46. INTER TANTOS. Compare EP III i 55-56 (Ovid has just compared himself to Capaneus, Amphiaraus, Ulysses, and Philoctetes) 'si locus est aliquis tanta inter nomina paruis, / nos quoque conspicuos nostra ruina facit'.
47. SVMMOTVM codd SVBMOTVM edd. The assimilated summ- is standard in the manuscripts of Virgil and Lucretius, and should not be altered.
47. PROSCINDERE = 'revile, defame'. This seems to be the first instance of the word in this sense; the other examples cited by OLD proscindo 3 are Val Max V iii 3, Val Max VIII 5 2 'C. Flauium eadem lege accusatum testis proscidit', Pliny NH XXXIII 6, and Suet Cal 30 2 'equestrem ordinem ut scaenae harenaeque deuotum assidue proscidit'. The word connects with laceras in the first line of the poem, and with neu cineres sparge, cruente, meos in 48.
49. OMNIA PERDIDIMVS. The same phrase at Met XIII 527-28 (Hecuba speaking) 'omnia perdidimus: superest cur uiuere tempus / in breue sustineam proles gratissima matri'.
49. TANTVMMODO is a prose word. It occurs elsewhere in Ovid only at Fast III 361 'ortus erat summo tantummodo margine Phoebus' and at Tr III vii 29-30 'pone, Perilla, metum; tantummodo femina nulla / neue uir a scriptis discat amare tuis'. Being a colloquial term, it is found in satire (Hor Sat I ix 54) and comedy (Ter Ph 109).
50. SENSVM MATERIAMQVE MALI. 'An occasion for pain, and the ability to feel it'. For sensum compare EP I ii 29-30 'felicem Nioben ... quae posuit sensum saxea facta mali [uar malis]' and EP I ii 37 'uiuimus ut numquam sensu careamus amaro'. For materiam compare Her VII 34 'materiam curae praebeat ille meae!', Met X 133-34 'ut leuiter pro materiaque doleret / admonuit' and EP I x 23-24 'dolores, / quorum materiam dat locus ipse mihi'.
51-52. QVID IVVAT EXTINCTOS FERRVM DEMITTERE IN ARTVS? / NON HABET IN NOBIS IAM NOVA PLAGA LOCVM. I believe this distich is an interpolation for the following reasons:
(1) Lines 49-50 form an effective ending, which 51-52 weaken. In 49-50 Ovid says that life is all that is left to him; and in 52 it is stated that he is already wounded in every place possible. These statements are contradictory.
(2) The use of a weapon in 51 is at odds with the rending metaphor of laceras (1) and proscindere (47).
(3) There seems something peculiar about ferrum demittere in artus; the examples of demittere with this sense in the Metamorphoses involve ilia (IV 119, XII 441), armi (XII 491), and iugulum (XIII 436; similar phrasing at Her XIV 5).