Spoils of war

3 passages · search this phrase →

Often appears with: treaties, truces, and peacemaking · conquest, plunder, and captives · timoleon sends news to corinth · the fear of death · temple of concord · roman triumph · public distribution of captives · military discipline and training · friday entry into medina · festivals, games, and spectacle · corinthian dedication of armor · battle of badr

Usually: narrative (3) · reconciliation (1) · detachment (1) · exhortation (1) · praise (1) · reverence (1) · wonder (1)

Quotable

“Ah! unhappy Roman people, to be ground by the jaws of such a slow devourer!” C. Suetonius Tranquillus (trans. Alexander Thomson, rev. T. Forester), The Lives of the Twelve Caesars, Volume 03: Tiberius · wit

“In truth, my dear Tiberius, I do not think, that amidst so many difficulties, and with an army so little disposed for action, any one could have behaved more prudently than you have done.” C. Suetonius Tranquillus (trans. Alexander Thomson, rev. T. Forester), The Lives of the Twelve Caesars, Volume 03: Tiberius · insight

“Remember how thy Lord caused thee to go forth from thy home on a mission of truth, and part of the believers were quite averse to it: They disputed with thee about the truth which had been made so clear, as if they were being led forth to death, and saw it before them.” G. Margoliouth (George), The Koran (Al-Qur'an) · observation

“Whoso shall turn his back to them on that day, unless he turn aside to fight, or to rally to some other troop, shall incur wrath from God: Hell shall be his abode and wretched the journey thither!” G. Margoliouth (George), The Koran (Al-Qur'an) · precept

The Koran (Al-Qur'an) secondary

G. Margoliouth (George) · 610-632 CE (revelations compiled progressively; book published after the prophet’s death)
Book carefully concocted from various sources, and with much extraneous aid, and published as a divine oracle, then it would seem that the author is at once open to the charge of the grossest imposture, and even of impious blasphemy. The evidence rather shews, that in all he did and wrote, Muhammad was actuated by a sincere desire to deliver his countrymen from the grossness of its debasing idolatries-that he was urged on by an intense desire to proclaim that great truth of the Unity of the Godhead which had taken full possession of his own soul-that the end to be attained justified to his mind the means he adopted in the production of his Suras-that he worked himself up into a belief that he had received a divine call-and that he was carried on by the force of circumstances, and by gradually increasing successes, to believe himself the accredited messenger of Heaven. The earnestness of those convictions which at Mecca sustained him under persecution, and which perhaps led him, at any price as it were, and by any means, not even excluding deceit and falsehood, to endeavour to rescue his countrymen from idolatry,-naturally stiffened at Medina into tyranny and unscrupulous violence. At the same time, he was probably, more or less, throughout his whole career, the victim of a certain amount of self-deception. A cataleptic13 subject from his early youth, born-according to the traditions-of a highly nervous and excitable mother, he would be peculiarly liable to morbid and fantastic hallucinations, and alternations of excitement and depression, which would win for him, in the eyes of his ignorant countrymen, the credit of being inspired. It would be easy for him to persuade himself that he was "the seal of the Prophets," > Book of our decrees, until the time when our messengers,7 as they receive their souls, shall say, "Where are they on whom ye called beside God?" They shall say: "Gone from us." And they shall witness against themselves that they were infidels. (56/66)

The passage explains and quotes Sura VIII on war booty (spoils), framing it as God and the apostle’s, and recounting the believers’ departure, God’s promise of angels, and instructions for fighting and discipline at battle.

that he might thereby cleanse you, and cause the pollution of Satan to pass from you, and that he might gird up your hearts, and stablish your feet by it: When thy Lord spake unto the angels, "I will be with you: therefore stablish ye the faithful. I will cast a dread into the hearts of the infidels." Strike off their heads then, and strike off from them every finger-tip. This, because they have opposed God and his…

Plutarch: Lives of the noble Grecians and Romans primary

Plutarch · c. 100 CE (composed over time)
(352/1424)

After the fight, Greeks loot rich spoils, capture Timoleon’s camp, distribute captives publicly and privately, send a victory message to Corinth, and frame the dedication as liberation from Carthaginian bondage.

as they usually employed Africans, Spaniards, and Numidians in their wars, so that if they chanced to be defeated, it was still at the cost and damage of other nations. The Greeks easily discovered of what condition and account the slain were, by the richness of their spoils; for when they came to collect the booty, there was little reckoning made either of brass or iron, so abundant were better metals, and so commo…

The Lives of the Twelve Caesars, Volume 03: Tiberius primary

C. Suetonius Tranquillus (trans. Alexander Thomson, rev. T. Forester) · c. 121 CE
(12/47)

After returning from Germany, Tiberius celebrates a delayed triumph, honors Bato of Pannonia at Ravenna, gives the people a mass dinner, dedicates temples of Concord and Castor and Pollux, and names himself and his brother.

dedicated the temple of Concord [323], and that of Castor and Pollux, which had been erected out of the spoils of the war, in his own and his brother's name. XXI. A law having been not long after carried by the consuls [324] for his being appointed a colleague with Augustus in the administration of the provinces, and in taking the census, when that was finished he went into Illyricum [325]. But being hastily recal…