TRANSVERSAL, a name lately given to a line which is drawn Greeks, who used to erect trophies even after slight advantages; and it sometimes happened that both the belligerent parties, owing to some advantages they had gained, considered themselves entitled to erect trophies (Thucyd. i., 54 ; ii., 92). It was further a practice among the Greeks seldom to erect trophies in any other place than the field of battle, and that immediately after the victory was gained : when an enemy had been conquered at sea, the trophy was erected on the point of the coast nearest to the place where the victory was gained. A trophy in Greece after a victory on land appears to have consisted of a trunk of a tree fixed on some eminence and adorned with the spoils and armour of the vanquished. An inscription usually recorded the names of the conqueror and the conquered, and the whole trophy was dedicated to some divinity. It was customary not to make trophies of
very durable materials, in order not to perpetuate the disgrace of a defeated enemy or to keep up any ill-feeling for too long a period. But this was not always observed. After a naval victory the trophy was usually adorned with the beaks of the captured ships of the enemy, and this custom was adopted by the Romans at an early period. The Romans down to the latter period of the republic never erected any trophies on the field of battle : the spoils of a vanquished enemy were partly distributed among the soldiers, partly dedicated in the temples of the gods, and partly applied as ornaments for other public buildings and places. When however the Romans adopted the custom of raising trophies on the field of battle, they usually consisted of more solid structures than the Greek, such as towers, columns, &c.