28. ET QVOD PVLSETVR MVRVS AB HOSTE QVEROR. Compare EP III i 25 'adde metus et quod murus pulsatur ab hoste'.
30. SOLVM BCFILT LOCVM MH. The interchange is very common (examples at Met I 345 & VII 57); the reverse corruption in some manuscripts at EP II ii 96 'sit tua mutando gratia blanda loco'.
31-40. The argument Ovid here employs ("other have done what I have done, and not suffered for it") is that used at Tr II 361-538 to excuse the Ars Amatoria.
31-40. VITABILIS. A. G. Lee has ingeniously conjectured VITIABILIS (PCPhS 181 [1950-51] 3). It would have the sense uitiosa; Lee compares such words as aerumnabilis, perniciabilis, and lacrimabilis. He argued that Hesiod nowhere said that Ascra was 'always to be avoided' (although this is a natural inference from Op 639-40) and that the variants miserabilis, mirabilis, and mutabilis 'point to the conclusion that the archetype was here difficult to make out'. For uitium used of localities he cited EP III ix 37 'quid nisi de uitio scribam regionis amarae', and for the word uitiabilis (in the sense 'corruptible') Prudentius Apoth 1045 and Ham 215 (there is a variant uitabilis in a ninth-century manuscript of the Hamartigenia).
Lee's argument is a good one, but uitabilis does not seem in itself objectionable enough to be removed from the text. The variant readings he cites are from unnamed manuscripts of Burman, and are not safe evidence for the condition of the archetype. It can be said in Lee's favour that Heinsius and Bentley before him clearly found uitabilis somewhat strange: Heinsius considered the verse suspect, while Bentley conjectured VT ILLAVDABILIS.
31. ASCRA MFILT. I take ASCRE (BCH) to be a hypercorrect formation by the scribes; Ascra is metrically guaranteed at 34 'Ascra suo' and AA I 28 'Ascra tuis'. It is possible that Ascre is correct, although its use would be strange so close to Ascra in 34: Ovid certainly used both nympha and nymphe (Her IX 103; Met III 357).
32. AGRICOLAE ... SENIS. For Hesiod as an old man compare AA II 3-4 'laetus amans donat uiridi mea carmina palma, / praelata Ascraeo Maeonioque seni', Prop II xxxiv 77 'tu canis Ascraei ueteris praecepta poetae', and Ecl VI 69-70 'hos tibi dant calamos, en accipe, Musae, / Ascraeo quos ante seni'.
35. SOLLERTE ... VLIXE. Sollerte could represent either πολυμήχανος (Il II 173) or πολύτροπος (Od I 1). I believe that Ovid was translating πολύτροπος, since Livius Andronicus in translating Od I 1 had used uersutus to represent the adjective: 'Virum mihi, Camena, insece uersutum'. It is clear from Cic Brut 236 'genus ... acuminis ... quod erat in reprehendendis uerbis uersutum et sollers' that the Romans regarded the two adjectives as having much the same force.
At Hor Sat II v 3-5 πολυμήχανος is translated by dolosus: (Tiresias to Ulysses) 'iamne doloso / non satis est Ithacam reuehi patriosque penates / aspicere?'.
36. HOC TAMEN ASPERITAS INDICE DOCTA LOCI EST. At Od IX 27 Ulysses describes Ithaca to Alcinous as 'τρηχεῖ' [=aspera] ἀλλ' ἀγαθὴ κουροτρόφος'.