3. AVRORAM here is virtually equivalent to diem; it is not found elsewhere in the poetry of exile, but compare Fast I 461 & II 267-68 'tertia post idus nudos aurora Lupercos / aspicit'.
3. OCCVRRAT. 'Arrive', as commonly: compare Cic Phil I 9, Livy XXXVII 50 7 'ad comitiorum tempus occurrere non posse', and Pliny Ep VI xxxiv 3 'uellem Africanae [sc pantherae] quas coemeras plurimas ad praefinitum diem occurrissent'.
4. BIS SENOS = dŭŏdĕcim, metrically difficult because of its initial three consecutive short vowels. Roman poets avoid using the usual names for numbers above nouem, with the obvious exceptions of centum and mille; sometimes, as here, metrical exigencies left them with no alternative. For bis seni (sex) Tarrant at Sen Ag 812 bis seno ... labore cites Ennius Ann 323 Vahlen2, Ecl I 43, Aen I 393, Prop II xx 7, Met VIII 243, Fast I 28, Sen Tro 386 & Oed 251, and from Greek Callimachus Aetia I fr. 23 19 Pfeiffer.
6. TVRBAE. Compare iv 27 'cernere iam uideor rumpi paene atria turba'.
7. IN DOMINI SVBEAT PARTES. Partes = 'function'; see at ii 27 uix uenit ad partes ... Musa ([p 170]). For subeat 'undertake' compare Quintilian X i 71 'declamatoribus ... necesse est secundum condicionem controuersiarum plures subire personas' and the passages cited at OLD subeo 7b.
8. FESTO Burman IVSSO BCMFHIL IVSTO T, sicut coni Merkel. Iusso has been explained since Merula as meaning that Ovid hopes the letter will arrive on the day it is told to; but the word seems rather strange, and lacks the point it has in the passages cited by Ehwald (KB 64), AA II 223-24 'iussus adesse foro, iussa maturius hora / fac semper uenias, nec nisi serus abi' and Prop IV vi 63-64 (of Cleopatra) 'illa petit Nilum cumba male nixa fugaci, / hoc unum, iusso non moritura die' (she would commit suicide at a time of her own choosing), or at Aen X 444 (cited by Owen in 1894) 'socii cesserunt aequore iusso', where iusso stands by hypallage for iussi. The meaning of iusto is inappropriate for the present passage, as will be seen from Suet Tib 4 2 'retentis ultra iustum tempus ['the time allowed'] insignibus'. Burman's conjecture festo was not placed in the text even by its author, but it seems a reasonable solution to the difficulty. For it Burman cited 56 'hic quoque te festum consule tempus agam'; see as well Fast I 79-80 'uestibus intactis Tarpeias itur in arces, / et populus festo concolor ipse suo est'. The corruption of so straightforward an epithet may seem unlikely, but compare Prop IV xi 65-66 'uidimus et fratrem sellam geminasse curulem; / consule quo, festo [Koppiers: facto codd] tempore, rapta soror'.
9. ATQVI unus e duobus Hafniensibus Heinsii. The ATQVE of BCMFHILT is possibly right. For the adversative sense here required, OLD atque 9 cites Plautus Aul 287-88 'atque ego istuc, Anthrax, aliouorsum dixeram, / non istuc quod tu insimulas', Mer 742, and Ter Heaut 189 (apparently a misprint for 187 'atque etiam nunc tempus est') from comedy, but from the classical period only Cic Att VI i 2 'ac putaram paulo secus' and Fam XIV iv 5 'atque ego, qui te confirmo, ipse me non possum', and instances of ac tamen at Fam VII xxiii 1, Caesar BC III 87 4, and Tac Ann III 72. In view of the doubtful status of adversative atque at the time of Ovid and the ease of corruption of atqui to atque I have followed Heinsius in reading atqui. Heinsius similarly restored atqui from his codex Richelianus for the other manuscripts' atque at Tr II 121-24 'corruit haec ... sub uno ... crimine lapsa domus. / atqui ea sic lapsa est ut surgere, si modo laesi / ematuruerit Caesaris ira, queat'; and atque is found for the correct atqui in some manuscripts at Hor Sat I ix 52-53 '"magnum narras, uix credibile!" "atqui / sic habet"' and EP I ii 33-34 'atqui / si noles sanus, curres hydropicus', and in most manuscripts at Ep I vii 1-5 'Quinque dies tibi pollicitus me rure futurum / Sextilem totum mendax desideror. atqui, / si me uiuere uis sanum recteque ualentem, / quam mihi das aegro, dabis aegrotare timenti, / Maecenas, ueniam'.
10. SINCERO. 'Unbroken'.
12. SALVTANDI MVNERE ... TVI. Professor R. J. Tarrant points out to me the notably prosaic use of the defining gerundive.
13. GRATATVS has the force of a present participle, as is shown by cum dulcibus ... uerbis; André mistranslates 'après t'avoir félicité, je t'embrasserai avec des mots tendres'. The perfect participle of deponent verbs takes past or present meaning indifferently, according to context.