I have with reluctance adopted libra ... et aere magis, taking it in the sense magis quam libra et aere ('I am yours even more than I would be if I had been acquired through mancipatio'). The closest parallel I have found for this compressed use of the ablative is the idiom at v 7 'luce minus decima', 'before the tenth day'.
Of the other readings, F1's tuum ... datum cannot itself be correct, although it may offer a clue to the truth. Heinsius' tuum ... tuum is grammatical enough, but (as Professor R. J. Tarrant points out to me) makes Ovid say that he is Pompeius' literally through mancipatio. As well, the repetition seems odd. Rappold's tuae ... manus cannot be right, since manus did not have the sense of mancipium, except for the limited meaning of a husband's authority over his wife. Still, Rappold's conjecture may be a step in the right direction, particularly in view of v 39-40 'pro quibus ut meritis referatur gratia, iurat / se fore mancipii tempus in omne tui'.
XVI. To a Detractor
The anonymous detractor to whom Ovid apparently addresses this poem is probably fictional; at 47 he substitutes Liuor, dropping the pretence of speaking to a single enemy.
Ovid begins the poem by asking his detractor why he criticizes Ovid's verse. A poet's fame increases after his death; Ovid's fame was great even while he was still alive (1-4). There were many poets contemporary with Ovid (5-38). There were also younger poets, not yet published, whom he will not name, with the necessary exception of Cotta Maximus (39-44). Even among such poets, he had a reputation. Envy should therefore cease to torment him; he has lost everything but life, which is left only so that he can continue to experience pain (45-50).
The poem is of particular interest because of the catalogue of the poets of the earlier part of the reign of Tiberius. It is a reminder of how much Latin verse has been lost, for of the poets listed only Grattius survives.
Similar catalogues of poets are found at Prop II xxxiv 61-92 and Am I xv 9-30, the poets listed being however not contemporaries but illustrious predecessors. Tr IV x 41-54 is complementary to the present poem, being a list of the leading Roman poets at the beginning of Ovid's career. All of these poems come last in their book, and it seems clear enough that the present poem was meant to close a published collection. Other links exist with the earlier poems: mention is similarly made in them of the poet's fame after his death (Prop II xxxiv 94, Am I xi 41-42, Tr IV x 129-30), and Am I xv (which Professor R. J. Tarrant suggests may have ended the original edition in five books of the Amores) is, like the present poem, addressed to Liuor.
1. INVIDE, QVID LACERAS NASONIS CARMINA RAPTI. Compare the question that opens Am I xv 'Quid mihi, Liuor edax, ignauos obicis annos, / ingeniique uocas carmen inertis opus'. For inuide ... laceras compare Cic Brutus 156 'inuidia, quae solet lacerare plerosque'.
1. LACERAS. Lacerare 'attack verbally' is a prose usage, found in Cicero, the historians, and the elder Seneca (OLD lacero 5; TLL VII.2 827 50).