god
Mars
also: Martis
The Roman god of war; in Fam. 7.23 Cicero jokes that a statue of Mars is no use to him, the self-styled 'author of peace.'
Reading notes
- Ad Atticum 15.11 §1 breathing the war-god
Mars, the Roman god of war; "to breathe Mars" is an idiom for radiating martial fury. Cicero pictures Cassius bristling for armed action rather than accepting the grain post.
- On His Consulship §2 the wolf of Mars, who with her swollen teats
The bronze she-wolf (lupa) suckling the infant Romulus and Remus, sons of Mars; the Capitoline statue was hit by lightning and the figures of the twins torn loose, an omen of peril to the city's very foundation.
- Philippica XIV §32 you whose very name is from Mars
A play on the Martian legion's name: as Mars (Mars/Mavors) begot Romulus and so the city, the soldiers named for Mars are born for the city. Mars was thought to claim the bravest of the slain as his own.
- For Marcus Marcellus §17 violence of Mars
Mars, god of war; "vis Martis" is a metonymy for death in open battle, distinguished here from killing done in the cold anger of victory.