25. SI ... OPEM NVLLAM ... FEREBAS. 'If you had no intention of assisting me'—the inceptive or conative imperfect (Woodcock 200). Similar phrasing at Tr I viii 9-10 'haec ego uaticinor, quia sum deceptus ab illo / laturum misero quem mihi rebar opem' and EP II vii 46 'et nihil inueni quod mihi ferret opem'.
25. REBVS ... FACTISQVE. 'Through financial help or action on my behalf'. Ovid does not use this sense of res elsewhere in his poetry.
26. VERBIS ... TRIBVS. 'A few words'. For the idiom Williams cites Plautus Mil 1020 '"breuin an longinquo sermoni?" "tribu' uerbis"' and Trin 963 'adgrediundust hic homo mi astu.—heus, Pax, te tribu' uerbis uolo'; from comedy, OLD tres b cites Ter Ph 638. From the classical period compare Sen Apocol 11 3 'ad summam, tria uerba cito dicat, et seruum me ducat', Sen Ep 40 9, and Quint IX iv 84 'haec omnia in tribus uerbis'; Camps sees tres as having the same indefinite meaning at Prop II xiii 25-26 'sat mea sit magno [Phillimore: sit magna uel sat magna est codd] si tres sint pompa libelli / quos ego Persephonae maxima dona feram'.
27. SED ET was the standard reading until Ehwald's defence (KB 63) of SVBITO, the reading of (B1) and C.
Ehwald's reasoning was that sed et would indicate that the news of his friend's slandering him was additional information, and that Ovid already knew something of his friend's behaviour. But this is precisely the case: Ovid has just finished saying that his friend has done nothing to help him (9-10), and now he gives the additional information that his friend is even working against him. Ehwald supported the asyndeton that subito creates by quoting Met XV 359-60 'haud equidem credo: sparsae quoque membra uenenis / exercere artes Scythides memorantur easdem', where in fact quoque seems a convincing parallel to sed et.
27. INSVLTARE IACENTI. 'Torment in my misery'. Ovid plays on the literal meanings of iacere and in-saltare; for the latter, see Aen XII 338-39 'caesis / hostibus insultans'. Ovid uses insultare in only three other passages. All are from the poems of exile, and all are about the ill-treatment accorded Ovid: Tr II 571 'nec mihi credibile est quemquam insultasse iacenti', Tr III xi 1, and Tr V viii 3-4 'curue / casibus insultas quos potes ipse pati?'.
29. A DEMENS. A indicates a certain amount of sympathy with the person addressed, as can be seen from Tr V x 51-52 'quid loquor, a demens? ipsam quoque perdere uitam, / Caesaris offenso numine, dignus eram' and Ecl II 60-61 'quem fugis, a demens? habitarunt di quoque siluas / Dardaniusque Paris'. O (M1FILT) would indicate rather less sympathy: compare Met III 640-41 'dextera Naxos erat: dextra mihi lintea danti / "quid facis, o demens? quis te furor" inquit "Acoete?"'.
29. RECEDAT (TM2) is no doubt a scribal conjecture, but a correct one: 'Why, in case disaster should strike ...'. Most manuscripts have RECEDIT.
31. ORBE probably means 'wheel'; compare Tib I v 70 'uersatur celeri Fors leuis orbe rotae' and Cons ad Liuiam 51-52 (quoted in the next note). However, Professor E. Fantham points out to me that it could also mean 'sphere': she cites Pacuvius 366-67 Ribbeck2 (Rhet Her II 36) 'Fortunam insanam esse et caecam et brutam perhibent philosophi, / saxoque instare in globoso praedicant uolubilei'. Smith at Tib I v 70 gives numerous instances of both images.
32. QVEM, found in Heinsius' fragmentum Boxhornianum (=Leid. Bibl. Publ. 180 G), must be right as against the QVAE of the other manuscripts; if a definition is to be given after the preceding 'haec dea non stabili quam sit leuis orbe fatetur', it should be a definition of the wheel, not the goddess. But the resulting quem summum dubio seems very awkwardly phrased, and further emendation is probably needed.