June 30 | Fastorum Liber Sextus: Iunius
E C | Pr. Kal. | VI.797-812, Ovid questions the Muse Clio about Marcius Philippus.
Tempus Iuleis cras est natale Kalendis:
Pierides, coeptis addite summa meis.
dicite, Pierides, quis vos addixerit isti,
cui dedit invitas victa noverca manus. 800
sic ego. sic Clio: “clari monumenta Philippi
aspicis, unde trahit Marcia casta genus,
Marcia, sacrifico deductum nomen ab Anco,
in qua par facies nobilitate sua est.
par animo quoque forma suo respondet; in illa 805
et genus et facies ingeniumque simul.
nec quod laudamus formam, tu turpe putaris:
laudamus magnas hac quoque parte deas.
nupta fuit quondam matertera Caesaris illi.
o decus, o sacra femina digna domo!” 810
sic cecinit Clio. doctae assensere sorores;
adnuit Alcides increpuitque lyram.
797 To-morrow is the birthday of the Kalends of July. Pierides, put the last touches to my undertaking. Tell me, Pierides, who associated you with him to whom his stepmother was forced to yield reluctantly.1 So I spoke, and Clio answered me thus: “Thou dost behold the monument of that famous Philip from whom the chaste Marcia is descended, Marcia who derives her name from sacrificial Ancus, and whose beauty matches her noble birth.2 In her the figure answers to the soul; in her we find lineage and beauty and genius all at once. Nor deem our praise of figure base; on the same ground we praise great goddesses. The mother’s sister of Caesar was once married to that Philip.3 O florious dame! O lady worthy of that sacred house!” So Clio sang. Her learned sisters chimed in; Alcides bowed assent and twanged his lyre.
Juno, who reluctantly gave Hercules a place in the temple of the Muses.
L. Marcius Philippus restored the temple of Hercules Musarum, in the time of Augustus. His daughter Marcia was wife of P. Fabius Maximus. Compare Ovid, Ex Ponto, i. 127–142, iii. 1. 75–78. The Marcian family claimed to be descended from King Ancus Marcius, and added the surname Rex to their family name.
Atia, mother of Augustus, appears to have married Marcius Philippus after the death of C. Octavius. Atia was niece of Julius Caesar. Some think that Atia had a younger sister, also Atia, who was confused with the elder.