41. MAGNO MAIVS. 'Greater than (Pompey) the Great'. Even in the letters of Cicero, Pompey is occasionally called Magnus without further identification (Att I xvi 12). Other plays on the name at Fast I 603-4 'Magne, tuum nomen rerum est mensura tuarum; / sed qui te uicit nomine maior erat' and Lucan I 135 'stat magni nominis umbra', where Getty cites Velleius II 1 4 'Pompeium magni nominis uirum'.
42. CLIENTIS OPEM. After the final defeat at Pharsalus, Pompey fled to Egypt and sought the protection of Ptolemy XIII (Caesar BC III 103, Plutarch Pomp 77).
Pompey similarly treated as the victim of Fortune at Cic Tusc I 86 and through much of Lucan VII-VIII; compare as well Anth Lat Riese 401 'Quam late uestros duxit Fortuna triumphos, / tam late sparsit funera, Magne, tua'.
Compare as well Anth Lat 415 39-40 'spes Magnum profugum toto discurrere in orbe / iusserat et pueri regis adire pedes'; the distich follows a description of the hardships undergone by Marius.
44. The line is omitted by B1 and C; other manuscripts offer (with minor variations) INDIGVS EFFECTVS OMNIBVS IPSE MAGIS or ACHILLAS PHARIVS ABSTVLIT ENSE CAPVT, a line apparently devised with the aid of Juvenal X 285-86 'Fortuna ... uicto caput abstulit' and Lucan VIII 545-46 'ullusne in cladibus istis / est locus Aegypto Phariusque admittitur ensis?', both passages concerned with Pompey's murder by Achillas. Clearly a line of the poem was lost in transmission.
Heinsius and Bentley felt that the entire distich should be deleted; but 43 seems acceptable enough, and it is appropriate that the description of Pompey's downfall be balanced with the four-line mention of Marius that follows. It would be strange if Pompey's sensational murder were overlooked, as this was regarded by the poets as the ultimate reversal of his fortunes: compare Manilius IV 50-55, Juvenal X 283-86 (which is joined to a mention of Marius' reversal) and Anth Lat 401-3 Riese.
45. ILLE goes with Marius two lines on—'the famous Marius'.
45. IVGVRTHINO ... CIMBROQVE TRIVMPHO. Marius rose to prominence in the Jugurthine war, celebrating his triumph in 104; in 101 his defeat in the Po valley of the Cimbri, a Germanic tribe originally from Jutland, ended a twelve-year military threat to Rome.
47. IN CAENO LATVIT MARIVS. In 88 Sulla, whose command against Mithridates had been transferred to Marius by a special law, marched on Rome and induced the Senate to name Marius an outlaw; Marius was forced to escape to Africa, at one point on the route hiding in the marshes of Minturnae. This ordeal is mentioned by the poets who deal with Marius, but they consider that he reached the low point of his fortunes when he arrived at Carthage. Compare Manilius IV 47-49, Juvenal X 276-77 'exilium et carcer Minturnarumque paludes / et mendicatus uicta Carthagine panis' and Anth Lat 415 33-38 Riese.
47. LATVIT MARIVS M IACVIT MARIVS H MARIVS LATVIT L MARIVS IACVIT BCFIT. Iacere and latere could each be corrupted to the other with ease: such corruptions occur in certain manuscripts at Met I 338 and Fast II 244 (iacere corrupted to latere) and Fast II 467, II 587 & III 265 (latere corrupted to iacere). Although it is weakly attested, latuit should be read here in view of the use of abdere at Velleius II xix 2 'paludem Maricae, in quam se fugiens consectantis Sullae equites abdiderat' and Lucan II 70 'exul limosa Marius caput abdidit ulua', and of κρύπτειν at Plutarch Marius 37 5: latere is often virtually a passive form of abdere.