Castra Martis ( Bulgarian : Кастра Мартис ) was a Roman fortified garrison ( castra ) in Dacia which became a town and bishopric and remains a Latin Catholic titular see .
88-523: Castra Martis, named after the Roman god of war Mars , on the modern site of Kula (Latin/Italian Cula), in Vidin Province in northwestern Bulgaria , served to protect the road through Vrashka Chuka pass in the western Balkan Mountains . It was important enough in the Roman province of Dacia ripensis to become a suffragan of the provincial capital's Metropolitan Archdiocese of Ratiaria , in
176-405: A stem . Stems are classified by their last letters as vowel or consonant. Vowel stems are formed by adding a suffix to a shorter and more ancient segment called a root . Consonant stems are the root (roots end in consonants). The combination of the last letter of the stem and the case ending often results in an ending also called a case ending or termination. For example, the stem puella- receives
264-443: A case ending -m to form the accusative case puellam in which the termination -am is evident. In Classical Latin textbooks the declensions are named from the letter ending the stem or First, Second, etc. to Fifth. A declension may be illustrated by a paradigm , or listing of all the cases of a typical word. This method is less often applied to Old Latin, and with less validity. In contrast to Classical Latin, Old Latin reflects
352-615: A consonant declension, in the nominative singular, the -s was affixed directly to the stem consonant, but the combination of the two consonants produced modified nominatives over the Old Latin period. The case appears in different stages of modification in different words diachronically. The Latin neuter form (not shown) is the Indo-European nominative without stem ending; for example, cor < *cord "heart". The genitive singular endings include -is < -es and -us < *-os . In
440-506: A divine personification of Mars's power, as such abstractions in Latin are generally feminine . Her name appears with that of Mars in an archaic prayer invoking a series of abstract qualities, each paired with the name of a deity. The influence of Greek mythology and its anthropomorphic gods may have caused Roman writers to treat these pairs as "marriages." The union of Venus and Mars held greater appeal for poets and philosophers, and
528-410: A few masculines indicates the nominative singular case ending may have been originally -s: paricidas for later parricida , but the -s tended to get lost. In the nominative plural, -ī replaced original -s as in the genitive singular. In the genitive singular, the -s was replaced with -ī from the second declension, the resulting diphthong shortening to -ai subsequently becoming -ae. The original form
616-754: A few observances in October, the beginning and end of the season for military campaigning and agriculture. Festivals with horse racing took place in the Campus Martius. Some festivals in March retained characteristics of new year festivals, since Martius was originally the first month of the Roman calendar . Mars was also honored by chariot races at the Robigalia and Consualia , though these festivals are not primarily dedicated to him. From 217 BCE onward, Mars
704-471: A few of his cult titles, such as Mars Grabovius , but the usual offering was the bull, singly, in multiples, or in combination with other animals. The two most distinctive animal sacrifices made to Mars were the suovetaurilia , a triple offering of a pig (sus) , ram (ovis) and bull (taurus) , and the October Horse , the only horse sacrifice known to have been carried out in ancient Rome and
792-616: A focus of electoral activities. Augustus shifted the focus of Mars' cult to within the pomerium (Rome's ritual boundary), and built a temple to Mars Ultor as a key religious feature of his new forum . Unlike Ares, who was viewed primarily as a destructive and destabilizing force, Mars represented military power as a way to secure peace , and was a father (pater) of the Roman people. In Rome's mythic genealogy and founding , Mars fathered Romulus and Remus through his rape of Rhea Silvia . His love affair with Venus symbolically reconciled two different traditions of Rome's founding; Venus
880-406: A force to be propitiated . In his book on farming , Cato invokes Mars Silvanus for a ritual to be carried out in silva , in the woods, an uncultivated place that if not held within bounds can threaten to overtake the fields needed for crops. Mars's character as an agricultural god may derive solely from his role as a defender and protector, or may be inseparable from his warrior nature, as
968-481: A guarantor of treaties, Mars Quirinus is thus a god of peace: "When he rampages, Mars is called Gradivus , but when he's at peace Quirinus ." The deified Romulus was identified with Mars Quirinus. In the Capitoline Triad of Jupiter , Mars, and Quirinus , however, Mars and Quirinus were two separate deities, though not perhaps in origin. Each of the three had his own flamen (specialized priest), but
SECTION 10
#17327733335211056-518: A manner that resembles Ares, youthful, beardless, and often nude. In the Renaissance, Mars's nudity was thought to represent his lack of fear in facing danger. The spear is the instrument of Mars in the same way that Jupiter wields the lightning bolt, Neptune the trident, and Saturn the scythe or sickle. A relic or fetish called the spear of Mars was kept in a sacrarium at the Regia ,
1144-454: A meaning as puella , so Roma, which is singular, and Syracusae, which is plural, have been substituted. The locative plural has already merged with the -eis form of the ablative. The stems of the nouns of the o-declension end in ŏ deriving from the o-grade of Indo-European ablaut . Classical Latin evidences the development ŏ > ŭ. Nouns of this declension are either masculine or neuter. Nominative singulars ending in -ros or -ris syncopate
1232-577: A prelude to war. His cult title is most often taken to mean "the Strider" or "the Marching God", from gradus , "step, march." The poet Statius addresses him as "the most implacable of the gods," but Valerius Maximus concludes his history by invoking Mars Gradivus as "author and support of the name 'Roman'": Gradivus is asked – along with Capitoline Jupiter and Vesta , as the keeper of Rome's perpetual flame – to "guard, preserve, and protect"
1320-416: A previous time, which he called verborum vetustas prisca , translated as "the old age/time of language". In the classical period, Prisca Latinitas , Prisca Latina and other idioms using the adjective always meant these remnants of a previous language, which, in Roman philology , was taken to be much older in fact than it really was. Viri prisci , "old-time men", meant the population of Latium before
1408-640: A rare instance of a victim the Romans considered inedible. The earliest center in Rome for cultivating Mars as a deity was the Altar of Mars ( Ara Martis) in the Campus Martius ("Field of Mars") outside the sacred boundary of Rome ( pomerium ) . The Romans thought that this altar had been established by the semi-legendary Numa Pompilius , the peace-loving successor of Romulus. According to Roman tradition,
1496-459: A short curly beard and moustache. His helmet is a plumed neo-Attic - type . He wears a military cloak ( paludamentum ) and a cuirass ornamented with a gorgoneion . Although the relief is somewhat damaged at this spot, he appears to hold a spear garlanded in laurel , symbolizing a peace that is won by military victory. The 1st-century statue of Mars found in the Forum of Nerva (pictured at top)
1584-420: A somewhat vague term ... Bell, De locativi in prisca Latinitate vi et usu , Breslau, 1889, sets the later limit at 75 BC. A definite date is really impossible, since archaic Latin does not terminate abruptly, but continues even down to imperial times." Bennett's own date of 100 BC did not prevail; rather Bell's 75 BC became the standard as expressed in the four-volume Loeb Library and other major compendia. Over
1672-418: Is among the several gods invoked in the ritual of devotio , by means of which a general sacrificed himself and the lives of the enemy to secure a Roman victory. Father Mars is the regular recipient of the suovetaurilia , the sacrifice of a pig (sus) , ram (ovis) and bull (taurus) , or often a bull alone. To Mars Pater other epithets were sometimes appended, such as Mars Pater Victor ("Father Mars
1760-486: Is depicted as either bearded and mature, or young and clean-shaven. Even nude or seminude, he often wears a helmet or carries a spear as emblems of his warrior nature. Mars was among the deities to appear on the earliest Roman coinage in the late 4th and early 3rd century BCE. On the Altar of Peace (Ara Pacis) , built in the last years of the 1st century BCE, Mars is a mature man with a "handsome, classicizing " face, and
1848-482: Is impermanent. Virility as a kind of life force (vis) or virtue (virtus) is an essential characteristic of Mars. As an agricultural guardian, he directs his energies toward creating conditions that allow crops to grow, which may include warding off hostile forces of nature. The priesthood of the Arval Brothers called on Mars to drive off "rust" (lues) , with its double meaning of wheat fungus and
SECTION 20
#17327733335211936-514: Is likely a separate branch from Osco-Umbrian . All these languages may be relatively closely related to Venetic and possibly further to Celtic ; compare the Italo-Celtic hypothesis. The use of "old", "early" and "archaic" has been standard in publications of Old Latin writings since at least the 18th century. The definition is not arbitrary, but the terms refer to spelling conventions and word forms not generally found in works written under
2024-419: Is maintained in some formulas, e.g. pater familiās . The genitive plural ending -āsōm (classical -ārum following rhotacism ), borrowed from the pronouns, began to overtake original -om. In the dative singular the final i is either long or short. The ending becomes -ae, -a (Feronia) or -e (Fortune). In the accusative singular, Latin regularly shortens a vowel before final m. In the ablative singular, -d
2112-522: Is similar. In this guise, Mars is presented as the dignified ancestor of the Roman people. The panel of the Ara Pacis on which he appears would have faced the Campus Martius, reminding viewers that Mars was the god whose altar Numa established there, that is, the god of Rome's oldest civic and military institutions. Particularly in works of art influenced by the Greek tradition , Mars may be portrayed in
2200-572: Is the son of Jupiter and Juno , and was pre-eminent among the Roman army's military gods . Most of his festivals were held in March, the month named for him ( Latin Martius ), and in October, the months which traditionally began and ended the season for both military campaigning and farming. Under the influence of Greek culture , Mars was identified with the Greek god Ares , whose myths were reinterpreted in Roman literature and art under
2288-442: Is thought to be essentially the same as in classical Latin: These differences did not necessarily run concurrently with each other and were not universal; that is, c was used for both c and g. Old Latin is thought to have had a strong stress on the first syllable of a word until about 250 BC. All syllables other than the first were unstressed and were subjected to greater amounts of phonological weakening. Starting around that year,
2376-567: The Etruscan alphabet as it evolved into the Latin alphabet . The writing conventions varied by time and place until classical conventions prevailed. A part of old inscriptions, texts in the original writing system have been lost or transcribed by later copyists. Old Latin could be written from right to left (as were Etruscan and early Greek) or boustrophedon . Some differences between old and classical Latin were of spelling only; pronunciation
2464-632: The Imperial period , but under the first emperor Augustus it underwent a major program of urban renewal, marked by monumental architecture. The Altar of Augustan Peace ( Ara Pacis Augustae ) was located there, as was the Obelisk of Montecitorio , imported from Egypt to form the pointer ( gnomon ) of the Solarium Augusti , a giant sundial . With its public gardens, the Campus became one of
2552-646: The Lapis Niger stone, the Duenos Inscription on a kernos vase, and the Garigliano bowl of Bucchero type. The concept of Old Latin ( Prisca Latinitas ) is as old as the concept of Classical Latin – both labels date to at least as early as the late Roman Republic . In that period Cicero , along with others, noted that the language he used every day, presumably upper-class city Latin, included lexical items and phrases that were heirlooms from
2640-482: The Proto-Indo-European god Perkwunos , having originally a thunderer character. Like Ares who was the son of Zeus and Hera , Mars is usually considered to be the son of Jupiter and Juno . In Ovid 's version of Mars' origin, he was the son of Juno alone. Jupiter had usurped the accepted function of women as mothers when he gave birth to Minerva directly from his forehead (or mind). Juno sought
2728-606: The Roman Empire . This article presents some of the major differences. The earliest known specimen of Latin seems to be on the Praeneste fibula . An analysis done in 2011 declared it to be genuine "beyond any reasonable doubt" and dating from the Orientalizing period , in the first half of the seventh century BC. Other Old Latin inscriptions dated to either the late Roman Kingdom or early Roman Republic include
Castra Martis - Misplaced Pages Continue
2816-468: The Roman calendar . It may explain why the Matronalia , a festival celebrated by married women in honor of Juno as a goddess of childbirth , occurred on the first day of Mars's month, which is also marked on a calendar from late antiquity as the birthday of Mars. In the earliest Roman calendar, March was the first month, and the god would have been born with the new year. Ovid is the only source for
2904-707: The founding of Rome . In the Late Latin period, when Classical Latin was behind them, Latin- and Greek-speaking grammarians were faced with multiple phases, or styles, within the language. Isidore of Seville ( c. 560 – 636) reports a classification scheme that had come into existence in or before his time: "the four Latins" ("Moreover, some people have said that there are four Latin languages"; "Latinas autem linguas quattuor esse quidam dixerunt" ). They were: This scheme persisted with little change for some thousand years after Isidore. In 1874, John Wordsworth used this definition: "By Early Latin I understand Latin of
2992-722: The kings , mainly songs. Thus, the laws of the Twelve Tables (5th century BC) from the early Republic were comprehensible, but the Carmen Saliare , probably written under Numa Pompilius (who according to tradition reigned from 715 to 673 BC), was not entirely clear (and remains so). On the other hand, Polybius , a Greek historian of Rome who flourished in the late second century BC, commented on "the first treaty between Rome and Carthage ", (which he dated to 28 years before Xerxes I crossed into Greece; that is, in 508 BC) that "the ancient Roman language differs so much from
3080-470: The red oxides that affect metal, a threat to both iron farm implements and weaponry. In the surviving text of their hymn , the Arval Brothers invoked Mars as ferus , "savage" or "feral" like a wild animal. Mars's potential for savagery is expressed in his obscure connections to the wild woodlands, and he may even have originated as a god of the wild, beyond the boundaries set by humans, and thus
3168-464: The state of Rome , the peace, and the princeps (the emperor Tiberius at the time). A source from Late Antiquity says that the wife of Gradivus was Nereia , the daughter of Nereus , and that he loved her passionately. Mars Quirinus was the protector of the Quirites ("citizens" or "civilians") as divided into curiae (citizen assemblies), whose oaths were required to make a treaty. As
3256-558: The 377 years from 452 to 75 BC, Old Latin evolved from texts partially comprehensible by classicists with study to being easily read by scholars. Old Latin authored works began in the 3rd century BC. These are complete or nearly complete works under their own name surviving as manuscripts copied from other manuscripts in whatever script was current at the time. There are also fragments of works quoted in other authors. Many texts placed by various methods (painting, engraving, embossing) on their original media survive just as they were except for
3344-601: The Archaic Triad, with Vofionus equivalent to Quirinus. Tables I and VI describe a complex ritual that took place at the three gates of the city. After the auspices were taken, two groups of three victims were sacrificed at each gate. Mars Grabovius received three oxen. "Father Mars" or "Mars the Father" is the form in which the god is invoked in the agricultural prayer of Cato, and he appears with this title in several other literary texts and inscriptions. Mars Pater
3432-567: The Campus Martius had been consecrated to Mars by their ancestors to serve as horse pasturage and an equestrian training ground for youths. During the Roman Republic (509–27 BCE), the Campus was a largely open expanse. No temple was built at the altar, but from 193 BCE a covered walkway connected it to the Porta Fontinalis , near the office and archives of the Roman censors . Newly elected censors placed their curule chairs by
3520-680: The Classical Latin stress system began to develop. It passed through at least one intermediate stage, found in Plautus , in which the stress occurred on the fourth last syllable in four-syllable words with all short syllables. Most original PIE ( Proto-Indo-European ) diphthongs were preserved in stressed syllables, including /ai/ (later ae ); /ei/ (later ī ); /oi/ (later ū , or sometimes oe ); /ou/ (from PIE /eu/ and /ou/ ; later ū ). The Old Latin diphthong ei evolves in stages: ei > ẹ̄ > ī . The intermediate sound ẹ̄
3608-515: The Italic Picenes were supposed to have derived their name from the picus who served as their guide animal during a ritual migration ( ver sacrum ) undertaken as a rite of Mars. In the territory of the Aequi , another Italic people, Mars had an oracle of great antiquity where the prophecies were supposed to be spoken by a woodpecker perched on a wooden column. Mars's association with
Castra Martis - Misplaced Pages Continue
3696-424: The Roman state were presented on couches as if present and participating. Scenes of Venus and Mars in Roman art often ignore the adulterous implications of their union, and take pleasure in the good-looking couple attended by Cupid or multiple Loves (amores) . Some scenes may imply marriage, and the relationship was romanticized in funerary or domestic art in which husbands and wives had themselves portrayed as
3784-474: The Victorious"), to whom the Roman army sacrificed a bull on March 1. Although pater and mater were fairly common as honorifics for a deity, any special claim for Mars as father of the Roman people lies in the mythic genealogy that makes him the divine father of Romulus and Remus . In the section of his farming book that offers recipes and medical preparations, Cato describes a votum to promote
3872-479: The advice of the goddess Flora on how to do the same. Flora obtained a magic flower (Latin flos , plural flores , a masculine word ) and tested it on a heifer who became fecund at once. Flora ritually plucked a flower, using her thumb, touched Juno's belly, and impregnated her. Juno withdrew to Thrace and the shore of Marmara for the birth. Ovid tells this story in the Fasti , his long-form poetic work on
3960-515: The altar, and when they had finished conducting the census, the citizens were collectively purified with a suovetaurilia there. A frieze from the so-called "Altar" of Domitius Ahenobarbus is thought to depict the census, and may show Mars himself standing by the altar as the procession of victims advances. The main Temple of Mars ( Aedes Martis) in the Republican period also lay outside
4048-566: The animal of Mars. A statue group that stood along the Appian Way showed Mars in the company of wolves. At the Battle of Sentinum in 295 BCE, the appearance of the wolf of Mars (Martius lupus) was a sign that Roman victory was to come. In Roman Gaul , the goose was associated with the Celtic forms of Mars , and archaeologists have found geese buried alongside warriors in graves. The goose
4136-571: The city in a procession. In the 1st century AD, Quintilian remarks that the language of the Salian hymn was so archaic that it was no longer fully understood. In Classical Roman religion , Mars was invoked under several titles, and the first Roman emperor Augustus thoroughly integrated Mars into Imperial cult . The 4th-century Latin historian Ammianus Marcellinus treats Mars as one of several classical Roman deities who remained "cultic realities" up to his own time. Mars, and specifically Mars Ultor,
4224-427: The consonant-stem in the pre-Latin period and went further in Old Latin. I/y and u/w can be treated as either consonants or vowels; hence they are semi-vowels . Mixed-stem declensions are partly like consonant-stem and partly like i-stem. Consonant-stem declensions vary slightly depending on which consonant is root-final: stop-, r-, n-, s-, etc. The paradigms below include a stop-stem (reg-) and an i-stem (igni-). For
4312-448: The couple were a frequent subject of art. In Greek myth, the adultery of Ares and Aphrodite had been exposed to ridicule when her husband Hephaestus (whose Roman equivalent was Vulcan ) caught them in the act by means of a magical snare. Although not originally part of the Roman tradition, in 217 BCE Venus and Mars were presented as a complementary pair in the lectisternium , a public banquet at which images of twelve major gods of
4400-1037: The early songs). This eventually also evolved to ī . Old Latin often had different short vowels from Classical Latin, reflecting sound changes that had not yet taken place. For example, the very early Duenos inscription has the form duenos "good", later found as duonos and still later bonus . A countervailing change wo > we occurred around 150 BC in certain contexts, and many earlier forms are found (e.g. earlier votō, voster, vorsus vs. later vetō, vester, versus ). Old Latin frequently preserves original PIE thematic case endings -os and -om (later -us and -um ). There are many unreduced clusters, e.g. iouxmentom (later iūmentum , "beast of burden"); losna (later lūna , "moon") < * lousna < */leuksnā/; cosmis (> cōmis , "courteous"); stlocum , acc. (> locum , "place"). Early du /dw/ becomes b : duenos > duonos > bonus "good"; duis > bis "twice"; duellom > bellum "war". Final /d/ occurred in ablatives, such as puellād "from
4488-543: The end of Julian's reign. As represented by Ammianus, Julian swore never to make sacrifice to Mars again—a vow kept with his death a month later. Gradivus was one of the gods by whom a general or soldiers might swear an oath to be valorous in battle. His temple outside the Porta Capena was where armies gathered. The archaic priesthood of Mars Gradivus was the Salii , the "leaping priests" who danced ritually in armor as
SECTION 50
#17327733335214576-417: The ending: *agros > *agrs > *agers > *agerr > ager . (The form terr "three times" for later ter < *tris appears in Plautus .) Many alternative spellings occur: This declension contains nouns that are masculine, feminine, and neuter. The stem ends in the root consonant, except in the special case where it ends in -i (i-stem declension). The i-stem, which is a vowel-stem, partly fused with
4664-541: The evolution of the language from an ancestor spoken in Latium . The endings are multiple. Their use depends on time and place. Any paradigm selected would be subject to these constraints and if applied to the language universally would give false constructs, hypothetical words not attested in the Old Latin corpus. Nevertheless, the endings are shown below by quasi-classical paradigms. Alternate endings from different stages of development are given, but they may not be attested for
4752-438: The following incumbents, so far of the fitting Episcopal (lowest) rank : 43°53′20″N 22°31′20″E / 43.88889°N 22.52222°E / 43.88889; 22.52222 Mars (mythology) In ancient Roman religion and mythology , Mars ( Latin : Mārs , pronounced [maːrs] ) is the god of war and also an agricultural guardian, a combination characteristic of early Rome . He
4840-514: The former residence of the Kings of Rome . The spear was said to move, tremble or vibrate at impending war or other danger to the state, as was reported to occur before the assassination of Julius Caesar . When Mars is pictured as a peace-bringer, his spear is wreathed with laurel or other vegetation, as on the Ara Pacis or a coin of Aemilianus . The high priest of Mars in Roman public religion
4928-639: The functions of the Flamen Martialis and Flamen Quirinalis are hard to distinguish. Mars is invoked as Grabovius in the Iguvine Tablets , bronze tablets written in Umbrian that record ritual protocols for carrying out public ceremonies on behalf of the city and community of Iguvium . The same title is given to Jupiter and to the Umbrian deity Vofionus. This triad has been compared to
5016-406: The genitive plural, some forms appear to affix the case ending to the genitive singular rather than the stem: regerum < * reg-is-um . In the dative singular, -ī succeeded -eī and -ē after 200 BC. In the accusative singular, -em < *-ṃ after a consonant. In the ablative singular, the -d was lost after 200 BC. In the dative and ablative plural, the early poets sometimes used -būs. In
5104-423: The girl" or campōd "from the field", later puellā and campō . In verb conjugation, the third-person ending - d later became - t , e.g. Old Latin faced > Classical facit. Latin nouns have grammatical case , with an ending, or suffix, showing its use in the sentence: subject, predicate, etc. A case for a given word is formed by suffixing a case ending to a part of the word common to all its cases called
5192-509: The health of cattle: Old Latin Old Latin , also known as Early , Archaic or Priscan Latin (Classical Latin : prīsca Latīnitās , lit. 'ancient Latinity'), was the Latin language in the period roughly before 75 BC, i.e. before the age of Classical Latin . A member of the Italic languages , it descends from a common Proto-Italic language ; Latino-Faliscan
5280-456: The leaping of his armed priests the Salii was meant to quicken the growth of crops. It appears that Mars was originally a thunderer or storm deity, which explains some of his mixed traits in regards to fertility. This role was later taken in the Roman pantheon by several other gods, such as Summanus or Jupiter . The wild animals most sacred to Mars were the woodpecker and the wolf, which in
5368-523: The modern that it can only be partially made out, and that after much application by the most intelligent men". There is no sharp distinction between Old Latin, as it was spoken for most of the Republic, and Classical Latin, but the earlier grades into the latter. The end of the republic was too late a termination for compilers after Wordsworth; Charles Edwin Bennett said, " 'Early Latin' is necessarily
SECTION 60
#17327733335215456-462: The most attractive places in the city to visit. Augustus made the centrepiece of his new forum a large Temple to Mars Ultor, a manifestation of Mars he cultivated as the avenger (ultor) of the murder of Julius Caesar and of the military disaster suffered at the Battle of Carrhae . When the legionary standards lost to the Parthians were recovered, they were housed in the new temple. The date of
5544-401: The name of Mars. The character and dignity of Mars differs in fundamental ways from that of his Greek counterpart, who is often treated with contempt and revulsion in Greek literature . Mars's altar in the Campus Martius , the area of Rome that took its name from him, was supposed to have been dedicated by Numa , the peace-loving semi-legendary second king of Rome ; in Republican times it was
5632-416: The name of an Etruscan child-god , though this is not universally agreed upon. Scholars have varying views on whether the two gods are related, and if so how. Latin adjectives from the name of Mars are martius and martialis , from which derive English "martial" (as in "martial arts" or " martial law ") and personal names such as "Marcus", "Mark" and "Martin". Mars may ultimately be a thematic reflex of
5720-409: The natural lore of the Romans were said always to inhabit the same foothills and woodlands. Plutarch notes that the woodpecker (picus) is sacred to Mars because "it is a courageous and spirited bird and has a beak so strong that it can overturn oaks by pecking them until it has reached the inmost part of the tree." As the beak of the picus Martius contained the god's power to ward off harm, it
5808-460: The passionate divine couple. The uniting of deities representing Love and War lent itself to allegory , especially since the lovers were the parents of Concordia . The Renaissance philosopher Marsilio Ficino notes that "only Venus dominates Mars, and he never dominates her". In ancient Roman and Renaissance art, Mars is often shown disarmed and relaxed, or even sleeping, but the extramarital nature of their affair can also suggest that this peace
5896-411: The ravages of time. Some of these were copied from other inscriptions. No inscription can be older than the introduction of the Greek alphabet into Italy but none survive from that early date. The imprecision of archaeological dating makes it impossible to assign a year to any one inscription, but the earliest survivals are probably from the 6th century BC. Some texts, however, that survive as fragments in
5984-471: The sacred boundary and was devoted to the god's warrior aspect. It was built to fulfill a vow ( votum ) made by a Titus Quinctius in 388 BCE during the Gallic siege of Rome . The founding day ( dies natalis ) was commemorated on June 1, and the temple is attested by several inscriptions and literary sources. The sculpture group of Mars and the wolves was displayed there. Soldiers sometimes assembled at
6072-404: The spelling of original occurrences of ī that did not evolve from ei (e.g. in the genitive singular -ī , which is always spelled -i in the oldest inscriptions but later on can be spelled either -i or -ei ). In unstressed syllables, *oi and *ai had already merged into ei by historic times (except for one possible occurrence of poploe for populī "people" in a late manuscript of one of
6160-423: The story. He may be presenting a literary myth of his own invention, or an otherwise unknown archaic Italic tradition; either way, in choosing to include the story, he emphasizes that Mars was connected to plant life and was not alienated from female nurture. The consort of Mars was Nerio or Neriene, "Valor." She represents the vital force (vis) , power (potentia) and majesty (maiestas) of Mars. Her name
6248-854: The sway of the Patriarchate of Constantinople . Its only recorded Suffragan Bishop was Calvus, participant at the Council of Serdica in 343 (called by the Pope, boycotted by most Eastern sees). In 408, the Huns under Uldin took control of the site during an attack on the Eastern Roman Empire, apparently by treachery. The diocese was nominally restored in 1933 as Latin Titular bishopric of Castra Martis (Latin) / Castra di Marte (Curiate Italian) / Castromartianus (Latin adjective). It has had
6336-491: The temple before heading off to war, and it was the point of departure for a major parade of Roman cavalry held annually on July 15. A temple to Mars in the Circus Flaminius was built around 133 BCE, funded by Decimus Junius Brutus Callaicus from war booty. It housed a colossal statue of Mars and a nude Venus. The Campus Martius continued to provide venues for equestrian events such as chariot racing during
6424-407: The temple's dedication on May 12 was aligned with the heliacal setting of the constellation Scorpio , the sign of war. The date continued to be marked with circus games as late as the mid-4th century AD. A large statue of Mars was part of the short-lived Arch of Nero , which was built in 62 CE but dismantled after Nero 's suicide and disgrace ( damnatio memoriae ) . In Roman art , Mars
6512-455: The whole period of the Republic, which is separated very strikingly, both in tone and in outward form, from that of the Empire." Although the differences are striking and can be easily identified by Latin readers, they are not such as to cause a language barrier. Latin speakers of the empire had no reported trouble understanding Old Latin, except for the few texts that must date from the time of
6600-408: The wolf is familiar from what may be the most famous of Roman myths , the story of how a she-wolf (lupa) suckled his infant sons when they were exposed by order of King Amulius , who feared them because he had usurped the throne from their grandfather, Numitor . The woodpecker also brought nourishment to the twins. The wolf appears elsewhere in Roman art and literature in masculine form as
6688-557: The word of the paradigm. For example, in the second declension, * campoe "fields" is unattested, but poploe "peoples" is attested. The locative was a separate case in Old Latin but gradually became reduced in function, and the locative singular form eventually merged with the genitive singular by regular sound change. In the plural, the locative was captured by the ablative case in all Italic languages before Old Latin. The stems of nouns of this declension usually end in -ā and are typically feminine. A nominative case ending of -s in
6776-400: The works of classical authors, had to have been composed earlier than the republic, in the time of the monarchy . These are listed below. Some authors, especially in recent texts, refer to the oldest Latin documents (7th–5th c. BCE) as Very Old Latin (VOL). Notable Old Latin fragments with estimated dates include: Authors: Old Latin surviving in inscriptions is written in various forms of
6864-530: Was among the gods honored at the lectisternium , a banquet given for deities who were present as images. Roman hymns ( carmina ) are rarely preserved, but Mars is invoked in two. The Arval Brothers , or "Brothers of the Fields", chanted a hymn to Mars while performing their three-step dance. The Carmen Saliare was sung by Mars's priests the Salii while they moved twelve sacred shields ( ancilia ) throughout
6952-456: Was among the gods who received sacrifices from Julian , the only emperor to reject Christianity after the conversion of Constantine I . In 363 AD, in preparation for the Siege of Ctesiphon , Julian sacrificed ten "very fine" bulls to Mars Ultor. The tenth bull violated ritual protocol by attempting to break free, and when killed and examined , produced ill omens , among the many that were read at
7040-479: Was carried as a magic charm to prevent bee stings and leech bites. The bird of Mars also guarded a woodland herb ( paeonia ) used for treatment of the digestive or female reproductive systems ; those who sought to harvest it were advised to do so by night, lest the woodpecker jab out their eyes. The picus Martius seems to have been a particular species, but authorities differ on which one: perhaps Picus viridis or Dryocopus martius . The woodpecker
7128-441: Was considered a bellicose animal because it is easily provoked to aggression. Ancient Greek and Roman religion distinguished between animals that were sacred to a deity and those that were prescribed as the correct sacrificial offerings for the god. Wild animals might be viewed as already belonging to the god to whom they were sacred, or at least not owned by human beings and therefore not theirs to give . Since sacrificial meat
7216-399: Was eaten at a banquet after the gods received their portion – mainly the entrails ( exta ) – it follows that the animals sacrificed were most often, though not always, domestic animals normally part of the Roman diet. Gods often received castrated male animals as sacrifices, and the goddesses female victims ; Mars, however, regularly received intact males. Mars did receive oxen under
7304-445: Was regarded as Sabine in origin and is equivalent to Latin virtus , "manly virtue" (from vir , "man"). In the early 3rd century BCE, the comic playwright Plautus has a reference to Mars greeting Nerio, his wife. A source from late antiquity says that Mars and Neriene were celebrated together at a festival held on March 23. In the later Roman Empire , Neriene came to be identified with Minerva . Nerio probably originates as
7392-399: Was regularly lost after a long vowel. In the dative and ablative plural, the -abos descending from Indo-European *-ābhos is used for feminines only ( deabus ). *-ais > -eis > -īs is adapted from -ois of the o-declension. The vocative singular had inherited short -a. This later merged with the nominative singular when -ā was shortened to -ă. The locative case would not apply to such
7480-450: Was revered by the Latin peoples , who abstained from eating its flesh. It was one of the most important birds in Roman and Italic augury , the practice of reading the will of the gods through watching the sky for signs. The mythological figure named Picus had powers of augury that he retained when he was transformed into a woodpecker; in one tradition, Picus was the son of Mars. The Umbrian cognate peiqu also means "woodpecker", and
7568-465: Was simply written e but must have been distinct from the normal long vowel ē because ẹ̄ subsequently merged with ī while ē did not. It is generally thought that ẹ̄ was a higher sound than e (e.g. perhaps [eː] vs. [ɛː] during the time when both sounds existed). Even after the original vowel /ei/ had merged with ī , the old spelling ei continued to be used for a while, with the result that ei came to stand for ī and began to be used in
7656-472: Was the Flamen Martialis , who was one of the three major priests in the fifteen-member college of flamens . Mars was also served by the Salii , a twelve-member priesthood of patrician youths who dressed as archaic warriors and danced in procession around the city in March. Both priesthoods extend to the earliest periods of Roman history, and patrician birth was required. The festivals of Mars cluster in his namesake month of March (Latin: Martius ), with
7744-555: Was the divine mother of the hero Aeneas , celebrated as the Trojan refugee who "founded" Rome several generations before Romulus laid out the city walls. The word Mārs (genitive Mārtis ), which in Old Latin and poetic usage also appears as Māvors ( Māvortis ), is cognate with Oscan Māmers ( Māmertos ). The oldest recorded Latin form, Mamart-, is likely of foreign origin . It has been explained as deriving from Maris ,
#520479