40. QVO ... PRINCIPE. Professor R. J. Tarrant points out that Augustus must here be meant, since it appears from 20 that Ovid and Tuticanus were contemporaries: Tuticanus must by the time of the poem's writing have been in later middle age, rather late to be prospering only under Tiberius. T. P. Wiseman (268) has suggested that Ovid's Tuticanus might be the son of a Tuticanus Callus known to have been senator before 48 BC.
41-42. EFFICE ... NE SPERATA MEAM DESERAT AVRA RATEM. 'See to it that the breeze I hope for does not fail to come to my ship'. Deserere generally refers to something failing one that was originally operative: compare Cic Att VII vii 7 'nisi me lucerna desereret' ('if the lamp were not going out'—Shackleton Bailey), Plautus Mer 123 'genua hunc cursorem deserunt' and the other passages cited at OLD desero 2b. But sperata indicates that the breeze cannot yet be present; other instances of the same metaphor at viii 27-28 'quamlibet exigua si nos ea iuuerit aura, / obruta de mediis cumba resurget aquis', ix 73 'et si quae dabit aura sinum, laxate rudentes', and Tr IV v 19-20 'utque facis, remis ad opem luctare ferendam, / dum ueniat placido mollior aura deo',
43. QVID MANDEM QVAERIS. Similar wording at EP III i 33-34 (to his wife) 'quid facias quaeris? quaeras hoc scilicet ipsa [Riese: ipsum codd]: / inuenies, uere si reperire uoles'.
Ovid's pretense of not knowing what to tell Tuticanus to do was an ingenious solution to his friends' complaint that he was constantly repeating the same instructions to them (EP III vii 1-6). Professor R. J. Tarrant points out the balance with the poem's start, where Ovid pretends not to know how to address Tuticanus.
43. PEREAM NISI DICERE VIX EST. Similar doubt expressed at Tr IV iii 31-32 'quid tamen ipse precer dubito, nec dicere possum / affectum quem te mentis habere uelim'. Peream nisi, which Ovid plays on in the next line, is colloquial and foreign to poetic diction: instances at OLD pereo 3b.
44. SI MODO QVI PERIIT ILLE PERIRE POTEST. Similar phrasing at Tr I iv 27-28 'uos animam saeuae fessam subducite morti, / si modo qui periit non periisse potest'.
45. NEC QVID NOLIMVE VELIMVE. Compare Met XI 492-93 'nec se ... fatetur / scire ratis [codd: satis fort scribendum] rector ... quid iubeatue uetetue' and Tr I ii 31-32 'rector in incerto est nec quid fugiatue petatue / inuenit'.
46. NEC SATIS VTILITAS EST MIHI NOTA MEA. 'And I am at a loss to know what is to my advantage'. Satis strengthens the sentence: compare Ter Hec 877 'ego istuc sati' scio', 'I know that very well'. For utilitas, see at ix 48 publica ... utilitas ([p 300]).
48. SENSVS here means 'judgement' or 'good sense', as at Prop II xii 3 'is primum uidit sine sensu uiuere amantes' and Val Max I vi ext 1 'si quod uestigium in uecordi pectore sensus fuisset'. Elsewhere in Ovid sensus carries the meaning 'awareness, consciousness'.
48. CVM RE codd CVM SPE Heinsius. Cum re, 'along with my fortune', seems somewhat out of place; but Burman pointed out that consilium et res seems to have been a Latin phrase, citing Sallust Iug 74 'neque illi res neque consilium aut quisquam hominum satis placebat' and Ter Eun 240-41 'itan parasti te ut spes nulla relicua in te siet tibi? / simul consilium cum re amisti?'.