| Combat | ATK 10 DEF 9 SPR 8 SPD 8 INT 7 |
| Element | Fire |
| Role | Warrior |
| Rarity | Legendary |
| Threat | Cosmic |
| LCK | 7 |
| ARC | 7 |
| Special | Standard of Mars — Carrying Mars's sacred standard, an army cannot be routed; even in defeat the soldiers retreat in good order, and the standard's recovery after loss restores the army to full morale |
| Passive | Father of Romans — Mars's protection extends to all Roman citizens by ancestral right; Roman soldiers gain bonuses to attack and defense in proportion to the legitimacy of their cause and the propriety of their pre-battle augury |
| Epithets | "Gradivus" (*Mars Gradivus* — Mars the Marching, his wartime aspect), "Ultor" (*Mars Ultor* — Mars the Avenger, Augustus's temple vow), "Pater" (Father Mars) |
| Sacred Animals | Wolf (father of Romulus; the wolf is his most sacred animal), Woodpecker (*picus Martius*), Horse (the October Horse sacrifice on the Ides of October) |
| Sacred Objects | Sacred Shields (*ancilia*) — twelve shields kept in the Temple of Mars, including the one said to have fallen from heaven; the sacred spears (*hastae Martis*) that shook before Roman wars |
| Sacred Colors | Red (the color of war and his planet), Gold |
| Sacred Number | 12 (twelve *ancilia* sacred shields; twelve *Salii* priests who danced with them) |
| Sacred Sites | Campus Martius (Field of Mars) — the great plain outside Rome's walls where armies mustered and where his altar stood; Temple of Mars Ultor in the Forum of Augustus (dedicated 2 BCE); Temple of Mars outside the Porta Capena |
| Festivals | *Equirria* (February 27 and March 14 — horse races on the Campus Martius); *Quinquatrus* (March 19-23 — purification of arms at the start of the war season); *October Horse* (October 15 — sacrifice of the winning racehorse, blood kept on the Regia); *Armilustrium* (October 19 — closing of the war season, purification of arms) |
| Iconography | Armored warrior with crested helmet, spear, and shield; driving a war-chariot; attended by the she-wolf |
| Period | Archaic Roman — among the original Italic gods; his cult predates Greek influence and remained the second-most-important state cult after Jupiter throughout Rome's history |
| Region | Rome (Campus Martius as his sacred ground); the entire Roman world wherever legions marched; his month *Martius* gave March its name |
Mars is the Roman war-god, but he is not a Latin Ares. Where Ares is reckless, hated, and morally compromised — bloody-handed, cowardly, despised even by his fellow Olympians — Mars is dignified, agricultural, and a founding father of Rome. He is the father of Romulus, the protector of Rome, the second-most-important god in the Roman state cult after Jupiter. His month (March, Martius) was the original first month of the Roman year and the traditional opening of the campaigning season. His sacred animals were the wolf (which suckled his sons), the woodpecker, and the bull.
Crucially, Mars retained an older Italic identity as a god of agriculture alongside his war-function. Cato the Elder preserves a Mars-prayer for the welfare of the farm and the herds (De Agri Cultura 141), invoking Mars to protect against disease, bad weather, and crop failure. This dual war/agriculture function was unique to Mars among the major Mediterranean war-gods, and reflects the Roman reality: every Roman citizen was potentially a soldier and a farmer, and the same god protected him in both.
Biblical Parallels: Mars parallels the YHWH Tzeva’ot — “Yahweh of Hosts/Armies” — the warrior-aspect of the Hebrew God who marches with Israel into battle (Exodus 15:3, “the LORD is a man of war”). Mars’s combined war-and-agriculture function echoes the dual emphasis of Deuteronomic religion: God protects Israel in battle (Deuteronomy 20) and blesses the harvest (Deuteronomy 28). Both are protective deities of an entire people who must do both. The contrast with Greek Ares (divinely useless) is itself biblically resonant: Yahweh is presented as a competent divine warrior, not a contemptible one.
Cross-Tradition: Functionally closer to Norse Tyr (war-god of justice and oaths) and Vedic Indra (warrior-king-protector) than to Greek Ares. Cognate name with the Vedic Maruts (the storm-warrior band) and with the Indo-European war-band tradition. Hindu Karttikeya/Skanda (war-god, son of Shiva) is a parallel war-god-of-the-people figure.
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Combat Radar
