BELLONA. — Originally connected with Mars, by the middle of the 4th century she was already a distinct war deity (Livy, VIII, 9, 6), to whom in 296 B.C. a temple was dedicated near the Circus Flaminius, where the Fetiales would shoot an arrow to declare war (Dionysius Cassius, L, 45; LXXII, 33, 2). In 92 B.C., Bellona was identified with Ma, a deity of the Magna Mater type, imported from Cappadocia by Sulla’s soldiers. Her priests (Bellonarii) would wound themselves in the frenzy of their orgiastic fury (Tibullus, I, 6, 43 ff.; Horace, Sat., II, 3, 233). She was also assimilated with Virtus, signifying military valor (Lactantius, 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. 887 ff.; Drexler, s. V. in Roscher, Lex., II, col. 2215 ff.; G. Wissowa, Religion und Kultus der Römer, 2nd ed., Munich 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 Suburbio, supplement, III, Rome 1940, pp. 3-7.