11. MONTANE. Iulius Montanus is mentioned in passing at Sen Cont VII 1 27, where he is called egregius poeta; in Donatus' life of Virgil (29) his admiration of Virgil's manner of reciting is mentioned, on the authority of the elder Seneca. The younger Seneca, calling him 'tolerabilis poeta et amicitia Tiberi notus et frigore', tells some amusing anecdotes about the length of his recitations and his fondness for describing sunrises and sunsets (Ep CXXII 11-13). He quotes from him twice (Morel 120).
13-14. ET QVI PENELOPAE RESCRIBERE IVSSIT VLIXEM / ERRANTEM SAEVO PER DVO LUSTRA MARI. All that is known of Sabinus is what Ovid says here and in his list of Sabinus' poems at Am II xviii 27-34 'quam cito de toto rediit meus orbe Sabinus / scriptaque diuersis rettulit ille locis! / candida Penelope signum cognouit Vlixis; / legit ab Hippolyto scripta nouerca suo. / iam pius Aeneas miserae rescripsit Elissae, / quodque legat Phyllis, si modo uiuit, adest. / tristis ad Hypsipylen ab Iasone littera uenit; / det uotam Phoebo Lesbis amata lyram' (this line, like the letter of Sappho, has been considered suspect; see R. J. Tarrant, "The Authenticity of the Letter of Sappho to Phaon (Heroides XV)", HSPh 85 [1981] 133-53).
Since the letter of Ulysses is the first one mentioned in the list at Am II xviii 29, it was presumably the first poem in Sabinus' collection of epistles; hence Ovid's use of it here to indicate the entire collection.
Line 14 may be an echo of one of Sabinus' poems.
15. TRISOMEN C TRISOMEM B1. For the many other variants, see the apparatus. The word is clearly corrupt; correction is difficult in the absence of further information on Sabinus. TROEZENA (a conjecture reported by Micyllus) seems unattractive. Heinsius had difficulty with the passage: 'an Tymelen? opinor certe nomen puellae a Sabino decantatae hic latere'. TROESMIN, suggested by Ehwald (JAW CIX [1901] 187), is unlikely—why would Sabinus have wished to recount Vestalis' capture of the city?—but not, as claimed by Vollmer (PW I A,2 1598 34), unmetrical: lengthening is common enough before the main caesura (although I have found no example of lengthened -in). Bardon (61) wished to read TROEZEN (which is in fact the reading of T), apparently not realizing that an accusative form is required.
15-16. DIERVM ... OPVS. Sabinus apparently started work on a calendar-poem, which may have resembled the Fasti; compare Fast I 101 'uates operose dierum'.
16. CELERI = 'premature'.
17. INGENIIQVE SVI DICTVS COGNOMINE LARGVS. For the play on the name compare xiii 2 'qui quod es, id uere, Care, uocaris, aue'. Nothing is known of Largus beyond what Ovid here tells us.
18. GALLICA QVI PHRYGIVM DVXIT IN ARVA SENEM. Largus described Antenor's migration to Venetia and founding of Patavium, for which see Aen I 242-49 and Livy I 1.
18. GALLICA ... ARVA. Patavium was in Cisalpine Gaul.