Neo-Attic head portrait of Marcus Claudius Marcellus (42 – 23 BC), son of Octavia, the sister of Augustus. He must have been born in the year 42 BC, and was a youth of promising talents and engaging manners.
In 25 BC Augustus adopted him as his son, at the same time that he gave him his daughter Julia in marriage,
and caused him to be admitted into the senate with praetorian rank, and with the privilege of suing for the consulship ten years before the legal period. Shortly afterwards (BC 24), the young Marcellus was elected “curule aedile” for the ensuing year. But Marcellus was not destined to survive the year of this his first office: in the autumn of BC 23 he was attacked by the disease, of which he died shortly after at Baiae, notwithstanding all the skill and care of the celebrated physician Antonius Musa. He was in the 20th year of his age, and was thought to have given so much promise of future excellence, that his death was mourned as a public calamity
At a subsequent period (b. c. 14) Augustus dedicated in his name the magnificent theatre near the Forum Olitorium, of which the remains are still visible. But the most durable monument to the memory of Marcellus is to be found in the well-known passage of Virgil, which must have been composed and recited to Augustus and Octavia before the end of the year 22.
Vergilius Aeneidis, VI, 860-885:
Atque hic Aeneas (una namque ire videbat 860
egregium forma iuvenem et fulgentibus armis,
sed frons laeta parum et deiecto lumina vultu)
“quis, pater, ille, virum qui sic comitatur euntem?
filius, anne aliquis magna de stirpe nepotum?
qui strepitus circa comitum! quantum instar in ipso! 865
Sed nox atra caput tristi circumvolat umbra.”
Tum pater Anchises lacrimis ingressus obortis:
“O gnate, ingentem luctum ne quaere tuorum;
ostendent terris hunc tantum fata nec ultra
esse sinent. Nimium vobis Romana propago 870
visa potens, superi, propria haec si dona fuissent.
Quantos ille virum magnam Mauortis ad urbem
campus aget gemitus! Vel quae, Tiberine, videbis
funera, cum tumulum praeterlabere recentem!
[ ….. ]
Heu, miserande puer, si qua fata aspera rumpas, 882
tu Marcellus eris. Manibus date lilia plenis
purpureos spargam flores animamque nepotis
his saltem accumulem donis, et fungar inani 885
munere.”
And, at this (Anchises), Aeneas said (since he saw a youth of outstanding beauty with shining armour, but his face lacking in joy, and his eyes downcast): “Father, who is this who accompanies him on his way? His son: or another of his long line of descendants? What murmuring round them! What presence he has! But dark night, with its sad shadows, hovers round his head.”
Then his father Aeneas, with welling tears, replied:“O, do not ask about your people’s great sorrow, my son. The Fates will only show him to the world, not allow him to stay longer. The Roman people would seem too powerful to you gods, if this gift were lasting. What mourning from mankind that Field of Mars will deliver to the mighty city! And what funeral processions you, Tiber, will see, as you glide past his new-made tomb!
[…..]
Ah, boy to be pitied, if only you may shatter harsh fate, you’ll be a Marcellus! Give me handfuls of white lilies, let me scatter radiant flowers, let me load my scion’s spirit with those gifts at least, in discharging that poor duty.”
Virgil Aeneid VI, 860-885, Translation: A. S. Kline, 2002
Source: Smith W., “Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology - 2st Vol.”
Marble neo-Attic head
Height 32 cm
Approx. 25 BC
From Kea, Cyclades Islands, Greece
Paris, Musée du Louvre
