Powers and Office in the Arbatel

In the Arbatel de magia veterum, Phaleg is the Olympic spirit given governance over the sphere of Mars, and the text names him the Prince of Peace even though his office is martial. The Arbatel credits him with raising those who bear his character to great honor in warfare, in keeping with the standard association of Mars with military affairs across astrological tradition, and, like the other six spirits, with commanding a nested court of subordinate ranks and a 490 year reign as part of the shared seven age scheme.

Compared with the entries the Arbatel gives Aratron, Bethor or Och, the surviving text says comparatively little about Phaleg beyond his martial office, and later writers on the Arbatel have generally repeated this brevity rather than expanding it with material the grimoire itself does not contain. That relative silence is itself worth recording honestly rather than padded over with invented detail, since the point of describing a primary source is to describe what it actually says. Phaleg's title, Prince of Peace, set against a martial office, has drawn comment from later readers as one of the more striking pairings among the seven Olympic spirits, though the Arbatel does not explain the seeming contradiction in the text as it survives.