PART 6 – Ch

PART 6 – Ch.XXXIX.2

The great Pelasgian empire

(Decline of the Pelasgian empire)

XXXIX. 2. The reign of Mars.

After the reign of Hermes, the succession to the throne of the Pelasgian empire passed to Mars, whom the Greeks called Ares.

In the most ancient Egyptian lists which we find with Manetho, Mars appears as ruler over Egypt, immediately after Typhon and Horus (Fragmenta in Fragm Hist. gr. Vol. II. p. 531 seqq; Herodotus, II. 62, 64).

In Arabia, Mars was venerated under the name theus ‘Ares (Suidas, Lex. ad. voc.), Dysares = Dus Ares with Tertullianus (Apolog. 24). In Chaldea he was one of the 12 great divinities, and in Assyria he was considered as an ancient king of that country, who had ruled after Ninus, the son of Saturn (Ioann. Antiochenus, Chron. Fragm. 5; Cedrenus, Hist. comp. Vol. I. 30).

Mars had reigned also over Scythia. According to Herodutus, he was the only one of the gods to whom the Scythians erected temples and altars (I. IV. 59-62).

The authority and cult of Mars had also extended to the western countries.

In Italy, Mars was venerated as the most ancient and popular divinity of the Pelasgian tribes: “ante omnes Martem coluere priores” (Ovid, Fast. III. 79).

As principal divinity, Mars also figures with the Germans (Tacitus, Hist. IV. 64).

Especially though, Mars was considered as an ancient national king of the Getae and the Dacians. He is called Mars Geticus (Ausonius, Epigr. I. 7; Statius, Silv. I. 2. 54), Mars Dahus (Revue arch. Ann. 1882. 2. p. 352), and Arimanius (Plutarc, Them. 28 fine), or from the country of the Arimii. His daughter was called ‘Armonia (=Arimana, Armana). The residence of Mars was in the mountains of the Getae (Val. Flaccus, Argon. VI. 619). He was the lord and protector of the Getic plains (Virgil, Aen. III. 35).

According to Ovid, the Getae venerated Mars (Trist. V. 3. 22); they were the faithful embodiment of his figure and qualities (Trist. V. 7. 11-17).

The Getae, writes Jornandes (De Get. orig. c. 6), had been so renowned in ancient times, that it was said that Mars, the god of war, had been born there.

Homer calls Mars “the lord of the most just of men” (Hymn. VII. 1-5); and the most just of men in antiquity had been, as we know, the Abii, the Hyperboreans and the Getae (Iliad, XIII. 6; Mela, I. II. 5; Herodotus, lib. IV. 93), peoples which mostly dwelt in the northern regions of the lower Istru.

The ancients also said about Mars that he had been the first who taught men to fabricate metal weapons, who had assembled armies (Diodorus, lib. V. 74; Statius, Silv. V. 2. 128), and had taught them how to fight in wars, from close quarters and from afar, in tight rows, one near the other (Eschyl, Choeph. V. 160).

Today, the memory of Mars is still held in a particular honor by the Romanian people.

In traditions and in epic national songs, he figures under the name Marcu (art. Marcul; sometimes called Marcociu), an old popular form of the Latin name Mars. Those Romans who were born in the month of March were called Marci (Forcellini, Lex. See Marcus; Mommsen, C. I. L. vol. I. p. 10).

Traces of this name were found in Transilvania even before Roman conquest. One of the ancient citadels of Dacia, situated near Mures and close to Uiora (Salinae), is called by Ptolemy Marcodava (the city of Marcu).

In the Romanian folk songs and traditions, his consecrated name is Marcul Vitezul (TN – the brave), the equivalent of Mars Victor in Roman inscriptions. Especially, the Romanian traditions tell (Tocilescu, Mat. Folkl. p. 1228) that he was “Vitezul paganilor” (TN - the brave man against the pagans), and the “strong man of strong men” (the hero of heroes).

Marcul Vitezul has “soldiers (army), as many as leaves, as many as grass”, and he takes care of the national defense of the Romanians (Revista crit. – lit. IV. 29), a tradition also kept by the Romans. The leaders of the Roman legions, before departing to war, entered in the sanctuary of Mars, touched his sacred lance and shields, and pronounced the solemn words: “Mars vigila!”, Mars take care of us! (Servius, Virg. Aen. VIII. 3).

In Romanian historical poems, Marcul Vitezul also has the epithet Bolunul (Revista crit.-lit. An. II. p. 378; Ibid, An. III. 94. 301, 335), a word which corresponds to an ancient Latin form, Bellonus, while the sister, or wife, of Mars was called by the Romans Bellona.

“Marcul Bolunul” is the same legendary personality as Mars Bellicus of Ovid (Fast. III. 1), polemichos theos of Plato (Cratylus, ed. Didot, I. p. 300), polemon theos of Cedrenus (Hist. compend. Vol. I. Ed. Bonn. P. 30), and Mars Beladon of Roman inscriptions (C.I.L. vol. XII. 503).

The citadel and residence of Marcul Vitezul was in Transilvania, in Tera Streiului (TN – country of Strei - Marienescu, Balade, I. 40; Tocilescu, Mat. Folkl. p. 1071), because of which he was often called “Marcul from Ardel” (Bugnariu, Musa Somesana, Balade, I, 1892. p. 72; Gazeta Trans. Nr. 234, 1887), and Marcholt von Sibenburgen in German poems (Grimm, D. Heldens. Gottingen, 1829, p. 212).

According to some traditions (Com. Albeni, Gorj), Marcul Vitezul was a “King” of the Romanian countries from the lower Danube. He dethroned Iov, the emperor of Teligrad, and became master of the empire.

In Greek antiquity, Mars also had the epithet pelorios, the giant (Homer, Iliad, VII, 200; XXI, 407), and Marcul Vitezul is similarly represented in Romanian epic poems (Com. Vutcani, Falciu):

“And when he mounted, the earth shook,

The clouds scattered, the water of the Prut eddied” [1].

[1. The same verses were used by the poet Quintus (Posthomer, I. 686 seqq), when describing the arrival of Mars at Troy to fight against the Greeks: under his feet shook the long valleys of Ida mountain, the depths of the springs, the rivers, and all the vast foundations of the mountain].

Marcul Vitezul, exactly like Mars, is the type of the just hero; he is the defender of justice and the avenger of wrongdoing (Catana, Balade, p. 33-34).

The Scythians venerated as the symbol of Mars an ancient iron sword, achinaches sidareos archaios, to which they sacrificed animals and part of the prisoners of war (Herodotus, l. IV. 62).

As a sacred symbol, the sword of Mars was also venerated by the Romans. According to Juvenal, the Romans made oaths on Mars’ sword (Sat. XIII. 79; Arnobius, Adv. gentes, lib. VI).

A sacred spear of Mars was preserved at Rome in the ancient palace of the kings, near the Palatine hill (Gellius, N. A. IV. 6; Servius, Virg. Aen. VIII. 3).

Traditions about the ancient sword of Mars have also existed during the Middle Ages in the countries from the lower Danube. The historian Priscus, sent by Theodosius the Young in legation to Attila, who was in Dacia, tells us that in those times, a shepherd had found by mistake the sacred sword of Mars, buried in the ground, and took it to Attila, who enjoyed very much the gift he had received, believing that now he was destined to reign over the entire world (Jornandis, De Get. orig. c. 35) [2].

[2. The Romanian people have even today the tradition that the kings of the pagans, who had formerly lived in these countries, had inherited the sword of the God who waged the wars (Answers to the Historical Questionnaire)].

Another tradition (Com. Drajna de sus, Prahova) tells us that Ardel begins at the “Sword of the Brave man” (TN – “Sabia Vitezului”) and continues in that direction, while from there, in this direction, is Tera Barsei, or the district of Brasov (TN – viewed from Tera Romanesca).

In honor of Mars, the ancient year of the Romans began with the third month of today’s calendar. (Ovid, Fast. III. 75; Censorinus, De die natali, c. 20; Macrobius, Sat. I. 12).

The Romanian people also started once the agricultural and civil year in the month of March (Onciul, Datele cronicelor moldovenesci, p. 6). In that month were hold the solemnities for the return of spring, and were recited the fine agrarian hymns, for the coming out on the fields of the peasants with their ploughs; at that time were made the wishes for the new year, with budded or blossomed branches of trees – “sorcove morcove” – ceremonials which today are celebrated in an unnatural way, during winter, at the beginning of the month of January.

According to Romanian traditions, Marcul Vitezul was contemporary with Iancul emperor and his son Novac. His wife was Ana (Revista crit.-lit.II.334; Hasdeu, Etym. m. Rom. II. 1149), identical with Ennyo, the Greek goddess of war, and with Anna Perenna of the Romans, whose feast day was on 15 March (Ovid, Fast. III. 576).

Mars, the father of Romulus and Remus, whom the Romans venerated so much, was therefore originally from Dacia. He is one of the most illustrious representatives of the second line of the divine dynasty [3].

[3. Marcul Vitezul (or Mars of antiquity) is even today the principal hero of the epic poetry of the southern Slavs, where he figures under the name Marko Kraljevic (Marcul, son of king).

But the singers of the Balkan peninsula have formed a national Slav hero, from the type of Mars (Marko Kraljevic the ancient), whom they have mistaken in later times for one so-called Marko, the son of king Vucasin (1367-1395). About this latter Marko the history speaks very little. After he was robbed of his family inheritance by his co-national rivals, he entered into the service of Turkish army, and fought against the Christians, as a vassal of the Turks. He took part in the war of Baiazet against Mircea the Great and fell in the bloody battle which took place on 10 October 1394 at Rovine, close to Craiova, when it is said that clouds of arrows thrown by Mircea’s soldiers had covered the sky.

Although in the Serb poems about Marko Kraljevic have been mixed many events from later times, they still contain some important elements from the ancient legends about Mars, and from the epic poems of the Romanian people. Even the epithet “Kraljevic” (son of king, Konigssohn) is only a simple Slav translation of the Romanian words “son of emperor”, a title which some Romanian poems attribute to Novac and to Iovan Iorgovan (Saturn and Hercules)].

NEXT