TEMPLE OF MARS.

Circondaro più volte

I miei Genj reali

Di Roma i gran natali:

E l'aquile superbe

Sola in pria avvezzai di Marte al lume.

GUIDI. LA FORTUNA.

It was natural that the worship of the God of war should call forth all the wealth and pomp of the Roman empire; and the temple which is said to have been raised to that deity by Augustus was one of the most magnificent in the world. It is a curious but well-established fact, that the Greeks had no temple consecrated to the honour of Mars. This is the more remarkable, as the details of his actions form as conspicuous a portion of the Iliad as those of almost any of the deities to whom Homer may be said to have given a bodily form and immortality among men. It is, however, probable that he never attained to the honour of a strictly tutelar deity, till the people of Rome found it convenient to adopt him as their sire. The days which their descendants devoted to his service were marked by extraordinary festivities. Sports and combats of every kind were exercised in his honour, and more wild beasts were slaughtered in the arena at those periods than at any other. The bull, the ram, and the boar, were his peculiar offerings; the horse and the wolf also bled upon his altars, and the vulture

and the magpie obtained by their attribute of voracity the same distinction.

Few ceremonies were more imposing than the processions of the Salii, when they issued from their temple in honour of the god. On their left arms they bore the sacred shields, or ancilia, which were regarded as the palladium of the country. In their right hands they carried a javelin, and their habits, striped with purple, were fastened round the waist by broad belts, ornamented with brass buckles. Loud and triumphant martial music accompanied them as they proceeded, singing at intervals and in chorus the praises of their deity. Whilst the Salian festival lasted, no business of private concern was to be undertaken. Even marriages at that time were unlawful, and the most religious of the people considered it a species of crime to let their minds be burdened with any thing more serious than that of keeping the season with as much gaiety as possible. So sumptuous were the feasts with which the priests regaled themselves when the ceremonies were ended, that to sup like a Salian was a common Latin expression to describe the most luxurious mode of living.

The Romans were taught by the pacific Numa to regard the waging of war unlawful till they had proclaimed their intention with the solemnities of religion. A special order of priests was therefore instituted, whose business it was to treat with the nations against which hostilities were deemed necessary. When any particular cause of complaint existed, two of these ministers, or feciales, as they were called, were chosen from the rest to proceed immediately to the offending state. Of these one was

endowed with the chief authority, and was magnificently clad, bearing in his hand a caduceus, in testimony of the supreme importance of his functions. On arriving near the hostile territory, he acquainted the first stranger he met with the nature of his mission, and the solemn oaths he had taken to act with impartial justice. He repeated this form on entering the city, and again in the most public place of resort. A conference with the magistrates was next demanded, and to them he declared the resolution of Rome to exact satisfaction for the alleged injury. Ten, twenty, or thirty days were allowed for deliberation; after which time, if the answer returned was not satisfactory, he called upon the celestial and infernal deities to bear witness between the parties, and then took his departure homewards. Having informed the senate respecting the issue of his mission, he and his colleague were sent back with the formal declaration of hostilities, which he published in the presence of three witnesses, and then began the war by hurling a bloody javelin towards the city, exclaiming, that thus the Ro. mans would revenge the violence they had suffered.

The worship of Mars seems not to have been só general in ancient times as might have been expected; but the traditions and mythological fables respecting this god have been spread far and wide over every region of the earth.

"The identity of Mars," says Mr. Faber, "with the war-god of the Scythians, whom we know to have been the Woden, is not purely fanciful and imaginary, amounting to no more than this, that the war-god of one pagan nation may always in some sort be deemed the same as