Ovid's first full year of exile was AD 9; since Augustus died on 19 August 14, this poem can be securely dated to the final few months of that year.
5. OLYMPIAS in Latin can mean a period of four or of five years; Ovid may have used quinquennis to remove the ambiguity. Olympias elsewhere in classical poetry apparently only at Manilius III 596, where it also denotes a five-year period.
5-6. OLYMPIAS ACTA / IAM Housman OLYMPIAS ACTA EST. / IAM edd. The subject of transit must be Olympias, since otherwise the pentameter is without a subject. Wheeler offers 'the time is now passing to a second lustrum', which does not account for the genitive lustri ... alterius (a second tempus, in the accusative, would have to be understood), while André gives 'et déjà j'entre dans un second lustre', which does not explain the person of transit. The editors' reading could be retained, and Olympias understood as the subject of the pentameter; but it seems simpler to follow Housman in omitting est (with L and T) and joining the two lines in a single sentence.
Transit is in strict terms illogical, since an Olympiad once completed (acta) cannot pass into a second period of time, but the idiom seems natural enough in view of Ovid's use of transire with seasons at Met XV 206 'transit in aestatem post uer robustior annus'; compare as well Fast V 185 (to Flora) 'incipis Aprili, transis in tempora Maii'.
7. PERSTAT ENIM FORTVNA TENAX. In Ovid's case, Fortune does not show her typical inconstancy.
8. OPPONIT NOSTRIS INSIDIOSA PEDEM. Otto pes 7 cites this passage and Petronius 57 10 'et habebam in domo qui mihi pedem opponerent hac illac'.
9-10. CERTVS ERAS ... LOQVI. 'You had made up your mind to speak'. The same idiom at Her IV 151-52, Her VII 9 'certus es, Aenea, cum foedere soluere naues ...?', Met IX 43, X 394 & XI 440; the impersonal construction at Met V 533, IX 53 'certum est mihi uera fateri' & X 38-39.
9. FABIAE LAVS, MAXIME, GENTIS. Similar phrasing at EP III iii 2 'o sidus Fabiae, Maxime, gentis, ades'. This passage seems to be the earliest instance of laus 'object of praise; reason for praise' used of a person: TLL VII.2 1064 73 ff. cites from classical Latin only Eleg Maec 17-18 'Pallade cum docta Phoebus donauerat artes; / tu decus et laudes huius et huius eras', Valerius Flaccus II 243-44 'decus et patriae laus una ruentis, / Hypsipyle', Silius XIII 824, and Martial I xlix 2-3 'nostraeque laus Hispaniae ... Liciniane'. LVX (F2), printed by Burman, is acceptable enough (compare Cic Cat IV 11 'hanc urbem, lucem orbis terrarum'), but is clearly a guess based on F1's DVX.
For a full discussion of the career of Paullus Fabius Maximus, consul ordinarius in 11 BC, see Syme HO 135-55. He is the recipient of EP I ii, a request to plead for Ovid with Augustus, and EP III iii, an account of Ovid's vision of Amor which ends with a plea for Fabius' assistance. He is prominently mentioned at Hor Carm IV i 9-12 as a suitable prey for Venus, and it appears from Juvenal VII 94-95 that he was a famous patron of literature: Ovid mentions his scripta at EP I ii 135. We learn from the same poem that Ovid's wife was a member of Fabius' family: 'ille ego de uestra cui data nupta domo est' (136).
10. SVPPLICE VOCE LOQVI. Similar phrasing at Met VI 33 'supplice uoce roga: ueniam dabit illa roganti'. The adjectival use of supplex is not confined to verse; OLD supplex 2 cites instances from Caesar and Suetonius.