Titles
MF and B2H2I2T2 usually supply titles for the poems. As will be seen from the apparatus, there is considerable variation among the titles, and there is no reason to suppose that they form an authentic part of the transmitted text.
The manuscript authority for the text of Ex Ponto IV
By and large the manuscripts of the fourth book of the Ex Ponto offer a remarkably uniform text of the poems, and one which, considering the late date of the manuscripts, is in surprisingly good condition. I believe that all the manuscripts, with the exception of G, are descended from a single archetype. B and C are the best witnesses to the text of the archetype, although the other, more heavily contaminated and interpolated manuscripts are indispensable, since they correct the peculiar errors of B and C.