Latest / Marcus Aurelius: Rome's Philosopher King — Fexingo History / Marcus Aurelius and the God of War: Mars in the Marcomannic Wars
Transcript
- Lucas: If you've been stepping into history with us episode by episode, you know we've spent a lot of time on the Danube wars, on the plague, on the coins, on the statues. But there's one thread we haven't pulled on yet: the gods Marcus Aurelius actually prayed to while he was out there freezing in his tent. Luna: The Stoic emperor praying to gods? That feels like he'd be more into, I don't know, inner peace. Lucas: Right, and that's the puzzle. He wrote in the Meditations that the gods either exist and help, or they don't and we should still be good. But when the Marcomanni crossed the Danube in 166, he didn't just sit in his tent being philosophical. He reached for Mars, the god of war, harder than almost any emperor before him. Lucas: Mars was an ancient, agricultural god first, with war grafted on. By Marcus's time, he was the divine protector of the legions. And Marcus, despite his reputation as a philosopher, was a Roman commander first. He knew the army needed more than tactics; they needed the gods on their side. Luna: So what did he actually do to win Mars's favor? Lucas: He revived old rituals. The Salii, the leaping priests of Mars, were Rome's oldest college, dating back to the legendary king Numa. They carried the ancilia, those sacred shields, and danced through the city every March. By the late Republic, they were mostly a curiosity. But Marcus brought them back to prominence, funding their rites and joining the processions himself. Lucas: And in 169, when he was raising two new legions, he dedicated their standards to Mars. That wasn't just rhetoric. The legionary eagle was a sacred object, and placing it under Mars's protection meant the whole legion was under his command. It was a way of saying, 'This war is holy.' Luna: But wouldn't a Stoic see war as just… necessary, not sacred? Lucas: That's the tension. Marcus wrote in the Meditations: 'The best revenge is not to be like your enemy.' But then he's also the man who ordered his troops to burn villages and take slaves. The religion gave him a framework to reconcile that. If Mars was on your side, then victory was just, and the killing was part of a divine plan. Lucas: There's a moment in 174, after the Rain Miracle, when the column shows Marcus making a sacrifice before battle. He's in full armor, pouring wine over an altar, and Mars is right there in the relief. That's not just propaganda; it's a record of what he actually did on campaign. He carried Mars with him, literally and figuratively. Luna: That's intense. Did he do anything else, like, outside the usual military stuff? Lucas: Oh, he did the October Horse. That was an ancient rite where they sacrificed a racehorse to Mars on the Ides of October. It hadn't been performed for decades, but Marcus brought it back in the middle of the war, in Rome, while he was away. He wanted the city's prayers to echo along the Danube. Lucas: And he wasn't shy about the blood. He sent a dedicated sacrifice to Mars before every major campaign season, sometimes on the battlefield itself. The Augustan History even mentions him offering a golden statue of Mars to the god of war after a victory, as a thank-you. It's a side of Marcus that feels far from the meditative philosopher. Luna: It must have been hard to keep up that faith when so many of his soldiers were dying of plague. Lucas: That's the part I find most human. He kept the rituals going even as the plague thinned the ranks. He probably thought, 'If I stop, Mars will abandon us entirely.' The religion gave him a structure for hope when everything else was falling apart. Lucas: There's a great line in the Meditations where he says, 'The gods are either good or they don't exist.' But then he's also having dreams about Mars, according to the sources. He put that divine anxiety into his leadership, and honestly, it helped. The troops saw their emperor kneeling before the same god they prayed to, and that mattered. Luna: I never thought of his wars as being so religious. I always pictured him as just this rational guy. Lucas: And he was, but he was also a Roman of his time. He didn't see a contradiction between Stoic rationalism and traditional piety. The gods, for Marcus, were a way to make sense of chaos. And Mars, specifically, was the god who could turn the tide of a war that was bleeding the empire dry. Lucas: I should say, this podcast is a labor of love, and we only make it because a small group of listeners chips in monthly. If you've been enjoying these conversations, and you want to help us keep making them, you can do that at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. That's the whole thing, no ads, no pressure. Luna: Yeah, it really does keep the whole thing going, and we appreciate it more than we can say. Lucas: So, back to Mars. One of the most fascinating bits is the iron ring. Roman soldiers sometimes wore iron rings dedicated to Mars, like a little piece of armor for the finger. That was a custom Marcus would have known, and he even had his own ring with Mars's image, so he could carry the god into every meeting, every letter, every battle plan. Luna: Wait, how do we know about his ring? Is that in the sources? Lucas: Cassius Dio mentions it. He says Marcus had a ring with Mars on it, and that when the emperor was away from Rome, he'd kiss it before making any big decisions. It's a small detail, but it shows how personal the religion was. He wasn't just going through the motions; he had a direct line to the god. Lucas: The irony is, after all that devotion, Mars didn't give him a quick victory. The Marcomannic Wars dragged on for over a decade, and Marcus died in 180 while still on campaign. But he never stopped believing the god was there, guiding him. That's what I keep thinking about: the philosopher who couldn't save his empire, but never stopped trusting his god. Luna: That's a tough way to go. But maybe the faith was what got him through all those winters. Lucas: Absolutely. And it's worth remembering that his successor Commodus, who was the opposite of a philosopher, also claimed Mars's protection. They both found something useful in that god. But Marcus's devotion feels different — it was humble. He wore the ring, he performed the rites, he asked for help. He wasn't above his own army. Lucas: There's a moment on the Column where the barbarians are shown with their hands tied, and above them, Mars looms like a storm cloud. It's a brutal image, but it also shows how the Romans understood their victories: as divine gifts, not just human effort. Marcus, for all his Stoicism, was part of that world. Luna: So if I had to sum up, it's that he used Mars as a way to cope with the horror of war. Lucas: Exactly. He couldn't stop the slaughter, but he could make it meaningful. And that, in a weird way, is the most human thing about him. He was a man caught between his ideals and his duties, and he used religion to bridge that gap. It's a side of him that doesn't often get told, but it's essential to who he was.