June 3 | Fastorum Liber Sextus: Iunius
B C | III Non. | VI.199-208, Ovid notes the arrival of Bellona, goddess of war.
Mane ubi bis fuerit Phoebusque iteraverit ortus
factaque erit posito rore bis uda seges, 200
hac sacrata die Tusco Bellona duello
dicitur et Latio prospera semper adest.
Appius est auctor, Pyrrho qui pace negata
multum animo vidit, lumine captus erat.
prospicit a templo summum brevis area Circum, 205
est ibi non parvae parva columna notae:
hinc solet hasta manu, belli praenuntia, mitti,
in regem et gentes cum placet arma capi.
199 When twice the morning shall have passed, and twice Phoebus shall have repeated his rising, and twice the crops shall have been wetted by the fallen dew, on that day Bellona is said to have been consecrated in the Tuscan war,1 and ever she comes gracious to Latium. Her founder was Appius, who, when peace was refused to Pyrrhus, saw clearly in his mind, though from the light of day he was cut off.2 A small open space commands from the temple a view of the top of the Circus. There stands a little pillar of no little note. From it the custom is to hurl by hand a spear, war’s harbinger, when it has been resolved to take arms against a king and peoples.3
Vowed by Appius Claudius Caecus in 296 B.C., when he as consul conquered the Etruscan and Samnite united forces.
After the defeat of 280 B.C., Pyrrhus offered honourable terms of peace: but Appius Claudius the Blind had himself carried into the Senate, and persuaded them to refuse.
The fetialis, or sacred herald, advanced to the enemy boundary, and threw over it a spear with the solemn words of declaration. See Livy i. 32. When war was declared against Pyrrhus, a soldier of Pyrrhus was caught, and compelled to buy a patch of land, and there a pillar was set up before Bellona’s temple. This was taken to represent the enemy territory in future declarations of war.