Nancy Jardine Author: Mars Invictus Festival May 14th

Friday, 14 May 2021

Mars Invictus Festival May 14th

The festival of Mars Invictus – Mars the Unconquerable – was on the 14^th May.

Yes- there are even more Ancient Roman festivals to cover in May!

Mars Ultor - Capitoline Museum

By the early 3^rd Century B.C. Mars in the Invictus form was established. By the time of the onset of the Imperial period, many other deities were worshipped in a similar form, e.g. Sol Invictus. Mars the Invictus, unconquerable and invincible, divine epithet forms appeared on stone inscriptions; coins and other graphic materials.

Mars, as one of Rome’s principal deities, was a god of war, boundaries but also of agriculture. Healing and protection were assigned to him and many creatures were sacred to Mars. There were many places dedicated to him, formal temples and informal shrines and there was an altar to Mars in the Campus Martius in Rome. The month of March was named after him but festivals to Mars were quite frequent and occurred throughout the year. The Flamen Martialis were his dedicated priests and they were permitted to sacrifice a bull to him [a bull could only be sacrificed to Mars, Apollo and Neptune]. Sometimes the Flamen Martialis went a little over the top and sacrificed more than one animal e.g. a bull, a ram and a boar in the same ceremony.

As was customary in Celtic lands which were absorbed into the Roman Empire, the name of a god or goddess might be double-barrelled to reflect a syncretic form [e.g. Sulis Minerva in Roman Britain], or the attributes of the gods or goddesses were conflated with Celtic deities or revered animals. As such, wolves and woodpeckers were sacred to Mars, as were fig trees and oak trees.

Mars is often represented as a warrior with a shield and spear, items which were also sacred to him, though representations of Mars can vary tremendously. Here's a rather tongue in cheek Mars at rest by Diego Velazquez that's in the Prado Museum in Spain, painted in 1640.

Mars at Rest- D. Velazquez

And there are many examples of paintings with Mars and Venus. The amazingly well-restored one below was at the House of Mars and Venus in Pompeii, an indication of possibilities in that particular establishment?