BELLONA, originally DUELLONA, in Roman mythology, the goddess of war (bellum, duellum), corresponding to the Greek Enuo. Sometimes known as the sister or wife of Mars, she has been identified with the Sabine war goddess Nerio. Her temple at Rome, dedicated by Appius Claudius Caecus (296 B.c.) dur ing a battle with the Samnites and Etruscans (Ovid, Fasti, vi. 201), stood in the Campus Martius, near the Flaminian Circus, and outside the gates of the city. It was there that the senate met to discuss a general's claim to a triumph, and to receive ambassadors from foreign States. In front of it was the column bellica, where the ceremony of declaring war by the fetialis (see HERALD) was performed.
The Asiatic Bellona, whose worship was introduced into Rome from Comana, in Cappadocia, apparently by Sulla, during the first Mithridatic war is to be distinguished from this native Italian goddess. A new temple was built for her and a college of priests (Bellonarii) instituted to conduct her fanatical rites, at which, wearing black dresses, they lacerated their arms and loins, sprinkled the blood from their wounds on the spectators, and even drank that of the sacrificial victims.
See W. W. Fowler, Roman Festivals (1899) ; G. Wissowa, Religion and Kultus der Romer (1912) .