III. To An Unfaithful Friend

The poem has points of contact with the earlier poems of reproach. Tr I viii is addressed to a friend who failed to visit Ovid after his disaster: he can scarcely believe his friend is human. In Tr III xi, Ovid asks his enemy why through his actions he makes his punishment even worse. Tr IV ix is a warning that if Ovid's enemy does not cease attacking him, he will through his poetry make his enemy's name infamous throughout the world. Tr V viii, the poem closest in theme to the present one, is a warning to his enemy that Fortune is changeable and Augustus merciful, so he and Ovid might one day change situations.

The Ibis, being primarily a catalogue of literary curses, stands somewhat apart from the other poems of reproach in structure as in size; yet the opening of the poem, in which Ovid describes his enemy's conduct and the ways he might respond, offers a number of parallels to the present poem.

1. CONQVERAR AN TACEAM. Kenney (Nequitiae Poeta 204-5), commenting on AA I 739 'conquerar an moneam', cites other instances of the same rhetorical device at Aen III 39 ' eloquar an sileam?' and Met IX 147 'conquerar an sileam?', as well as the present passage.

1. CONQVERAR. The choice of verb is significant: this poem is a rhetorical conquestio transferred to verse. Kenney cites Cicero's definition of conquestio at Inu I 106: 'conquestio est oratio auditorum misericordiam captans ... id locis communibus efficere oportebit, per quos Fortunae uis in omnes et hominum infirmitas ostenditur; qua oratione ... animus hominum ... ad misericordiam comparatur, cum in alieno malo suam infirmitatem considerabit'.

1. PONAM SINE NOMINE CRIMEN. 'Shall I put my accusation in my poem without naming you?'. The same sense of ponere at Tr I v 7 'positis pro nomine signis', Tr IV iv 7, and EP III vi 1-2 'Naso suo (posuit nomen quam paene!) sodali / mittit ab Euxinis hoc breue carmen aquis'.

2. QVI SIS. The boundary between adjectival qui and pronominal quis in Latin was not absolute; and just as one finds such forms as quis clamor (Met III 632), so it seems to have been Latin practice to use qui before forms of esse in indirect discourse, perhaps in order to avoid a double s-sound. Some instances of this from verse are Ecl I 18 'iste deus qui sit da, Tityre, nobis', Ecl II 19 'nec qui sim quaeris, Alexi', Aen III 608-9 'qui sit fari ... hortamur', Met XIV 841 'mihi nec quae sis dicere promptum est', Met XV 595 'is qui sit signo, non nomine dicam', Fast V 191 'ipse doce quae sis', Ibis 52 'teque breui qui sis dissimulare sinam', Ibis 61 'qui sis nondum quaerentibus edo', and EP III vi 57 'teque tegam, qui sis'. In some of these passages quis is found as a variant reading; given the ease of corruption, the rule should perhaps be made canonical, and such passages as Met I 248-49 'quis sit laturus in aras / tura' supplied with forms of qui even when, as in this instance, there is only weak manuscript support. (Professor R. J. Tarrant prefers, however, to retain quis at Met I 248, seeing a difference between expressions of identity [qui sis ... dicam] and of description [sit and laturus go closely together]).

The use of qui seems to have extended to past subjunctives of esse as well as present: compare Met XI 719 'qui [uar quis] foret ignorans'. For discussions see Löfstedt II 79-96 and Shackleton Bailey on Att III x 2 'possum obliuisci qui fuerim, non sentire qui sim?'.

In preclassical Latin qui is found for quis even in direct questions: OLD qui A4a cites Pl Capt 833 'qui uocat', Ter Ph 990 'qui nominat me', and Scipio minor V 19 Malcovati³ 'qui spondet mille nummum'. The usage must have continued in spoken Latin, for it is found at Vitruvius VII 5 6 and Petronius 62 8.

3. NOMINE NON VTAR, NE COMMENDERE QVERELA. An interesting indication of the confidence Ovid felt in his poetry. In his earlier poems of reproach, Ovid had represented his not naming the person as an act of forbearance (Tr IV ix 1-4; Ibis 51-54).

3. COMMENDERE QVERELA. Oxymoron.

5. DVM MEA PVPPIS ERAT VALIDA FVNDATA CARINA. The common ancient metaphor of shipwreck also used of Ovid's exile at Tr I i 85-86, Tr II 99-102, Tr III iv 15-16 'dum tecum uixi, dum me leuis aura ferebat, / haec mea per placidas cumba cucurrit aquas', Tr V xii 50, and EP II iii 25-28.

7. CONTRAXIT VVLTVM. See at i 5 trahis uultus (p 149).

9-10 form a tricolon, where each phrase represents the same action in progressively more specific terms: (1) 'dissimulas etiam' (2) 'nec me uis nosse uideri' (3) 'quisque sit audito nomine Naso rogas'.

9. DISSIMVLAS. The same word in similar contexts at Tr I i 62 'dissimulare uelis, te liquet esse meum', Tr III vi 2, Tr IV iii 54, Tr IV iv 28, and EP I ii 146.

9. NEC ME VIS NOSSE VIDERI. 'You don't want others to think you know me'. Similar thought and language at Tr IV iii 51 'me miserum si turpe putas mihi nupta uideri!' and EP II iii 29-30 'cumque alii nolint etiam me nosse uideri, / uix duo proiecto tresue tulistis opem'.

10. QVISQVE SIT. QVIQVE SIT (H^acP) could be defended, sit determining the form qui, even with the intervening enclitic, but given the prevalence of relative quique at line-beginnings in Ovid (compare xvi 9, 11, 15, 19 & 23) it seems better to take it as a trivial error.

11, 13, 15, 17. ILLE EGO. The same idiom to stir someone's memory at Fast III 505-6 'illa ego sum cui tu solitus promittere caelum: / ei mihi, pro caelo qualia dona fero' and EP I ii 129-32 'ille ego sum qui te colui, quem festa solebat / inter conuiuas mensa uidere tuos: / ille ego qui duxi uestros Hymenaeon ad ignes, / et cecini fausto carmina digna toro'. R. G. Austin, discussing the spurious proem to the Aeneid (CQ LX, n.s. XVIII [1968] 110-11), cites Tr V vii 55-56 'ille ego Romanus uates—ignoscite, Musae!— / Sarmatico cogor plurima more loqui', Met I 757-58 'ille ego liber, / ille ferox tacui', Statius Sil V v 38 & Theb IX 434, and Silius XI 177-82: 'It will be noticed ... that all these examples represent the new situation as a fall from grace'.

12. AMICITIA. Ovid allows pentasyllabic words to end the pentameter only in the poetry of exile (Platnauer 17). There are eight such words in the Tristia, and four in the Ex Ponto: I ii 68 patrocinium, II ix 20 Ericthonius, this passage, and xiii 44 amicitiae (Platnauer 17; Riese vii). This distribution contrasts with Ovid's increasing fondness in the Ex Ponto for trisyllabic and quadrisyllabic endings, for which see at ix 26 tegeret and ii 10 Alcinoo.

The later Heroides have two pentasyllabic pentameter-endings, XVI 290 pudicitiae and XVII 16 superciliis.

13-14. ILLE EGO QVI PRIMVS TVA SERIA NOSSE SOLEBAM, / ET TIBI IVCVNDIS PRIMVS ADESSE IOCIS. The same joining of seria and ioci (or lusus) at Tr I viii 31-32, EP I ix 9-10, EP II iv 9-10 'seria multa mihi tecum conlata recordor, / nec data iucundis tempora pauca iocis', and EP II x 41-42. It is found in prose and early Latin: Luck at Tr I viii 31-32 cites Cic Fin II 85 'at quicum ioca, seria, ut dicitur, quicum arcana, quicum occulta omnia? tecum, optime', Pliny Ep II xiii 5 'cum hoc seria, cum hoc iocos miscui', Pliny Ep IV xvii 5 'nihil a me ille secretum, non ioculare, non serium, non triste, non laetum', and Ennius Ann 239-40 Vahlen³ 'cui res audacter magnas paruasque iocumque / eloqueretur'.

15. CONVICTOR. The word belongs properly to prose, the only other occurrences in verse being two passages in Horace's Satires: I iv 96 'me ... conuictore usus amicoque' & I vi 47 'quia sim tibi, Maecenas, conuictor'. Conuictus is similarly found in verse twice only, in Ovid's poetry of exile (Tr I viii 29-30 'conuictu causisque ualentibus ... temporis et longi iunctus amore tibi' & EP II x 9-10 'quam [sc curam] tu uel longi debes conuictibus aeui, / uel mea quod coniunx non aliena tibi est').

15. DENSOQVE. 'Frequent, often recurring'. This sense of densus is not found elsewhere in Ovid, but compare Virgil G IV 347 'densos diuum numerabat amores', Statius Theb VI 421, and Juvenal IX 35-37 'quamuis ... blandae assidue densaeque tabellae / sollicitent'. The closest parallel for the poetic singular cited by OLD densus 3a is Martial IX lxxxvii 1-2 'Septem post calices Opimiani / denso cum iaceam triente[19] blaesus'.

15. DOMESTICVS. Apparently the only instance of the substantive in verse. The word is common enough in prose, and formed part of the spoken language, for it is found in reported speech at Petronius 45 6.

17. QVEM Leidensis Heinsii QVI codd plerique. Qui cannot be connected with nescis, and so is without antecedent. The scribe was probably influenced by 11, 13, and 15, in which ille ego is completed by a nominative clause.

For quem ... an uiuam compare EP III vi 57 'teque tegam, qui sis'.

17. VIVAM. Heinsius' VIVAT is unnecessary: the assimilation of person seems reasonable enough in view of such passages as EP I ii 129-31 'ille ego sum qui te colui ... ille ego qui duxi uestros Hymenaeon ad ignes'.

18. SVBIT Heinsius FVIT codd. The preceding nescis requires a verb with present meaning; and fuit seems impossible to construe as a true perfect (with present result). Heinsius' subit seems an elegant solution: certain manuscripts offer the same corruption of subit to fuit at Met IX 93-94 'lux subit, et primo feriente cacumina sole / discedunt iuuenes' and Met XIV 827-28 'pulchra subit facies et puluinaribus altis / dignior'.

19-20. SIVE FVI NVMQVAM CARVS, SIMVLASSE FATERIS; / SEV NON FINGEBAS, INVENIERE LEVIS. For a similar opposition (either alternative being discreditable), see Met IX 23-24 'nam, quo te iactas, Alcmena nate, creatum, / Iuppiter aut falsus pater est aut crimine uerus'.

21. AVT. 'Otherwise'. For the use of aut as a disjunctive adverb rather than a conjunction compare xii 3 'aut ego non alium prius hoc dignarer honore' and the passages there cited. Here, as at xii 3, the idiom has been misunderstood by scribes, with such resulting variants in late manuscripts as EIA ('uterque Medonii pro diuersa lectione'; accepted by Heinsius) and DIC (Gothanus II 121; printed by Burman).

21. IRAM. 'Cause for anger'. This seems to be the only instance of the meaning, ira not being found even as a predicative dative; but compare the use of laudes to mean 'acts deserving praise', as at viii 87 'tuas ... laudes ... recentes'.

23. QVOD TE NVNC CRIMEN SIMILEM seems to be the correct reading; the line connects with the an crimen ... of 24. QVAE TE CONSIMILEM RES NVNC (FIL) looks like a rewriting of the line, perhaps following the loss of crimen by haplography (crim̅ similē). There seems no good reason why Ovid would have used the emphatic consimilem instead of the more usual similem.

25. SI ... OPEM NVLLAM ... FEREBAS. 'If you had no intention of assisting me'—the inceptive or conative imperfect (Woodcock 200). Similar phrasing at Tr I viii 9-10 'haec ego uaticinor, quia sum deceptus ab illo / laturum misero quem mihi rebar opem' and EP II vii 46 'et nihil inueni quod mihi ferret opem'.

25. REBVS ... FACTISQVE. 'Through financial help or action on my behalf'. Ovid does not use this sense of res elsewhere in his poetry.

26. VERBIS ... TRIBVS. 'A few words'. For the idiom Williams cites Plautus Mil 1020 '"breuin an longinquo sermoni?" "tribu' uerbis"' and Trin 963 'adgrediundust hic homo mi astu.—heus, Pax, te tribu' uerbis uolo'; from comedy, OLD tres b cites Ter Ph 638. From the classical period compare Sen Apocol 11 3 'ad summam, tria uerba cito dicat, et seruum me ducat', Sen Ep 40 9, and Quint IX iv 84 'haec omnia in tribus uerbis'; Camps sees tres as having the same indefinite meaning at Prop II xiii 25-26 'sat mea sit magno [Phillimore: sit magna uel sat magna est codd] si tres sint pompa libelli / quos ego Persephonae maxima dona feram'.

27. SED ET was the standard reading until Ehwald's defence (KB 63) of SVBITO, the reading of (B¹) and C.

Ehwald's reasoning was that sed et would indicate that the news of his friend's slandering him was additional information, and that Ovid already knew something of his friend's behaviour. But this is precisely the case: Ovid has just finished saying that his friend has done nothing to help him (9-10), and now he gives the additional information that his friend is even working against him. Ehwald supported the asyndeton that subito creates by quoting Met XV 359-60 'haud equidem credo: sparsae quoque membra uenenis / exercere artes Scythides memorantur easdem', where in fact quoque seems a convincing parallel to sed et.

27. INSVLTARE IACENTI. 'Torment in my misery'. Ovid plays on the literal meanings of iacere and in-saltare; for the latter, see Aen XII 338-39 'caesis / hostibus insultans'. Ovid uses insultare in only three other passages. All are from the poems of exile, and all are about the ill-treatment accorded Ovid: Tr II 571 'nec mihi credibile est quemquam insultasse iacenti', Tr III xi 1, and Tr V viii 3-4 'curue / casibus insultas quos potes ipse pati?'.

29. A DEMENS. A indicates a certain amount of sympathy with the person addressed, as can be seen from Tr V x 51-52 'quid loquor, a demens? ipsam quoque perdere uitam, / Caesaris offenso numine, dignus eram' and Ecl II 60-61 'quem fugis, a demens? habitarunt di quoque siluas / Dardaniusque Paris'. O (M¹FILT) would indicate rather less sympathy: compare Met III 640-41 'dextera Naxos erat: dextra mihi lintea danti / "quid facis, o demens? quis te furor" inquit "Acoete?"'.

29. RECEDAT (TM²) is no doubt a scribal conjecture, but a correct one: 'Why, in case disaster should strike ...'. Most manuscripts have RECEDIT.

31. ORBE probably means 'wheel'; compare Tib I v 70 'uersatur celeri Fors leuis orbe rotae' and Cons ad Liuiam 51-52 (quoted in the next note). However, Professor E. Fantham points out to me that it could also mean 'sphere': she cites Pacuvius 366-67 Ribbeck² (Rhet Her II 36) 'Fortunam insanam esse et caecam et brutam perhibent philosophi, / saxoque instare in globoso praedicant uolubilei'. Smith at Tib I v 70 gives numerous instances of both images.

32. QVEM, found in Heinsius' fragmentum Boxhornianum (=Leid. Bibl. Publ. 180 G), must be right as against the QVAE of the other manuscripts; if a definition is to be given after the preceding 'haec dea non stabili quam sit leuis orbe fatetur', it should be a definition of the wheel, not the goddess. But the resulting quem summum dubio seems very awkwardly phrased, and further emendation is probably needed.

The obvious solution would be to read 'quem summo [C in fact reads summo] dubium sub pede semper habet'. This would give orbis a standard epithet, as at Tr V viii 7-8 'nec metuis dubio Fortunae stantis in orbe / numen' and Cons ad Liuiam 51-52 'nempe per hos etiam Fortunae iniuria mores / regnat et incerta est hic quoque nixa rota'. In support of the rather more difficult summo ... pede (='toes') Professor R. J. Tarrant cites Sen Suas II 17 'insistens summis digitis ['toes']—sic enim solebat quo grandior fieret', Sen Tro 1090-91 'in cacumine / erecta summos [uar summo] turba librauit pedes', and Met IV 562 'aequora destringunt summis Ismenides alis'; compare as well Met IX 342-43 'in adludentibus undis / summa pedum taloque tenus uestigia tingit'.

A second solution might be to read 'quem dubio summum sub pede semper habet'; the transfer of dubius from orbis to pes seems acceptable enough, and Met IV 134-36 'oraque buxo / pallidiora gerens exhorruit aequoris instar, / quod tremit exigua cum summum stringitur aura' offers a good parallel to summum.

The image of Fortune standing on her wheel occurs elsewhere in Ovid's poems of exile at Tr V viii 7-8 (quoted above) and EP II iii 55-56 'scilicet indignum, iuuenis carissime, ducis / te fieri comitem stantis in orbe deae'.

33. QVOLIBET EST FOLIO ... INCERTIOR. For the proverb, see Otto folium 1; and from Ovid compare Am II xvi 45-46 'uerba puellarum, foliis leuiora caducis, / inrita qua uisum est uentus et unda ferunt', Her V 109-10 'tu leuior foliis tum cum sine pondere suci / mobilibus uentis arida facta uolant', and Fast III 481-82 (Ariadne speaking) 'Bacche leuis leuiorque tuis quae tempora cingunt / frondibus'.

33. QVAVIS INCERTIOR AVRA. Compare Her VI 109-10 'mobilis Aesonide uernaque incertior aura, / cur tua polliciti pondere uerba carent?'. Otto (uentus 1) cites as well Prop II v 11-13 'non ita Carpathiae uariant Aquilonibus undae, / nec dubio nubes uertitur atra Noto, / quam facile irati uerbo mutantur amantes', Her XVIII 185-86 (Leander to Hero) 'cumque minus firmum nil sit quam uentus et unda, / in uentis et aqua spes mea semper erit?', and Calpurnius Ecl III 10 'mobilior uentis o femina!'.

The folium and uentus images of the present line are found together at Prop II ix 33-35 'non sic incerto mutantur flamine Syrtes, / nec folia hiberno tam tremefacta Noto, / quam cito feminea non constat foedus in ira'.

34. PAR ILLI = par illius leuitati. Similar compressions at vi 40 'mollior est animo femina nulla tuo' and commonly.

37-38. Ovid gives four instances of unexpected catastrophe, two from Greek history, two from Roman; the greater importance of the Roman examples is emphasized by their position and by the doubling of the space allotted to each example from two lines to four. There is a similar transition at Prop II vi 19-20 'cur exempla petam Graium? tu criminis auctor / nutritus duro, Romule, lacte lupae'.

The Greek examples may have been a traditional pairing: Croesus and Dionysius are mentioned together at Lucian Gall 23 as notable instances of personal catastrophe.

37. OPVLENTIA CROESI. Croesus as the archetype of wealth also at Tr III vii 41-42 'nempe dat ... Fortuna rapitque, / Irus et est subito qui modo Croesus erat'.

The story of Croesus' downfall and the subsequent sparing of his life by Cyrus is taken from Herodotus I 86-88.

It is clear from his poetry that Ovid had a good knowledge of at least the first book of Herodotus:

(1) Met III 135-37 'sed scilicet ultima semper / expectanda dies homini est, dicique beatus / ante obitum nemo supremaque funera debet' may have been drawn from Solon's advice to Croesus at Herodotus I 32 7: 'εἰ δὲ πρὸς τούτοισι [if in addition to having prosperity while alive] ἔτι τελευτήσει τὸν βίον εὖ, οὗτος ἐκεῖνος τὸν σὺ ζητέεις, [ὁ add Stein] ὄλβιος κεκλῆσθαι ἄξιός ἐστι· πρὶν δ' ἂν τελευτήσῃ, ἐπισχεῖν μηδὲ καλέειν κω ὄλβιον, ἀλλ' εὐτυχέα'.

(2) At Fast II 79-118 Ovid tells the story of Arion found at Herodotus I 23-24.

(3) At Fast II 663-66 there occurs the clearest instance of borrowing: Ovid uses the story of the border dispute between Sparta and Argos (Herodotus I 82) in the course of his discussion of the god Terminus: 'si tu signasses olim Thyreatida terram, / corpora non leto missa trecenta forent, / nec foret Othryades congestis lectus [Barth: tectus codd] in armis. / o quantum patriae sanguinis ille dedit!'.

37. AVDITA EST CVI NON. Compare Met XV 319-20 'cui non audita est obscenae Salmacis undae / Aethiopesque lacus?'.

38. NEMPE TAMEN VITAM CAPTVS AB HOSTE TVLIT. 'Even so, it is undeniable that he became a prisoner, and received his life as a gift from his enemy'. Vitam ferre also at EP II i 45 (from a description of Germanicus' triumph of AD 12) 'maxima pars horum uitam ueniamque tulerunt'.

39. ILLE ... FORMIDATVS. Equivalent to ille with a defining qui-clause: 'The famous man who had once been feared ...'. Ovid is referring to Dionysius II, the student of Plato, who was expelled from Syracuse in 344 and became a schoolmaster in Corinth. Valerius Maximus (VI ix ext 6) also gives Dionysius as an example of unexpected disaster, and Plutarch (Timoleon 14) cites him as an example of the operations of Fortune. For an account of Dionysius' life at Corinth, see Justinus XXI v. There was a Greek proverb 'Διονύσιος ἐν Κορίνθῳ' (Cic Att IX ix 1; Quintilian VIII vi 52), apparently referring to his continued lust for power: 'Dionysius ... Syracusis expulsus Corinthi pueros docebat: usque eo imperio carere non poterat' (Cic Tusc III 27). Discussions of the proverb at Otto Dionysius and Shackleton Bailey on Att IX ix 1.

39. SYRACOSIA ... IN VRBE. Restored by Heinsius from the manuscripts' unmetrical SYRACVSIA, as at Fast VI 277. The same confusion between Συρακόσιος and Συρακούσιος is found in the manuscripts of Pindar (Ol I 23), the Attic form supplanting the original Doric. The same corruption is found in some ninth-century manuscripts of Virgil at Ecl VI 1 'Prima Syracosio dignata est ludere uersu' and in the Veronese scholia, and in the manuscripts of Claudian carm min LI 6 (Housman 1273).

40. HVMILI ... ARTE. For the low social position of the schoolmaster in antiquity, see Bonner 146-62, and compare especially Juvenal VII 197-98 'si Fortuna uolet, fies de rhetore consul; / si uolet haec eadem, fiet de consule rhetor' and Pliny Ep IV xi 1 'nunc eo decidit ut exul de senatore, rhetor de oratore fieret'.

41. MAGNO MAIVS. 'Greater than (Pompey) the Great'. Even in the letters of Cicero, Pompey is occasionally called Magnus without further identification (Att I xvi 12). Other plays on the name at Fast I 603-4 'Magne, tuum nomen rerum est mensura tuarum; / sed qui te uicit nomine maior erat' and Lucan I 135 'stat magni nominis umbra', where Getty cites Velleius II 1 4 'Pompeium magni nominis uirum'.

42. CLIENTIS OPEM. After the final defeat at Pharsalus, Pompey fled to Egypt and sought the protection of Ptolemy XIII (Caesar BC III 103, Plutarch Pomp 77).

Pompey similarly treated as the victim of Fortune at Cic Tusc I 86 and through much of Lucan VII-VIII; compare as well Anth Lat Riese 401 'Quam late uestros duxit Fortuna triumphos, / tam late sparsit funera, Magne, tua'.

Compare as well Anth Lat 415 39-40 'spes Magnum profugum toto discurrere in orbe / iusserat et pueri regis adire pedes'; the distich follows a description of the hardships undergone by Marius.

44. The line is omitted by B¹ and C; other manuscripts offer (with minor variations) INDIGVS EFFECTVS OMNIBVS IPSE MAGIS or ACHILLAS PHARIVS ABSTVLIT ENSE CAPVT, a line apparently devised with the aid of Juvenal X 285-86 'Fortuna ... uicto caput abstulit' and Lucan VIII 545-46 'ullusne in cladibus istis / est locus Aegypto Phariusque admittitur ensis?', both passages concerned with Pompey's murder by Achillas. Clearly a line of the poem was lost in transmission.

Heinsius and Bentley felt that the entire distich should be deleted; but 43 seems acceptable enough, and it is appropriate that the description of Pompey's downfall be balanced with the four-line mention of Marius that follows. It would be strange if Pompey's sensational murder were overlooked, as this was regarded by the poets as the ultimate reversal of his fortunes: compare Manilius IV 50-55, Juvenal X 283-86 (which is joined to a mention of Marius' reversal) and Anth Lat 401-3 Riese.

45. ILLE goes with Marius two lines on—'the famous Marius'.

45. IVGVRTHINO ... CIMBROQVE TRIVMPHO. Marius rose to prominence in the Jugurthine war, celebrating his triumph in 104; in 101 his defeat in the Po valley of the Cimbri, a Germanic tribe originally from Jutland, ended a twelve-year military threat to Rome.

47. IN CAENO LATVIT MARIVS. In 88 Sulla, whose command against Mithridates had been transferred to Marius by a special law, marched on Rome and induced the Senate to name Marius an outlaw; Marius was forced to escape to Africa, at one point on the route hiding in the marshes of Minturnae. This ordeal is mentioned by the poets who deal with Marius, but they consider that he reached the low point of his fortunes when he arrived at Carthage. Compare Manilius IV 47-49, Juvenal X 276-77 'exilium et carcer Minturnarumque paludes / et mendicatus uicta Carthagine panis' and Anth Lat 415 33-38 Riese.

47. LATVIT MARIVS M IACVIT MARIVS H MARIVS LATVIT L MARIVS IACVIT BCFIT. Iacere and latere could each be corrupted to the other with ease: such corruptions occur in certain manuscripts at Met I 338 and Fast II 244 (iacere corrupted to latere) and Fast II 467, II 587 & III 265 (latere corrupted to iacere). Although it is weakly attested, latuit should be read here in view of the use of abdere at Velleius II xix 2 'paludem Maricae, in quam se fugiens consectantis Sullae equites abdiderat' and Lucan II 70 'exul limosa Marius caput abdidit ulua', and of κρύπτειν at Plutarch Marius 37 5: latere is often virtually a passive form of abdere.

Marius latuit looks like a normalization of word order from the emphatic latuit Marius.

47. CANNAQVE PALVSTRI. Canna palustris is a standard feature of Ovid's marshes; see AA I 554, RA 142, and Met IV 298 & VIII 337. At RA 142 Henderson comments 'Ovid probably means the plant called in this country [Scotland] Reed (Phragmites communis, a grass), which the Italians call canna di palude; smaller than harundo (Arundo donax, the Greek κάννα and Italian canna), it nevertheless often reaches a height of 6 or 7 feet'.

48. MVLTA PVDENDA. The entire sequence of events during Marius' flight to Africa.

50. FACIT R. J. Tarrant. For fidem facere ('induce belief') compare Met VI 565-66 'dat gemitus fictos commentaque funera narrat, / et lacrimae fecere fidem' and Caesar BC II 37 1 'nuntiabantur haec eadem Curioni, sed aliquamdiu fides fieri non poterat: tantam habebat suarum rerum fiduciam'. Ehwald (KB 63) defends FERET (BC), quoting Aen X 792 'si qua fidem tanto est operi latura uetustas', but the true meaning of this line is 'if antiquity can ever win belief for a deed so grand' (Jackson Knight); the idiom cannot be fitted into the present passage with acceptable meaning. HABET, the reading of most manuscripts, does not account for FERET, but is in itself acceptable enough; compare Her XVI 59-60 'ecce pedum pulsu uisa est mihi terra moueri— / uera loquar ueri [Heinsius: uero codd] uix habitura fidem' and Cic Flac 21 'sed fuerint incorruptae litterae domi; nunc uero quam habere auctoritatem aut quam fidem possunt?'.

51. SI QVIS MIHI DICERET. Compare Tr IV viii 43-44 'hoc mihi si Delphi Dodonaque diceret ipsa, / esse uideretur uanus uterque locus'.

52. GETE is read from the manuscripts by Heinsius; the form is the same as at Met X 608 'Hippomene uicto', Fast IV 593 'uictore Gyge', EP II iv 22 'in Aeacide Nestorideque', and EP I viii 6 'dura pharetrato bella mouente Gete [uar Geta]'. All editors but Heinsius print GETAE, but this is contrary to Ovid's usage: compare (to take only a few instances) Ibis 637 'Sarmaticas inter Geticasque sagittas', EP I i 79 'inque locum Scythico uacuum mutabor ab arcu', and EP III v 45 'ipse quidem Getico peream uiolatus ab arcu'. The only apparent exceptions to the rule I have found are Tr IV i 21 'Sinti [Ehwald: inter codd Sintae Iac. Gronouius] nec militis ensem', where the compound expression alters matters somewhat, and Fast V 580 'Parthi [uar Parthis] signa retenta manu', where Partha should probably be read; compare Fast VI 244 'Mauras pertimuere manus [codd: minas Alton]' and EP I iii 59-60 'altera Bistonias pars est sensura sarisas, / altera Sarmatica spicula missa manu'.

Getes is also used as an adjective at xiii 18 'paene poeta Getes'.

53. I BIBE ... ANTICYRA. A hendiadys for 'Go drink all the mind-purging hellebore that grows in Anticyra'.

53. PVRGANTES ... SVCOS. For discussions of elleborus see Theophrastus HP IX 10, Pliny NH XXV 47-61, and Aulus Gellius XVII xv. There were two varieties of the plant, black and white (from the colour of their roots): the former was a laxative, the latter induced vomiting and was thought to sharpen the intellect; compare Val Max VIII vii ext 5, Pliny NH XXV 52, Martianus Capella IV 327, and the other passages cited by Brink at Hor AP 300.

54. ANTICYRA. Three places of this name are known from ancient sources; it is not known which of them Ovid had in mind. One was a city in Locris on the north side of the entrance to the Corinthian Gulf; the second was a city near Mount Oeta (Strabo IX v 10), and the third an island of uncertain location (Pliny NH XXV 52). It is possible that Hor AP 300 'tribus Anticyris caput insanabile' should be taken to mean that all three places were famous for hellebore, but ps-Acron glosses tribus Anticyris as 'tribus ... potionibus [Keller: potus codd] ... aut multo elleboro', which Brink accepts, citing Hor Sat II iii 82-83 'danda est ellebori multo pars maxima auaris; / nescio an Anticyram ratio illis destinet omnem' and Persius IV 16 'Anticyras ... sorbere meracas' for the metonymy, and Petronius 88 4 'Chrysippus, ut ad inuentionem sufficeret, ter elleboro animum detersit' for the number. The last two places at least seem to have been known for their hellebore; compare Pliny NH XXV 49 'plurimum autem nascitur in Oete monte et optimum uno eius loco circa Pyram' and XXV 52 'Drusum quoque apud nos ... constat hoc medicamento liberatum comitiali morbo ['epilepsy'] in Anticyra insula'.

57. TV QVOQVE FAC TIMEAS. That is, his friend should start to behave better towards him. For a similar exhortation at the end of a poem of reproach, see Tr I viii 49-50 'effice peccati ne sim memor huius, et illo / officium laudem quo queror ore tuum'; even in the Ibis there is a veiled offer of reconciliation: 'et neque nomen in hoc nec dicam facta libello, / teque breui qui sis dissimulare sinam. / postmodo, si perges, in te mihi liber iambus / tincta Lycambeo sanguine tela dabit' (51-54).

58. DVM LOQVERIS. Compare Am I xi 15 'dum loquor, hora fugit' and Hor Carm I xi 7-8 'dum loquimur, fugerit inuida / aetas'; Nisbet and Hubbard cite ad loc Persius V 153 and Petronius 99 3, noting that the sententia is not found before Horace.

IV. To Sextus Pompeius

1-6. In these lines Ovid reverses the usual ancient sentiment that no pleasure is unalloyed. Compare Hor Carm II x 17-18 'non, si male nunc, et olim / sic erit'. For the more usual thought, see Met VII 453-54 'nulla est sincera uoluptas, / sollicitique aliquid laetis interuenit' and Fast VI 463 'interdum miscentur tristia laetis'.

1. AVSTRALIBVS VMIDA NIMBIS. An image used elsewhere by Ovid as a metaphor of his unhappiness: see Tr I iii 13 'hanc animo nubem dolor ipse remouit', Tr V v 22 'pars uitae tristi cetera nube uacet', and EP II i 5-6 'tandem aliquid pulsa curarum nube serenum ['cloudless'] uidi'.

1. VMIDA. For the dampness of the south wind, compare Met I 65-66 'contraria tellus / nubibus assiduis pluuiaque madescit ab Austro'.

2. NON INTERMISSIS ... AQVIS. Non intermissis in the same metrical position at EP I iv 16 'non intermissis cursibus ibit equus'; intermissus used of bad weather at Tr II 149-51 'uentis agitantibus aera [uar aequora] non est / aequalis rabies continuusque furor, / sed modo subsidunt intermissique silescunt'.

7. DOMO PATRIAQVE CARENS OCVLISQVE MEORVM. Similar phrasing at Tr III vii 45 'cum caream patria uobisque domoque', Tr III xi 15-16 'quod coniuge cara, / quod patria careo pignoribusque meis', Tr V v 19 (of his wife) 'illa domo nataque sua patriaque fruatur', Tr I v 83, Tr IV vi 19, Tr IV ix 12, Tr V x 47, EP I iii 47, and EP II ix 79.

7. OCVLISQVE MEORVM. Compare Tr V iv 27-30 'nec patriam magis ille suam desiderat ... quam uultus oculosque tuos, o dulcior illo / melle quod in ceris Attica ponit apis'. Oculisque meorum seems to mean 'regards des miens' (André) rather than 'the sight of my own' (Wheeler); compare Aen XI 800-1 'oculosque tulere / cuncti ad reginam', Met VII 256 'et monet arcanis oculos remouere profanos', Persius V 33 'permisit sparsisse oculos ['to look where I chose']', and from prose Cic Fam IX ii 2 'ut uitemus oculos hominum'.

9. VVLTVM DIFFVNDERE. The action opposite to trahis uultus (i 5); compare Met XIV 272 'diffudit uultus' and from prose Sen Ep 106 5 'nisi dubitas an uultum nobis mutent, an frontem astringant, an faciem diffundant'. It is probably from this expression that diffundere acquired the extended sense of 'mentally relax' (OLD diffundo 5), for which compare Met IV 766 'diffudere animos', Met III 318 'Iouem ... diffusum nectare', and AA I 218 'diffundetque animos omnibus ista dies'.

9. CAVSAM. CAVSA (BCT) is grammatical enough, but corruption from qua ... causam to qua ... causa is more likely than the inverse.

The construction of the sentence is rather complex: Ovid's normal practice would be to employ an objective genitive with causa.

10. POSSIM BCMHIT POSSEM L POSSVM F. The clause is in primary tense sequence following the true perfect inueni, which represents the present result of a past action. Compare fecit ... minuant in 5-6.

10. NEC MEMINISSE = et obliuisci. Nec (non) meminisse is metrically useful for filling the second hemistich of the pentameter up to the disyllable; so used at vi 50 'arguat ingratum non meminisse sui', Tr IV iv 40 & V xiii 18, and EP II iv 6.

11. SOLVS BC. TRISTIS, the reading of the other six manuscripts, is tempting, as being the less neutral of the two adjectives, and was accepted without question by Heinsius and Burman. If it is accepted, one could argue that Ovid refers back to the word at 21 'dilapsis ... curis'. But solus is shown to be correct by the passage Ovid is here imitating, Virgil G I 388-89 'tum cornix plena pluuiam uocat improba uoce / et sola in sicca secum spatiatur harena'. Solus was lost through haplography ('fulua solus': the elongated 's' form common in manuscripts would have facilitated the error) and tristis interpolated to restore the metre. Ehwald believed (KB 63) that the error arose from tristis having been written above solus in the archetype, but there is no reason to accept this, since the one could not stand as a gloss for the other.

11. SPATIARER HARENA. The phrase is taken from Virgil G I 388-89 (quoted in the previous note); Ovid imitates the passage again at Met II 572-73 'lentis / passibus, ut soleo, summa spatiarer harena'.

12. VISA EST A TERGO PENNA DEDISSE SONVM. 'I thought I heard a wing rustle behind me'. A similar advent of an unseen deity at Met III 96-98 'uox subito audita est; neque erat cognoscere promptum / unde, sed audita est: "quid, Agenore nate, peremptum / serpentem spectas? et tu spectabere serpens"'. Compare as well Met V 294-98 'Musa loquebatur: pennae sonuere per auras, / uoxque salutantum ramis ueniebat ab altis. / suspicit et linguae quaerit tam certa loquentes / unde sonent hominemque putat Ioue nata locutum; / ales erat'.

12. PENNA BMFHILT PINNA C. Pinna and penna, perhaps from different roots, were confused even in antiquity. The ancient manuscripts of Virgil offer pinna as the spelling even for the meaning 'wing', but Quintilian clearly took penna as the correct spelling for this sense: 'quare ['therefore'] discat puer ... quae cum quibus cognatio; nec miretur cur ... a pinno quod est acutum [sc fiat] securis utrimque habens aciem bipennis, ne illorum sequatur errorem qui, quia a pennis duabus hoc esse nomen existimant, pennas auium dici uolunt'. (I iv 12).

13. NEQVE ERAT CMHL NEC ERAT BFIT. Virgil had a very strong preference for neque before words starting with a vowel, but Ovid did not follow this rule: compare Met I 101 'nec ullis', 132 'nec adhuc', 223 'nec erit', 306 'nec ablato', and 322 'nec amantior'. However, it seems better to accept neque as the true reading in view of the good manuscript support and the parallel at Met III 96-97 'uox subita audita est (neque [uar nec] erat cognoscere promptum / unde, sed audita est)'.

13. NEQVE ERAT CORPVS. 'But there was no body'. Neque (nec) represents sed ... non as well as et ... non.

It is one of Ovid's favourite devices to describe the aspect of gods when they appear to him, as at Am III i 7-14 (Elegy and Tragedy), Fast I 95-100 (Janus), Fast III 171-72 (Mars), Fast V 194 (Flora), Fast V 637-38 (Tiber), and EP III iii 13-20 (Amor). The only other passage where Ovid says he did not see the god is Fast VI 251-54, but Vesta had no traditional appearance that Ovid could make use of: compare Fast VI 298 'effigiem nullam Vesta ... habet'.

The reason that Ovid did not describe Fama was that the picture of Fama as a winged monster which Virgil had made standard (Aen IV 174-88) could not easily be integrated into the poem. The only description of Fama in Ovid is at Met IX 137-39 'Fama loquax praecessit ad aures, / Deianira, tuas, quae ueris addere falsa / gaudet, et e minima sua per mendacia crescit'. At Met XII 39-63 there is a memorable description of Fama's dwelling-place. Fama is also personified (but with no descriptions) at EP II i 19-20 & II ix 3.

16. PER IMMENSAS AERE LAPSA VIAS. Similar phrasing at EP III iii 77-78 (Amor speaking) 'ut tamen aspicerem consolarerque iacentem, / lapsa per immensas est mea penna uias'.

17. QVO NON TIBI CARIOR ALTER. Compare Tr III vi 3 'nec te mihi carior alter', Tr IV vi 46 'qua nulla mihi carior, uxor', and EP II viii 27 'per patriae nomen, quae te tibi carior ipso est'.

18. CANDIDVS ET FELIX PROXIMVS ANNVS ERIT. Compare Fast I 63-64 'ecce tibi faustum, Germanice, nuntiat annum / inque meo primus carmine Ianus adest'. No doubt both passages echo the phrasing of a New Year wish or prayer.

18. CANDIDVS. 'Favourable'. Compare Tr V v 13-14 (on his wife's birthday) 'optime natalis! quamuis procul absumus, opto / candidus huc uenias', Prop IV i 67-68 'Roma, faue, tibi surgit opus, date candida ciues / omina, et inceptis dextera cantet auis!', and Fast I 79-80 'uestibus intactis Tarpeias itur in arces, / et populus festo concolor ipse suo est'.

19. DIXIT ET has a definite epic flavour, being found in Virgil at Aen I 402 & 736, II 376, III 258, IV 659, V 477, VI 677, VIII 366 & 615, IX 14, X 867, XI 561 & 858, XII 266 & 681, and G IV 499; from Ovid compare Met I 466-67 'dixit et eliso percussis aere pennis / impiger umbrosa Parnasi constitit arce', I 762 'dixit et implicuit materno bracchia collo', III 474, IV 162 & 576, V 230 & 419, VIII 101, and VIII 757. A close parallel at EP III iii 93-94 (Amor has been speaking with Ovid) 'dixit et aut ille est tenues dilapsus in auras, / coeperunt sensus aut uigilare mei'.

22. EXCIDIT. 'I forgot'; the opposite of subit 'I remember'. The idiom is standard Latin (OLD excido¹ 9b); Ovidian instances at Her XII 71, Am II i 18, Met VIII 449-50 'excidit omnis / luctus et a lacrimis in poenae uersus amorem est', Met XIV 139, Fast V 315, Tr I v 14, EP II iv 24, and EP II x 8 'exciderit tantum ne tibi cura mei'.

23. VBI ... RESERAVERIS ANNVM. 'When you have unlocked the year'. Compare Ovid's descriptions of Janus at Fast I 99 'tenens baculum dextra clauemque sinistra' and Fast I 253-54 '"nil mihi cum bello: pacem postesque tuebar / et" clauem ostendens "haec" ait "arma gero"'.

23. LONGVM ANNVM. André translates, 'l'année longue à venir', citing Cic Phil V 1 'Nihil umquam longius his Kalendiis Ianuariis mihi uisum est', to which OLD longus 14a adds (among other passages) Caesar BG I 40 13 'in longiorem diem collaturus' and Sen Ep 63 3 'non differo in longius tempus'; but the meaning 'far off' seems unsuited to the present context. Longum should be taken in its usual sense; it perhaps emphasizes that the whole year is still ahead.

24. SACRO MENSE. Sacer because of the religious ceremonies marking the New Year.

25-28. The first action of the new consul was to take auspices at his home and to assume the consular toga: compare Livy XXI 63 10 (217 BC; Flaminius has entered his consulship while absent from Rome) 'magis pro maiestate uidelicet imperii Arimini quam Romae magistratum initurum et in deuersorio hospitali quam apud penates suos praetextam sumpturum' (Mommsen Staatsrecht I³ 615-17).

26. NE TITVLIS QVICQVAM DEBEAT ILLE SVIS. There are two possible ways of understanding this line.

One way is to take titulis as referring to Pompeius' earlier magistracies, 'as if the series of offices were a score which Pompey would pay in full when he became consul' (Wheeler). A similar use at Her IX 1 'Gratulor Oechaliam titulis accedere nostris'.

Titulis does not have to be taken as a strict reference to the offices Pompeius had already held, but can have the wider sense of 'reputation, honour'. Compare the opening line of Her IX quoted above; Professor R. J. Tarrant cites Met XV 855 'sic magnus cedit titulis Agamemnonis Atreus' and Juvenal VIII 241.

The second way to take the passage is, with Némethy, to understand titulis ... suis as being equivalent to maioribus suis, qui magnos titulos habent, the tituli being the inscriptions below the imagines of Pompeius' ancestors. A parallel for the sense at EP III i 75-76 'hoc domui debes de qua censeris, ut illam / non magis officiis quam probitate colas'. Professor E. Fantham suggests a refinement: titulis ... suis should be taken in the sense 'achievements of his ancestors'. Compare Prop IV xi 32 'et domus est titulis utraque fulta suis'.

27. PAENE ATRIA. Heinsius preferred PENETRALIA, the reading of I and F² ('sed ne sic quidem locus mihi uidetur plane in integrum restitutus'), apparently objecting to paene. The word seems weak enough, especially in view of Virgil G I 49 'illius immensae ruperunt horrea messes', but Professor R. J. Tarrant points out to me a similarly weak paene at Tr III xi 13-14 'sic ego belligeris a gentibus undique saeptus / terreor, hoste meum paene premente latus'. Burman conjectured LAETA and PLENA; neither seems very convincing.

For atria compare Her XVI 185-86 'occurrent denso tibi Troades agmine matres, / nec capient Phrygias atria nostra nurus'. Penetralia, although poorly attested, is in itself appropriate enough, since the new consul began his magistracy in front of his penates: Festus (Mueller 208; Lindsay 231) defined the penetralia as the 'penatium deorum sacraria'.

28. ET POPVLVM LAEDI DEFICIENTE LOCO. The jostling of a crowd similarly described at Am III ii 21-22 'tu tamen a dextra, quicumque es, parce puellae; / contactu lateris laeditur ista tui'.

29-34. The new consul, accompanied by lictors, left his house and went in solemn procession to the Capitoline, where he took his place on the curule chair, and then sacrificed to Iuppiter Optimus Maximus. A meeting of the Senate followed, held in the temple of Jupiter.

At ix 17-32 Ovid gives a similar description of the consul's entering on his office.

29. TARPEIAE ... SEDIS. Capitolinus is metrically awkward; hence the synecdoche from the Tarpeia rupes, the part of the Capitoline from which criminals were hurled. Similar tropes at viii 42 'uictima Tarpeios inficit icta focos', ix 29 'at cum Tarpeias esses deductus in arces', and commonly in the poets.

30. FACILES IN TVA VOTA. 'Receptive to your prayers'; for this frequent sense of facilis compare Her XII 84 'sed mihi tam faciles unde meosque deos?', Met V 559 'optastis facilesque deos habuistis', Tr IV i 53 'sint precor hae [the Muses] saltem faciles mihi', EP II ii 19-20 'esse ... fateor ... difficilem precibus te quoque iure meis', Her XVI 282 'sic habeas faciles in tua uota deos', and Grattius 426.

31-32. The asyndeton in this distich is odd, given the preceding series of connectives. If the text is unsound, however, alteration of certae to certant (Damsté) or cerno (Owen) is not the cure. By using certae Ovid is indicating that there will be a clean blow with the axe, a good omen for the coming year. For the opposite omen, see Aen II 222-24 (describing Laocoon) 'clamores simul horrendos ad sidera tollit: / qualis mugitus, fugit cum saucius aram / taurus et incertam excussit ceruice securim'.

31-32. BOVES NIVEOS ... QVOS ALVIT CAMPIS HERBA FALISCA SVIS. Compare Am III xiii 13-14 'ducuntur niueae populo plaudente iuuencae, / quas aluit campis herba Falisca suis' and Fast I 83-84 (a description of the sacrifices on January 1st) 'colla rudes operum praebent ferienda iuuenci, / quos aluit campis herba Falisca suis'.

33-34. CVMQVE DEOS OMNES, TVM QVOS IMPENSIVS AEQVOS / ESSE TIBI CVPIAS, CVM IOVE CAESAR ERVNT. Cupias must be supplied with deos omnes—'You will wish the favour of all the gods; those gods whose favour you will particularly wish will be Caesar and Jupiter'. The omission of the verb from the cum-clause seems very strange, however, and Ehwald (KB 63-64) is possibly correct in supposing a distich to have fallen from the text after 32; in this case, cumque deos omnes is probably far removed from its original form.

33. OMNES, TVM QVOS. Ehwald wished to read OMNES, TVNC HOS (P reads TVNC HOS ORES), hos referring to the gods of the Capitol who had been named in the distich missing after 32; but this would leave cum Ioue Caesar erunt without a predicate.

33. AEQVOS. 'Favourable'; compare Her I 23 'sed bene consuluit casto deus aequus amori'; Tr I ii 6 'aequa Venus Teucris, Pallas iniqua fuit', Tr III xiv 29 'aequus erit scriptis', and Tr IV i 25.

35. E MORE VOCATI. 'Convened, as is traditional'. After the sacrifice on the Capitoline, the new consul addressed the assembled Senate; compare Livy XXVI 26 5 'M. Marcellus cum idibus Martiis consulatum inisset, senatum eo die moris modo causa habuit ['held a session of the Senate simply because it was traditional to do so']' and Livy XXI 63 8 'ne die initi magistratus Iouis optimi maximi templum adiret, ne senatum inuisus ipse et sibi uni inuisum uideret consuleretque'.

36. INTENDENT AVRES. The expression is not found elsewhere in Ovid, or in Virgil; but compare Manilius II 511 'at nudus Geminis intendit Aquarius aurem'. The expression is presumably an extension of oculos (aciem) intendere, for which see Cic Tusc IV 38, Ac II 80, and Tac Ann IV 70.

37. FACVNDO TVA VOX ... ORE. For Pompeius' eloquence, Némethy cites Val Max II vi 8 'facundissimo ... sermone, qui ore eius quasi e beato quodam eloquentiae fonte manabat' and IV vii ext 2 'clarissimi ac disertissimi uiri'.

37. HILARAVERIT. The verb is rare and elevated in tone. Compare Cic Brut 44 (of Pericles' oratory) 'huius suauitate maxime hilaratae Athenae sunt', Catullus LXIII 18, and Ecl V 69.

38. VTQVE SOLET, TVLERIT PROSPERA VERBA DIES. Compare Fast I 175-76 (Ovid to Janus) '"at cur laeta tuis dicuntur uerba Kalendis, / et damus alternas accipimusque preces?"'.

40. Riese's punctuation 'facias cur ita, saepe dabit' seems preferable to the alternate 'facias cur ita saepe, dabit', as placing more emphasis on Augustus and being perhaps an echo of Tr IV ii 12 'munera det meritis, saepe datura, deis'.

42. OFFICIVM POPVLI = populum officium facientem; the same metonymy at Met XV 691-93 (of Aesculapius) 'restitit hic agmenque suum turbaeque sequentis / officium placido uisus dimittere uultu / corpus in Ausonia posuit rate'.

44. NEC POTERVNT ISTIS LVMINA NOSTRA FRVI. Other non-personal subjects at Cic Am 45 (animus) and ps-Quint Decl VII 10 'uulneribus illis non fruentur oculi'. In all of these passages the transition from an expressed personal subject to a faculty or part of the personality seems fairly natural.

45. QVAMLIBET is a correction by Heinsius: 'far away as you might be ...'. The QVOD (QVA) LICET of most manuscripts anticipates the following qua possum, contrary to Ovid's practice.

45. QVA POSSVM, MENTE. A commonplace of the poems of exile: compare ix 41-42 'mente tamen, quae sola domo non exulat, usus / praetextam fasces aspiciamque tuos', Tr III iv 56, Tr IV ii 57 'haec ego summotus qua possum mente uidebo', EP I viii 34 'cunctaque mens oculis peruidet usa suis', EP II iv 8, EP II x 47, and EP III v 47-48.

47. SVBEAT TIBI. See at xv 30 subeant animo (p 440).

V. To Sextus Pompeius

1. LEVES ELEGI. The same phrase at Am II i 21 'blanditias elegosque leues, mea tela, resumpsi'.

1. DOCTAS AD CONSVLIS AVRES. 'To the ears of a consul who appreciates poetry'. Compare Hor Ep I xiii 17-18 'carmina quae possint oculos aurisque morari / Caesaris' and Prop II xiii 11-12.

2. HONORATO ... VIRO. Dative of agent with legenda.

2. HONORATO refers specifically to Pompeius' consulship. Honor is often used with the restricted sense of 'magistracy'.

3. LONGA VIA EST. Compare Tr I i 127-28 (the end of Ovid's instructions to his book) 'longa uia est, propera! nobis habitabitur orbis / ultimus, a terra terra remota mea'.

3. LONGA VIA EST, NEC VOS PEDIBVS PROCEDITIS AEQVIS. The uia longa is seen as a possible cause of the metre's lameness at Tr III i 11-12.

3. NEC ... PEDIBVS ... AEQVIS. Ovid often mentions the alternating pattern of elegiac verse: compare xvi 11 numeris ... imparibus ... uel aequis and the passages there cited, Am III i 8 (of Elegy) 'et, puto, pes illi longior alter erat', and EP III iv 85-86 'ferre etiam molles elegi tam uasta triumphi / pondera disparibus non potuere rotis'.

5. HAEMON Laurentianus 38 39 (saec xv), Ven. Marcianus XII 106 (saec xv), editio princeps Bononiensis HAEMVM BCMFHILT. I follow Heinsius and Burman in printing Haemon, in consideration of the preceding Thracen: it seems neater to have both place-names in their Greek forms. Haemum is similarly the transmitted reading at Met VI 87 (of the tapestry created by Minerva) 'Threiciam Rhodopen habet angulus unus et Haemon' and Met X 76-77 (of Orpheus) 'in altam / se recipit Rhodopen pulsumque Aquilonibus Haemon', the preferable Haemon being found only in certain late manuscripts.

6. TRANSIERĪTIS. In early Latin this would necessarily have been a perfect subjunctive, the future perfect indicative being transierĭtis with the second 'i' short; but after Ennius and Plautus the forms (like -erīs and -erĭs)) are used indifferently, according to metrical necessity. See Platnauer 56 and Kühner-Stegmann I 115-16.

7. LVCE MINVS DECIMA DOMINAM VENIETIS IN VRBEM. '[Starting from Brundisium] you will arrive in Rome before the tenth day'. The same idiom at Fast V 379 'nocte minus quarta promet sua sidera Chiron'.

8. VT FESTINATVM NON FACIATIS ITER. The trip would probably be not much shorter than ten days. André cites Livy XXXVI 21 and Plutarch Cato maior 14 3 for Cato's five-day journey from Hydruntum (Livy; Hydruntum is about seventy-five kilometres southeast of Brundisium) or Brundisium (Plutarch) in 191 to announce the victory over Antiochus III at Thermopylae; both authors mention the journey for its speed. The more leisurely journey from Rome to Brundisium described in Hor Sat I v seems to have taken about fifteen days; see Palmer on I v 103.

9. Either PETETVR (FT) or PETATVR (BCMHIL) is possible enough. Petetur seems the better reading in view of uenietis (7) and erit (16), the corruption perhaps having been induced by faciatis in the preceding line. But the jussive petatur could be continuing from ite in the first line; compare Statius Sil IV iv 4-5 'atque ubi Romuleas uelox penetraueris arces, / continuo dextras flaui pete Thybridis oras'.

10. NON EST AVGVSTO IVNCTIOR VLLA FORO. Compare xv 16 'quam domus [sc tua] Augusto continuata foro'.

11. SI QVIS VT IN POPULO. 'If someone in the crowd'. This seems to be the sense of ut in populo; Wheeler's translation 'as may happen in the crowd' will work here and at Tr I i 17-18 'si quis ut in populo nostri non immemor illi [=illic], / si quis qui quid agam forte requirat, erit', but not at Tr II 157-58 'per patriam, quae te tuta et secura parente est, / cuius ut in populo pars ego nuper eram' or at Hor Sat I vi 78-80 (Horace describes his schooldays) 'uestem seruosque sequentis / in magno ut populo si qui uidisset, auita / ex re praeberi sumptus mihi crederet illos'.

A similar idiom appears at Tr II 231-32 'denique ut in tanto quantum non extitit umquam / corpore pars nulla est quae labet imperii'

11. QVI SITIS ET VNDE. Similar phrasing at Ilias Lat 554-55 'nomen genusque roganti, / qui sit et unde'.

12. NOMINA ... QVAELIBET ... FERAT. Ferat = 'receive as answer'. Compare Livy V 32 8 '[M. Furius Camillus] cum accitis domum tribulibus clientibusque ... percontatus animos eorum responsum tulisset se conlaturos quanti damnatus esset, absoluere eum non posse, in exilium abiit' and XXI 19 11.

12. DECEPTA ... AVRE. Compare Met VII 821-23 'uocibus ambiguis deceptam praebuit aurem / nescio quis nomenque aurae tam saepe uocatum / esse putat nymphae'.

14. VERA, MINVS Hilberg VERBA MINVS codd. For the phrase uera fateri Hilberg (35-36) cited as parallels Met VII 728 & IX 53, Tr I ix 16, EP III i 79 'si uis uera fateri', EP III ix 19 'quid enim dubitem tibi uera fateri?', to which add EP II iii 7. For the contrast of uera and ficta Hilberg cited EP III iv 105-6 'oppida turritis cingantur eburnea muris, / fictaque res uero [codd: uerae Riese] more putetur agi'; see as well Tr I ix 15-16 'haec precor ut semper possint tibi falsa uideri; / sunt tamen euentu uera fatenda meo'. For the corruption of uera to uerba he cited Fast I 332, Tr III vi 36, III xi 33 & IV iii 58, and Prop III xxiv 12 'naufragus Aegaea uera [Passerat: uerba codd] fatebar [uar fatebor] aqua'; for the position of uera he cited EP III i 46 & IV xiii 26. The corruption was no doubt assisted by the isolated position of uera at the start of the pentameter.

15-16. COPIA NEC VOBIS NVLLO PROHIBENTE VIDENDI / CONSULIS ... ERIT. 'Even if no one stops you, you will not be able to see the consul [because he will be busy]'. Heinsius preferred to read VLLO (P), but this does not yield sense: it would have to mean 'you will be able to see the consul if no one prevents you' or 'you will be unable to see the consul if anyone prevents you'; neither of these meanings would cohere with what follows.

15. COPIA. 'Opportunity'; compare Met XI 278 'copia ... facta est adeundi tecta tyranni', EP III i 135-37 'cum domus Augusti ... laeta ... plenaque pacis erit, / tum tibi di faciant adeundi copia fiat', and Aen I 520 'coram data copia fandi', XI 248 (=I 520) & XI 378.

16. CONTIGERĪTIS. See on 6 transierītis.

17. DICENDO IVRA. The plural is poetic, the standard phrase being ius dicere: OLD ius² 4b cites Livy III 52 6 alone for the plural.

17-26. Ovid lists in order of ascending importance some of the activities Pompeius as consul might be engaged in, starting with the hearing of lawsuits and ending with visits to the imperial family. For a shorter instance of the device of listing the recipient's possible activities, see Tr III vii 3-4 (Ovid tells his letter to seek Perilla) 'aut illam inuenies dulci cum matre sedentem, / aut inter libros Pieridasque suas'.

18. CONSPICVVM ... SIGNIS EBVR. Signis = 'bas-relief'; the sense is confined to verse (OLD signum 12b). Compare ix 27 'signa ... in sella ... formata curuli', Met V 80-82 'altis / extantem signis ... cratera', Met XII 235-36 'signis extantibus asper / antiquus crater', Met XIII 700, Lucr V 1427-28 'ueste ... purpurea atque auro signisque ingentibus apta', Aen V 267, V 536 & IX 263, Prop IV v 24, Statius Theb I 540, and Silius II 432.

18. CVM PREMET ALTVS EBUR. 'When he sits tall on the curule chair'. The same situation similarly described at Fast I 81-82 'iamque noui praeeunt fasces, noua purpura fulget, / et noua conspicuum pondera sentit ebur'; compare as well Med Fac 13 'matrona premens altum rubicunda sedile' and Met V 317 'factaque de uiuo pressere sedilia saxo'.

19. REDITVS ... COMPONET. 'Will be arranging the [state's] income'. For reditus compare Am I x 41 'turpe tori reditu census augere paternos' and EP II iii 17-18 'at reditus iam quisque suos amat, et sibi quid sit / utile sollicitis supputat ['calculates'] articulis'. For componet compare Cic II Verr IV 36 'compone hoc quod postulo de argento' and Tac Ann VI 16 5.

19. POSITAM ... AD HASTAM. A spear placed in the ground was a symbol of magisterial authority, and as such was always present at the letting of tax contracts. For the language compare Cic Leg Agr II 53 'ponite ante oculos uobis Rullum ... hasta posita ... auctionantem'. For hasta with the specific meaning of 'contract-letting', see Livy XXIV 18 11 'conuenere ad eos frequentes qui hastae huius generis adsueuerant'. The practice is recalled in the modern Italian term for 'auction', uendita all'asta.

20. MINVI MAGNAE. A word play on minus and magis at least; but Professor E. Fantham points out to me that Ovid probably had in mind the phrase maiestatem populi Romani minuere (Cic Inu II 53 & Phil I 21); Pompeius will not allow the interests of the state to be damaged.

21. IN IVLIA TEMPLA = in curiam Iuliam. Caesar had started the construction of a new senate-house in 44; it was opened by Augustus in 29. The building, as restored by Diocletian, survives substantially intact: see Nash I 301.

22. TANTO DIGNIS CONSVLE REBVS. Note the separation of the epithets from the nouns, and the high level of diction produced by the hyperbaton.

23. AVT FERET ... SOLITAM ... SALVTEM = aut, ut solet, salutabit.

23. NATOQVE. Tiberius, son of Ti. Claudius Nero, had been adopted by Augustus in AD 4.

24. DEQVE PARVM NOTO CONSVLET OFFICIO. 'Will be asking advice about his unfamiliar office'. It still being winter, Pompeius would not have been very long in office, and so would not yet have been very familiar with his duties. Burman objected to this notion ('nec Ovidium tam adulandi imperitum fuisse puto, ut ignorantiam aut seruitutem tam imprudenter obiiceret Pompeio') and conjectured DEQVE PATRVM TOTO CONSVLET OFFICIO, that is, 'consulet Caesares, quale uelint esse officium totius senatus'. But the conjecture is unattractive, and the problem not as great as Burman thought: both Ovid and Pompeius would wish to emphasize the importance of the Caesars.

25. AB HIS VACVVM. A prose usage, paralleled in Ovid by EP I i 79 alone 'inque locum Scythico uacuum mutabor ab arcu'. Elsewhere Ovid has nine instances of uacuus with the simple ablative and two instances of uacuus with the genitive, while Virgil never has uacuus with a complement. ET HIS VACVVM, given by B and C, is perhaps an attempt to restore normal poetic idiom.

26. A MAGNIS ... DEIS. 'After the great gods'—Augustus and Tiberius. Dio says that it was remarked after Augustus' death that both of the consuls for the year were related to the emperor (LVI 29 5); it is strange that Ovid nowhere mentions Pompeius' link with the imperial family.

For the sense of ab, compare for example Ecl V 48-49 'nec calamis solum aequiperas, sed uoce magistrum: / fortunate puer, tu nunc eris alter ab illo' and Statius Theb IV 842.

27. CVM TAMEN ... REQVIEVERIT. After it has arrived in Rome, the poem should not vex Pompeius by approaching him when he is busy. At Tr I i 93-96 Ovid in the same way advises his book when it should approach Augustus, and at EP III i 135-40 gives similar directions to his wife. Compare as well Met IX 572-73 (a messenger carries Byblis' declaration of love to her brother) 'apta minister / tempora nactus adit traditque fatentia [H. A. Koch: latentia codd] uerba' and Met IX 610-12 (Byblis' explanation of the failure of her suit) 'forsitan et missi sit quaedam culpa ministri: / non adiit apte, nec legit idonea, credo, / tempora, nec petiit horam animumque uacantem'.