew
Acron, King of the
Caeninenses,
Cornelius Cossus slew
Tolumnius the
Etruscan, and
Marcus Claudius Marcellus won the spolia opima by defeating
Britomartus king of the
Gauls in 222 BC.