Ludi Martiales
Ludi Martiales or rather MARTIS ULTORIS. The temple to Mars Ultor was dedicated on Aug. 1, 2 B.C., in the Forum Augusti (D. C. 60.5). The dedication of the temple and celebration of games to Mars Ultor held on May 12 (Fasti Maffeiani in C. I. L. i. p. 305; Ov. Fast. 5.597) refer to the temple provisionally erected in the Capitol in 20 B.C. (D. C. 54.8): cf. Mommsen in C. I. L. 1.393. These games were celebrated annually (D. C. 60.5) by the consuls (ib. 56.46). Senators had the privilege of contracting f<*> the horses used in these games (ib. 55.10). A<*>aumachia was given on the occasion of the dedication of the temple (Vell. 2.100); als ludi sevirales, i.e. evolutions of the six turn e of cavalry, each with its sevir at its head (Dio Cass. l.c.). There appears to have been occasionally a venatio (ib. 56.27).
From William Smith (ed.), Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities. Text provided under a CC BY-SA license by Perseus Digital Library, http://www.perseus.tufts.edu, with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities and Tufts University. Data accessed from https://github.com/PerseusDL/canonical-pdlrefwk/ on 17 October 2026.