The Flamen Martialis, who was always a patrician, oversaw the cult of Mars, the god of war, leading public rites on the days sacred to Mars. The sacred spears of Mars were ritually shaken by the Flamen Martialis when the legions were preparing for war.
He was required to wed a virgin according to the ceremonies of confarreatio, which regulation also applied to the two other flamines maiores.[1] It is not clear if the death of his wife required him to resign his duties, as it did for the Flamen Dialis.
The Flamen Martialis (Priest of Mars) may originally have represented the Priest of the Latins.[2]
Festival of Acca Laurentia, or Larentalia, or Larentian Feast, or , in April: In the month of April, the priest of Mars poured libations in the honour of Acca Laurentia, the wife of Faustulus, the foster-father of the infants Romulus and Remus.[3]
Festival of Robigus, or Robigalia, on the 25th of April: "On the twenty-fifth of April, at the Festival of Robigus 29 (Robigalia), the spirit of the mildew, a suckling puppy and a sheep were slain in the city in the morning, and the entrails and the blood were carried in the afternoon by the priest of Mars, attended by worshipers clad in white, to the grove of Robigus at the fifth milestone from Rome on the Claudian Road. Here they were offered on an altar, together with unmixed wine and incense, as a burnt sacrifice to the god, with prayer to Robigus to spare the crops and to ward off harm from them."[4]
"Magic Acts: The General Principles". 1931 (out of copyright)
The October Horse or October Equus - 15 October, or the Ides of October: In the very early days of Rome, the people were divided into two groups: the Montani lived on the hills, while the Pagani (villagers) lived on the low ground.
"There was a rivalry between the two to see who could produce the best race horse. Each group provided a two horse chariot (biga) for the race held on the Ides of October in the Campus Martius in honor of Mars. After the race, the flamen Martialis (priest of Mars) would offer gratulationes to the winner, cut off the tail of the horse as an offering to Mars. The horse was then sacrificed, and its blood sprinkled on the hearth of the temple of Vesta."[5]
List of Flamens Martialis
The Middle Republic
in 244 BC-241 BC - Aulus Postumius Albinus, consul in 242 BC; notable because in ca. 244 BC or more likely in 242 BC (the year of his consulship), when he wanted to leave Rome to set out to wage war, he was forbidden by his religious superior Lucius Caecilius Metellus Pontifex Maximus to leave Rome, and required to follow his religious duties. (Livy, Book 19)
in 131 BC - Lucius Valerius Flaccus, consul 131 BC was forbidden by his religious superior Publius Licinius Crassus Dives Mucianus, Pontifex Maximus, and also his co-consul, from leaving his religious duties. Crassus Mucianus then violated his own religious duties and the mos maiorum by leaving Italy to campaign disastrously in Asia Minor.
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