27. COACTVS excerpta Scaligeri ROGATVS codd. Ovid is referring to the second meeting of the Senate after the death of Augustus (the first meeting had been devoted to funeral arrangements); at this meeting there had been some confusion over Tiberius' intentions. Rogatus is awkward to construe, since Tiberius must already have been asked to accept power: otherwise he could not have refused the offer. The difficulty of rogatus is clearly shown by the description of the scene in Tacitus: 'et ille [sc Tiberius] uarie disserebat de magnitudine imperii sua modestia. solam diui Augusti mentem tantae molis capacem: se in partem curarum ab illo uocatum experiendo didicisse quam arduum, quam subiectum fortunae regendi cuncta onus, proinde in ciuitate tot inlustribus uiris subnixa non ad unum omnia deferrent: plures facilius munia rei publicae sociatis laboribus executuros ... senatu ad infimas obtestationes procumbente, dixit forte Tiberius se ut non toti rei publicae parem, ita quaecumque pars sibi mandaretur eius tutelam suscepturum ... fessus ... clamore omnium, expostulatione singulorum flexit paulatim, non ut fateretur suscipi a se imperium, sed ut negare et rogari desineret' (Ann I 11-13). Scaliger's conjecture is supported by (and is probably based on) the corresponding description at Suetonius Tib 24 'principatum ... diu ... recusauit ... tandem quasi coactus et querens miseram et onerosam iniungi sibi seruitutem, recepit imperium'.
Professor A. Dalzell notes, however, that Suetonius' description is an imperfect parallel, since coactus is there modified by quasi; he suggests to me that rogatus could be accepted, if it is taken closely with recusati—Tiberius finally accepted what he had many times been offered and had many times refused.
29. VESTAM. Ovid similarly equates Livia with Venus and Juno at EP III i 117-18 'quae Veneris formam, mores Iunonis habendo / sola est caelesti digna reperta toro', and implicitly equates her with Juno at Fast I 650 'sola toro magni digna reperta Iouis'. These appear to be instances of metaphor rather than true equations; but PW XIII,1 913-14 cites inscriptions indicating a cult of Livia-as-Juno.
29-30. LIVIA ... AMBIGVVM NATO DIGNIOR ANNE VIRO. Tiberius is mentioned by Ovid in connection with Livia at Fast I 649, a description of the rededication of the temple of Concordia in AD 10: 'hanc tua constituit genetrix et rebus et ara', but does not figure in Ovid's other mentions of Livia (Fast V 157-58, Tr II 161-62, EP II viii 29-30, and EP III i 117-18); these passages would have been written before Tiberius' assumption of power.
For the coupling of both Augustus and Tiberius with Livia, Professor C. P. Jones cites 'ἡ δοίους σκήπτροισι θεοὺς αὐχοῦσα Σεβαστή / Καίσαρας' from an epigram of Ovid's contemporary Honestus.[27]
30. AMBIGVVM. The same use of ambiguum (which may be an Ovidian peculiarity) at Met I 765-66 'ambiguum Clymene precibus Phaethontis an ira / mota magis' and Met XI 235-36 'est specus in medio, natura factus an arte / ambiguum, magis arte tamen'.
30. ANNE. The word is found at Am III xi 49-50 'quicquid eris, mea semper eris; tu selige tantum, / me quoque uelle uelis, anne coactus amem' and Fast VI 27-28 (Juno speaking) 'est aliquid nupsisse Ioui, Iouis esse sororem / fratre magis dubito glorier anne uiro'; the resemblances between this and the present passage are obvious. Bömer ad loc cites instances of anne from Plautus (Amph 173), Terence (Eun 556), Cicero (Fin IV 23, Att XII xiv 2), and Virgil (G I 32 & II 159, Aen VI 864).
31. DVOS IVVENES. Germanicus and Drusus. For other mentions of them, see Tr II 167 'tui, sidus iuuenale, nepotes', Tr IV ii 9 'et qui Caesareo iuuenes sub nomine crescunt', EP II ii 71-72 'praeterit ipse suos animo Germanicus annos, / nec uigor est Drusi nobilitate minor', and EP II viii 33-34.
31. ADIVMENTA. The word is rare in verse (but see Lucretius VI 1022 and Silius XI 605 & XVI 12), and Ovid here seems to be giving a version of the construction in which people are said to be adiumento, as at Cic Att XII xxxi 2 'magno etiam adiumento nobis Hermogenes potest esse in repraesentando ['in making cash payment'—Shackleton Bailey]', Varro LL V 90, and Rhet Her III 29. TLL I 704 1 cites "Caecil. mort. 18" for 'duo minores, qui sint adiumento', which resembles the present passage, but I do not understand the reference: "Caecil." does not appear in the table of authors.
33. NON PATRIA ... SCRIPTA CAMENA. 'Written in a poem that was not in Latin'. This is the only instance in Ovid of this sense of Camena, which seems to have been a Horatian idiom: see Carm II xvi 38 'spiritum Graiae tenuem Camenae', Ep I i 1-3 'Prima dicte mihi, summa dicende Camena ... Maecenas', and AP 275 'tragicae ... Camenae'. Professor R. J. Tarrant cites Martial XII xciv 5 'fila lyrae moui Calabris exculta Camenis', which possibly refers to Horace.