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year. We know little of the character of his cult except at Rome, and even at Rome it has been variously interpreted. He has been explained as a See also:

sun-See also:

god, a god of See also:

wind and See also:

storm, a god of the year and a god of vegetation; and he has been compared with See also:

APOLLO (Gr. 'A2r6XXwv,'Airkkhwv)

Apollo by See also:

ROSCHER, WILHELM GEORG FRIEDRICH (1817–1894)

Roscher (Apollo, and Mars, 1873, and in the See also:

ARTICLE (from Lat. articulus, a joint)

article " Mars " in his See also:

LEXICON

Lexicon of See also:

MYTHOLOGY

Mythology). But in See also:

HISTORICAL

historical times his See also:

CHIEF (from Fr. chef, head, Lat. caput)

chief See also:

FUNCTION

function at Rome was to protect the state in See also:

war, and it is as a god of war that he is known to all readers of Roman literature. So entirely did this characteristic get the better of all others, that his name came to be used as a synonym for bellum; and in the latest and most careful of all accounts of the Roman See also:

religion he is pronounced to have been from first to last a god of war only (see Wissowa, Religion and Kultus der Romer, p. 129 seq.). Until the See also:

time of See also:

AUGUSTUS (a name 1 derived from Lat. augeo, increase, i.e. venerable, majestic, Gr. Ee0avr6s)

Augustus Mars had but two temples at Rome, and both are connected with warlike operations. One ofthese was originally only an See also:

ALTAR (Lat. altare, from alias, high; some ancient etymological guesses are recorded by St Isidore of Seville in Etymologiae xv. 4)

altar; it was in the Campus See also:

MARTIUS, CARL FRIEDRICH PHILIPP VON (1794—1868)

Martius; the exercising-ground of the See also:

army. The other was outside the Porta See also:

CAPENA

Capena, the See also:

GATE

gate through which the army marched on its way to See also:

CAMPAIGNS

campaigns to the See also:

south: here too each year the See also:

EQUITES (" horsemen " or " knights," from eques," horse ")

Equites met in See also:

order to start in procession through the See also:

CITY (through Fr. cite, from Lat. civitas)

city (See also:

DION

Dion. See also:

Hal.

6. 13). Each of these sites was outside the pomerium, and this has been explained to mean that the war-god " must be kept at a distance " (See also:

CARTER, ELIZABETH (1717-1806)

Carter, Religion of Numa, p. 19). But in the See also:

heart of the city there was a See also:

SACRARIUM

sacrarium of Mars in the regia, originally the See also:

king's See also:

house, in which the sacred spears of Mars were kept, and the fact that on the outbreak of war the See also:

consul had to shake these spears, saying as he did it, Mars vigila (" Mars, See also:

wake up!"), shows that the god was believed to reside here in some spiritual sense. If the spears moved of themselves, the See also:

OMEN (a Latin word, either connected with os, mouth, or more probably with auris (Gr. ois, ear; apparently, meaning " a thing heard " or " spoken ")

omen was See also:

BAD, BCD

bad and called for expiation. The ancilia, or sacred See also:

SHIELDS, JAMES (181b-1879)

shields, also formed See also:

PART

part of this symbolic armoury of the Roman state: they were carried in procession by the See also:

SALII

Salii (q.v.) or dancing See also:

WARRIOR

warrior-priests of Mars on several occasions during the month of See also:

March up to the 23rd (tubilustrium), when the military trumpets (tubae) were lustrated: and again in See also:

OCTOBER

October to the 19th (armilustrium), when both the ancilia and the arms of the exercitus were purified and put away for the See also:

winter. During the four months of the Italian winter the worship of Mars seems at a standstill: we have no trace of it in the See also:

CALENDAR

calendar or in Roman literature. His activity is all in the warm See also:

SEASON (0. Fr. seson, seison, mod. saison, Lat. satio, sowing time, the spring, from serere, to sow; in Late Lat. the word is found with its present meaning, the spring being considered as particularly the season of the year)

season, i.e. in the season of warfare. It is only at the end of See also:

FEBRUARY

February that we find indications of the coming force of the Mars-cult in the month which bears his name: See also:

QUIRINUS

Quirinus, who was probably the Mars of the community settled on the Quirinal See also:

Hill, and had his twelve Salii corresponding to those of the See also:

PALATINE (from Lat. palatium, a palace,)

Palatine Mars, held his festival on the 17th of February, and on the 27th was the first festival called Equirria, the second being on the 14th of March. The name indicates See also:

HORSE (a word common to Teutonic languages in such forms as hors, hros, ros; cf. the Ger. ross)

horse-racing; horses were bred and used at Rome chiefly for military purposes, and it is possible to see here, as in the Equirria of the 14th of March, which we know was a festival of Mars (W. W.

See also:

Fowler, Roman Festivals, p. 44), an exercise of the war-horses, accompanied with See also:

SACRIFICE (from Lat. sacrificium; sacer, holy, and facere, to make)

sacrifice to Mars, preparatory to the opening of the season of arms. There is thus abundant See also:

EVIDENCE (Lat. evidentia, evideri, to appear clearly)

evidence, based on the See also:

ancient calendars and the features of the cult, that Mars was all along a deity especially connected with warfare; and it is hardly necessary to add See also:

PROOF (in M. Eng. preove, proeve, preve, &°c., from O. Fr . prueve, proeve, &c., mod. preuve, Late. Lat. proba, probate, to prove, to test the goodness of anything, probus, good)

proof of a less convincing See also:

KIND (O. E. ge-cynde, from the same root as is seen in " kin," supra)

kind, e.g. that the See also:

wolf, his See also:

SPECIAL

special See also:

animal, is a warlike beast, or that Nerio, a See also:

FEMALE

female deity who may anciently have been coupled with him, seems to be etymologically " the strong one," or that he is in See also:

LEGEND (through the French from the med. Lat. legenda, things to be read, from legere, to read)

legend the See also:

FATHER

father of See also:

ROMULUS

Romulus the warlike king and founder of the Roman army, as compared with Numa, who instituted the Roman See also:

law and religion. Enough has been said to show why Mars should have become exclusively a god of war, even if the Roman state in its advance in the See also:

CONQUEST

conquest of other peoples had not given a continual impulse to this aspect of the cult. In See also:

FOUNDING (from Lat. fundere, to pour)

founding his famous See also:

temple of Mars Ultor (the avenger of See also:

Caesar) in the See also:

FORUM (Lat. from foris, " out of doors ")

Forum See also:

AUGUSTI, JOHANN CHRISTIAN WILHELM (1772-1841)

Augusti, Augustus gave a new turn to this worship, and for a time it seems to have been a See also:

RIVAL

rival of that of the Capitoline Jupiter (see Carter, Religion of Numa, p. 174 seq.), and See also:

LATE

late in the See also:

period of the See also:

EMPIRE

empire Mars became the most prominent of the di militares worshipped by the Roman legions. There are however certain features in the Mars cult which make it probable that this god was not entirely warlike in character. He seems, in See also:

early times, at least, to have been also associated with See also:

agriculture; and this is in See also:

HARMONY (Gr. dpµovia, a concord of musical sounds, dpA'ew to join; &plan midi (sc. TeXvil)

harmony with the facts: (I) that the season of arms is also the season of the growth, ripening and harvesting of the crops; (2) that the early Roman community was an agricultural as well as a military one, as is indicated in its religious calendar (Fowler, Roman Festivals, p. 334). Thus Mars was invoked in the ancient hymn of the Arval See also:

BROTHERS, RICHARD (1757-1824)

Brothers, whose religious duties had as their See also:

OBJECT

object to keep off enemies of all kinds from crops and herds (Henzen, Acta Fratr. Arv. p. 26, 1874; See also:

Wordsworth, Fragments and Specimens of Early Latin, p.

385 seq.); and his association here with the See also:

LARES (older form Lases)

Lares (q.v.) proves. that he is not regarded as a war-god who could avert the See also:

RAID

raid of an enemy. Still more striking is the invocation of Mars (with the cult-See also:

TITLE (0. Fr. title, mod. titre, from Lat. titulus)

title See also:

SILVANUS (Lat. silva, wood)

Silvanus) in the yearly See also:

LUSTRATION

lustration of his See also:

LAND

land by the Roman See also:

FARMER, RICHARD (1735–1787)

farmer (See also:

Cato, De re rustica, 141), where it is not a human enemy, but disease, and all unwholesome influences, which the god is besought to avert from the See also:

FARM

farm and land, plantations and flocks. Three times the procession went See also:

ROUND (O. Fr. rond, Lat. rotundus, the Fr. is the source also of Du. rond; Ger., Swed., Dan. and Nor. rond)

round the land, reciting prayers and See also:

DRIVING (from " to drive," i.e. generally to propel, force along or in, a word common in various forms to the Teutonic languages)

driving the victims to be sacrificed, viz. ox, See also:

sheep and See also:

pig (suovetaurilia), representing the farmer's most valuable stock. We can hardly doubt that in the state ceremony of the See also:

AMBARVALIA

Ambarvalia, i.e. the lustratio of the ager See also:

ROMANUS

romanus in its earliest See also:

FORM (Lat. forma)

form, the same god was invoked and the same See also:

RITUAL (from Lat. ritus, a custom, especially a religious rite or custom)

ritual used (Fowler, op. cit. p. 124 seq.). Again in the curious ritual of the sacrifice to Mars of the October horse (Oct. 15: Fowler op. Cit. 241), though the animal was undoubtedly a war-horse, the See also:

head was cut off and decked with cakes, as we are told (See also:

Paul. Diac. 220) ob frugum eventum. Even Quirinus, the form of Mars worshipped in the Quirinal community, is not without an association with agricultural perils, for it was his See also:

FLAMEN (from flare, " to blow up " the altar fire)

flamen who sacrificed the victims at the Robigalia on the 25th of See also:

APRIL

April, when the spirit of the See also:

MILDEW (0. Eng. meledeaw or mildeaw, explained as " meal-dew," cf. Ger. Me/zit/tau, with more probability, as " honey-dew," Goth. melith, honey, cf. Lat. mel, Gr. µEX)

mildew (robigus) was invoked to spare the See also:

corn (Ovid, Fasti, 4.

901 seq.). \See also:

Var and agriculture are thus the two factors of human See also:

LIFE

life and experience which are unquestionably prominent in the cult of Mars, and explain his importance in a community like that of Rome: and there is no need, in a See also:

SHORT, FRANCIS JOB (1857– )

short See also:

account of this religious conception, to determine whether he was by origin a See also:

SOLAR, SOLLER (Lat. solarium, Fr.• galetas, Ital. solaio)

solar deity, a storm-god, or a vegetation-spirit. His name gives us no help, its See also:

ETYMOLOGY (Gr. grvµos, true, and X6yos, "account)

etymology is uncertain (Roscher in Mythological Lexicon, s.v. " Mars," p. 2436). But we are safe in conjecturing that Mars first came into prominence among the Latins and kindred peoples in the course of their See also:

long struggle for settlements among the mountains and forests of Italy. The clearing of primeval woodland, the perils of agriculture from the raids of enemies and of See also:

WILD, JONATHAN (c. 1682-1725)

wild beasts, and from the ravages of disease, are all indicated in the later Mars cult. The wolf and the See also:

WOODPECKER

woodpecker, denizens of the See also:

FOREST

forest, always remained his sacred animals, and were believed in Italian legend to have led the Piceni and See also:

HIRPINI (from an Oscan or Sabine stem hirpo-, "wolf ")

Hirpini to their places of See also:

settlement. Mars is specially associated with the early See also:

FOUNDATION (Lat. fundatio, from fundare, to found)

foundation legends of Italy, as was the See also:

case at Rome: and it was to him that the ter sacrum was dedicated, i.e. the entire produce of a See also:

SPRING (from " to spring," " to leap or jump up," " burst out," O. Eng., springau, a common Teut. word, cf. Ger. springer, possibly allied to Gr. QnrFpxecOac, to move rapidly)

spring, including the See also:

CHILDREN, LAW RELATING TO

children See also:

BORN, IGNAZ, EDLER VON (1742–1791)

born then, who were eventually driven forth from their homes to form new settlements else-where (Roscher in Lex. Myth. 2411). The fierce character of the god, gained no doubt in this period of struggle and danger, never entirely See also:

LEFT

left him.

Even in the hymn of the Fratres Arvales he is the " fierce Mars " (fere Mars), and in the See also:

prayer of Cato's farmer, though he has become " Father Mars," he is Silvanus (q.v.), the dweller in the woodland which surrounded the agricultural clearing. See Roscher in 'Myth. Lex. s.v. 2385 seq.; Wissowa, Religion and Kultus der Romer, p. 129 seq.; See also:

Preller, R6mische Mythologie, ed. See also:

Jordan, i. 332 seq. ; Fowler, Roman Festivals, p. 33 seq. (W. W.

End of Article: MARS (MAYORS, MARMAR, MARSPITER GA MASPITER)

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