38. NON ITA CAELITIBVS VISVM EST. 'The gods decided otherwise'. Compare xi 7 'non ita dis placuit', Met VII 699, Tr IV viii 15-16 (Ovid had hoped for a peaceful and happy old age) 'non ita dis uisum est, qui me terraque marique / actum Sarmaticis exposuere locis'. These passages are probably all echoes of Aen II 426 'dis aliter uisum'.
40. IVVET BpcCMFHILT FORET Bac 'unde uerum eliciendum'—Riese. But the correction is by the original hand (Owen suggested that the error was induced by foret at the end of the preceding distich), and iuuet is unobjectionable: Ovid is explaining his admission in the previous line that the gods were perhaps just in his case—claiming he was innocent, that is, that the gods had been unjust, would be of no assistance to him.
41. MENTE TAMEN, QVAE SOLA DOMO NON EXVLAT, VSVS. See at iv 45 qua possum, mente ([p 211]).
41. QVAE SOLA DOMO NON EXVLAT. Similar wording at Tr III iv 45-46 'Nasonisque tui quod adhuc non exulat unum / nomen ama'.
41. DOMO NON EXVLAT. Domo is my conjecture for the transmitted LOCO, which is strange and difficult to construe. FOCO is also possible; but the singular would be unusual. For domo compare Ter Eun 610 'domo exulo nunc'.
42. PRAETEXTAM FASCES ASPICIAMQVE. The -que logically belongs with fasces, joining it with praetextam: such dislocations are common in the pentameter because of its strict metrical requirements.
According to the manuscripts the preceding line ends with VTAR; I have printed Heinsius' VSVS, since there would otherwise be an asyndeton between utar and aspiciam. There are similar errors at 57 and xi 15 (cedet for cedens; peruenit for perueniens): here we may have a deliberate alteration by a scribe who did not understand the force of the delayed enclitic and sought a verb to couple aspiciam with.
44. DECRETIS Korn SECRETIS codd SECRETO Wheeler. Korn's conjecture makes the pentameter an amplification of the hexameter, a common pattern in Ovid; its corruption to secretis would be easy. Ehwald (KB 39-40) retained secretis, citing Tac Ann III 37 'secreta ['solitary designs'—Grant] patris mitigari' and Pliny Pan 53 6 (we should rejoice in our present good fortune under Trajan, and weep at the tribulations endured under previous emperors) 'hoc secreta nostra ['our private thoughts'], hoc sermones, hoc ipsae gratiarum actiones agant'. But in a list of the consul's public functions such a deviation of subject seems inappropriate. Wheeler's secreto is a little forced: 'my mind ... shall fancy itself present unseen at your actions'. Ehwald objected that Korn did not explain what his conjecture meant; but decernere was used of the consuls' judicial decisions (Cic Att XVI xvi a 4(6) 'consulum decretum').
45. LONGI ... LVSTRI. The epithet seems to have no special force: compare iv 23 'longum ... annum'.
45. REDITVS HASTAE SVPPONERE. See at v 19 reditus ... componet ([p 219]).