47-50. Ovid returns to the subject of his poem's opening, Severus' poetry.
48. VTILITER ... CEDIT. Similar phrasing at EP II vii 19 '[iam liquet ...] obseruare deos ne quid mihi cedat amice'.
49. MERITO. 'With justification'; Severus' previous service to the Muses has brought him fame and not, as in Ovid's case, disaster.
50. HVC ALIQVOD CVRAE MITTE RECENTIS OPVS. A similar request at EP III v 29-30 (to Cotta Maximus) 'quod licet, ut uidear tecum magis esse, legenda [Burman: legendo uel loquendo codd] / saepe precor studii pignora mitte tui'.
50. CVRAE = 'poetic toil', as at Tr II 11-12 'hoc pretium curae [fragmentum Treuirense (saec x): uitae codd plerique] uigilatorumque laborum / cepimus', EP I v 61 'cur ego sollicita poliam mea carmina cura?', and EP III ix 29. At xvi 39 and Tr II 1 the word means 'product of poetic toil'.
III. To An Unfaithful Friend
By the time Ovid wrote this poem, the letter of reproach was a genre familiar to him: each book of the Tristia (with the obvious exception of II) contains such a poem (I viii; III xi; IV ix; V viii), and in the Ibis Ovid had, by the extended treatment of a number of standard topics within the subject, created a poem of over six hundred lines.
Ovid begins the poem by stating that he has heard about his friend's faithlessness; he asks what possible excuse there might be for this behaviour (1-28). He then warns his friend that Fortune is changeable, and gives four examples of famous men who fell from prosperity (29-48). He ends the poem by stating once again that Fortune is undependable, and gives his own catastrophe as an instance; his friend should remember this, and moderate his behaviour accordingly (49-58).
The poem has points of contact with the earlier poems of reproach. Tr I viii is addressed to a friend who failed to visit Ovid after his disaster: he can scarcely believe his friend is human. In Tr III xi, Ovid asks his enemy why through his actions he makes his punishment even worse. Tr IV ix is a warning that if Ovid's enemy does not cease attacking him, he will through his poetry make his enemy's name infamous throughout the world. Tr V viii, the poem closest in theme to the present one, is a warning to his enemy that Fortune is changeable and Augustus merciful, so he and Ovid might one day change situations.