55. CORONA. Professor C. P. Jones notes that the corona indicates that Ovid was probably invested with a local priesthood.
57-58. DELIA TELLVS, / ERRANTI TVTVM QVAE DEDIT VNA LOCVM. Accounts of this at Met VI 186-91 (Niobe speaking) 'Latonam ... cui maxima quondam / exiguam sedem pariturae terra negauit! / nec caelo nec humo nec aquis dea uestra recepta est: / exul erat mundo, donec miserata uagantem / "hospita tu terris erras, ego" dixit "in undis" / instabilemque locum Delos dedit' and in the passages cited by Williams at Aen III 76 and Tarrant at Sen Ag 384f.
61-62. DI MODO FECISSENT PLACIDAE SPEM POSSET HABERE / PACIS, ET A GELIDO LONGIVS AXE FORET. In this final distich Ovid unexpectedly reverts from his gratitude to the Tomitans to the subject of the first part of the poem, the inhospitality of the region.
This passage provides an example of the technique pointed out in the Amores by Douglass Parker ("The Ovidian Coda", Arion 8 [1969]) whereby Ovid unexpectedly modifies a poem's tone in the concluding distich. In Am I x Ovid rails against his girl because she has asked him for a present: 'nec dare, sed pretium posci dedignor et odi; / quod nego poscenti, desine uelle, dabo!' (63-64). In Am II xiv Ovid scolds his girl for having an abortion: 'di faciles, peccasse semel concedite tuto, / et satis est; poenam culpa secunda ferat!' (43-44). In II xv, Ovid imagines that he becomes the ring he is giving his girl: 'inrita quid uoueo? paruum proficiscere munus; / illa data tecum sentiat esse fide!' (27-28). Am I vii, I xiii, I xiv, and II xiii are other examples of the device.
62. A GELIDO ... AXE. Compare XV 36 'dura iubet gelido Parca sub axe mori' and Her VI 105-6 (Hypsipyle to Jason) 'non probat Alcimede mater tua—consule matrem— / non pater, a gelido cui uenit axe nurus'.
XV. To Sextus Pompeius
The poem, the fourth and last in the book to be addressed to Pompeius, is an elaborate appeal to him to continue his assistance.
It starts with the assertion that Pompeius, after the Caesars, is principally responsible for Ovid's well-being (1-4). The favours Pompeius has done for Ovid are innumerable and extend throughout his life (5-10). Ovid will of his own volition declare that he is as much Pompeius' property as Pompeius' estates in Sicily and Macedonia, his house in Rome, or his country retreat in Campania; because of Ovid, Pompeius now has property in the Pontus (11-20). Ovid asks him to continue working on his behalf (21-24). He knows that he does not have to urge Pompeius, but he cannot help himself (27-34). No matter whether he is recalled or not, he will always remember Pompeius; all lands will hear that it is he who saved Ovid, and that Ovid belongs to him (35-42).
The poem effectively combines a number of commonplaces of the works of exile, subordinating them to the central theme of Ovid's indebtedness to Pompeius. The topic of Ovid as Pompeius' property is to a certain extent foreshadowed in EP I vii, throughout which Ovid refers to himself as a client of Messalinus' family: 'ecquis in extremo positus iacet orbe tuorum, / me tamen excepto, qui precor esse tuus?' (5-6); it is found explicitly at i 35-36 'sic ego sum rerum non ultima, Sexte, tuarum / tutelaeque feror munus opusque tuae'. Syme (HO 156) believes that the addressing of the first and penultimate letters to Pompeius constitutes a dedication of the book to Pompeius. However, as Syme recognizes, the abnormal length of the book indicates that it may be a posthumous collection (see page 4 of the introduction); if so, the arrangement of the poems is presumably by Ovid's literary executor.