Page:Greek and Roman Mythology.djvu/172

 158 GREEK AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY we know of his feasts, that he was regarded as a god of war even in very early times. 205. In the royal residence of the old Romans, the Eegia, were kept the sacred spears of Mars and a shield (ancile) which fell from heaven. King Numa had eleven other shields made like this. The twelve Palatine Salii (< leapers '), or priests of Mars, each provided with one of these shields, in the month sacred to the god (March) performed armed dances, chanting an ancient song. The significance of his other feasts indicates that this cele- bration probably marked the beginning of the season for war, which was restricted to the summer. On the 27th of February and the 14th of March, near the old altar of Mars, situated in the midst of the Campus Martius, the Equlria were held, which consisted in a review of horses, and a chariot race. On the 19th and the 23d of March, at the feast of Quinqudtrus and of Tubilustrmm, the weapons and war trumpets were inspected and purified. Likewise on the 19th of Octo- ber, after the close of the war season, a purification of weapons (ArmUustrium) took place, while the sacri- fice of the October horse evidently corresponded to the Equlria of the spring; for the horse that had been vic- torious at the preceding chariot race was on the 15th of October sacrificed to Mars. The wolf, the emblem of murder attended by bloodshed, was considered sacred to Mars ; likewise the woodpecker (picus), which produced the impression of being a war- like creature by his bill (which pierces into the trees as a battering-ram bores through the gates), and by the feath- ery, plumelike adornment of his head. Here we find the explanation of the legend that a she-wolf nourished Rom-