4.20
Successful in all
directions, the Dictator returned home to enjoy the
honour of a triumph granted him by decree of the
senate and resolution of the people. By far the
finest sight in the procession was Cossus bearing
the spolia opima of the king he had slain. The
soldiers sang rude songs in his honour and placed
him on a level with Romulus. He solemnly dedicated
the spoils to Jupiter Feretrius, and hung them in
his temple near those of Romulus, which were the
only ones which at that time were called spolia
opima prima. All eyes were turned from the chariot
of the Dictator to him; he almost monopolised the
honours of the day. By order of the people, a crown
of gold, a pound in weight, was made at the public
expense and placed by the Dictator in the Capitol as
an offering to Jupiter. In stating that Cossus
placed the spolia opima secunda in the temple of
Jupiter Feretrius when he was a military tribune I
have followed all the existing authorities. But not
only is the designation of spolia opima restricted
to those which a commander-in-chief has taken from a
commander-in-chief -and we know of no
commander-in-chief but the one under whose auspices
the war is conducted -but I and my authorities are
also confuted by the actual inscription on the
spoils, which states that Cossus took them when he
was consul. Augustus Caesar, the founder and
restorer of all the temples, rebuilt the temple of
Jupiter Feretrius, which had fallen to ruin through
age, and I once heard him say that after entering it
he read that inscription on the linen cuirass with
his own eyes. After that I felt it would be almost a
sacrilege to withhold from Cossus the evidence as to
his spoils given by the Caesar who restored that
very temple. Whether the mistake, if there be one,
may have arisen from the fact that the ancient
annals, and the "Linen Rolls" -the lists of
magistrates preserved in the temple of Moneta which
Macer Licinius frequently quotes as authorities -have an A. Cornelius Cossus as consul with T.
Quinctius Poenus, ten years later -of this every
man must judge for himself. For there is this
further reason why so famous a battle could not be
transferred to this later date, namely, that during
the three years which preceded and followed the
consulship of Cossus war was impossible owing to
pestilence and famine, so that some of the annals,
as though they were records of deaths, supply
nothing but the names of the consuls. The third year
after his consulship has the name of Cossus as a
consular tribune, and in the same year he is entered
as Master of the Horse, in which capacity he fought
another brilliant cavalry action. Every one is at
liberty to form his own conjecture; these doubtful
points, in my belief, can be made to support any
opinion. The fact remains that the man who fought
the battle placed the newly-won spoils in the sacred
shrine near Jupiter himself, to whom they were
consecrated, and with Romulus in full view -two
witnesses to be dreaded by any forger -and that he
described himself in the inscription as "A.
Cornelius Cossus, Consul."