STATUA MARSYAE
a statue of the Phrygian Silenus, which stood in an
enclosure in the middle of the forum, together with the figtree, olive and
vine (see
FICUS, OLEA, VITIS), near the
TRIBUNAL PRAETORIS (q.v.),
and the lacus Curtius (Hor.
Sat. i. 6. 120 and Ps. Acron and Porphyrion
ad loc.; Sen. de benef. vi. 32;
Mart. ii. 64. 7; Plin.
NH xxi. 8-9;
Juv.
ix. 2; Hulsen, Nachtrag 15-19).
This statue appears in relief on the famous plutei (see reff. under
ROSTRA AUGUSTI); and coins struck by L. Marcius Censorinus between
86 and 81 B.C. (Babelon, Monnaies, Marcia 42; BM.
Rep. i. 338, pl. xl. 3-4)
represent the satyr standing on a square pedestal with right foot advanced, a wine skin thrown over his left shoulder with his left hand
holding its opening, and his right hand raised. The statue is nude
except for sandals and the Phrygian hat (pileus), and represents the
Greek type of the fourth century B.C. How long before 8 B.C. this statue
was erected in the forum, and why it was brought here, we do not know.
According to a recent ingenious theory it was brought from Apamea
in 188 B.C. by Cn. Manlius Vulso because of the legendary connection
of that city with the tomb of Aeneas, and placed near the lacus Curtius
because of a certain parallelism between the legendary self-sacrifice of
an Apamean hero and Curtius (A. Reinach,
Klio 1914, 321-337). The
statue was often crowned with flowers, and a certain P. Munatius was
once thrown into prison for stealing them (Plin.
NH xxi. 8-9).
Marsyas came to be regarded as the symbol of liberty (Serv. ad
Aen.
iii. 20) and under the empire his statue was set up in the fora of those
towns in the provinces that possessed the ius Italicum (Cagnat, Timgad
68;
CIL viii. 4219, 16417;
1 for the Marsyas of the forum, see also Jord.
Marsyas auf d. Forum in Rom, Berlin 1883;
i. 2. 265-266;
AA 1891,
14-15;
Mitt. 1892, 287-288;
Gilb. iii. 156; Thedenat 134-135).
