Among the Grecians it was usual to confer honours and rewards upon those who distinguished themselves in battle by valiant and courageous conduct. The ordinary rewards presented to conquerors in all the states of Greece, were crowns, which were sometimes inscribed with the person’s name and actions that had merited them, as appears from the inscription upon the crown presented by the Athenians to Conon. The Athenians sometimes honoured those who had performed great actions with permission to raise pillars, or erect statues to the gods, with inscriptions declaring their victories. Plutarch, however, supposes this to have been a grant rarely yielded to the greatest commanders. Cimon, who commanded the Athenian fleet against the Persians, became master of the city of Eion, in Thrace, and was, on account of his not imitating former commanders, by standing upon the defensive, but repulsing the enemy, and carrying the war into their own country, highly respected and admired by his countrymen, who allowed him, in honour of his success over the enemy, to erect three pillars of stone or marble, each surmounted with the head of Mercury; but though they bore an inscription, Cimon was not permitted to inscribe his name upon them. These pillars were considered by his contemporaries as the highest honour which had then been conferred upon any commander. Various Pillars were erected at Rome in honour of great men, and to commemorate illustrious actions. Thus there were the _Columna Ænea_, a pillar of Brass, on which a league with the Latins was written. The _Columna Rostrata_, the Rostral Column, erected in the Forum, in honour of Duillius, was adorned with figures of ships, and was constructed of white marble. This column is still remaining with its inscription. It was built in honour of a great victory gained by Duillius over the Carthaginian fleet near Lipara, in the first Punic war. Another Pillar was erected by M. Fulvius, the Consul, consisting of one stone of Numidian marble, nearly 20 feet high. But the most remarkable columns were those of _Trajan_ and _Antoninus Pius_. Trajan’s Pillar was erected in the middle of his Forum, and was composed of twenty-four great pieces of marble, but so curiously cemented as to seem but one. Its height is 128 feet. It is about 12 feet in diameter at the bottom, and 10 at the top. It has in the inside 185 steps for ascending to the top, and forty windows for the admission of light. The whole pillar is incrusted with marble, on which are represented the warlike exploits of that Emperor and his army, particularly in Dacia. On the top was a Colossal figure of Trajan, holding in his left hand a sceptre, and in his right a hollow globe of gold, in which his ashes were put, but Eutropius affirms that his ashes were put under the pillar.