72. TITVLOS.'Claims to glory'; compareMetVII 448-49 (to Theseus) 'sititulosannosque tuos numerare uelimus, / facta prement annos' andMetXII 334 'uictori titulum ... Dictys Helopsque dederunt'.
73. VETAT ILLE PROFECTO.'I am quite certain that he does not allow ...'
74. TRANQVILLI ... TEMPORISimpliessed non temporis aduersi.
75. CONDITVR A TE.Ovid does not elsewhere use a person as the object ofcondere, although atTrII 335-36 he uses a person's achievements as object: 'diuitis ingenii est immania Caesaris acta / condere'.
76. TANTVS QVANTOLTANTO QVANTVSBacCFHITpcTANTVSQVANTVSM2cTANTO QVANTOBpcTacQVANTO TANTVSfort legendum. The transmittedreading,tanto quantus, can be construed: Professor E. Fantham translates 'a man so great as should have been sung with this mighty style'. This however subordinates Theseus to Albinovanus, while the purpose of the line is to emphasize Theseus' greatness.Tanto quantois generally printed: it is acceptable enough (compareEPII ix 11-12 'regia, crede mihi, res est succurrere lapsis, / conuenit ettanto,quantuses ipse, uiro'), but is very weakly attested, and does not explain the transmitted reading. I have printedL'stantus quanto;quanto tantusmight also be read.
76. QVANTO ... ORE.Foros'grandness of utterance' Professor R. J. Tarrant comparesAmII i 11-12 'ausus eram, memini, caelestia dicere bella ... et satisoriserat'.
78. INQVE FIDE THESEVS QVILIBET ESSE POTEST.For the use of mythological figures as character types, compareRA589 'semper habe Pyladen aliquem qui curet Oresten' and Martial VI xi 9-10 'ut praestem Pyladen, aliquis mihi praestet Oresten. / hoc non fit uerbis, Marce: ut ameris, ama'.
79-82.Professor R. J. Tarrant points out to me how the example of Theseus balances the comparison with Ulysses at the start of the poem. Earlier Ovid argued against a difference of scale between his own case and the mythic figure's: here he insists on it.
79. HOSTES ... DOMANDI.For lists of these enemies, seeHerII 69-70 'cum fuerit Sciron lectus toruusque Procrustes / et Sinis' and the Athenians' hymn of praise to Theseus atMetVII 433-50.
79. CLAVAQVE.For Theseus' club seeHerIV 115-16 (Phaedra to Hippolytus) 'ossa mei fratrisclauaperfracta trinodi / sparsit humi' andHerX 77 'me quoque, qua fratrem, mactasses, improbe,claua'. Ovid mentions the club of Hercules about a dozen times.
80. VIX ILLI.Foruix'with difficulty'OLD uix1 citesFastI 508 'uix est Euandri uixque retenta manu'.
Most editors print VIX VLLI (BCT), which is possible enough.Vix illiseems rather more forceful, however, as making the point that even Theseus was able to make the dangerous journey only with difficulty, and that before him the road was impassable. CompareMetVII 443-44 'tutus ad Alcathoen, Lelegeia moenia, limes / composito Scirone patet'.
81. OPEROSA.The word in the sense 'troublesome' seems confined to prose except for this passage andHerII 63-64 'fallere credentem non estoperosapuellam / gloria; simplicitas digna fauore fuit'.
83. PERSTASIPF2ul. CompareTrIV i 19-20 'me quoque Musa leuat Ponti loca iussa petentem: / sola comes nostraeperstititilla fugae' andTrV xiv 19-20 'quae ne quis possit temeraria dicere, persta [uarpraesta] / et pariter serua meque piamque fidem'. PERSTAS, the readingof most manuscripts, would have no acceptable meaning in the present passage; it has no object, and the intransitive meaning, 'stand out', is clearly inappropriate. The error may have been induced byTrIV v 23-24 'teque, quod est rarum,praestaconstanter ad omne / indeclinatae munus amicitiae'; more probably, it is an aftereffect ofpraestandusin 81.
83. INDECLINATVSgovernsamico. The only other instance of the word in classical Latin seems to beTrIV v 24, quoted at the end of the last note.
84. LINGVA QVERENTE.Ovid elsewhere uses persons as the subject ofqueri, except for similar uses of metonymy at xiv 26 'litterade uobis est meaquestanihil' andTrV xi 1-2 'Quod te nescioquis per iurgia dixerit esse / exulis uxorem,littera questatua est'.
The poem is a letter of condolence to the famous rhetor Junius Gallio, an old friend of Ovid (see at 1). Ovid starts the poem by saying that Gallio should certainly be mentioned in his poetry, because he helped Ovid at the time of his catastrophe (1-4). This one misfortune should have been enough for him, but now he has lost his wife (5-8). Ovid wept on receiving the news, but will not attempt to comfort him, since by now the grief is in the past, and he would risk renewing it (9-20). Also (and he hopes this will turn out to be the case), Gallio may already have remarried (21-22).
The poem is one of the shortest in Ovid's canon (AmII iii is shorter), and has few parallels with his other poems. The one that comes closest isEPI ix, addressed to Cotta Maximus, which describes Ovid's reaction on hearing of the death of Celsus. There are some verbal parallels as well withEPI iii, Ovid's answer to Rufinus' letter of consolation on his exile. In the commentary I cite passages from Ser. Sulpicius Rufus' famous letter to Cicero on the death of his daughter Tullia (FamIV v) and from Seneca's treatises of consolation; Ovid was clearly making use of the common topics of the genre.
1. GALLIO.Junius Gallio[24], adoptive father of the younger Seneca'selder brother, is often cited by the elder Seneca, who considered him one of the four supreme orators of his time (ContrX praef. 13). AtSuasIII 6-8, Seneca discusses Gallio's fondness for the Virgilian phraseplena deo(which, oddly, is not found in our text of the poet), and quotes Gallio as saying that his friend Ovid was also very fond of the phrase. Quintilian and Tacitus did not share Seneca's high opinion of Gallio: Quintilian criticizes the lack of restraint in his style (IX ii 92), while atDial26 1 Tacitus has Messalla say how he prefers 'G. Gracchi impetum aut L. Crassi maturitatem quam calamistros ['curling irons' = 'excessive ornament'] Maecenatis aut tinnitus Gallionis'.
In AD 32 Gallio proposed in the Senate that ex-members of the Praetorian guard be permitted to use the theatre seats reserved for members of the equestrian order; this resulted in a bitter and sarcastic letter from Tiberius to the Senate attacking Gallio's presumption; he was first exiled, then brought back to custody in Rome after it was decided that Lesbos, chosen by him, was too pleasant a place of exile (TacAnnVI 3; Dio LXVIII 18 4).
1. EXCVSABILE.The word is extremely rare, and is not found in verse outside theEx Ponto: compare I vii 41-42 'quod nisi delicti parsexcusabilisesset, / parua relegari poena futura fuit' and III ix 33-34 'nil tamen e scriptis magisexcusabilenostris / quam sensus cunctis paene quod unus inest'.
2. HABVISSEcould have the usual past sense of the perfect infinitive, but more probably is equivalent tohabere: compare ix 20 'gauderem lateris nonhabuisselocum' and see at viii 82imposuisse(p 282).
3-4. CAELESTI CVSPIDE FACTA ... VVLNERA.'Wounds inflicted by no human weapon'. Thecuspisis attributed to Mars atAmI i 11, to Neptune atMetXII 580, and to Athena atFastVI 655. At SenAg368-71 'tuque, o magni nata Tonantis / inclita Pallas, / quae Dardanias saepe petisti / cuspide terras', R. J. Tarrant citesHF563 (Dis),HF904 &Phaed755 (Bacchus),HO156 (Hercules), and Juvenal II 130 (Mars). Professor Tarrant points out to me that thecuspisdoes not seem to be attributed to Jupiter, no doubt because thefulmenwas too firmly established as his weapon. Ovid is therefore not making his customary specific equation of Augustus with Jupiter.
4. FOVISTI.Fouerewas a technical term in medicine for bathing something in a liquid (CatoAgr157 4, Celsus IV 2 4, Columella VI 12 4). The word occurs in this sense in poetry: seeMetII 338-39 'nomen ... in marmore lectum / perfudit lacrimis et aperto pectorefouit',MetVIII 654 (perhaps spurious; the passage is one where textual doublets occur),MetX 186-87 (Hyacinthus has just been struck by Apollo's discus) 'deus conlapsos ... excipit artus, / et modo terefouet, modo tristia uulnera siccat',MetXV 532 'et lacerumfouiPhlegethontide corpus in unda', andAenXII 420 'fouitea uulnus lympha longaeuus Iapyx'.
5. RAPTI.The word could be taken to mean 'dead'; compare xvi 1 'Nasonis ... rapti', where the context shows this is the meaning, andEPI ix 1-2 (to Cotta Maximus) 'Quae mihi deraptotua uenit epistula Celso, / protinus est lacrimis umida facta meis'. For the similarly ambiguous use ofademptus, see at vi 49qui me doluistis ademptum(p 243).
6. QVOD QVERERERE.For the phrase, compareAmI iv 23-24 (Ovid is listing the signals his girl should use at the dinner-table) 'si quid erit de me tacitaquodmentequeraris, / pendeat extrema mollis ab aure manus',TrV i 37 (of Fortune) 'quod querar, illa mihi pleno de fonte ministrat',HerXIX 79, andHerXX 34 & 94.
7-8. PVDICA / CONIVGE.Beingpudica, she deserved to survive—Professor E. Fantham points out to me here Ovid's use of what could be called thequid profuittopic.
The reference to Gallio's wife seems rather cool in tone. For some very warm descriptions of recently deceased wives, see Lattimore 275-80.
8. NON HABVERE NEFAS.This sense ofhabere, very common in prose, does not seem to occur elsewhere in Ovid; but Professor R. J. Tarrant citesAenV 49-50 'dies ... adest quem semper acerbum, / semper honoratum ...habebo'.
9. LVCTVS=causae luctus. Other instances of this sense ofluctus, which seems to be confined to poetical passages of great emotionalcontent, atMetI 654-55 (Inachus to Io) 'tu non inuenta reperta /luctuseras leuior',MetIX 155, andAenVI 868 (Aeneas has just seen Marcellus) 'o nate, ingentemluctumne quaere tuorum'.
10. LECTAQVE CVM LACRIMIS SVNT TVA DAMNA MEIS.CompareEPI ix 1-2 (quoted above at 5rapti) andFamIV v 1 (Ser. Sulpicius Rufus to Cicero) 'Postea quam mihi renuntiatum est de obitu Tulliae, filiae tuae, sane quam pro eo ac debui grauiter molesteque tuli communemque eam calamitatem existimaui'.
10. TVA DAMNA.CompareFastII 835-36 (Lucretia has just killed herself) 'ecce super corpuscommunia damnagementes / obliti decoris uirque paterque iacent' andTrIV iii 35 'tu uero tua damna dole, mitissima coniunx'.
11. SED NEQVE SOLARI PRVDENTEM STVLTIOR AVSIM.CompareFamIV v 6 'plura me ad te de hac re scribere pudet, ne uidearprudentiaetuae diffidere'. For the opposite reasoning, see SenCons Marc1 1 'Nisi te, Marcia, scirem tam longe ab infirmitate muliebris animi quam a ceteris uitiis recessisse et mores tuos uelut aliquod antiquum exemplar aspici, non auderem obuiam ire dolori tuo'.
12. VERBAQVE DOCTORVM NOTA.CompareEPI iii 27-30 (to Rufinus, who has written him a letter of consolation on his exile) 'cum bene firmarunt animumpraeceptaiacentem, / sumptaque sunt nobis pectoris arma tui, / rursus amor patriaeratione ualentior omni, / quod tuafecerunt scripta retexit opus', and SenCons Marc2 1 'scio a praeceptis incipere omnes qui monere aliquem uolunt, in exemplis desinere'.
13-14. FINITVMQVE TVVM ... DOLOREM / IPSA IAM PRIDEM SVSPICOR ESSE MORA.CompareEPI iii 25-26 'cura quoque interdum nulla medicabilis arte est— / aut, ut sit, longa est extenuanda mora',FamIV v 6 'nullus dolor est quem non longinquitas temporis minuat ac molliat', andCons Marc8 1 'dolorem dies longa consumit'. For a variation of the theme, seeCons Marc1 6 'illud ipsum naturale remedium temporis, quod maximas quoque aerumnas componit, in te una uim suam perdidit'.
The topic of time as the healer of pain is common in ancient literature from New Comedy on: see Tarrant on SenAg130 'quod ratio non quiit, saepe sanauit mora', Ottodies6, and Kassel 53.
13. SI NON RATIONE.Ratiosimilarly used to counter strong emotion (without success) atEPI iii 27-30 (quoted at 12),MetVII 10-11 (Medea falls in love with Jason) 'rationefurorem / uincere non poterat', andMetXIV 701-2 (similar phrasing for Iphis' falling in love with Anaxarete).
14. IPSA ... MORA.'By the mere passage of time'.
15-16. DVM TVA PERVENIENS, DVM LITTERA NOSTRA RECVRRENS / TOT MARIA AC TERRAS PERMEAT, ANNVS ABIT.Similar phrasing atEPIII iv 59-60 'dum uenit huc rumor properataque carmina fiunt / factaque eunt ad uos, annus abisse potest'.
15. PERVENIENSis my correction for the manuscripts'peruenit. The perfect tense ofperuenitconflicts with the followingpermeatandabit. It might be argued that the perfect is acceptable, since Ovid is speaking of a past event; but he would not have used the perfect of an action which took place over a considerable period of time. Forperueniens ... permeatreferring to a past event, compare Ovid's use of the presentuenitin the very similar passageEPIII iv 59-60 (quoted at the end of the last note).
The postponement ofpermeatto the following line made the corruption ofdum ... peruenienstodum ... peruenitsimple enough.
17. TEMPORIS OFFICIVM EST SOLACIA DICERE CERTI.Here Ovid says that words of comfort should not be offered too late; atRA127-30 he says they should not be offered too early: 'quis matrem, nisi mentis inops, in funere nati / flere uetet? non hoc illa monenda loco est. / cum dederit lacrimas animumque impleuerit aegrum, / ille dolor uerbis emoderandus erit'.
For the same concern with time as in the present passage and medical imagery similar to that in 19-20, seeCons Marc1 8 andCons Hel1 2 'dolori tuo, dum recens saeuiret, sciebam occurrendum non esse, ne illum ipsa solacia irritarent et accenderent; nam in morbis quoque nihil est perniciosius quam immatura medicina. expectabam itaque, dum ipse uires suas frangeret et ad sustinenda remedia mora mitigatus tangi se ac tractari pateretur'. See as well the passages cited at Kassel 52-53: from modern literature he quotes SterneTristram ShandyIII 29 'Before an affliction isdigestedconsolation ever comes too soon;—and after it is digested—it comes too late: so that you see ... there is but a mark between those two, as fine almost as a hair, for a comforter to take aim at'.
18. DVM DOLOR IN CVRSV EST.CompareRA119'dum furor in cursu est, currenti cede furori' andMetXIII 508-10 (Hecuba speaking) 'in cursuque meus dolor est: modo maxima rerum ... nunc trahor exul, inops, tumulis auulsa meorum'.
18. AEGER.The substantiveaegeris quite common in both verse and prose, but always with the meaning 'physically ill'; even when used, as here, with a transferred meaning, the sense of metaphor is still present. CompareRA313-14 'curabar propriis aeger Podalirius herbis, / et, fateor, medicus turpiteraegereram',EPI iii 17 'non est in medico semper releuetur utaeger', andEPIII iv 7-8 'firma ualent per se, nullumque Machaona quaerunt; / ad medicam dubius confugitaegeropem'.
The adjective, however, is used by the poets from Ennius on (Sc254 & 392 Vahlen3), particularly in the phrasesmens aegraandanimus aeger, to indicate a state of mental anguish. Compare, from Ovid,TrIII viii 33-34 'nec melius ualeo quam corpore mente, sed aegra est / utraque pars aeque',TrIV iii 21, IV vi 43 & V ii 7,EPI iii 89-90 'uereor ne ... frustra ... iuuer admota perditusaeger ope', I v 18 & I vi 15 'tecum tunc aberantaegrae solaciamentis', andIbis115; from other poets, compareCons ad Liuiam395, HorEpI viii 8, andAenI 208 & IV 35. The same use of the adjective is found occasionally in the historians (SallustIug71 2, Livy II 3 5, etc).
19. LONGA DIES=tempus. CompareMetI 346,MetXIV 147-48 (the Sibyl to Aeneas) 'tempus erit cum de tanto me corpore paruam /longa diesfaciet', andTrI v 11-14 'spiritus et uacuas prius hic tenuandus in auras / ibit ... quam subeant animo meritorum obliuia nostro, / etlongapietas excidat istadie'.
19. VVLNERA MENTIS.Ovid is fond of this metaphorical sense ofuulnus; seeMetV 425-27 'Cyane ... inconsolabileuulnus/mentegerit tacita',TrIV iv 41-42 'neue retractando nondum coeuntia rumpam /uulnera: uix illis proderit ipsa quies',EPI iii 87-88 'nec tamen infitior, si possent nostra coire /uulnera, praeceptis posse coire tuis', andEPI v 23 'parcendum est animo miserabileuulnushabenti'. To judge from Seneca, the metaphor was usual in treatises of consolation: 'antiqua mala in memoriam reduxi et, ut scires [Schultess: uis scirecodd] hanc quoque plagam esse sanandam, ostendi tibi aeque magniuulneriscicatricem' (Cons Marc1 5), 'itaque utcumque conabar manu super plagam meam imposita ad obligandauulnerauestra reptare' (Cons Hel1 1).
20. FOVETHeinsiusMOVETcodd. For the meaning offouetsee at 4fouisti(p 361).Mouethere is to some extent supported by Ovid's use of such verbs astangereandtractarein contexts like that of the presentpassage; compareEPI vi 21-22 'nec breue nec tutum peccati quae sit origo / scribere;tractari uulneranostra timent',EPII vii 13, andEPIII vii 25-26 'curando fieri quaedam maiora uidemus / uulnera, quae melius nontetigissefuit'. Buttractareandtangereare neutral in force, whilemouethere would mean 'disturb', as at HorCarmIII xx 1-2 'Non uides quantomoueaspericlo, / Pyrrhe, Gaetulae catulos leaenae?' and Lucan VIII 529-30 'bustum cineresquemouere/ Thessalicos audes bellumque in regna uocare?'. As Professor R. J. Tarrant comments, ifmouetwere read in the present passage,intempestiuewould lose the appropriateness it has whenfouetis read: there is no proper time to "disturb" a wound.
20. NOVAT.Similar phrasing atTrII 209 'nam non sum tantirenouemut tuauulnera, Caesar' andRA729-30 'admonitu refricatur amor,uulnusque nouatum/ scinditur'.
21. ADDE QVOD.Professor E. Fantham points out to me how extraordinary the occurrence of this phrase in the last distich of the poem is. Of the twenty-five instances of the idiom in Ovid's poems[25], noneexcept the present passage occur in the final distich of a poem or book. The other examples all occur in the middle of an argument, or lead into another distich containing a final injunction or proof of an argument. As Professor J. N. Grant suggests to me, this poem therefore furnishes another example of Ovid's favourite device of unexpectedly altering a poem's tone in the final distich, for a discussion of which see at xiv 61-62 (p 427).
21. MIHIBF1TIBIMHILTF2om C. As Burman saw,mihimust be the correct reading, the perfect subjunctive acting as a past optative: 'certe egomihipraeferrem: utinam mihi, mentionem facienti noui tui coniugii, uerum illud omen uenerit, neque fallar, sed tu iam uxorem duxeris, ut ego uoueo'.Tibiis hardly possible, since an omen to Gallio indicating that he had remarried would be superfluous.
Tuticanus[26](known only from theEx Ponto) seems from the testimony of the poem (19-30) to have been a close friend of Ovid; he is mentioned again at xiv 1-2 and xvi 27. It is reasonable to suppose that, like Sextus Pompeius, he had previously been unwilling to allow Ovid to mention him in his verse.
The poem opens with a discussion of the difficulty of fitting Tuticanus' name into elegiac verse: Ovid could split the name between verses, or alter the quantity of one or another of the name's syllables, but neither procedure would be acceptable to Ovid or to his readers (1-18). He has known Tuticanus since early youth; they assisted each other in their verse (19-30). He is quite certain that Tuticanus will not desert him (31-38). He should use his influence with Tiberius to assist Ovid; but Ovid is so confused after his hardships that he cannot suggest precisely what Tuticanus should do; he leaves this to Tuticanus' judgment (39-50).
The appeal for assistance is a constant theme of the poetry of exile; and the recalling of their assisting each other with their poetry is paralleled byEPII iv, in which Ovid recalls how he used to submit his verse to Atticus for criticism, and byTrIII vii, Ovid's letter to his stepdaughter Perilla, whom he assisted when she firstbegan writing verse. The opening discussion of the metrical difficulty of Tuticanus' name finds parallels elsewhere in Latin and Greek literature (see at 1-2), but is remarkable for its fullness. The explanation for this fullness may well be Tuticanus' being a fellow poet: he would be amused by the use of his own name for the witty discussion of the handling of metrical difficulties with which he himself would be familiar enough.
1-2. QVOMINVS IN NOSTRIS PONARIS, AMICE, LIBELLIS, / NOMINIS EFFICITVR CONDICIONE TVI.A constant problem for the Latin poets was the impossibility of using words with cretic patterns (a long syllable, followed by a short syllable, followed by another long syllable) in hexameter or elegiac verse. The fact played an important part in determining Latin poetic vocabulary; for instance, such an ordinary word asfemina, cretic in its oblique cases, is usually represented through metonymy by such words asnurusandmater. Proper names presented a special problem, which could however occasionally be solved through the use of special forms or circumlocutions; hence such lines as 'cumqueBorysthenioliquidissimusamne[=Bory̅sthĕnē] Dirapses' (x 53) and 'Scipiadas[=Scīpĭōnes], belli fulmen, Carthaginis horror' (Lucretius III 1034). Sometimes, as in the present passage, such avenues were not available, and the poet was simply unable to use the name he wanted. From Greek authors Marx, commenting on Lucilius 228-29, cites Critias fr. 5 'οὐ γάρ πως ἦν τοὔνομα ἐφαρμόζειν ἐλεγείῳ' Archestratus fr. 29 (Brandt) 'ἰχθύος αὐξηθέντος ὃν ἐν μέτρῳ οὐ θέμις εἰπεῖν' andEp Gr616 (Kaibel) 'οὐ γὰρ ἐν ἑξαμέτροισιν ἥρμοσεν τοὔνομ' ἐμόν'In Latin, the best-known reference to this difficulty is HorSatI v 86-87 'quattuor hinc rapimur uiginti et milia raedis, / mansuri oppidulo, quod uersu dicere non est'. On the passage Porphyrion comments 'Aequum Tuticum significat [this is disputed by modern commentators, since the town's known location does not fit with Horace's indication; no certain candidate has been proposed], cuius nomen hexametro uersu compleri [codd: continerifort legendum] non potest. hoc autem sub exemplo Lucili posuit. nam ille in sexto Saturarum [228-29 Marx] sic ait: "seruorum est festus dies hic, / quem plane hexametro uersu non dicere possis"'. In his comment on the passage from Horace, Lejay cites Martial IX xi 10-17 (Martial wanted to mention Flavius Ĕărĭnus, whose name starts with three consecutive short vowels) 'nomen nobile, molle, delicatum / uersu dicere non rudi uolebam: / sed tu, syllaba contumax, rebellas. / dicunt Eiarinon tamen poetae, / sed Graeci, quibus est nihil negatum, / et quos Ἆρες Ἄρες decet sonare: / nobis non licet esse tam disertis / qui Musas colimus seueriores', Rutilius Namatianus 419-22 (of Vŏlŭsĭanus [short 'o', 'u', and 'i'] Rufius) 'optarem uerum complecti carmine nomen, / sed quosdam refugit regula dura pedes. / cognomen uersu ueheris [Préchac: uenerisueluenenscodd], carissime Rufi; / illo te dudum pagina nostra canit', and Apollinaris SidoniusCarmXXIII 485-86 'horum nomina cum referre uersu / affectus cupiat, metrum recusat'.
Professor C. P. Jones cites the discussion at PlinyEpVIII iv 3-4. Pliny, writing to Caninius, who is composing a poem in Greekon the Dacian war, discusses the difficulty of usingbarbara et fera nominain the poem: 'sed ... si datur Homero et mollia uocabula et Graeca ad leuitatem uersus contrahere extendere inflectere, cur tibi similis audentia, praesertim non delicata sed necessaria, non detur?'.
For a further discussion of the topic, see L. Radermacher, "Das Epigramm des Didius",SAWW170,9 [1912] 1-31.
1. QVOMINVSis rare in Augustan verse; but compareAAII 720 'non obstet tangas quominus illa [scloca] pudor'.
3. AVTBCASTMFHILT. The false reading was probably induced by a failure to understand the meaning ofaut'otherwise', for which compare iii 21 'autage, dic aliquam quae te mutauerit iram',MetVII 699,MetX 50-52 'hanc [scEurydicen] simul et legem Rhodopeius accipit heros, / ne flectat retro sua lumina donec Auernas / exierit ualles;autinrita dona futura', andTrI viii 43-45 'quaeque tibi ... dedit nutrix ubera, tigris erat. /autmala nostra minus quam nunc aliena putares'.
2. CONDICIONE.'Nature'. Compare Lucretius II 300-1 'et quae consuerint gigni gignentur eadem /condicioneet erunt et crescent uique ualebunt'.
4. SI MODO.'If, that is ...' Compare 43-44 'quid mandem quaeris? peream nisi dicere uix est, /si modoqui periit ille perire potest'.
5. LEX PEDIS.'The rules of metre'.Lexused similarly at HorCarmIV ii 10-12 'per audaces noua dithyrambos / uerba deuoluit numerisquefertur /legesolutis', CicOr58 'uersibus est certa quaedam et definitalex', and Columella XI 1 1.
5. FORTVNAQVE.The sense of the word is difficult. It seems, as Professor R. J. Tarrant notes, to combine the idea of 'condition, state' (compare for exampleAenII 350 'quae sit rebusfortunauidetis') with that of 'unfortunate circumstances', giving the general sense 'the fact that you have the bad luck to possess a metrically impossible name'. Three lines before, Ovid usednominis ... condicione tui; and in the present line he seems to have been influenced by the common phrasecondicio et fortuna, 'allotted circumstances of life', for which compare CicOffI 41 'est autem infimacondicio et fortunaseruorum',Mil92 'in infimi generis hominumcondicione atque fortuna'. AtII VerrI 81 Cicero similarly adapts the expression to suit his context: 'Lampsacenis ... populi Romanicondicionesociis,fortunaseruis, uoluntate supplicibus'.
7. NOMEN SCINDERE.That is, split the name so that the hexameter (uersus prior) would end inTūtĭ-and the following pentameter (uersus minor) begin with-cānŭs. Such word-divisions are not permissible in Augustan verse; from earlier poetry Professor C. P. Jones cites EnniusAnn609 Vahlen3'saxocerecomminuitbrum'.
8. HOC=nomine tuo.
9-14.Ovid lists the three possible ways of scanning the name so as to remove the cretic:Tūtĭcănus,Tŭtĭcānus, andTūtīcānus.
9. MORATVR=longa est. TheTLLcites Velius Longus VII 55 5 Keil 'hanc ... naturam esse quarundam litterarum, utmorenturet enuntiatione sonum detineant'.
11. ETBCHIacLTNONMNECFIpc.Nec, printed by some editors, cannot by itself be correct, for there is no negative with the correspondingproducaturin the following distich. A negative is implicitly supplied forpotes ... uenireandproducaturby 15-16 'his ego si uitiis ...', but Professor R. J. Tarrant is possibly right to suggest thatnecshould be read both here and (replacingaut) at the beginning of 13.
W. A. Camps (CQn.s. IV [1954] 206-7) has pointed out that it is somewhat odd that 'The first two possibilities are introduced, in lines 7 and 9, in terms that disclaim them at once' and that 'the third and fourth possibilities are added without disclaimer ... in terms that would be quite appropriate to serious suggestions'. He suggests readingat, so that 11-12 represent an imaginary rejoinder to Ovid's rejection of the possibilities already suggested; Ovid's rejoinder is given at 15 'his ego si uitiis ...'. Butat potesis difficult: Ovid could have written 'at, puto, potes', speaking in his own person to raise an objection he would then counter, or he could have represented Tuticanus as saying 'at ... possum'; but it is hard to see how he could have written 'at potes'.
13. PRODVCATVRMHIVT DVCATVRLTB2F2ulVT DICATVRB1CF1.Producereis the correct technical term for 'lengthen'; compare QuintilianVII ix 13 'productioquoque in scripto et correptio in dubio relicta causa est ambiguitatis' & IX iii 69 'uoces ['words'] ...productionetantum uel correptione mutatae'.Vt ducaturis unlikely to be right.Ducaturcould certainly stand forproducatur(although this would destroy the balance with the followingcorreptius), but the verb is clearly indicated as a potential subjunctive by the precedingpotes ... uenire; andut(which would in any case be taken as correlative withutin line 12) cannot stand with this construction.Vt dicatur, Ehwald's preferred reading ('dicatur et sit secunda [syllaba] productâ morâ longa'—KB68), is even less likely to be right, sincedicerein this context could only mean 'pronounce', as at CicOr159 '"inclitus" dicimus breui prima littera, "insanus" producta'.
13. EXIT.Exiresimilarly used of words being uttered atHerVIII 115-16 (Hermione speaking) 'saepe Neoptolemi pro nomine nomen Orestae /exit, et errorem uocis ut omen amo'.OLD exeo2d gives other instances from Cicero (Brutus265), Seneca (BenV 19 4), and Quintilian (XI iii 33), but from verse outside Ovid only Martial XII xi 3, where the word has a somewhat different meaning: 'cuius Pimpleo lyra clarior exit ab antro?'.
14. PORRECTAis equivalent tolonga, and belongs tosecunda(scsyllaba) by hypallage. Compare Quintilian I vi 32 'aut correptis autporrectis... litteris syllabisue' & I vii 14 'usque ad Accium et ultraporrectassyllabas geminis, ut dixi, uocalibus scripserunt[that is, they wroteuiitaforuitaand so on; such spellings occur sometimes in inscriptions]', and Rutilius Lupus I 3.
15. VITIIS.Vitiumsimilarly used for faults of diction atAAIII 295-96 'inuitiodecor est: quaerunt male reddere uerba; / discunt posse minus quam potuere loqui', Cicde OrI 116, and Quintilian I v 17, a discussion of the shortening and lengthening of vowels; this he includes among the 'quae accidunt in dicendouitia'. Ovid is probably combining this sense with that of 'poetic weakness', for which compareTrI vii 39-40 'quicquid in his igituruitiirude carmen habebit, / emendaturus, si licuisset, eram' and the use ofuitiosusat xiii 17 andTrIV i 1 and IV x 61.
16. MERITO PECTVS HABERE NEGER.'People would quite rightly say that I was ignorant'. CompareMetXIII 290-91 & 295 (Ulysses is speaking of Ajax's claim to the arms of Achilles) 'artis opus tantae rudis etsine pectoremiles / indueret? neque enim clipei caelamina nouit ... postulat ut capiatquae non intellegitarma!'.
17-18. MVNERIS ... QVOD MEVS ADIECTO FAENORE REDDET AMOR.Adiecto faenore= 'with interest added on'; Ovid will make up for his past negligence by sending Tuticanus more than one poem ('tibicarminamittam'). It is clear from the opening distich of poem xiv that Ovid sent the poem to Tuticanus very soon after the composition of xii: 'Haec tibi mittuntur quem summodocarmine questus / non aptum numeris nomen habere meis'.
A similar use offaenusatEPIII i 79-81 'nec ... debetur meritis gratia nulla meis. / redditur illa quidem grandi cumfaenorenobis'.
The variant AGER (TM2I2) foramorwas clearly induced by such passages as Tib II vi 21-22 'spes sulcis credit aratis / semina quae magnofaenorereddatager',RA173-74 'obrue uersata Cerealia semina terra, / quae tibi cum multofaenorereddatager', andEPI v 25-26 'at, puto ... sata cum multofaenoreredditager': these passages refer to the original meaning offaenus('faenum appellatur naturalis terrae fetus; ob quam causam et nummorum fetusfaenusest uocatum'—Festus 94 Muller, 83 Lindsay).
18. REDDETGCMITREDDITBFHL. Numerous instances of similar corruptions in Lucan and Juvenal given by Willis (166-67), who remarks 'The general trend seems to be from other tenses to the present, and from other persons and numbers to the third person singular'.
19. QVACVMQVE NOTA.'With whatever method of indicating your name is possible'. For the collocation ofnotaandnomen, seeAenIII 443-44 'insanam uatem aspicies, quae rupe sub ima / fata canit foliisquenotas et nominamandat'.
Luck joins the phrase with the followingtibi carmina mittam, but the construction seems somewhat cumbersome; it is probably better to retain the comma afternotaand take the phrase withteque canam.
20-22. PVERO ... PVER ... FRATRI FRATER.For Ovid's use of polyptoton, see at viii 67uatis ... uates(p 278).
23. DVXQVE COMESQVE.The same phrase atTrIII vii 18 (to his stepdaughter Perilla) 'utque pater nataeduxque comesquefui' andTrIV x 119-20 (to his Muse) 'tudux et comeses, tu nos abducis ab Histro, / in medioque mihi das Helicone locum'.
24. FRENA NOVELLA.For the image, see at ii 23frena remisi(p 169).Nouellusis a rare word in poetry. In prose, the word is often used of young plants or farm animals; and herefrena nouellamay well be a metonymy forfrena nouellorum equorum. Alternatively, the word could be equivalent tonoua'new, unfamiliar', as atFastIII 455 'iamque indignantinoua frenareceperat ore'. In either case, Ovid is clearly referring to the beginning of his poetic career.
25. SAEPE EGO CORREXI SVB TE CENSORE LIBELLOS.CompareTrIII vii 23-24 (to Perilla) 'dum licuit, tua saepe mihi, tibi nostra legebam; / saepe tuiiudex, saepe magister eram'.Censorewas probably still felt as a metaphor; the only precedent given atOLD censor2b is HorEpII ii 109-10 'at qui legitimum cupiet fecisse poema / cum tabulisanimum censorissumethonesti', which is virtually a simile.
26. SAEPE TIBI ADMONITV FACTA LITVRA MEO EST.Similar phrasing in a similar context atEPII iv 17-18 (to Atticus) 'utque meus lima rasus liber esset amici, /non semel admonitu facta litura tuo est'.
27. DIGNAM MAEONIIS PHAEACIDA ... CHARTIS.'A Phaeacid worthy of the Homeric original you were translating'. It is clear from xvi 27that Tuticanus produced a translation rather than a new work in imitation of Homer: 'et qui Maeoniam Phaeacidauertit'.
27. MAEONIIS= 'Homeric', Homer being considered a native of Maeonia (Lydia). The same use atRA373 'Maeonio ... pede',EPIII iii 31-32 'Maeonio ... carmine', and Prop II xxviii 29 'Maeonias ... heroidas'; the word in this sense perhaps brought into standard poetic vocabulary by Horace (CarmI vi 2 'Maeonii carminis',CarmIV ix 5-6 'Maeonius ... Homerus').
27. CHARTIS=carminibus. CompareAAII 746 'uos eritischartaeproxima cura meae'. The metonymy is not found in Virgil or Propertius, but compare Lucretius IV 970 'patriis ...chartis' = 'Latinis uersibus' (I 137) and HorCarmIV ix 30-31 'non ego te meis /chartisinornatum silebo' (where Kiessling-Heinze point out thatchartisrefers to the poem in its published state being transmitted to others, rather than to the poem at its moment of composition).
28. CVM TE PIERIAE PERDOCVERE DEAE.For the poet's being divinely taught, compare Prop II x 10 & IV i 133,HerXV 27-28 'at mihi Pegasides blandissima carmina dictant; / iam canitur toto nomen in orbe meum', and the disclaimers at Prop II i 3 andAAI 25-28 'non ego, Phoebe, datas a te mihi mentiar artes, / nec nos aeriae uoce monemur auis, / nec mihi sunt uisae Clio Cliusque sorores / seruanti pecudes uallibus, Ascra, tuis'. The topic is an important one in ancient literature, the most influential passages being the openingof Hesiod'sTheogony(referred to in the passage just cited) and the beginning of Callimachus'Aetia.
29. TENOR.'Course'; the same use atHerVII 111-12 (Dido speaking) 'durat in extremum uitaeque nouissima nostrae / prosequitur fati qui fuit antetenor'.
29. VIRIDI ... IVVENTA.Ovid is perhaps imitatingAenV 295 'Euryalus forma insignisuiridique iuuenta'. Similar phrasing atAAIII 557 'uiridemque iuuentam',TrIV x 17 'frater ad eloquiumuiriditendebat ab aeuo', andTrIII i 7-8 'id quoque quoduiridiquondam male lusit in aeuo / heu nimium sero damnat et odit opus'; at the last passage Luck aptly citesMetXV 201-3 'nam tener et lactens puerique simillimus aeuo / uere nouo [scannus] est; tuncherba nitenset roboris expers turget'.
30. ALBENTES ... COMAS.For the synecdoche compare CallimachusEpLXIV (=Anth PalV xxiii) 5-6 'ἡ πολιὴ δὲ / αὐτίκ' ἀναμνήσει ταῦτά σε πάντα κόμη'.
Ovid would have been about sixty years of age at the time of this poem, old by Roman standards; but his father lived to ninety, and was survived by his wife (TrIV x 77-80).
30. INLABEFACTAoccurs in classical Latin only here and at viii 9-10 'ius aliquod faciunt adfinia uincula nobis / (quae semper maneantinlabefactaprecor)'.
31-32. QVAE NISI TE MOVEANT, DVRO TIBI PECTORA FERRO / ESSE VEL INVICTO CLAVSA ADAMANTE PVTEM.CompareHerII 137 'duritiaferrumut superesadamantaqueteque',HerX 109-10, andMetIX 614-15 (Byblis on her brother) 'nec rigidas silices solidumue in pectoreferrum/ autadamantagerit'.
Professor R. J. Tarrant notes the unexpected shift in the thought of the poem: earlier it was Ovid who was guilty of delaying in sending Tuticanus any sign of his friendship. Ovid might be postponing the real point of the letter for reasons of tact: Tuticanus has acted as though his long association with Ovid meant nothing to him, but Ovid does not want to complain of this openly, and so stresses his own failure to send Tuticanus a letter.
33-36.The set ofadynatais remarkable for the way Ovid makes each of them relate to his own hardships; even Boreas and Notus have a specific connection, since Ovid complains so often of the climate of Tomis.
35. TEPIDVS BOREAS ... SIT.A comparable inversion of nature described atIbis34 'et tepidus gelido flabit ab axe Notus' (before Ovid will forgive his enemy).
35. PRAEFRIGIDVSappears here for the first time in Latin; it occurs later in Celsus and the elder Pliny.Praegelidus, however, is found at Livy XXI 54 7.
36. ET POSSIT FATVM MOLLIVS ESSE MEVM.The personal reference in the last element of the series ofadynatais a clear break with the conventions of the topic. The last (and therefore greatest) curse in theIbishas a similar personal reference: 'denique Sarmaticas inter Geticasque sagittas / his precor ut uiuas et moriare locis'.
37. LAPSOFHILTLASSOBCM.Lapso ... sodaliseems to me the preferable reading, since it contrasts Ovid's former life in Rome with his disgrace and exile; butlassois well attested and can be construed easily enough. Unfortunately, parallels from the poems of exile are of little use, since in most of them the one word could easily be read for the other: 'tu quoque magnorum laudes admitte uirorum, / ut facis, et lapso [uarlasso] quam potes adfer opem' (EPII iii 47-48), 'fac modo permaneas lasso [uarlapso], Graecine, fidelis, / duret et in longas impetus iste moras' (EPII vi 35-36), 'regia, crede mihi, res est succurrere lapsis [uarlassis], / conuenit et tanto, quantus es ipse, uiro' (EPII ix 11-12), 'digne uir hac serie, lapso [uarlasso] succurrere amico / conueniens istis moribus esse puta' (EPIII ii 109). Professor R. J. Tarrant cites similar variants in the text of Seneca atHF646 & 803 andThy616 & 658.
A clear decision can be made, however, for the phraseres lassae; it is certified as the correct term by the parallel phraseres fessae, for which seeAenIII 145 'quamfessisfinemrebusferat' andAenXI 335 'consulite in medium etrebussuccurritefessis', cited by Luck atTrI v 35. Forres lassaein Ovid, compareTrI v 35 'quo magis,o pauci,rebussuccurritelassis',TrV ii 41 'unde petamlassissolaciarebus?',EPII ii 47 'nunc tua prolassisnitatur gratiarebus', andEPII iii 93 'respicis antiquumlassisinrebusamicum'; in each of these passageslapsisis found as a variant forlassis. Similarly, the sixth-centurycodex Romanusreadslapsisat VirgilGIV 449 'uenimus hinclassisquaesitum oracula rebus'.
38. HIC CVMVLVS NOSTRIS ABSIT ABESTQVE MALIS.Festus definescumulusas a heap added to an already full measure (s.u.auctarium, 14 Muller, 14 Lindsay). The transferred sense is common in Cicero (Prou Cons26,S Rosc8,AttXVI iii 3), and is found elsewhere in Ovid atEPII v 35-36 'hoc tibi facturo uel si non ipse rogarem / accedat cumulus gratia nostra leuis' andMetXI 205-6 'stabat opus: pretium rex infitiatur et addit, / perfidiaecumulum, falsis periuria uerbis'.
38. ABSIT ABESTQVE.The more naturalabest absitquecannot be placed in a pentameter.
39. PER SVPEROS, QVORVM CERTISSIMVS ILLE EST.Similar line-endings atIbis23-24 'di melius!quorum longe mihi maximus ille est, / qui nostras inopes noluit esse uias' andEPI ii 97-98 'di faciant igitur,quorum iustissimus ipse est, / alma nihil maius Caesare terra ferat'.
40. QVO ... PRINCIPE.Professor R. J. Tarrant points out that Augustus must here be meant, since it appears from 20 that Ovid and Tuticanuswere contemporaries: Tuticanus must by the time of the poem's writing have been in later middle age, rather late to be prospering only under Tiberius. T. P. Wiseman (268) has suggested that Ovid's Tuticanus might be the son of a Tuticanus Callus known to have been senator before 48 BC.
41-42. EFFICE ... NE SPERATA MEAM DESERAT AVRA RATEM.'See to it that the breeze I hope for does not fail to come to my ship'.Desereregenerally refers to something failing one that was originally operative: compare CicAttVII vii 7 'nisi me lucerna desereret' ('if the lamp were not going out'—Shackleton Bailey), PlautusMer123 'genua hunc cursorem deserunt' and the other passages cited atOLD desero2b. Butsperataindicates that the breeze cannot yet be present; other instances of the same metaphor at viii 27-28 'quamlibet exigua si nos eaiuueritaura, / obruta de mediis cumba resurget aquis', ix 73 'et si quaedabitaura sinum, laxate rudentes', andTrIV v 19-20 'utque facis, remis ad opem luctare ferendam, /dum ueniatplacido mollior aura deo',
43. QVID MANDEM QVAERIS.Similar wording atEPIII i 33-34 (to his wife) 'quid facias quaeris?quaeras hoc scilicet ipsa [Riese: ipsumcodd]: / inuenies, uere si reperire uoles'.
Ovid's pretense of not knowing what to tell Tuticanus to do was an ingenious solution to his friends' complaint that he was constantly repeating the same instructions to them (EPIII vii 1-6). ProfessorR. J. Tarrant points out the balance with the poem's start, where Ovid pretends not to know how to address Tuticanus.
43. PEREAM NISI DICERE VIX EST.Similar doubt expressed atTrIV iii 31-32 'quid tamen ipse precer dubito, nec dicere possum / affectum quem te mentis habere uelim'.Peream nisi, which Ovid plays on in the next line, is colloquial and foreign to poetic diction: instances atOLD pereo3b.
44. SI MODO QVI PERIIT ILLE PERIRE POTEST.Similar phrasing atTrI iv 27-28 'uos animam saeuae fessam subducite morti, /si modo qui periit non periisse potest'.
45. NEC QVID NOLIMVE VELIMVE.CompareMetXI 492-93 'necse ... fatetur / scire ratis [codd: satisfort scribendum] rector ...quid iubeatue uetetue' andTrI ii 31-32 'rector in incerto estnec quid fugiatue petatue/ inuenit'.
46. NEC SATIS VTILITAS EST MIHI NOTA MEA.'And I am at a loss to know what is to my advantage'.Satisstrengthens the sentence: compare TerHec877 'ego istuc sati' scio', 'I know that very well'. Forutilitas, see at ix 48publica ... utilitas(p 300).
48. SENSVShere means 'judgement' or 'good sense', as at Prop II xii 3 'is primum uidit sinesensuuiuere amantes' and Val Max I vi ext 1 'si quod uestigium in uecordi pectoresensusfuisset'. Elsewhere in Ovidsensuscarries the meaning 'awareness, consciousness'.
48. CVM REcoddCVM SPEHeinsius.Cum re, 'along with my fortune', seems somewhat out of place; but Burman pointed out thatconsilium et resseems to have been a Latin phrase, citing SallustIug74 'neque illires neque consiliumaut quisquam hominum satis placebat' and TerEun240-41 'itan parasti te ut spes nulla relicua in te siet tibi? / simulconsilium cum reamisti?'.
50. QVAQVE VIA VENIAS AD MEA VOTA, VIDE.This is a provisional restoration of the line. The manuscript reading which most closely approaches this text is that ofLandF3, QVAQVE VIAM FACIAS AD MEA VOTA, VIDE; the other manuscripts have the same text, except that QVOQVE is found in some forquaque, while foruidethere are the variants MODO, VADO, and VALE.
My restoration is based on 6 'quaquemeosadeasestuianulla modos' andFastI 431-32 (Priapus approaches the sleeping nymph Lotis) 'a pedibus tracto uelamineuota/ad sua felici coeperat ire uia'.
Before Professor E. Fantham brought this passage to my attention, I had thought thatM'squoque uiam facias ad mea uota modowas correct.Modois weak and does not fit well with the precedingqua ... parte, but at least is acceptable Latin; forquo ... modocompareMed1-2 'Discite quae faciem commendet cura, puellae, / etquosit uobis forma tuendamodo' andIbis55-56 'nuncquoBattiades inimicum deuouet Ibin, /hocego deuoueo teque tuosquemodo'.
The image inquoque ... uado['ford'] is rather strange, and for this sense of the word Ovid seems to have used the plural (MetIII 19;MetIX 108). AtFastIV 300 'sedit limoso pressa carinauado',uadomeans 'river-bottom'.
Ovid does not end any one of his dozens of verse epistles withuale, so the reading ofFTI2ulmust be discounted.
If my restoration is correct or nearly correct, the original corruptions would have been ofuiatouiamand ofueniastofacias; the latter corruption might have been a deliberate interpolation to procure a governing verb foruiam, or might have been a misreading of or conjectural restoration for a damaged archetype. The variantquoqueforquaqueand the different variants foruidewould have been secondary corruptions, unless they also were the result of a damaged archetype.
50. VIDE.Foruideat the end of the pentameter, compareEPII ii 55-56 'num tamen excuses erroris origine factum, / an nihil expediat tale mouere, uide'. It must however be said thatuideis somewhat strange following the subjunctivequaeras.
Nothing is known of the Carus to whom this poem is addressed beyond what Ovid tells us: that he wrote a poem on Hercules (11-12; xvi 7-8) and that he was teacher of the sons of Germanicus (47-48).
The poem begins with a pun on the meaning of Carus' name (1-2). This opening will in itself demonstrate to Carus who his correspondent is (3-6). Carus can himself be recognized through his style (7-12). Ovid does not claim that his poetry is excellent, only that it is individual; if his poetry is poor, it is because he is almost a Getic poet now (13-18). He has written a poem in Getic, which was well received (19-22). It was a description of the apotheosis of Augustus and a laudation of the members of the imperial family (23-32). When he finished reciting the poem, he was applauded; one person even suggested that his piety merited a recall (33-38). But it is now the sixth year of his exile, and poems will not assist him, since in the past they have done him harm. Carus should use his influence to secure Ovid's recall (39-50).
Certain elements of the poem, such as the flattering references to Carus' poetry and the request for his help, are commonplaces of the poetry of exile; the list of the members of the imperial family is similarly paralleled in Ovid's other poems (see at 25-32 [p 400]). Ovid nowhere else explicitly describes any of his Getic poems.
1. MEMORANDEBMFHILTNVMERANDEC. FormemorandecompareTrI v 1 'O mihi post nullos umquammemorandesodales'.Numerandeis in itself acceptable enough: see ix 35 'hic ego praesentes internumerareramicos'.
2. QVI QVOD ES, IDBCFIQVI QVOD ID ESMHQVIQVE QVOD ESLT. For the use ofid, Ehwald (KB47) citedFastII 23-24 'quaeque capit lictor domibus purgamina uersis ['swept out'] / torrida cum mica farra, uocanturidem[scfebrua]', HorSatII iii 139-41 (of Orestes) 'non Pyladen ferro uiolare aususue sororem / Electram, tantum male dicit utrique uocando / hanc Furiam, huncaliud', SenBenI 3 10 'id quemque uocari iubent', and TacGerm6 'definitur et numerus: centeni ex singulis pagis sunt,idque ipsum inter suos uocantur' ['they are called "The Hundred"']'.
Quique quod esis, however, an attractive reading: compareTrI v 1-2 'O mihi post nullos umquam memorande sodales, /et cuipraecipue sors mea uisa sua est'.Quique quodis obviously prone to haplography; on the other hand, it could be a rewriting ofqui quod id es, which is itself presumably a simple corruption through interchange ofqui quod es id. I therefore printqui quod es id, although with some hesitation.
2. VERE.'Justly'. For the same adverb used once again of names "properly" applied, seeTrV x 13-14 'quem tenet Euxini mendax cognomine litus, / et Scythiciuereterrasinistrafreti'.
2. CARE.Luck among others believes that Carus is also addressed atTrIII v 17-18 'sum quoque,care, tuis defensus uiribus absens / (scis "carum" ueri nominis esse loco)'; but it seems excessively ingenious to make Ovid say 'I call youcarusinstead of your real name, Carus'. Still, as Professor R. J. Tarrant points out to me, the passage is odd, in that Ovid elsewhere usescareonly in conjunction with another vocative (compare viii 89 'careSuilli' andTrIII iv 1-2 'carequidem ... sed tempore duro / cognite');caremay have been used as a metrical equivalent to the suppressed name, in the way the "cover names" in elegy correspond to the shape of the alleged actual names of the women. Unlikecare,carissimeis often found by itself (TrI v 3, III iii 27, III vi 1, IV vii 19 & V vii 5;EPII iv 21 & IV x 3).
2. AVEoccurs in Ovid only here and atRA639-40 'nec ueniat seruus, nec flens ancillula fictum / suppliciter dominae nomine dicat "aue!"', and is not common in writing. It was, however, frequent in everyday speech, as is clear from SenBenVI 34 3 'uulgare et publicum uerbum et promiscuum ignotis "aue"'.
3. SALVTERISMFTSALVTARISBCHIL. Ovid usually employs the subjunctive in indirect questions; this is demonstrated by metre at such passages asFastVI 385-86 'increpat illos / Iuppiter et sacro quiduelitore docet',TrII 294 'sustuleritquare quaeret Ericthonium',TrII 297-98 'Isidis aede sedens cur hanc Saturniaquaeret /egeritIonio Bosphorioque mari',TrV xiv 1-2 'Quanta tibidederimnostris monumenta libellis ... uides',EPI i 55-56 'talia caelestes fieri praeconia gaudent, / ut sua quidualeantnumina teste probent' andEPII vii 3 'subsequitur quidagasaudire uoluntas'.
I have found two passages where metre demonstrates that Ovid used the indicative in an indirect question,MetX 637 'quidfacit[codd plerique: quod facitreccquidque agatHeinsiusquid factumMerkelquid uelitNickquid factiRappolddissidetKornquid sciatSlater] ignorans amat et non sentit amorem' andEPI viii 25-26 'sed memor undeabiiqueror, o iucunde sodalis, / accedant nostris saeua quod arma malis'. But in the first passagefaciatwould have an ambiguous meaning, since it could represent eitherquid facioorquid faciam, and in the secondăbĭĕrimwith its short 'a', 'i', and 'e', would be metrically intractable.
It is difficult to say whether the scribes were more prone to influence by the subjunctive normal in classical Latin prose, or by the indicative of the Romance languages and of ecclesiastical Latin. I print the subjunctive in view of Ovid's usual practice, and in particular because ofEPI ii 5 'forsitan haec a quomittaturepistula quaeras' andEPIII v 1 'Quam legis unde tibimittaturepistula quaeris?'. But Professor R. J. Tarrant notes that the need for a dependent subjunctive would be more strongly felt withquaererein these two passages than with theindexof the present passage.
Not all poets were as strict as Ovid in using the subjunctive in indirect questions. Propertius at III v 26-46 has the following verbsin a series of indirect questions:temperet,uenit,deficit,redit,superant,captet,sit uentura,bibit,tremuere,luxerit(fromlugere),coit,exeat,eat,sint(uarsunt),furit,custodit,descendit,potest.
3. COLOR HIC.'The style of this opening'. Ovid is presumably referring to its playful tone. CompareTrI i 61 (to his poem) 'ut titulo careas, ipso noscerecolore', at which Luck cites Martial XII ii 17-18 'quid titulum poscis? uersus duo tresue legantur, / clamabunt omnes te, liber, esse meum'.
Coloris not found in precisely this sense until Horace. For a discussion of its development, see Brink at HorAP86operumque colores.
4. STRVCTVRA.This passage is the first instance cited byOLDstructura1b ofstructurain this transferred sense, which becomes common in Silver prose, particularly Quintilian (I x 23, VIII vi 67, IX iv 45). Lewis and Short point out that Cicero uses the word in similar contexts only as a simile: compareBrut33 'ante hunc [scIsocratem] enim uerborumquasi structuraet quaedam ad numerum conclusio nulla erat',Or149 'quasi structura quaedam', andOpt Gen5 'et uerborum eststructura quaedam'.
There are two instances in Ovid ofstruerewith a similar meaning, both from theEx Ponto. One is from line 20 of this poem ('structa... uerba'), while the other is at II v 19 'structosinter fera proelia uersus'.
5. MIRIFICAis a colloquialism. Common in the letters of Cicero, the word (according toTLLVIII 1060 52) is not found in Livy, Vitruvius, Celsus, Curtius, or Tacitus. The only poets apart from Terence and Ovid cited as using the word are Accius, Ausonius, and the author of theCiris(although the passage where the word occurs, 12-13, is corrupt); see also Catullus LIII 2, LXXI 4, and LXXXIV 3. For a discussion ofmirificus, see Axelson 61, and of the similarly colloquialmirificeHofmann 78.
5. PVBLICA= 'usual, ordinary'. CompareAmIII vii 11-12 'et mihi blanditias dixit dominumque uocauit, / et quae praetereapublicauerba iuuant',AAIII 479-80 'munda, sed e medio consuetaque uerba, puellae, / scribite: sermonispublicaforma placet', and SenBenVI 34 3 (quoted at 2aue).
6. QVALIS ENIM CVMQVE EST.A common phrase in the poets when they speak of their own verse: compare Catullus I 8-9 'quare habe tibi quidquid hoc libelli /qualecumque', HorSatI x 88-89 'quibus [scamicis] haec, suntqualiacumque, / arridere uelim, doliturus, si placent spe / deterius nostra' (at which Bentley cited the present passage), Martial V lx 5 'qualiscumquelegaris ut per orbem', and StatiusSilII praef 'haecqualiacumquesunt, Melior carissime, si tibi non displicuerint, a te publicum accipiant; sin minus, ad me reuertantur' (both passages cited by Munro,Criticisms5).
7. VT TITVLVM CHARTAE DE FRONTE REVELLAS.The same hypothetical case atTrI i 61-62 'ut titulo careas, ipso noscerecolore; / dissimulare uelis, te liquet esse meum' andEPII ix 49-52 (to King Cotys) 'nec regum quisquam magis est instructus ab illis [scthe liberal arts] ... carmina testantur, quaesi tua nomina demas/ Threicium iuuenem composuisse negem'.
7. CHARTAE.See at xii 27chartis(p 380).
7. REVELLAS'tear away' is surprisingly strong in its overtones. It is found only here in the poems of exile, six times in the other elegies, and fifteen times in theMetamorphoses.
8. QVOD SIT OPVS VIDEOR DICERE POSSE TVVM.'I think I could say which work was yours'. Heinsius' QVID SIT OPVS VIDEAR is a strange error: the interrogative adjective is acceptable enough, while the notion of the subjunctive must of course be contained inposse, not in the verb that governs it.
11. PRODENT AVCTOREM VIRES.'His strength will reveal the poet's identity'. The same sense ofprodereatMetII 433 'impedit amplexu nec se sine crimineprodit',MetXIV 740-41 'adapertaque ianua factum / prodidit', andAmI viii 109 'uox erat in cursu, cum me meaprodiditumbra'.Viresagain used of poetic skill atTrI vi 29 'ei mihi non magnas quod habent mea carminauires',TrIV ix 16 'Pieridesuireset sua tela dabunt',EPIII iii 34, andEPIII iv 79.
13. DEPRENSA.Deprendere'recognize, detect' is also found atMetII 93-94 'utinamque oculos in pectore posses / inserere et patrias intusdeprenderecuras' andMetVII 536-37 'strage canum primo uolucrumque ouiumque boumque / inque feris subitideprensapotentia morbi', as well as at Livy XLII 17 7 (uenenum) and Celsus III 18 3 '[phrenetici ...] summam ... speciem sanitatis in captandis malorum operum occasionibus praebent, sed exitudeprenduntur'. This seems to be a semi-medical sense; Professor R. J. Tarrant suggests thatcoloremay bear the secondary meaning 'complexion' in this passage.
15. TAM MALA THERSITEN PROHIBEBAT FORMA LATERE.For Thersites' ugliness, seeIlII 216-19 'αἴσχιστος δὲ ἀνὴρ ὑπὸ Ἴλιον ῆλθε· / φολκὸς ἔην, χωλὸς δ' ἕτερον πόδα· τὼ δέ οἱ ὤμω / κυρτώ, ἐπὶ στῆθος συνοχωκότε· αὐτὰρ ὕπερθε / φοξὸς ἔην κεφαλήν, ψεδνὴ δ' ἐπενήνοθε λάχνη'.
For the modern reader, Thersites' ugliness is hardly his leading characteristic; but atEPIII ix 9-10 Ovid again refers to his appearance: 'auctor opus laudat: sic forsitan Agrius [his father] olim / Thersiten facie dixerit esse bona'. Other mentions of Thersites' ugliness at LucianDial MortXXV (Thersites argues that he is now as handsome as Nireus) and EpictetusDissII 23 32 (Thersites is contrasted with Achilles), to which Professor C. P. Jones adds from Greek epigramGreek Inscr. Brit. Mus.IV ii 1114; other citations from late Greek authors at PW V A,2 2457 18-38 & 2464 23-66 and Roscher V 670 23 ff.
16. NIREVS.For the beauty of Nireus, seeIlII 671-74 'Νιρεὺς αὖ Σύμηθεν ἄγε τρεῖς νῆας ἐί̈σας, / Νίρεὺς Ἀγλαί̈ης υἱὸς Χαρόποιό τ' ἄνακτος, / Νίρεύς, ὃς κάλλιστος ἀνὴρ ὑπὸ Ἴλιον ῆλθε / τῶν ἄλλων Δαναῶν μετ' ἀμύμονα Πηλεί̈ωνα'. This is the only mention of Nireus in the poem; but Demetrius (Peri Hermeneias62; cited by Cope at AristotleRhet1414a) remarks that because of Homer's use of epanaphora (the repetition of Nireus' name) and dialysis (asyndeton) 'σχεδὸν ἅπαξ τοῦ Νιρέως ὀνομασθέντος ἐν τῷ δράματι μεμνήμεθα οὐδὲν ἧττον ἢ τοῦ Άχιλλέως καὶ τοῦ Ὀδυσσέως'. Ovid mentions Nireus again atAAII 109-12 'sis licet antiquo Nireus adamatus Homero ... ingenii dotes corporis adde bonis'; see also HorEpodXV 22 'forma ... uincas Nirea', HorCarmIII xx 15 (where Nireus is paired with Ganymede) and Prop III xviii 27 'Nirea non facies, non uis exemit Achillem'; from Greek epigram Professor C. P. Jones cites PeekGriech. Versinschr.1728 (MerkelbachZPE25 [1977] 281).
16. CONSPICIENDVS.The word is metrically suited to the second half of the pentameter, before the disyllable: compare Tib I ii 70 & II iii 52,FastV 118 & V 170, andTrII 114.
17. MIRARI SIis a colloquialism: most of the passages from verse cited atTLLVIII 1067 14 are from Plautus and the hexameter poems of Horace; from Propertius compare II iii 33 'haec ego nuncmirer siflagret nostra iuuentus?' and from OvidHerX 105 'non equidemmiror sistat uictoria tecum' andTrI ix 21 'saeua nequeadmirormetuuntsifulmina'.
19. A PVDET, ET GETICO SCRIPSI SERMONE LIBELLVM.The rest of the distich aftera pudetexplains the exclamation ('I have even written ...'), and so the punctuation should mark the break. The idiom is different from theet pudet etconstruction seen at xv 29 'et pudet et metuo ['I am both embarrassed and afraid'] semperque eademque precari' andTrV vii 57-58 'et pudet et fateor ['I confess with embarrassment'], iam desuetudine longa / uix subeunt ipsi uerba Latina mihi'.
The only other instance of independenta pudetin Ovid isAAIII 803-4 'quid iuuet et uoces et anhelitus arguat oris; / a pudet, arcanas pars habet ista notas', which, however, Professor R. J. Tarrant suspects is part of an interpolation.
19. GETICO ... SERMONE.Ovid repeatedly claims to have learned Getic and Sarmatian: compareTrIII xiv 47-48 'Threicio Scythicoque fere circumsonor ore, / et uideor Geticis scribere posse modis',TrV vii 55-56 'ille ego Romanus uates—ignoscite, Musae!— / Sarmatico cogor plurima more loqui',TrV xii 58 'nam didici Getice Sarmaticeque loqui', andEPIII ii 40 (identical toTrV xii 58).
It is of course not possible to prove that Ovid did or did not learn Getic and write poetry in that language. But in the absence of other evidence, it seems better to suppose that he did learn the language since (a) he claims to have do so, (b) Latin and Greek would hardly have been widely spoken in the region, and (c) a man with Ovid'slinguistic facility would have had little difficulty in learning the languages of the region.
20. STRVCTAQVE ... VERBA.Compare Cicde OrIII 171 'struere uerba', and see at 4structura(p 393).
20. NOSTRIS ... MODIS.Ovid did not use native rhythms, but instead used Latin metres.
21. ET PLACVI.Luck comparesEPI v 63-64 'forsitan audacter faciam, sed glorior Histrum / ingenio nullum maius habere meo', but it is clear enough from the context that Ovid was there speaking of his Latin poetry.
21. GRATARE.Gratariis extremely rare in Latin, being found only in the poets and historians;grātŭlāriwas of course not available (except forgrātŭlŏr) for use in dactylic verse. Other instances of the word in Ovid at ix 13'gratatusquedarem cum dulcibus oscula uerbis',HerVI 119 'nunc etiam peperi;gratareambobus, Iason!',HerXI 65,MetI 578, VI 434, IX 244 & 312, andFastIII 418.