Short Rounds

The Spolia opima

In heroic cultures, like the Homeric Greeks or the Plains Indians, one of the highest distinctions a warrior can attain is to strip his enemy's body as a symbol of victory.  Thus in Homer we find numerous instances of clashes over possession of the bodies of the slain.

Among the Romans, the highest military honor was the "spolia opima – splendid spoils", which could only be won by a general who had slain in single combat the opposing commander and then stripped his body of its arms and armor.  When his claim to the spolia opima had been established, the victorious general would ceremonially deposit his trophies in the temple Jupiter Feretrius on the Capitoline hill.  Winner of the spolia opima were permitted certain marks of distinction and public honors.

When the spolia opima was instituted, by Rome's founder, Romulus, it was assumed that a man might win this honor more than once, and a "sliding scale" of distinctions was instituted, much as today soldiers wear a small star on their decorations to indicate a second award.  Despite this assumption, in the long history of Rome, from monarchy to republic to empire, the spolia opima was only claimed three times.

• Romulus (r. 753-717 BC) – Having had their daughters and sisters kidnapped in "the Rape of the Sabine Women" in August of 753 B.C., the Sabine city-states undertook a war against the upstart Romans.  In the ensuing battle, Romulus slew Acron, King of the nearby city of Caenina.  Stripping Acron's corpse, Romulus subsequently built the temple of Jupiter Feretrius and solemnly deposited his trophies.
• Aulus Cornelius Cossus (fl. mid-late Fifth Century BC) – During the revolt of Fidenae and several other allied cities against Roman domination in 426 BC, Cossus, consular tribune and master of the horse, slew Tolumnius, King of Veii, an Etruscan city just a few miles north of Rome, and claimed the spolia opima.  
• Marcus Claudius Marcellus (c. 268-208 BC) – One of the most distinguished Romans of all time, as consul in 222 BC, defeated the Gallic Gaesatae in the Battle of Clastidium, a Roman outpost just south of the Po, slaying their king, Viridomarus in single combat, claiming the spolia opima.  Marcellus ultimately held the consulship five times, was the conqueror of Syracuse, in Sicily, and was killed in action in 208 BC, during the Second Punic War.  

Now it was possible for a Roman commander to defeat his opposite number in single combat and strip his corpse and yet not qualify for the spolia opima.  During the Second Servile War (104-100 BC), a widespread slave revolt in Sicily, the Consul Manius Aquillius (c. 160-88 BC) personally slew Athenion, "king" of the rebels, in single combat in 101 BC, but was denied the spolia opima because slaves were an unworthy foe.

With the end of the Republic, certain honors were no longer awarded, or were reserved for the Emperor, for he was always in command, or for members of the imperial family.  A general not a member of the imperial family was considered to merely be an imperial legate, and had to settle for lesser honors, such as "triumphal ornaments" rather than a triumph, and apparently no one was ever awarded anything in substitution for the spolia opima.. 

Thus it was that when, in 29 BC, Marcus Licinius Crassus (c. 70-10 BC), son of the triumvir killed by the Parthians in 53 BC, slew King Deldo of the Bastarnae, a Germanic tribe living in what is now Moldava, he was granted neither the spolia opima nor a triumph, though he had also added extensive lands in the Balkans to the Empire, because he was acting under the authority of Octavian, then in his fifth consulship

Feeding His Majesty's Navy, The Seven Years' War

By mid-eighteenth century the Royal Navy had already accumulated an impressive record, and during the Seven Years' War (1756-1763) British mastery of the tools of sea power gave won them the maritime primacy that would endure for nearly two centuries.

Much of the credit for this rested on the skills and experience of the "people," the common sailors who manned the fleet.  And those men had to be fed. 

The men on a British warship were fed using the "mess" system.  Four seamen or marines constituted a "mess," as did six soldiers in the event troops were being transported.  One man in each mess was assigned to draw rations from the cooks and serve the mess.

There was a standard weekly ration issue for each mess, as prescribed in some detail by Admiralty regulations.

Some substitution was allowed.  For example, the bread ration, usually hard tack, was occasionally replaced by a flour allocation, so that fresh bread could be baked or for use as a thickener in stews.  The beef and pork were naturally heavily salted, being preserved in brine, though occasionally fresh meat might be issued.  At times fish -- dried, salted, or, rarely, fresh -- might be substituted.  Quality control, preservation methods, and packing being what they were in the age, rotted or spoiled foodstuffs were not uncommon, and hard tack was frequently infested with weevils.  

From time to time, especially when a ship was in port or hard recently sailed, fresh produce might become available.

The principal meal was a mid-day "dinner", usually a thick stew. 

The fare was heavy in fat and sodium, but in eitheenth century terms, it was usually at least as good as what the average poor Briton ate.  It also lacked Vitamin C, which proved to be the primary cause of scurvy.  Shortly after the introduction of the daily grog ration in 1740, however, a little lime juice began to be added to the rum-water mixture, which, supplemented later by a sauerkraut ration, largely rid the fleet of the disease.

Most historians and others who have participated in taste tests of surviving eighteenth cnetury shipboard recipes have reported that the standard fare was palatable, occasionally even tasty, though very salty.