The Last Poems of Ovid

by Ovid

46. CERNET PM^2c, Gothanus membr. II 121 (saec xiii) CREDET BCFHILT. Cernet seems preferable to credet as continuing the image of uidebit in 43.

46. EXACTA CVNCTA LOCARE FIDE. Graecinus will be careful and incorruptible in assigning taxation contracts. For fide compare v 20 'et minui magnae non sinet urbis opes'; for exacta compare Suet Tib 18 'cum animaduerteret Varianam cladem temeritate et neglegentia ducis accidisse ... curam ... solita [scripsi; confer Liu XXVII 47 1 'multitudo ... maior solita' solito codd] exactiorem praestitit'.

48. PVBLICA QVAERENTEM QVID PETAT VTILITAS. The consul acted as chairman of the Senate, proposing the order of the day, and asking the senators in order of seniority for their sententiae on the appropriate action for the question under discussion.

48. PVBLICA ... VTILITAS. 'The people's interest'. For utilitas compare Met XIII 191 'utilitas populi', Cic Part Or 89 'persaepe euenit ut utilitas cum honestate certet', Cic Sul 25 'populi utilitati magis consulere quam uoluntati', and Livy VI 40 5 & VIII 34 2 'posthabita filii caritas publicae utilitati'.

49. PRO CAESARIBVS = pro Caesarum factis. Compare Res Gestae 4 'ob res a me aut per legatos meos auspicis [=auspiciis] meis terra marique prospere gestas quinquagiens et quinquiens decreuit senatus supplicandum esse dis immortalibus. dies autem per quos ex senatus consulto supplicatum est fuere DCCCLXXXX'.

49. CAESARIBVS. Tiberius, Germanicus, and Drusus. Similarly used at EP II vi 18 (to Graecinus) 'omnia Caesaribus [Augustus and Tiberius] sic tua facta probes'.

49. DECERNERE GRATES. 'Propose (in the Senate) the decreeing of thanks'. The sense of decernere is common in prose: see Cic Prou Cons 1, Att VII i 7, and the other passages at OLD decerno 6.

49. GRATES appears occasionally in prose (Tarrant at Sen Ag 380 reddunt grates cites Livy XXIII 11 12, Curtius IX 6 17, and Vell Pat II 25 4), but in hexameter and elegiac verse is the necessary representative for grātĭās.

51. CVM IAM FVERIS POTIORA PRECATVS. For potior 'more important' compare Caesar BC I 8 (a reported remark of Pompey) 'semper se rei publicae commoda priuatis necessitudinibus habuisse potiora', Livy VIII 29 2, and the many passages at OLD potior² 4. The usage belongs to prose: Ovid elsewhere and Virgil always use potior to mean either 'more powerful' or 'preferable'.

53-54. SVRGAT ... DETQVE. The apodosis of an implied condition: 'If you prayed for me, the fire would rise'.