29. MVSAVE TVRRANI. The poet is not otherwise certainly known. Bardon (48) reports the conjectures of Hirschfeld ("Annona", Philologus, 1870, p. 27) identifying him with C. Turranius, praefectus annonae at the time of Augustus' death (Tac Ann I 7) and of Munzer (Beitr. zur Quellenkritik 387-89), identifying him with the geographical writer Turranius Gracilis mentioned by the elder Pliny (NH III 3, IX 11).
29. INNIXA COTVRNIS. The coturnus was distinguished by its high sole; hence innixa ('supported by'). Compare Am III i 31 (of Tragedy) 'pictis innixa coturnis' and Hor AP 279-80 'Aeschylus ... docuit magnumque loqui nitique coturno'.
29. COTVRNIS. As Brink at Hor AP 80 points out, coturnus (not cothurnus) is the spelling favoured by the best manuscripts of Virgil and Horace.
30. ET TVA CVM SOCCO MVSA, MELISSE, LEVIS. H offers LEVI, also conjectured by Heinsius, which may be right: the epithet with socco would provide a pleasing balance with the preceding tragicis ... coturnis. On the other hand, Professor R. J. Tarrant in support of leuis cites RA 375-76 'grande sonant tragici, tragicos decet ira coturnos: / usibus e mediis soccus habendus erit' and Hor AP 80 'socci ... grandesque coturni'; in both passages soccus has no adjective.
Propertius uses Musa leuis of his verse (II xii 22); compare as well Tr II 354 'Musa iocosa' (Ovid's amatory verse), EP I v 69 'infelix Musa', Lucretius IV 589 & Ecl I 2 'siluestrem ... Musam', and Quintilian X i 55 'Musa ... rustica et pastoralis' (the poetry of Theocritus).
Leuis is used of comedy at Fast V 347-48 'scaena leuis decet hanc [sc Floram]: non est, mihi credite, non est / illa coturnatas inter habenda deas' and Hor AP 231 'effutire leues indigna Tragoedia uersus'.
30. MELISSE. Thanks principally to Suetonius Gram 21, we are comparatively well informed about Melissus (Schanz-Hosius 176-77 [§ 277]; Bardon 49-52). Brought up a slave (his father had disowned him at birth), he was given a good education by the man who accepted him, and was given to Maecenas, who manumitted him. He wrote one hundred and fifty books of Ineptiae. 'Fecit et nouum genus togatarum inscripsitque trabeatas'; it is no doubt these plays that Ovid is here referring to.
31. VARIVS. Possibly the famous author of the Thyestes and editor of the Aeneid (Schanz-Hosius 162-64 [§ 267]; Bardon 28-34; fragments at Morel 100-1 and Ribbeck 265). Riese objected to the identification on chronological grounds (the Thyestes was produced in 29 BC), but the date of his death is unknown, and he may have survived to the time of Ovid's exile.
31. GRACCHVSQVE. The manuscripts omit the aspirate, and Ehwald cites CIL VI 1 1505 for a mention of Ti. Sempronius Graccus, but in his discussion of the aspirate Quintilian makes it clear that Graccus was an obsolete spelling (I v 20).
Gracchus (Bardon 48-49) is mentioned by Priscian, Nonius, and the author of the De dubiis nominibus, who among them preserve four fragments and three titles (Ribbeck 266). One of the titles is a Thyestes; Professor R. J. Tarrant plausibly suggests that Ovid may here be alluding to the plays by Varius and Gracchus on the theme with his words cum ... darent fera uerba tyrannis, Atreus being the archetype of the tyrant in tragedy.