=15. DENSOQVE.= 'Frequent, often recurring'. This sense of _densus_ is not found elsewhere in Ovid, but compare Virgil _G_ IV 347 '_densos_ diuum numerabat amores', Statius _Theb_ VI 421, and Juvenal IX 35-37 'quamuis ... blandae assidue _densaeque_ tabellae / sollicitent'. The closest parallel for the poetic singular cited by _OLD densus_ 3a is Martial IX lxxxvii 1-2 'Septem post calices Opimiani / _denso_ cum iaceam triente[19] blaesus'.

[Footnote 19: A drinking-vessel holding one third of a _sextarius_ (_OLD_ _triens_ 3).]

=15. DOMESTICVS.= Apparently the only instance of the substantive in verse. The word is common enough in prose, and formed part of the spoken language, for it is found in reported speech at Petronius 45 6.

=17. QVEM= _Leidensis Heinsii_ QVI _codd plerique_. _Qui_ cannot be connected with _nescis_, and so is without antecedent. The scribe was probably influenced by 11, 13, and 15, in which _ille ego_ is completed by a nominative clause.

For _quem ... an uiuam_ compare _EP_ III vi 57 '_te_que tegam, _qui sis_'.

=17. VIVAM.= Heinsius' VIVAT is unnecessary: the assimilation of person seems reasonable enough in view of such passages as _EP_ I ii 129-31 'ille ego sum qui te _colui_ ... ille ego qui _duxi_ uestros Hymenaeon ad ignes'.

=18. SVBIT= _Heinsius_ FVIT _codd_. The preceding _nescis_ requires a verb with present meaning; and _fuit_ seems impossible to construe as a true perfect (with present result). Heinsius' _subit_ seems an elegant solution: certain manuscripts offer the same corruption of _subit_ to _fuit_ at _Met_ IX 93-94 'lux _subit_, et primo feriente cacumina sole / discedunt iuuenes' and _Met_ XIV 827-28 'pulchra _subit_ facies et puluinaribus altis / dignior'.

=19-20. SIVE FVI NVMQVAM CARVS, SIMVLASSE FATERIS; / SEV NON FINGEBAS, INVENIERE LEVIS.= For a similar opposition (either alternative being discreditable), see _Met_ IX 23-24 'nam, quo te iactas, Alcmena nate, creatum, / Iuppiter aut falsus pater est aut crimine uerus'.

=21. AVT.= 'Otherwise'. For the use of _aut_ as a disjunctive adverb rather than a conjunction compare xii 3 'aut ego non alium prius hoc dignarer honore' and the passages there cited. Here, as at xii 3, the idiom has been misunderstood by scribes, with such resulting variants in late manuscripts as EIA ('uterque Medonii pro diuersa lectione'; accepted by Heinsius) and DIC (_Gothanus II 121_; printed by Burman).

=21. IRAM.= 'Cause for anger'. This seems to be the only instance of the meaning, _ira_ not being found even as a predicative dative; but compare the use of _laudes_ to mean 'acts deserving praise', as at viii 87 'tuas ... laudes ... recentes'.

=23. QVOD TE NVNC CRIMEN SIMILEM= seems to be the correct reading; the line connects with the _an crimen ..._ of 24. QVAE TE CONSIMILEM RES NVNC (_FIL_) looks like a rewriting of the line, perhaps following the loss of _crimen_ by haplography (_cr_iM _s_im_ilE_). There seems no good reason why Ovid would have used the emphatic _consimilem_ instead of the more usual _similem_.

=25. SI ... OPEM NVLLAM ... FEREBAS.= 'If you had no intention of assisting me'--the inceptive or conative imperfect (Woodcock 200). Similar phrasing at _Tr_ I viii 9-10 'haec ego uaticinor, quia sum deceptus ab illo / _laturum_ misero quem mihi rebar _opem_' and _EP_ II vii 46 'et nihil inueni quod mihi _ferret opem_'.

=25. REBVS ... FACTISQVE.= 'Through financial help or action on my behalf'.

Ovid does not use this sense of _res_ elsewhere in his poetry.

=26. VERBIS ... TRIBVS.= 'A few words'. For the idiom Williams cites Plautus _Mil_ 1020 '"breuin an longinquo sermoni?" "tribu' uerbis"' and _Trin_ 963 'adgrediundust hic homo mi astu.--heus, Pax, te tribu' uerbis uolo'; from comedy, _OLD tres_ b cites Ter _Ph_ 638. From the classical period compare Sen _Apocol_ 11 3 'ad summam, tria uerba cito dicat, et seruum me ducat', Sen _Ep_ 40 9, and Quint IX iv 84 'haec omnia in tribus uerbis'; Camps sees _tres_ as having the same indefinite meaning at Prop II xiii 25-26 'sat mea sit magno [_Phillimore_: sit magna _uel_ sat magna est _codd_] si tres sint pompa libelli / quos ego Persephonae maxima dona feram'.

=27. SED ET= was the standard reading until Ehwald's defence (_KB_ 63) of SVBITO, the reading of (_B1_) and _C_.

Ehwald's reasoning was that _sed et_ would indicate that the news of his friend's slandering him was additional information, and that Ovid already knew something of his friend's behaviour. But this is precisely the case: Ovid has just finished saying that his friend has done nothing to help him (9-10), and now he gives the additional information that his friend is even working against him. Ehwald supported the asyndeton that _subito_ creates by quoting _Met_ XV 359-60 'haud equidem credo: sparsae quoque membra uenenis / exercere artes Scythides memorantur easdem', where in fact _quoque_ seems a convincing parallel to _sed et_.

=27. INSVLTARE IACENTI.= 'Torment in my misery'. Ovid plays on the literal meanings of _iacere_ and _in-saltare_; for the latter, see _Aen_ XII 338-39 'caesis / hostibus insultans'. Ovid uses _insultare_ in only three other passages. All are from the poems of exile, and all are about the ill-treatment accorded Ovid: _Tr_ II 571 'nec mihi credibile est quemquam _insultasse iacenti_', _Tr_ III xi 1, and _Tr_ V viii 3-4 'curue / casibus insultas quos potes ipse pati?'.

=29. A DEMENS.= _A_ indicates a certain amount of sympathy with the person addressed, as can be seen from _Tr_ V x 51-52 'quid loquor, _a demens_?

ipsam quoque perdere uitam, / Caesaris offenso numine, dignus eram' and _Ecl_ II 60-61 'quem fugis, _a demens_? habitarunt di quoque siluas / Dardaniusque Paris'. _O_ (_M1FILT_) would indicate rather less sympathy: compare _Met_ III 640-41 'dextera Naxos erat: dextra mihi lintea danti / "quid facis, _o demens_? quis te furor" inquit "Acoete?"'.

=29. RECEDAT= (_TM2_) is no doubt a scribal conjecture, but a correct one: 'Why, in case disaster should strike ...'. Most manuscripts have RECEDIT.

=31. ORBE= probably means 'wheel'; compare Tib I v 70 'uersatur celeri Fors leuis orbe _rotae_' and _Cons ad Liuiam_ 51-52 (quoted in the next note). However, Professor E. Fantham points out to me that it could also mean 'sphere': she cites Pacuvius 366-67 Ribbeck2 (_Rhet Her_ II 36) 'Fortunam insanam esse et caecam et brutam perhibent philosophi, / _saxoque_ instare in _globoso_ praedicant _uolubilei_'. Smith at Tib I v 70 gives numerous instances of both images.

=32. QVEM=, found in Heinsius' _fragmentum Boxhornianum_ (=Leid. Bibl.

Publ. 180 G), must be right as against the QVAE of the other manuscripts; if a definition is to be given after the preceding 'haec dea non stabili quam sit leuis orbe fatetur', it should be a definition of the wheel, not the goddess. But the resulting _quem summum dubio_ seems very awkwardly phrased, and further emendation is probably needed.

The obvious solution would be to read 'quem summo [_C_ in fact reads _summo_] _dubium_ sub pede semper habet'. This would give _orbis_ a standard epithet, as at _Tr_ V viii 7-8 'nec metuis _dubio_ Fortunae stantis in _orbe_ / numen' and _Cons ad Liuiam_ 51-52 'nempe per hos etiam Fortunae iniuria mores / regnat et _incerta_ est hic quoque nixa _rota_'. In support of the rather more difficult _summo ... pede_ (='toes') Professor R. J. Tarrant cites Sen _Suas_ II 17 'insistens _summis digitis_ ['toes']--sic enim solebat quo grandior fieret', Sen _Tro_ 1090-91 'in cacumine / erecta _summos_ [_uar_ summo] turba librauit _pedes_', and _Met_ IV 562 'aequora destringunt _summis_ Ismenides _alis_'; compare as well _Met_ IX 342-43 'in adludentibus undis / _summa pedum_ taloque tenus uestigia tingit'.

A second solution might be to read 'quem _dubio summum_ sub pede semper habet'; the transfer of _dubius_ from _orbis_ to _pes_ seems acceptable enough, and _Met_ IV 134-36 'oraque buxo / pallidiora gerens exhorruit aequoris instar, / quod tremit exigua cum summum stringitur aura' offers a good parallel to _summum_.

The image of Fortune standing on her wheel occurs elsewhere in Ovid's poems of exile at _Tr_ V viii 7-8 (quoted above) and _EP_ II iii 55-56 'scilicet indignum, iuuenis carissime, ducis / te fieri comitem stantis in orbe deae'.

=33. QVOLIBET EST FOLIO ... INCERTIOR.= For the proverb, see Otto _folium_ 1; and from Ovid compare _Am_ II xvi 45-46 'uerba puellarum, foliis leuiora caducis, / inrita qua uisum est uentus et unda ferunt', _Her_ V 109-10 'tu leuior foliis tum cum sine pondere suci / mobilibus uentis arida facta uolant', and _Fast_ III 481-82 (Ariadne speaking) 'Bacche leuis leuiorque tuis quae tempora cingunt / frondibus'.

=33. QVAVIS INCERTIOR AVRA.= Compare _Her_ VI 109-10 'mobilis Aesonide uernaque incertior aura, / cur tua polliciti pondere uerba carent?'.

Otto (_uentus_ 1) cites as well Prop II v 11-13 'non ita Carpathiae uariant Aquilonibus undae, / nec dubio nubes uertitur atra Noto, / quam facile irati uerbo mutantur amantes', _Her_ XVIII 185-86 (Leander to Hero) 'cumque minus firmum nil sit quam uentus et unda, / in uentis et aqua spes mea semper erit?', and Calpurnius _Ecl_ III 10 'mobilior uentis o femina!'.

The _folium_ and _uentus_ images of the present line are found together at Prop II ix 33-35 'non sic incerto mutantur flamine Syrtes, / nec folia hiberno tam tremefacta Noto, / quam cito feminea non constat foedus in ira'.

=34. PAR ILLI= = _par illius leuitati_. Similar compressions at vi 40 'mollior est animo femina nulla tuo' and commonly.

=37-38.= Ovid gives four instances of unexpected catastrophe, two from Greek history, two from Roman; the greater importance of the Roman examples is emphasized by their position and by the doubling of the space allotted to each example from two lines to four. There is a similar transition at Prop II vi 19-20 'cur exempla petam Graium? tu criminis auctor / nutritus duro, Romule, lacte lupae'.

The Greek examples may have been a traditional pairing: Croesus and Dionysius are mentioned together at Lucian _Gall_ 23 as notable instances of personal catastrophe.

=37. OPVLENTIA CROESI.= Croesus as the archetype of wealth also at _Tr_ III vii 41-42 'nempe dat ... Fortuna rapitque, / Irus et est subito qui modo Croesus erat'.

The story of Croesus' downfall and the subsequent sparing of his life by Cyrus is taken from Herodotus I 86-88.

It is clear from his poetry that Ovid had a good knowledge of at least the first book of Herodotus:

(1) _Met_ III 135-37 'sed scilicet ultima semper / expectanda dies homini est, dicique beatus / ante obitum nemo supremaque funera debet'

may have been drawn from Solon's advice to Croesus at Herodotus I 32 7: '[Greek: ei de pros toutoisi] [if in addition to having prosperity while alive] [Greek: eti teleutesei ton bion eu, houtos ekeinos ton su zeteeis, ho] [[Greek: ho] _add Stein_] [Greek: olbios keklesthai axios esti; prin d' an teleutesei, epischein mede kaleein ko olbion, all'

eutychea]'.

(2) At _Fast_ II 79-118 Ovid tells the story of Arion found at Herodotus I 23-24.

(3) At _Fast_ II 663-66 there occurs the clearest instance of borrowing: Ovid uses the story of the border dispute between Sparta and Argos (Herodotus I 82) in the course of his discussion of the god Terminus: 'si tu signasses olim Thyreatida terram, / corpora non leto missa trecenta forent, / nec foret Othryades congestis lectus [_Barth_: tectus _codd_] in armis. / o quantum patriae sanguinis ille dedit!'.

=37. AVDITA EST CVI NON.= Compare _Met_ XV 319-20 '_cui non audita est_ obscenae Salmacis undae / Aethiopesque lacus?'.

=38. NEMPE TAMEN VITAM CAPTVS AB HOSTE TVLIT.= 'Even so, it is undeniable that he became a prisoner, and received his life as a gift from his enemy'. _Vitam ferre_ also at _EP_ II i 45 (from a description of Germanicus' triumph of AD 12) 'maxima pars horum _uitam_ ueniamque _tulerunt_'.

=39. ILLE ... FORMIDATVS.= Equivalent to _ille_ with a defining _qui_-clause: 'The famous man who had once been feared ...'. Ovid is referring to Dionysius II, the student of Plato, who was expelled from Syracuse in 344 and became a schoolmaster in Corinth. Valerius Maximus (VI ix ext 6) also gives Dionysius as an example of unexpected disaster, and Plutarch (_Timoleon_ 14) cites him as an example of the operations of Fortune. For an account of Dionysius' life at Corinth, see Justinus XXI v. There was a Greek proverb '[Greek: Dionysios en Korinthoi]' (Cic _Att_ IX ix 1; Quintilian VIII vi 52), apparently referring to his continued lust for power: 'Dionysius ... Syracusis expulsus Corinthi pueros docebat: usque eo imperio carere non poterat' (Cic _Tusc_ III 27). Discussions of the proverb at Otto _Dionysius_ and Shackleton Bailey on _Att_ IX ix 1.

=39. SYRACOSIA ... IN VRBE.= Restored by Heinsius from the manuscripts'

unmetrical SYRACVSIA, as at _Fast_ VI 277. The same confusion between [Greek: Syrakosios] and [Greek: Syrakousios] is found in the manuscripts of Pindar (_Ol_ I 23), the Attic form supplanting the original Doric.

The same corruption is found in some ninth-century manuscripts of Virgil at _Ecl_ VI 1 'Prima Syracosio dignata est ludere uersu' and in the Veronese scholia, and in the manuscripts of Claudian _carm min_ LI 6 (Housman 1273).

=40. HVMILI ... ARTE.= For the low social position of the schoolmaster in antiquity, see Bonner 146-62, and compare especially Juvenal VII 197-98 'si Fortuna uolet, fies de rhetore consul; / si uolet haec eadem, fiet de consule rhetor' and Pliny _Ep_ IV xi 1 'nunc eo decidit ut exul de senatore, rhetor de oratore fieret'.

=41. MAGNO MAIVS.= 'Greater than (Pompey) the Great'. Even in the letters of Cicero, Pompey is occasionally called _Magnus_ without further identification (_Att_ I xvi 12). Other plays on the name at _Fast_ I 603-4 'Magne, tuum nomen rerum est mensura tuarum; / sed qui te uicit nomine maior erat' and Lucan I 135 'stat magni nominis umbra', where Getty cites Velleius II 1 4 'Pompeium magni nominis uirum'.

=42. CLIENTIS OPEM.= After the final defeat at Pharsalus, Pompey fled to Egypt and sought the protection of Ptolemy XIII (Caesar _BC_ III 103, Plutarch _Pomp_ 77).

Pompey similarly treated as the victim of Fortune at Cic _Tusc_ I 86 and through much of Lucan VII-VIII; compare as well _Anth Lat_ Riese 401 'Quam late uestros duxit Fortuna triumphos, / tam late sparsit funera, Magne, tua'.

Compare as well _Anth Lat_ 415 39-40 'spes Magnum profugum toto discurrere in orbe / iusserat et pueri regis adire pedes'; the distich follows a description of the hardships undergone by Marius.

=44.= The line is omitted by _B1_ and _C_; other manuscripts offer (with minor variations) INDIGVS EFFECTVS OMNIBVS IPSE MAGIS or ACHILLAS PHARIVS ABSTVLIT ENSE CAPVT, a line apparently devised with the aid of Juvenal X 285-86 'Fortuna ... uicto _caput abstulit_' and Lucan VIII 545-46 'ullusne in cladibus istis / est locus Aegypto _Phariusque_ admittitur _ensis_?', both passages concerned with Pompey's murder by Achillas. Clearly a line of the poem was lost in transmission.