Prayer to Mars

Romulus explains to Mars why the first month of the Roman year will bear his name.

These lines are remarkable for one turn of phrase: de cuius sanguine natus credor et, ut credar, pignora multa dabo — of whose blood I am believed to be born, and, that it may be believed, I shall give many pledges. Not "I am your son" but "I am held to be, and I shall bear it out". Divine descent is presented not as a fact but as an assertion requiring security — and the security will be future victories.

Pignora is a term of the law of pledge: a thing lodged to secure an obligation. Romulus pawns his future service against his own ancestry.

The payment named is the calendar: "the first month shall bear my father's name". The god is given neither temple nor sacrifice but a place in the reckoning of time — and it proved more durable than temples: March still bears the name of Mars.

Arbiter armorum — arbiter of arms. In Latin an arbiter is the referee who decides a dispute between parties; war is described as a suit which Mars adjudicates. The same language as the fetial formula (janus-004).