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The founding of Rome took place close in time to the great perturbations of nature in the days of Amos and Isaiah. According to the calculation of Fabius Pictor, Rome was founded in the latter half of the first year of the eighth Olympiad, or the year —747; other Roman authorities differ by a few years only.2 The year —747 is the beginning of an astronomical era in the Middle East; and the "commotion of Uzziah" took place, apparently, in the same year.
According to a persistent Roman tradition, the conception of Romulus by his mother, the foundation of Rome, and the death of Romulus occurred in years of great commotions accompanied by celestial phenomena and disturbances in solar movement. These changes were connected in some way with the planet Mars. Plutarch wrote: "To the surname of Quirinus bestowed on Romulus some give the meaning of Mars." 3 The legend says that Romulus was conceived in the first year of the second Olympiad (—772) when the sun was totally eclipsed.
According to Latin historians, on the very day of Rome's foundation, the sun was disrupted in its movement and the world was darkened.4 In Romulus' time "a plague fell upon the land, bringing sudden death without previous sickness," and "a rain of blood" and other calamities. Earthquakes convulsed the earth for a long period. Jewish tradition knows that "the first settlers of Rome found that the huts collapsed as soon as built." 5
The death of Romulus occurred when, according to Plutarch, "suddenly strange and unaccountable disorders with incredible changes filled the air; the light of the sun failed, and night came down upon them, not with peace and quiet, but with awful peals of thunder and furious blasts," and amidst this storm Romulus disappeared.6
2 Polybius dated the foundation of Rome in the second year of the seventh Olympiad (—750); Porcius Cato, in the first year of the seventh Olympiad (—751); Verrius Flaccus, in the fourth year of the sixth Olympiad (—752); Terentius Varro, in the third year of the sixth Olympiad (—
753); Censorinus followed Varro.
3 Plutarch, Lives, "The Life of Romulus" (transl. B. Perrin, 1914).
4 Cf. F. K. Ginzel, Spezieller Kanon der Sonnen- und Mondfinsternisse (1899), and T. von Oppolzer, Kanon der Finsternisse (1887).
robin-bobin
5 Literature in Ginzberg, Legends, VI, 280.
6 Plutarch, Lives, "The Life of Romulus."
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Ovid's description of the phenomena on the day of Romulus' death is this: "Both the poles shook, and Atlas shifted the burden of the sky. . . . The sun vanished and rising clouds obscured the heaven . . . the sky was riven by shooting flames. The people fled and the king [Romulus] upon his father's [Mars'] steeds soared to the stars." 7
Hezekiah was a contemporary of Romulus and Numa; this was known to Augustine: "Now these days extend . . . down to Romulus king of Romans, or even to the beginning of the reign of his successor Numa Pompilius. Hezekiah king of Judah certainly reigned till then." 8
If Mars really was the deified cosmic visitor of the days of Hezekiah and Sennacherib, then one might expect not only that the activities of Mars would have been ascribed to the generation of Romulus and the foundation of Rome, but that the very date of the perturbation would have been a celebrated date in the cult of Mars.
The year of the second campaign of Sennacherib against Palestine is established by modern research as —687. The Talmud helps to set the time of the year: it was the night of the feast of spring, Passover. Chinese sources give the exact date, midnight of the 23rd of March, —687, as the date of a great cosmic activity.
The main festival in the cult of Mars took place in the month dedicated to this god-planet. "The ancilia, or sacred shields . . . were carried in procession by the Salii, or dancing warrior-priests of Man on several occasions during the month of March up to the 23rd (tubilustrium), when the military trumpets (tubae) were lustrated; and again in October to the 19th (armilustrium), when both the ancilia and the arms of the exercitus were purified and put away for the winter. ... It is only at the end of February that we find indications of the coming Mars-cult." 9 "The most important role in the
7 Ovid Fasti (transl. Frazer, 1931), II 11. 489 ff.
s Augustine, The City of God, Bk. XVIII, Chap. 27.
9 Quoted from W. W. Fowler, "Mars," Encyclopaedia Britannica, 14th ed.
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cult of Mars appears to be played by the festival of tubilustrium on the twenty-third day of March." 10
The date, the 23rd of March, taken with all the other circumstances mentioned above, must impress us. The fact that Mars had festivals on two dates (the other date, the 19th of October, is almost a month after the autumnal equinox) is easily understandable if one remembers that there was more than one perturbation connected with the same cosmic cause.
The disturbance in the movement of the sun a few hours before the Assyrian host perished occurred on the first day of Passover. The cataclysm of the days of the Exodus was caused by the planet Venus. Therefore, about the time of the vernal equinox there were two festivals, one for the planet Mars, the other for the planet Venus, which coincided in time. The festival of Minerva lasted from the nineteenth to the twenty-third of March, and on March 23rd, Mars, and also Minerva-Athene, were the honored deities.11
Mars Moves the Earth from Its Pivot
Venus was a comet, and in historical times it became a planet. Was Mars a comet in the eighth century before this era? There is evidence that long before the eighth century Mars was a planet in the solar system. A four-planet system was known to Chaldean astronomy, in which Venus was absent but Mars was present.
There does not exist, at least in the extant material, any mention of the first appearance of Mars, whereas expressions referring to the birth of the planet Venus have been found in literary sources of the peoples of both hemispheres.
The Babylonian name of the planet Mars is Nergal.1 This name is referred to in early times, many centuries prior to the eighth century. But it was in that latter century that this planet robin-bobin
became a most important deity. Many prayers to it were composed. "Radiant abode, that beams over the land . . . who is thy equal?" Temples were
10 Roscher, "Mars," in Roscher's Lexikon der griech. und rom. Mythologie.
« Ibid., Col. 2402.
1 J. Bollenriicher, Gebete und Hymnen an Nergal (1904), p. 3.
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built to this planet and statues erected. When Samaria was conquered by Sargon, father of Sennacherib, and new settlers were brought to live there, they erected in Samaria a shrine to the planet Mars.2
The planet Mars was feared for its violence. "Nergal, the almighty among the gods, fear, terror, awe-inspiring splendor," 3 wrote Esar-haddon, son of Sennacherib. Shamash-shum-ukin, king of Babylonia and grandson of Sennacherib, wrote: "Nergal, the most violent among the gods."
It is characteristic that Nergal was regarded by the people of Assyria as a god who brought defeat. Another grandson of Sennacherib, Assurbanipal, king of Assyria, wrote: "Nergal, the perfect warrior, the most powerful one among the gods, the pre-eminent hero, the mighty lord, king of battle, lord of power and might, lord of the storm, who brings defeat." 4
It is also a conspicuous fact that the name of Nergal became very common as a component of personal names in the seventh and sixth centuries. Two generals, both by the name of Nergalsharezer, were among Nebuchadnezzar's marshals; 5 a king by the name of Nergilissar ruled in Babylon.6 Priests, warriors, traders in cattle, criminals bearing the name of Nergalsharezer, are familiar figures in the documents of the seventh century.