public · Roman

Prayer to Neria and Mars

Neria · Mars

Neria, wife of Mars, I appeal to you, give peace. May you use your own favored position with your husband; counsel Him to partake in this plan. In the same way as we reconcile ourselves to those who carried off our daughters, may you now join with Him for all times in favoring His.

Commentarius · Commentary

Aulus Gellius quotes this prayer in a chapter concerned not with gods but with grammar: he is working out how to decline the name of Mars' consort — Nerio, Nerienes or Neria. For him the prayer is evidence in a philological dispute, and that is why it survives.

The word is Sabine: nerio means "manliness, strength", and this is one of the few non-Roman divine names to reach us with an explanation attached. Gellius is citing the second book of the annals of Gnaeus Gellius — a third-century BC source of which almost nothing else remains.

The logic of the plea is impeccable and audacious. The rape of the Sabine women happened "by the counsel of your husband"; therefore the house of Mars is answerable for the consequences, and peace is asked of the wife as of a party liable by kinship. The petitioner turns the god's own fault into her title to ask.

The occasion has been corrected: the card attributed the prayer to Titus Tatius — in Gellius it is spoken by the Sabine woman Hersilia, addressing Titus Tatius.

Fons · Source

AuthorAulus Gellius

WorkNoctes Atticae

Section13.23.13

Period2nd c. AD (preserving archaic formula)

OccasionHersilia, speaking before Titus Tatius at the reconciliation of Romans and Sabines after the Rape of the Sabine Women, appeals to Neria, wife of Mars, for peace

Classificatio · Taxonomy

CultureRoman

Formpublic

DeitiesNeria, Mars

FunctionsPetition

SphereCivic