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Mars Uncovered: Ancient God of War

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Factual: History

25/05/2019 GMT

BBC World News - Mars Uncovered: Ancient God of War

Bettany Hughes explores the long and fascinating history of the God Mars.

Bettany Hughes investigates the enduring relationship between warfare and worship, by following the trail of Mars, from Rome and Carthage to the present day.

Professor Bettany Hughes investigates the enduring relationship between warfare and worship, by following the story of Mars, the ancient God of war. She begins in Carthage, site of one of the bloodiest victories in the Roman Empire and explores the role of Mars in Rome's imperial expansion. At the British Museum, Bettany sees the earliest known evidence of human warfare a 13,000 year old graveyard in which many bodies showed signs of violent deaths. Bettany asks if ritualising burials and celebrating war is a way of bringing societies together - of creating 'them' and 'us'. In North Africa, at the Roman amphitheatre in El Djem, Bettany examines the role of the gladiatorial games, and the challenge posed by early Christianity to this celebration of war and ritualised death. From Jordan, she tells the story of one of the bloodiest episodes in Crusader history and examines how the Christian notion of Holy War played out in practice, with Mars still a powerful presence. The programme reveals how the figure of Mars was used by artists such as Botticelli and Rubens to examine the inevitability of war, and whether peace might not proffer a better option. Following the World Wars and contemporary conflict in the Middle East, Bettany considers how Mars's dominion has been sustained and asks whether the benefits of war still outweigh the horrors.

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