The Last Poems of Ovid

by Ovid

For uultum ... ducis see at i 5 trahis uultus ([p 149]).

15. NIHIL BCMFHLT NIL I. Copyists were more prone to alter nil to nihil than the inverse; but in 1919 Housman demonstrated that nihil was Ovid's invariable form for the latter half of the first foot by pointing out that in all of the twenty-odd passages where the manuscripts offer nihil or nil at that position the following word invariably begins with a vowel (Collected Papers 1000-1003). There would be no reason for such an avoidance of consonants if Ovid had allowed nil in this position; he must therefore have used nihil alone.

16. FORTVNAM, QVAE MIHI CAECA FVIT. The image of Fortune being blind to a single individual seems very strange. Professor R. J. Tarrant suggests that caeca could mean 'unforeseeing', and by fortunam Ovid could be referring to his own previous circumstances; alternatively, caeca might be a corruption induced by the familiar image of the blind goddess, replacing an original SAEVA (Riese) or LAEVA, for which compare Silius III 93-94 'si promissum uertat Fortuna fauorem, / laeuaque sit coeptis'.

17-18. SEV GENVS EXCVTIAS, EQVITES AB ORIGINE PRIMA / VSQVE PER INNVMEROS INVENIEMVR AVOS. A similar claim at Tr IV x 7-8 'usque a proauis uetus ordinis heres, / non modo fortunae munere factus eques'. The status of eques was not hereditary except in the case of a senator's son. The Paeligni did not receive the citizenship until after the Social War; to be born to equestrian status, and to assume that he could have had a senatorial career (Tr IV x 35), Ovid must have belonged to one of the dominant families of the region.

17. EXCVTIAS. 'Examine'. Ovid plays on the primary meaning of the word, 'shake out', at Am I viii 45-46 'has quoque quae frontis rugas in uertice portant [Burman: quas ... portas codd] / excute; de rugis crimina multa cadent'. The transferred meaning had lost any sense of metaphor by Ovid's time, however; see especially Tr II 224 'excutiasque oculis otia nostra ['the product of my leisure hours'—Wheeler] tuis'.

19-20. SIVE VELIS QVI SINT MORES INQVIRERE NOSTRI, / ERROREM MISERO DETRAHE, LABE CARENT. A similar claim of no fault beyond his error at EP II ii 15-16 'est mea culpa grauis, sed quae me perdere solum / ausa sit, et nullum maius adorta nefas'.

20. ERROREM ... DETRAHE. At Met II 38-39 the same phrase with a different meaning: (Phaethon to his father) 'pignora da, genitor, per quae tu uera propago / credar, et hunc animis errorem ['doubt'] detrahe nostris*.

20. LABE CARENT. The same sense of labes at Tr I ix 43 'uitae labe carentis' and Prop IV xi 41-42 'neque ulla labe mea nostros erubuisse focos'; compare as well the phrase sine labe at Tr II 110 (domus), Tr IV viii 33 (decem lustris ... peractis), EP I ii 143 (praeteriti anni), EP II vii 49 (uita prior), Her XVII 14 (tenor uitae), and Her XVII 69 (fama).

22. QVOS COLIS ... DEOS. A similar definition of the imperial family at EP II ii 123 'quos colis ad superos haec fer mandata sacerdos'.

23. DI TIBI SVNT CAESAR IVVENIS. BCFM^2ul read SINT; but the indicative seems to be required by the preceding 'quos colis ... deos' and the following 'tua numina placa' and 'hac certe nulla est notior ara tibi'.