Mars in Britain
Mars was the Roman god of war and was equated with Cocidius and Belatucadrus on a number of sites in the northwest as well as with other local Celtic gods. Mars was widely worshipped in Roman Britain and this religion was one of the standard deities for the army.
There are ninety-odd altars to Mars in Britain. There are a total of eighteen known altars to Mars in Cumbria with nine of the altars that are dual or type specific. Taking the eighteen altars from Cumbria one can see that there are never more then two dedications from each site except for four each at Birdoswald and Carlisle. One must take it as survivability of the altars and nothing else. There are nine altars from the military and possibly another two while there are six from civilians with the remaining two being of unknown dedicators. Two of the altars from Maryport, which are dedicated by soldiers make a direct reference to the military (RIB 837 and 838) discussing military Mars (militaris). The dedicators are the commanding officers of the units stationed at the fort. Both commanders were in charge of the cohors I Baetasiorum during the 2nd century AD at the fort.
