BELLONA. - Originally connected with Marte, by the middle of the 4th century she was already an independent divinity of war (Livio, VIII, 9, 6), to whom, in 296 B.C., a temple was dedicated near the Circo Flaminio, where the Feciali cast the spear in order to declare war (Dione Cassio, L, 45; LXXII, 33, 2). In 92 B.C., B. was identified with Má, a divinity of the type of the Magna Mater, brought from Cappadocia by Silla’s soldiers. Her priests (Bellonarii) wounded themselves in the impulse of orgiastic frenzy (Tibullo, I, 6, 43 ff., and Orazio, Sat., II, 3, 233). Virtus, in the sense of military valour, was also assimilated to her (Lattanzio, Inst., I, 21, 16; CIL, V, 6507 and XIII, 7281).
BIBL.: E. Aust, s. V. in Pauly-Wissowa, Realencyclop., III, col. 255 ff.; D. Vaglieri, in E. De Ruggiero, Diz. Epigr., I, p. 987 ff.; Drexler, s. V. in Roscher, Lex., II, col. 2215 ff.; G. Wissowa, Religion und Kultus der Römer, 2nd ed., Monaco 1912, pp. 151 ff. and 348 ff.; N. Turchi, La religione di Roma antica, Bologna 1939, p. 183; G. Lugli, I monumenti antichi di Roma e Suburbia, supplement, III, Roma 1940, pp. 3-7.