Por botín militar o botín de guerra se considera a aquellos bienes movibles tomados al enemigo por los soldados con el consentimiento de su general. Entre los pueblos guerreros sumisos a una disciplina severa, el botín era un bien público, cuya inversión dependía de la voluntad del Jefe del ejército. La división de la parte que daba a los soldados se hacia con orden. Entre los Judíos el gran Sacerdote y los Príncipes del pueblo recibían todo lo que se había tomado en la guerra, así de hombres como de bestias y lo dividían por partes iguales entre aquéllos que habían combatido, el resto de la multitud. Separaban un quinto, tanto de hombres como de bueyes, asnos y ovejas que se tomaba de la porción de los combatientes y se enviaba al gran Sacerdote como primicias del Señor. Tomaban también de la parte del resto del pueblo un quinto de hombres, de bueyes, de asnos y de ovejas para los Levitas que guardaban el Tabernáculo. En cuanto al resto de los bienes móviles, lo que cada uno había tomado era suyo; Unusquisque enim quod in praeda rapuerat ipsum erat. Después de la derrota de los Madianitas los Generales y los oficiales particulares del ejército ofrecieron en don al Señor todos los adornos de oro, como brazales, anillos y collares, que hallaron en el botín, (lib. numer. c. 31)

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In ancient Greece and Rome, military victories were commemorated with a display of captured arms and standards. A trophy (from the Greek tropaion) was originally a war memorial assembled from such items on a battlefield. The Roman triumph also displayed these items as well as cultural objects, which later came to be called war trophies. Body parts of slain enemies have sometimes served as trophies since antiquity, in a practice called human trophy collecting. The recovery of Roman eagles taken as trophies by enemy forces sometimes inspired years of added warfare. In more recent times, it has been common for soldiers to return home with souvenirs, such as enemy weapons and flags, while larger military items captured in battle, particularly weaponry such as machine guns and artillery pieces, became the property of the state to which the soldiers responsible for the capture belonged. In the 20th century, the victorious alliance states removed large quantities of property, including cultural objects. After the First World War, the Treaty of Versailles authorized the removal of large amounts of property from Germany, which it termed "reparations". After the Second World War, the Potsdam Conference authorized the removal of certain property from Germany, such as the merchant marine fleet. Germany, during the war, had removed large quantities of property from the countries that it had occupied. In some cases, for example the Soviet "trophy brigades", official looting was euphemised as the taking of "trophies".

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