The Last Poems of Ovid

by Ovid

5-6. ANIMI SVM FACTVS AMICI / DEBITOR. 'Your friendly purpose has placed me in your debt' (Wheeler). The genitive similarly used for the cause of indebtedness at i 2 'debitor est uitae qui tibi, Sexte, suae' and Tr I v 10 'perpetuusque animae debitor huius ero'.

6. MERITVM VELLE IVVARE VOCO. 'I call the desire to help a favour already given'. Otto uelle 2 cites EP III iv 79 'ut desint uires, tamen est laudanda uoluntas', Prop II x 5-6 'quod si deficient uires, audacia certe / laus erit: in magnis et uoluisse sat est', Pan Mess 3-7, Laus Pisonis 214; the same proverb at Sen Ben V 2 2 'uoluntas ipsa rectum petens laudanda est'.

7. IMPETVS ISTE TVVS LONGVM MODO DVRET IN AEVVM. Similar phrasing at EP II vi 35-36 (Graecinus has been rendering Ovid assistance) 'fac modo permaneas lasso, Graecine, fidelis, / duret et in longas impetus iste moras'.

9. IVS ALIQVOD. 'A certain claim on each other'. The same phrase for a similar situation at EP I vii 60 (to Messalinus, elder brother of Cotta Maximus) 'ius aliquod tecum fratris amicus habet'.

9. ADFINIA. The adfinis was a relative by marriage, commonly, as here, a son-in-law; a relative by common descent was a cognatus.

9. ADFINIA VINCVLA. Vinculum used of family relationships at Met IX 550 (Byblis wishes to marry her brother) 'expetit ... uinclo tecum propiore ligari' and Cic Planc 27 'cum illo maximis uinclis et propinquitatis et adfinitatis coniunctus'.

10. INLABEFACTA. The word elsewhere in Latin only at xii 29-30 'haec ... concordia ... uenit ad albentes inlabefacta comas'. Ovid is fond of using negative participles of this type.

11-12. NAM TIBI QVAE CONIVNX, EADEM MIHI FILIA PAENE EST, / ET QVAE TE GENERVM, ME VOCAT ILLA VIRVM. The same type of circumlocution at Her III 45-48 (Briseis to Achilles) "diruta Marte tuo Lyrnesia moenia uidi; ... uidi ... tres cecidisse quibus [Bentley: tribus codd] quae mihi, mater erat'.

11. EADEM MIHI FILIA PAENE EST. This is presumably Perilla, the recipient of Tr III vii, whom Ovid there speaks of in terms appropriate to a stepfather.

13-14. EI MIHI, SI LECTIS VVLTVM TV VERSIBVS ISTIS / DVCIS, ET ADFINEM TE PVDET ESSE MEVM. A similar lament at EP II ii 5-6 'ei mihi, si lecto uultus tibi nomine non est / qui fuit, et dubitas cetera perlegere!'; both passages are followed by defences of Ovid's character.