MARS. – An Italic and Roman deity. The spread of his cult, which predates Roman hegemony and is therefore independent of it, can be demonstrated not only among the Latin peoples but also among the Umbrians, Sabines, and Oscans; in Etruria, where he is called Maris, his cult is probably due to Italic influence. In many calendars of non-Romanized Italy there is a month dedicated to M. (corresponding to the Roman martius, March).
In Rome the oldest center of his cult was the Ara Martis in the Campus Martius. In the Regia a spear was kept, a symbol of the god: before setting out to war, the leader would shake it, invoking the god with the words: *Mars vigilia!* Also sacred to him were the twelve shields (ancilia) which legend conceived as copies of an original that had fallen from the sky, ordered by King Numa from the smith Mamurius Veturius to conceal the original. The Salii, priests of M., carried them around, using them in their ritual dances during the periods sacred to the god; the days on which they were in motion (ancilia movere) and not stored away (ancilia condere) in the Regia had a dangerous character (dies nefastos). Although M. is not without notable references to agricultural life (he is invoked in the archaic hymn of the Arval Brethren, while in private cult sacrifices are made to him for the health of oxen and on the occasion of the lustration of fields), the aspect that prevails in his cult is that of a war god: as such, he will be identified with the Greek Ares. For the Romans, the State owes its birth to M., father of Romulus and Remus; among the other Italic peoples, M. also has the function of supreme protector of the people. His symbolic animals – wolf, woodpecker, bull – guide peoples in migrations and struggles (cf. the name of the Hirpini from *hirpus* = wolf and of the Piceni from *picus* = woodpecker). At Rome the god’s great importance is evident from the position of his priest, the *flamen Martialis*, who is the second of the three major flamens after that of Jupiter, as well as from the numerous festivals dedicated to him in the oldest calendar. These are: the two Equirria, the Agonium of March 17, the Quinquatrus, the Tubilustrium, the October Horse, and the Armilustrium (March and October are the peak periods). Particularly characteristic is the ritual of the October Horse: the horse that wins a sacred race is sacrificed by the *flamen Martialis*; its blood is used to anoint the hearth of the Regia, while the rest is kept as an ingredient of the *suffimen* to purify the people during the Parilia festival.
The oldest places of cult for M. are all outside the pomerium: thus the Ara Martis in the Campus and the sanctuary at Porta Capena, where the army gathers before going to the front.
In the age of Augustus the new cult of Mars Ultor (avenger of Julius Caesar) assumes extraordinary importance; in his temple, built on Augustus’ private land, various privileges of the Capitoline temple of Jupiter are transferred. – See pl. XV.