Mars Rome's God of Sacred War

Added: 2026-06-01

[00:00:00]But if Ares was chaos, his Roman counterpart was something completely different.

[00:00:06]Mars is the Roman god of war, and the Romans didn't just worship him, they claimed to be descended from him.

[00:00:13]Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome, were said to be his sons.

[00:00:18]Mars wasn't a god of mindless violence.

[00:00:21]He was a god of military discipline, of Rome's divine right to conquer, of the order that comes after war is won.

[00:00:30]Every March, named after Mars, Roman soldiers performed rituals in his honor.

[00:00:36]Before every campaign, the general would go to the Temple of Mars and shake his sacred spears, calling out, "Mars vigila!"

[00:00:43]Mars, wake up.

[00:00:45]We need you.

[00:00:47]He was the second most important god in Rome after Jupiter.

[00:00:51]While the Greeks saw war as a necessary evil, the Romans saw it as a sacred duty.

[00:00:57]Mars made it holy.

[00:00:59]But not every war god wanted glory.

[00:01:01]Some just wanted blood.