17. INGENS is used at ix 65 of another office, the consulship.
18. IPSA TAMEN VIRTVS ORDINE MAIOR ERIT. A similar sentiment at EP II ix 11-14 (to king Cotys) 'regia, crede mihi, res est succurrere lapsis ... fortunam decet hoc istam ['this befits your position'], quae maxima cum sit, / esse potest animo uix tamen aequa tuo'.
19. NON NEGAT HOC HISTER. For the device of calling to witness the scenes of military exploits compare Catullus LXIV 357 'testis erit magnis uirtutibus unda Scamandri' and the passages there cited by Fordyce. For non negat Professor A. Dalzell cites Catullus IV 6-7 'negat ... negare'.
20. PVNICEAM GETICO SANGVINE FECIT AQVAM. Similar language at ix 79-80 (of Flaccus) 'hic raptam Troesmin celeri uirtute recepit, / infecitque fero sanguine Danuuium'.
21. AEGISSOS. The city, the modern Tulcea, is situated about 110 kilometres directly north of Tomis (Constanţa) on the southernmost branch of the Danube, 60 kilometres from the mouth of the river. At EP I viii 11-20 Ovid describes the recapture of the city from the Getes; evidently the city had been lost once again.
Aegissos is the spelling certified by three of the five sources cited by Mommsen (CIL III page 1009), namely Hierocles Synecdemus 637 14, Notitia dignitatum 99, and Procopius Aed IV 7 20. The Itinerarium Antoninianum (226 2) offers Aegiso (ablative); Ehwald (KB 41), citing Mommsen, took this as sufficient justification for retaining the single s of the Ex Ponto manuscripts, although the now lost Strasbourg manuscript had egissus at I viii 13 (and an indication of an alternative ending in -os). The Ravenna Cosmography (4 5), Mommsen's final source, reads Aegypsum.
27. TE SVBEVNTE RECEPTA. 'Recaptured on your attack'. Intransitive subire in this sense belongs to military vocabulary: compare Caesar BG VII 85 'alii tela coniciunt, alii testudine facta subeunt' and Curtius IV 2 23. For instances from military prose of subire with a direct object see Caesar BG II 27 'subire iniquissimum locum', Hirtius BG VIII 15, Bell Alex 76 2 'subierant iniquum locum', and Bell Hisp 24 2.
22. INGENIO ... LOCI. 'The nature (i.e. difficulty) of its terrain'. The same standard phrase at Tac Ann VI 41 'locorumque ingenio', Hist I 51 'diu infructuosam et asperam militiam tolerauerant ingenio loci caelique ['climate']', and from Ovid Tr V x 17-18 'tumulus defenditur ipse / moenibus exiguis ingenioque loci' and EP II i 52 '[oppida ...] nec satis ingenio tuta fuisse loci'.
22. NIL OPIS. The expression is rather prosaic: compare Cic Fam IV i 1 'aliquid opis rei publicae tulissemus'.
23. DVBIVM BMFHIT DVBIVM EST CL. The same variant in many manuscripts at EP III i 17-18 (Ovid is addressing Tomis) 'nec tibi sunt fontes laticis nisi paene marini, / qui potus dubium sistat alatne sitim'.