The Last Poems of Ovid

by Ovid

34. VIRVS HABENT. Compare Tr IV i 84 'aut telo uirus habente perit' & III x 64 'nam uolucri ferro tinctile uirus inest'.

35-36. HOSTIBVS EVENIAT QUAM SIS VIOLENTVS IN ARMIS / SENTIRE. Hostibus eueniat is a common phrase in Ovid: compare Am II x 16-17 'hostibus eueniat uita seuera meis! / hostibus eueniat uiduo dormire cubili', Am III xi 16, AA III 247, Fast III 493-94 'at, puto, praeposita est fuscae mihi Candida paelex! / eueniat nostris hostibus ille dolor [recc quidam: color codd plerique]!', and Her XVI 219-20 (Paris to Helen) 'hostibus eueniant conuiuia talia nostris, / experior posito qualia saepe mero!'.

37. QVAE TIBI TAM TENVI CVRA LIMANTVR. 'Which are sharpened by you with such painstaking care'. For this meaning of limare compare Pliny NH VIII 71 'cornu ad saxa limato' and Cic Brut 236 '[M. Piso ...] habuit a natura genus quoddam acuminis, quod etiam arte limauerat'.

37-38. VT OMNES / ISTIVS INGENVI PECTORIS ESSE NEGENT. 'So that all would deny that they are the product of your kindly spirit'; for this sense of ingenuus compare Catullus LXVIII 37-38 'quod cum ita sit, nolim statuas nos mente maligna / id facere aut animo non satis ingenuo'. Ingenui pectoris is my correction for the manuscripts' INGENIVM CORPORIS, which could only mean 'so that all would deny that the talent of your body exists'; Ovid can hardly be identifying the tela of 36 with Brutus' ingenium. Wheeler translates 'On these [the missiles of your tongue] you use the file with such extreme care that none would recognize in them your real nature', and André 'que personne ne croirait qu'un tel esprit habite ton corps'; neither translation fits the Latin. Shackleton Bailey's INGENIVM NOMINIS still leaves unsolved the problem of ingenium.

The corruption of ingenui to ingenium (or rather, ingeniū) is simple enough; and the interchange of pectus and corpus is a common error.

42. NOTITIAM ... INFITIATA. Infitiari used similarly at EP I vii 27 'nec tuus est genitor nos infitiatus amicos'.

43. IMMEMOR ... IMMEMOR. Professor R. J. Tarrant points out the similar epanalepsis at Hor Ep I xi 9 'oblitusque meorum, obliuiscendus et illis'.

44. SOLLICITI BCM^2ul SOLLICITE M¹FHILT. The adjective with adverbial meaning would be especially liable to corruption. The same construction at Am II iv 25 'dulce canit flectitque facillima uocem'.

44. LEVASTIS Barberinus lat. 26, saec xiii LEVATIS BCMFHILT. If 44 were taken in isolation, leuatis, which most editors print, would be acceptable enough; compare Tr IV i 49 ' iure deas igitur ueneror mala nostra leuantes' and EP III vi 13-14 'nec scelus admittas si consoleris amicum, / mollibus et uerbis aspera fata leues'. But it is clear from 42 'est infitiata' and 49 'doluistis' that Ovid is speaking of the time of his banishment, and so leuastis must be read. Compare Tr I v 75 'me deus oppressit, nullo mala nostra leuante', EP II vii 61-62 'recta fides comitum poterat mala nostra leuare: / ditata est spoliis perfida turba meis', and EP III ii 25-26 'pars estis pauci melior, qui rebus in artis / ferre mihi nullam turpe putastis [uar putatis] opem'.

45-50. Compare the listing of adynata at the end of v (41-44), which again illustrates Ovid's eternal gratitude (to Sextus Pompeius). Here the personal detail (hic nimium nobis conterminus Hister) makes the adynaton reflect Ovid's own circumstances.