19. DIXIT ET has a definite epic flavour, being found in Virgil at Aen I 402 & 736, II 376, III 258, IV 659, V 477, VI 677, VIII 366 & 615, IX 14, X 867, XI 561 & 858, XII 266 & 681, and G IV 499; from Ovid compare Met I 466-67 'dixit et eliso percussis aere pennis / impiger umbrosa Parnasi constitit arce', I 762 'dixit et implicuit materno bracchia collo', III 474, IV 162 & 576, V 230 & 419, VIII 101, and VIII 757. A close parallel at EP III iii 93-94 (Amor has been speaking with Ovid) 'dixit et aut ille est tenues dilapsus in auras, / coeperunt sensus aut uigilare mei'.
22. EXCIDIT. 'I forgot'; the opposite of subit 'I remember'. The idiom is standard Latin (OLD excido1 9b); Ovidian instances at Her XII 71, Am II i 18, Met VIII 449-50 'excidit omnis / luctus et a lacrimis in poenae uersus amorem est', Met XIV 139, Fast V 315, Tr I v 14, EP II iv 24, and EP II x 8 'exciderit tantum ne tibi cura mei'.
23. VBI ... RESERAVERIS ANNVM. 'When you have unlocked the year'. Compare Ovid's descriptions of Janus at Fast I 99 'tenens baculum dextra clauemque sinistra' and Fast I 253-54 '"nil mihi cum bello: pacem postesque tuebar / et" clauem ostendens "haec" ait "arma gero"'.
23. LONGVM ANNVM. André translates, 'l'année longue à venir', citing Cic Phil V 1 'Nihil umquam longius his Kalendiis Ianuariis mihi uisum est', to which OLD longus 14a adds (among other passages) Caesar BG I 40 13 'in longiorem diem collaturus' and Sen Ep 63 3 'non differo in longius tempus'; but the meaning 'far off' seems unsuited to the present context. Longum should be taken in its usual sense; it perhaps emphasizes that the whole year is still ahead.
24. SACRO MENSE. Sacer because of the religious ceremonies marking the New Year.
25-28. The first action of the new consul was to take auspices at his home and to assume the consular toga: compare Livy XXI 63 10 (217 BC; Flaminius has entered his consulship while absent from Rome) 'magis pro maiestate uidelicet imperii Arimini quam Romae magistratum initurum et in deuersorio hospitali quam apud penates suos praetextam sumpturum' (Mommsen Staatsrecht I3 615-17).
26. NE TITVLIS QVICQVAM DEBEAT ILLE SVIS. There are two possible ways of understanding this line.
One way is to take titulis as referring to Pompeius' earlier magistracies, 'as if the series of offices were a score which Pompey would pay in full when he became consul' (Wheeler). A similar use at Her IX 1 'Gratulor Oechaliam titulis accedere nostris'.
Titulis does not have to be taken as a strict reference to the offices Pompeius had already held, but can have the wider sense of 'reputation, honour'. Compare the opening line of Her IX quoted above; Professor R. J. Tarrant cites Met XV 855 'sic magnus cedit titulis Agamemnonis Atreus' and Juvenal VIII 241.
The second way to take the passage is, with Némethy, to understand titulis ... suis as being equivalent to maioribus suis, qui magnos titulos habent, the tituli being the inscriptions below the imagines of Pompeius' ancestors. A parallel for the sense at EP III i 75-76 'hoc domui debes de qua censeris, ut illam / non magis officiis quam probitate colas'. Professor E. Fantham suggests a refinement: titulis ... suis should be taken in the sense 'achievements of his ancestors'. Compare Prop IV xi 32 'et domus est titulis utraque fulta suis'.