3. ASPICIS EN PRAESENS. Compare ix 81-86, where Ovid invites Graecinus to ask his brother Flaccus, recently stationed in the Pontus, about conditions of life in the area.
3. IACEAMVS. 'Lie suffering': similarly used at EP I iii 49 'orbis in extremi iaceo desertus harenis', I vii 5, II ix 4 & III i 85 'ut minus infesta iaceam regione labora'.
4. FALSA ... QVERI. Perhaps a common phrase: Professor R. J. Tarrant cites Sallust Iug 1 'Falso queritur de natura sua genus humanum'.
5-6. ACCEDET ... FIDES. 'People will believe'. Compare Cic Diu I 5 'Cratippusque ... isdem rebus fidem tribuit, reliqua diuinationis genera reiecit' and Tac Germ 3 4 'ex ingenio quisque demat uel addat fidem' 'each can believe or disbelieve this according to his disposition'.
5-6. NON IRRITA ... FIDES = rata fides, a phrase meaning 'trustworthiness', rata having no special force. Compare Met III 341 'prima fide [genitive] ... ratae temptamina', Tr I v 49-50 'multa credibili tulimus ratamque, / quamuis acciderint, non habitura fidem', and Tr III x 35-36 'cum sint praemia falsi / nulla, ratam debet testis habere fidem'. Note the hyperbaton in all these passages.
6. ALPINIS IVVENIS REGIBVS ORTE. See at 29 progenies alti fortissima Donni ([p 253]). For the language, compare Hor Carm I i 1 'Maecenas atauis edite regibus'.
7. IPSE VIDES CERTE GLACIE CONCRESCERE PONTVM. At ix 85-86 Ovid tells Graecinus to ask his brother Flaccus 'mentiar, an coeat duratus frigore Pontus, / et teneat glacies iugera multa freti'.
Similar language at Tr III x 37-38 'uidimus ingentem glacie consistere pontum, / lubricaque [codd: lubrica cum fort scribendum] immotas testa premebat aquas'.
8. IPSE VIDES RIGIDO STANTIA VINA GELV. The same picture more explicitly given at Tr III x 23-24 'nudaque consistunt, formam seruantia testae, / uina, nec hausta meri, sed data frusta bibunt'.
9-10. IPSE VIDES ONERATA FEROX VT DVCAT IAZYX / PER MEDIAS HISTRI PLAVSTRA BVBVLCVS AQVAS. Similar descriptions at Tr III x 33-34 'perque nouos pontes, subterlabentibus undis, / ducunt Sarmatici barbara plaustra boues' and Tr III xii 29-30 'nec mare concrescit glacie, nec ut ante per Histrum / stridula Sauromates plaustra bubulcus agit'.