The trophy tableau is a ubiquitous, but often neglected, motif in Roman art consisting of a mannequin of arms and armor with prisoners of war bound at its feet. Surviving examples of such tableaux are seen first on coins, then on the Tomb of Caecilia Metella, and thereafter routinely in imperial sculpture: for example, the trophy-with-captives motif appears on a well-executed relief of a Severan triumphal procession dating to the later second century CE (Museo Nazionale Romano, Palazzo Altemps, Inv. no. 8640); and again on the Arch of Constantine, dating to 315 CE. This article offers a cultural history of the tableau monument type, which I believe to be a Marian innovation connected with his Gallic campaigns. In constructing the history of the tableau I explore a diverse array of evidence including texts, sculpture, and coinage. Particularly, I present a new reading of a remarkable series of Republican coins that reveal the nuances of the monument type’s development. Moreover, I use the history of the tableau as a lens for reexamining the triumphal relief on the monumental Tomb of Caecilia Metella (ca. 25 BCE) on the Via Appia, an artwork that I believe directly impacted the use of the tableau in later monumental sculpture. The traditional reading of the tomb associates the relief with the achievements of the Licinii Crassi, the family of Caecilia Metella’s husband, who was probably a son of the triumvir M. Licinius Crassus. I suggest instead that the relief emphasized the military achievements of Caecilia’s father’s ancient plebian family, the Caecilii Metelli. If this reading is accurate, then it was the Metelli who instituted the increasingly popular trend of using Gallic-looking war materiel to indicate generically “barbarian” foes, an important shift in not only trophy iconography but in the iconography of Roman warfare and conquest in general.