For a further discussion of the topic, see L. Radermacher, "Das Epigramm des Didius", SAWW 170,9 [1912] 1-31.
1. QVOMINVS is rare in Augustan verse; but compare AA II 720 'non obstet tangas quominus illa [sc loca] pudor'.
3. AVT BC AST MFHILT. The false reading was probably induced by a failure to understand the meaning of aut 'otherwise', for which compare iii 21 'aut age, dic aliquam quae te mutauerit iram', Met VII 699, Met X 50-52 'hanc [sc Eurydicen] simul et legem Rhodopeius accipit heros, / ne flectat retro sua lumina donec Auernas / exierit ualles; aut inrita dona futura', and Tr I viii 43-45 'quaeque tibi ... dedit nutrix ubera, tigris erat. / aut mala nostra minus quam nunc aliena putares'.
2. CONDICIONE. 'Nature'. Compare Lucretius II 300-1 'et quae consuerint gigni gignentur eadem / condicione et erunt et crescent uique ualebunt'.
4. SI MODO. 'If, that is ...' Compare 43-44 'quid mandem quaeris? peream nisi dicere uix est, / si modo qui periit ille perire potest'.
5. LEX PEDIS. 'The rules of metre'. Lex used similarly at Hor Carm IV ii 10-12 'per audaces noua dithyrambos / uerba deuoluit numerisque fertur / lege solutis', Cic Or 58 'uersibus est certa quaedam et definita lex', and Columella XI 1 1.
5. FORTVNAQVE. The sense of the word is difficult. It seems, as Professor R. J. Tarrant notes, to combine the idea of 'condition, state' (compare for example Aen II 350 'quae sit rebus fortuna uidetis') with that of 'unfortunate circumstances', giving the general sense 'the fact that you have the bad luck to possess a metrically impossible name'. Three lines before, Ovid used nominis ... condicione tui; and in the present line he seems to have been influenced by the common phrase condicio et fortuna, 'allotted circumstances of life', for which compare Cic Off I 41 'est autem infima condicio et fortuna seruorum', Mil 92 'in infimi generis hominum condicione atque fortuna'. At II Verr I 81 Cicero similarly adapts the expression to suit his context: 'Lampsacenis ... populi Romani condicione sociis, fortuna seruis, uoluntate supplicibus'.
7. NOMEN SCINDERE. That is, split the name so that the hexameter (uersus prior) would end in Tūtĭ- and the following pentameter (uersus minor) begin with -cānŭs. Such word-divisions are not permissible in Augustan verse; from earlier poetry Professor C. P. Jones cites Ennius Ann 609 Vahlen3 'saxo cere comminuit brum'.
8. HOC = nomine tuo.
9-14. Ovid lists the three possible ways of scanning the name so as to remove the cretic: Tūtĭcănus, Tŭtĭcānus, and Tūtīcānus.