Prayer to Vulcan
Vulcan · Venus · MarsMartial asks Vulcan to spare Rome — a city that burned so often that the god of fire was a standing threat to it.
The argument is built entirely on a family quarrel among the gods, and it is a joke. Vulcan has reason to dislike the Romans: they descend from Mars, and Mars was once caught with his wife. Hence notae … querelae, "the famous grievance", which the poet asks him to forget. But the Romans descend from Venus too, through Aeneas — that is, they are Vulcan's own relations. Sumus Martis turba, sed et Veneris: do not punish us for our father, spare us for our mother's sake.
The payment offered matches the argument. Not a sacrifice, not a temple, but marital peace: "and so may your wanton wife forgive you the Lemnian chains and love you patiently". The Lemnian chains are the net in which Vulcan caught the lovers and exhibited them to the laughter of the gods. Martial offers the god a reconciliation with his wife in exchange for an unburnt city.
The sic … ut turn is not ornament but the everyday Latin form of a vow: "so may such a thing befall you, as you do such a thing for me". The epigram uses a real prayer construction and fills it with material from the scandal columns of Olympus.
The card cited 5.7.5; lines 5-8 are given, that is, the whole plea.