May 12 | Fastorum Liber Quintus: Maius
D NP LVD • MART • IN • CIRC | IV Eid. | V.545-598, Ovid recalls how Augustus vowed to give a temple to Mars if he was victorious over the Parthians.
Sed quid et Orion et cetera sidera mundo 545
cedere festinant, noxque coartat iter?
quid solito citius liquido iubar aequore tollit
candida, Lucifero praeveniente, dies?
fallor, an arma sonant? non fallimur, arma sonabant:
Mars venit et veniens bellica signa dedit. 550
Ultor ad ipse suos caelo descendit honores
templaque in Augusto conspicienda foro.
et deus est ingens et opus: debebat in urbe
non aliter nati Mars habitare sui.
digna Giganteis haec sunt delubra tropaeis: 555
hinc fera Gradivum bella movere decet,
seu quis ab Eoo nos impius orbe lacesset,
seu quis ab occiduo sole domandus erit.
perspicit armipotens operis fastigia summi
et probat invictos summa tenere deos. 560
perspicit in foribus diversae tela figurae
armaque terrarum milite victa suo.
hinc videt Aenean oneratum pondere caro
et tot Iuleae nobilitatis avos:
hinc videt Iliaden umeris ducis arma ferentem, 565
claraque dispositis acta subesse viris.
spectat et Augusto praetextum nomine templum,
et visum lecto Caesare maius opus.
voverat hoc iuvenis tum, cum pia sustulit arma:
a tantis Princeps incipiendus erat. 570
ille manus tendens, hinc stanti milite iusto,
hinc coniuratis, talia dicta dedit:
“si mihi bellandi pater est Vestaeque sacerdos
auctor, et ulcisci numen utrumque paro,
Mars, ades et satia scelerato sanguine ferrum, 575
stetque favor causa pro meliore tuus.
templa feres et, me victore, vocaberis Ultor.”
voverat et fuso laetus ab hoste redit.
nec satis est meruisse semel cognomina Marti:
persequitur Parthi signa retenta manu. 580
gens fuit et campis et equis et tuta sagittis
et circumfusis invia fluminibus.
addiderant animos Crassorum funera genti,
cum periit miles signaque duxque simul.
signa, decus belli, Parthus Romana tenebat, 585
Romanaeque aquilae signifer hostis erat.
isque pudor mansisset adhuc, nisi fortibus armis
Caesaris Ausoniae protegerentur opes.
ille notas veteres et longi dedecus aevi
sustulit: agnorunt signa recepta suos. 590
quid tibi nunc solitae mitti post terga sagittae,
quid loca, quid rapidi profuit usus equi,
Parthe? refers aquilas, victos quoque porrigis arcus:
pignora iam nostri nulla pudoris habes.
rite deo templumque datum nomenque bis ulto, 595
et meritus voti debita solvit honor.
sollemnes ludos Circo celebrate, Quirites!
non visa est fortem scaena decere deum.
545 But why do Orion and the other stars haste to withdraw from the sky? And why does night shorten her course? Why does the bright day, heralded by the Morning Star, raise its radiant light faster than usual from the watery main? Do I err, or was there a clash of arms? I err not, there was a clash of arms. Mars comes, and at his coming he gave the sign of war. The Avenger descends himself from heaven to behold his own honours and his splendid temple in the forum of Augustus.1 The god is huge, and so is the structure: no otherwise ought Mars to dwell in his son’s city. That shrine is worthy of trophies won from giants; from its might the Marching God fitly open his fierce campaigns, whether an impious foe shall assail us from the eastern world or whether another will have to be vanquished where the sun goes down. The god of arms surveys the pinnacles of the lofty edifice, and approves that the highest places should be filled by the unconquered gods. He surveys on the doors weapons of diverse shapes, and arms of lands subdued by his soldiery. On this side he sees Aeneas laden with his dear burden, and many an ancestor of the noble Julian line. On the other side he sees Romulus carrying on his shoulders the arms of the conquered leader,2 and their famous deeds inscribed beneath the statues arranged in order. He beholds, too, the name of Augustus on the front of the temple; and the building seems to him still greater, when he reads the name of Caesar. Augustus had vowed it in his youth at the time when he took up arms in duty’s cause.3 Deeds so great were worthy to inaugurate a prince’s reign. While the loyal troops stood on the one side, and the conspirators on the other, he stretched forth his hands and spoke these words: “If my father,4 Vesta’s priest, is my warrant for waging war, and I do now prepare to avenge both his divinity and hers, come, Mars, and glut the sword with knavish blood, and grant thy favour to the better cause. Thou shalt receive a temple, and shalt be called Avenger, when victory is mine.” So he vowed, and returned rejoicing from the routing of the foe. Nor is he content to have earned once for all the surname of Avenger for Mars: he tracks down the standards detained by the hands of the Parthians. These were a nation whom their plains, their horses, and their arrows rendered safe, and surrounding rivers made inaccessible. The pride of the nation had been fostered by the deaths of Crassus and his son, when soldiers, general, and standards perished together.5 The Parthians kept the Roman standards, the glory of war, and a foe was the standard-bearer of the Roman eagle. That shame would have endured till now, had not Ausonia’s empire been guarded by Caesar’s powerful arms. He put an end to the old reproach, to the disgrace of a whole generation: the recovered standards knew their true owners again. What now availed thee, thou Parthian, the arrows thou art wont to shoot behind thy back? What availed thy deserts? What the use of the fleet steed? Thou bringest back the eagles; thou tenderest, too, thy conquered bows. Now thou hast no tokens of our shame. Justly have the temple and the title of Avenger been given to the god, who has earned that title twice over; and the well-deserved honour has paid the debt incurred by the vow. Quirites, celebrate the solemn games in the Circus: the stage seems little to befit a valiant god.
See 577. The future Augustus had vowed a temple to Mars Ultor, if he should avenge the death of Julius Caesar: this he dedicated in 2 B.C., but on August 1. Augustus had built another temple to the same god for the standards recovered from the Parthians in 20 B.C., which Ovid may have confused with this.
The spolia opima taken from Acron.
To punish Brutus and Cassius.
M. Licinius Crassus, killed with his son Publius, and his army destroyed, by the Parthians at Carrhae, 53 B.C. Augustus recovered the captured standards in 20 B.C.