Prayer to Mars

Octavian before Philippi promises Mars a temple in return for victory over Caesar's assassins. The vow was paid: the temple of Mars Ultor was dedicated in 2 BC and became the centrepiece of the Forum of Augustus — forty years later.

The grounds for the war are constructed sacrally, not politically. Pater is Caesar, his adoptive father; Vestaeque sacerdos is the same man, pontifex maximus, whose house adjoined the temple of Vesta. The murder is therefore declared not a murder but a sacrilege against numen utrumque, both divinities at once: the deified Caesar and Vesta. Civil war is refiled as a case of desecration.

Satia scelerato sanguine ferrum — glut the iron with guilty blood. No piety, no softening: the god is asked to give the weapon its drink.

Most unusual of all is the payment. Templa feres et, me victore, vocaberis Ultor — you shall have temples, and when I am victor you shall be called the Avenger. The mortal party to the contract not only builds a temple but gives the god a new name. The cult title arises here as a term of the bargain, and after the victory Mars the Avenger duly entered the Roman calendar and the military oath.