Flamen Martialis

The Flamen Martialis, who was always a patrician, oversaw the cult of Mars, the god of war, leading public rites on the days sacred to Mars. The sacred spears of Mars were ritually shaken by the Flamen Martialis when the legions were preparing for war.

He was required to wed a virgin according to the ceremonies of "confarreatio", which regulation also applied to the two other "flamines maiores" [Serv. ad Virg. Aen. iv.104, 374; Gaius, i.112] It is not clear if the death of his wife required him to resign his duties, as it did for the Flamen Dialis.

The Flamen Martialis (Priest of Mars) may originally have represented the Priest of the Latins. [ [http://home.scarlet.be/mauk.haemers/collegium_religionis/quirinus.htm Quirinus by M. Horatius Piscinus] ]

Duties

* Festival of Acca Laurentia, or Larentalia, or Larentian Feast, or , in April: In the month of April, the priest of Mars poured libations in the honour of Acca Laurentia, the wife of Faustulus, the foster-father of the infants Romulus and Remus. [Plutarch. [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Lives/Romulus*.html "Life of Romulus"] ]

* Festival of Robigus, or Robigalia, on the 25th of April: "On the twenty-fifth of April, at the Festival of Robigus 29 (Robigalia), the spirit of the mildew, a suckling puppy and a sheep were slain in the city in the morning, and the entrails and the blood were carried in the afternoon by the priest of Mars, attended by worshipers clad in white, to the grove of Robigus at the fifth milestone from Rome on the Claudian Road. Here they were offered on an altar, together with unmixed wine and incense, as a burnt sacrifice to the god, with prayer to Robigus to spare the crops and to ward off harm from them." [Eli Edward Buriss (1931). [http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/tms/tms06.htm "Taboo, Magic, Spirits: A Study of Primitive Elements in Roman Religion"] Chapter IV"Magic Acts: The General Principles". 1931 (out of copyright)]

* The October Horse or October Equus - 15 October, or the Ides of October: In the very early days of Rome, the people were divided into two groups: the Montani lived on the hills, while the Pagani (villagers) lived on the low ground.

"There was a rivalry between the two to see who could produce the best race horse. Each group provided a two horse chariot ("biga") for the race held on the Ides of October in the Campus Martius in honor of Mars. After the race, the flamen Martialis (priest of Mars) would offer "gratulationes" to the winner, cut off the tail of the horse as an offering to Mars. The horse was then sacrificed, and its blood sprinkled on the hearth of the temple of Vesta." [http://www.dl.ket.org/latin1/things/optional/holidays3.htm Roman holidays] ]

List of Flamens Martialis

The Middle Republic

* in 244 BC-241 BC - Aulus Postumius Albinus, consul in 242 BC; notable because in ca. 244 BC or more likely in 242 BC (the year of his consulship), when he wanted to leave Rome to set out to wage war, he was forbidden by his religious superior Lucius Caecilius Metellus Pontifex Maximus to leave Rome, and required to follow his religious duties. (Livy, Book 19)

* in 204 BC Lucius Veturius Philo succeeded Marcus Aemilius Regillus (Liv 29 38 6) In that period, there was also a plebeian Rex Sacrorum (unusually, since the position was almost always held by a patrician). [Israel Shatzman. [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0009-8388(197305)2%3A23%3A1%3C65%3APAPTCO%3E2.0.CO%3B2-B "Patricians and Plebeians: The Case of the Veturii"] "The Classical Quarterly", New Series, Vol. 23, No. 1 (May, 1973), pp. 65-77.]

* in 131 BC - Lucius Valerius Flaccus, consul 131 BC was forbidden by his religious superior Publius Licinius Crassus Dives Mucianus, Pontifex Maximus, and also his co-consul, from leaving his religious duties. Crassus Mucianus then violated his own religious duties and the mos maiorum by leaving Italy to campaign disastrously in Asia Minor.

The Late Republic

* date unknown - Lucius Valerius Flaccus, consul 100 BC was priest of Mars like his father before him. [ ["JSTOR Religion and Politics in the Late Second Century B. C. at Rome"] ] . He eventually became "Princeps Senatus" in 86 BC.

* ca. 73 BC - 44 BC - Lucius Cornelius Lentulus Niger (d. 56 BC?) [Patrick Tansey. [http://muse.jhu.edu/login?uri=/journals/american_journal_of_philology/v121/121.2tansey.html "The Inauguration of Lentulus Niger"] "American Journal of Philology" 121:2 (2000) pp. 237-258.] , a praetor by 61 BC. The date of his inauguration is unknown, but the guest list included the pontifices [ [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/L/Roman/Texts/Macrobius/Saturnalia/3*.html#13 Macrobius: Saturnalia] in Latin]
**Q. Catulus (probably Quintus Lutatius Catulus, censor in 65 BC who died in 61 BC/60 BC),
** M. Aemilius Lepidus (possibly Manius Aemilius Lepidus, consul in 66 BC. [This M. Aemilius Lepidus is probably not Marcus Aemilius Lepidus (triumvir), who was too young and did not become praetor until 49 BC). His father had died in 77 BC.] ,
** D. Silanus (probably Decimus Junius Silanus, second husband of Servilia) and consul in 62 BC,
** C. Caesar (probably Julius Caesar who had been a pontiff since 86 BC),
** rex sacrorum, who was probably Lucius Claudius, a patrician with no cognomen. [ [http://www.csun.edu/~hcfll004/pontiffs.html COLLEGE OF PONTIFICES, ca. 59 B.C.] ]
** P. Scaevola Sextus,
** Q. Cornelius, a minor pontiff [ [http://www.theaterofpompey.com/rome/magistrates.shtml Q. Cornelius: Pontifex Minor] ]
** P. Volumnius,
** P. Albinovanus [ [http://www.theaterofpompey.com/rome/magistrates.shtml P. Albinovanus: Pontifex Minor] ] et
** L. Iulius Caesar augur (probably Lucius Julius Caesar, cousin to the more famous Caesar)"

In the Imperial Era

* ca. 25 BC - Lucius Lentulus [ [http://www.forumancientcoins.com/Dictionary_Of_Roman_Coins/dictionaryByPage.asp?page=511 Name on a Roman silver coin, the denarius, in the reign of Augustus] . See [http://www.forumancientcoins.com/NumisWiki/view.asp?key=Flamen%20Martialis this page] for a description of the coin. The probable year is 25 BC.]

*10 AD C. Iunius Silanus [ [http://www.roman-empire.net/articles/article-024.html The Consular List ] ]

ee also

*Flamen
*Flamen Dialis
*"Confarreatio"

References

This article is based on a portion of the article [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/secondary/SMIGRA*/Flamen.html "Flamen"] in Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1875), in the public domain.