VI. To Brutus

Of the Brutus to whom this poem is addressed nothing is known beyond what Ovid here tells us. He was an advocate, by Ovid's testimony an eminent one (29-38), and had been among the few who stood by Ovid at the time of his exile (23-26). The collection of _Ex Ponto_ I-III was apparently dedicated to him, since the first poem of the first book and the last poem of the third book are addressed to him, but the two poems fail to give any further information on him or on his relationship to Ovid.

Ovid starts the poem with the reflection that he has now spent five years at Tomis (1-6). Fortune has tricked him: Fabius Maximus died before he could appeal to Augustus, Augustus before he could pardon Ovid (7-16). He hopes that the poem he has written on the apotheosis of Augustus will win him pardon; Brutus' fine qualities guarantee that he shares Ovid's wishes (17-22). The poem ends with a eulogy of Brutus'

character and an assurance of Ovid's eternal gratitude to those friends who stood by him (23-50).

=1. QVAM LEGIS.= See at ii 1 _quod legis_ (p 162).

=3-4. SED TV QVOD NOLLES, VOLVIT MISERABILE FATVM; / EI MIHI, PLVS ILLVD QVAM TVA VOTA VALET.= For the play on _nolle_/_uelle_ and the thought of 4, compare _Met_ IX 757-58 'quodque ego, _uult_ genitor, _uult_ ipsa socerque futurus, / at _non uult_ natura, potentior omnibus istis'.

=5. QVINQVENNIS.= Ovid often mentions the time he has spent in exile: see _Tr_ IV vi 19-20 (AD 10) 'ut patria careo, _bis_ frugibus area trita est, / dissiluit nudo pressa _bis_ uua pede', _Tr_ IV vii 1-2 '_Bis_ me sol adiit gelidae post frigora brumae, / _bisque_ suum tacto Pisce peregit iter', _Tr_ V x 1-2 (AD 11-12) 'Vt sumus in Ponto, _ter_ frigore constitit Hister, / facta est Euxini dura _ter_ unda maris', _EP_ I ii 25-26 (AD 12-13) 'hic me pugnantem cum frigore cumque sagittis / cumque meo fato _quarta_ fatigat hiemps', _EP_ I viii 27-28 'ut careo uobis, Stygias detrusus in oras, / _quattuor_ autumnos Pleias orta facit', _EP_ IV x 1 (AD 14) 'Haec mihi Cimmerio _bis tertia_ ducitur aestas', and _EP_ IV xiii 39-40 'sed me iam, Care, niuali / _sexta_ relegatum bruma sub axe uidet'.

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 Andre gives 'et deja 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.

=11. OCCIDIS ANTE PRECES.= 'You died before making your request'. Since Fabius is named in an inscription (_CIL_ VI 2023a, line 17; cited by Froesch 209) as having participated in the election of Drusus to the Arval Brotherhood on 15 May AD 14, he must have died very shortly before Augustus.

=11-12. CAVSAMQVE EGO, MAXIME, MORTIS ... ME REOR ESSE TVAE.= The death of Fabius, so soon before that of Augustus, seems to have raised popular suspicions. Tacitus (_Ann_ I 5 1-2) mentions a rumour that Fabius had secretly accompanied Augustus to Planasia to visit Agrippa Postumus and that his wife had warned Livia of this; Augustus heard of this, and at Fabius' funeral she was heard blaming herself for his death. If Fabius'

death occurred under strange circumstances, Ovid's accusation against himself of having been its cause may have special point.

For a full discussion of the circumstances of Fabius' death, see Syme _HO_ 149-51.

=12. NEC FVERAM TANTI.= 'But I was not worth this much'. _Fueram_ has the sense of the imperfect, as at _AA_ I 103-4 'tunc neque marmoreo _pendebant_ uela theatro, / nec _fuerant_ liquido pulpita rubra croco'; other instances at _Her_ V 69, _AA_ II 137, _AA_ III 429 & 618, and _Tr_ III xi 25. A full discussion at Platnauer 112-14: he cites thirteen instances from Propertius, who seems to have been fondest of the idiom, and only one certain instance from Tibullus, II v 79 'haec fuerant olim'.

FVERO (_BC_) gives the sense 'but I will be discovered not to have been worth this much'; the tense seems difficult to fit to the context.

FVERIM (_British Library Burney 220, saec xii-xiii_) 'but I hope I was not worth so much' is quite possibly correct, and would account for the corruption to _fuero_.

=12. NEC ... TANTI.= Similar phrasing at _Met_ X 613 (Atalanta ponders Hippomenes' willingness to risk death to gain her hand) '_non_ sum me iudice _tanti_'.

=13. MANDARE.= 'Consign'; a legal term for charging others with carrying out business on one's behalf, which carried certain obligations with it.

See Gaius III 155-62, Just _Inst_ III 26, and the discussion at Buckland 514-21.

=15. DETECTAE ... CVLPAE= _scripsi_ DECEPTAE ... CVLPAE _codd_. _Me decipit error_ is a phrase used by Ovid to mean 'I am making a mistake'; see _EP_ III ix 9-12 'auctor opus laudat ... iudicium tamen hic non _decipit error_ ['I do not make this error of judgment'], / nec quicquid genui protinus illud amo'. Ovid uses the expression very often for the "mistake" which led to his exile: see _Tr_ I iii 37-38 (Ovid to his friends on the night of his exile) 'caelestique uiro quis me _deceperit error_ / dicite pro culpa ne scelus esse putet', _Tr_ IV i 23 'scit quoque [_sc_ Musa] cum perii quis me _deceperit error_', and _EP_ II ii 61 'quasi me nullus _deceperit error_'. He uses _decipere_ once when speaking of the other cause of his exile: 'o puer [_sc_ Amor], exilii _decepto_ causa magistro' (_EP_ III iii 23). Wheeler took _deceptae_ to refer to Ovid: 'Augustus had begun to pardon the fault I committed in error'. This kind of extreme hypallage, with the true modified noun not expressed, does not however seem to be Ovid's practice, although found in the Silver poets: Statius _Theb_ IX 425 'deceptaque fulmina' means 'the thunderbolts thrown by Jupiter at the request of Semele, who had been _deceived_ by Juno'. Professor J. N. Grant suggests DECEPTI to me; but the genitive of the first person is rare in Ovid, and the perfect participle without expressed noun seems difficult. Owen saw the difficulty with _deceptae_, and in his second edition referred to Livy XXII 4 4 'id tantum hostium quod ex aduerso erat conspexit; ab tergo ac super caput _deceptae_ insidiae'. But _deceptae_ (which has been variously emended) there means _occultae_, as explained by Housman (521-22), who cited Prop II xxiv 35-36 'Phrygio fallax Maeandria campo / errat et ipsa suas _decipit_ unda uias' and Sen _HF_ 155 for the same sense; and _occultae_ is clearly not the meaning here required, since Ovid's misdemeanour was all too visible.

Being unable to explain _deceptae_, I have conjectured _detectae_. Ovid seems to have committed his _error_ in two stages. First he committed the original misdemeanour; then he kept silent about it when it might have been better for him to speak. Compare _Tr_ III vi 11-13 'cuique ego narrabam secreti quicquid habebam, / excepto quod me perdidit, unus eras. / id quoque si scisses, saluo fruerere sodali'. Later this misdemeanour was discovered: for the arrival of the news of this discovery when Ovid was visiting Elba with Cotta Maximus, see _EP_ II iii 83-90. It is to this discovery that _detectae_ refers: 'Augustus had begun to forgive the misdemeanour that had been revealed'. For this use of _detegere_ compare _Met_ II 544-47 'ales / sensit adulterium Phoebeius [_coruus_, the raven], utque latentem / _detegeret culpam_, non exorabilis index, / ad dominum tendebat iter' and Livy XXII 28 8 'necubi ... motus alicuius ... aut fulgor armorum fraudem ... detegeret'.

Professor R. J. Tarrant points out to me the parallel problem at _Met_ IX 711 'indecepta pia mendacia fraude latebant', where context requires _indecepta_ to have the meaning 'undetected'. _Indecepta_ might be taken to support _deceptae_ in the present passage, but I am more inclined to read _indetecta_ for _indecepta_: of the various conjectures made, Zingerle's _inde incepta_ is most commonly accepted.

At _Her_ IX 101-2 'tolle procul, _decepte_, faces, Hymenaee, maritas / et fuge turbato tecta nefanda pede!', _detecte_ should similarly be read. _Detecte_ better explains why Hymenaeus should flee; also, Hymenaeus has not been deceived, for it appears from 61-62 'spes bona det uires; fratris [_Palmer_: fratri _codd_] nam nupta futura es; / illius de quo mater, et uxor eris' that Macareus had fully intended to marry Canace.

=16. SPEM NOSTRAM TERRAS DESERVITQVE SIMVL.= The _-que_ should of course be taken with _terras_.

This is a typical instance of Ovid's love of _syllepsis_, of giving a single verb two objects (or more), each of which uses a different meaning of the verb. Compare, from many instances, ix 90 'nec cum fortuna mens quoque uersa mea est', _Her_ VII 9 'certus es, Aenea, cum foedere soluere naues', _Met_ II 601-2 'et pariter uultusque deo plectrumque colorque / excidit', _Met_ VIII 177, _Fast_ III 225, _Fast_ III 857 'hic [the messenger of Ino] ... corruptus cum semine', _Fast_ V 652 'montibus his ponunt spemque laremque suum', and _EP_ II vii 84 'meque simul serua iudiciumque tuum'.

=16. DESERVITQVE.= Ovid does not use _deserere_ with things as object until his poetry of exile: compare _Tr_ I ix 65 'nec amici _desere_ causam'. Instances in the later _Heroides_ at XV 155 'Sappho _desertos_ cantat amores' and XVI 260 'orantis medias _deseruere_ preces'; in both cases the objects are virtually equivalent to persons.

=17. TAMEN.= 'In spite of my dejection'.

=17-18. DE CAELITE ... RECENTI ... CARMEN.= The poem does not survive. At xiii 25-32 Ovid describes a similar poem on the apotheosis of Augustus, written in Getic.

=17. RECENTI.= 'New, freshly created'. Used in similar contexts at _Met_ IV 434-35 'umbraeque _recentes_ ... simulacraque functa sepulcris', VIII 488 'fraterni manes animaeque _recentes_', X 48-49 'Eurydicenque uocant: umbras erat illa _recentes_ / inter', and especially XV 844-46 'Venus ... Caesaris eripuit membris nec in aera solui / passa _recentem_ animam caelestibus intulit astris'.

=18. VESTRA= = 'of you [plural] at Rome'.

=18. CARMEN IN ORA DEDI.= 'I sent a poem for you to recite from and speak of'. _Dare_ meaning 'send' is usually restricted to use with _litteras_ (_OLD do_ 10; compare Cic _Att_ II i 12 & IX viiB 1, Livy XXVII 16 13).

For _in ora_, compare Catullus XL 5 'an ut peruenias _in ora_ uulgi [_sc_ hoc facis]?', Hor _Ep_ I iii 9 ' ... Titius, Romana breui uenturus _in ora_', Prop III ix 32 (to Maecenas) 'et uenies tu quoque _in ora_ uirum', _Tr_ V vii 29-30 'non tamen ingratum est quodcumque obliuia nostri / impedit et profugi nomen _in ora_ refert', and Livy II 36 3.

The only instance I have found of the expression being used of a thing rather than a person other than this passage is also from Ovid: 'illud opus ... nunc incorrectum populi peruenit _in ora_, / in populi quicquam si tamen ore mei est' (_Tr_ III xiv 21-24). Neither passage would have seemed strange to the Romans, given the close identification between poet and work: compare Ennius' famous 'uolito uiuo' per ora uirum' and _Met_ XV 878 'ore legar populi'.

=19. QVAE PIETAS.= 'This demonstration of loyalty'.

=20. SACRAE ... DOMVS.= Augustus' house called 'magni ... Iouis ... domum' at _Tr_ III i 38; compare as well _EP_ III i 135 'domus Augusti, Capitoli more colenda'.

=20. MITIOR IRA.= Compare _EP_ III iii 83 'pone metus igitur: _mitescet_ Caesaris _ira_'.

=21. LIQVIDO POSSVM IVRARE.= 'I can swear unambiguously'. The only other instance of this sense in verse apparently III iii 49-50 'scis tamen et _liquido_ iuratus dicere possis / non me legitimos sollicitasse toros'.

From prose compare Cic _II Verr_ IV 124 'confirmare hoc _liquido_, iudices, possum, ualuas magnificentiores ... nullas umquam ullo in templo fuisse', _II Verr_ III 136, _Fam_ XI 27 7 'alia sunt quae _liquido_ negare soleam', and Sen _Ben_ VII 9 5.

=22. NON DVBIA ... NOTA.= The phrase logically belongs with the preceding line: on the firm evidence of Brutus' past behaviour (described in 23-42), Ovid can confidently state that Brutus prays for his restoration. _Non dubia_ by litotes for _certa_ (for which see _Her_ XX 207 'te ... nimium miror, _nota certa_ furoris'); _nota_ 'tangible sign, evidence' similarly used at _Met_ I 761 (_generis_). FIDE (_LTM2ulF2ul_) is an obvious gloss for _nota_.

=23. VERVM ... AMOREM.= 'Sincere love' (Wheeler); compare _Met_ V 61 '_ueri_ non dissimulator _amoris'_ and _Tr_ IV iv 71 'et comes exemplum _ueri_ Phoceus _amoris_'.

=25. TVAS ... LACRIMAS NOSTRASQVE.= The tears of Ovid's friends at his departure described at _Tr_ III iv 39-40, _EP_ I ix 17-18, and _EP_ II xi 9-10 (to Rufus) 'grande uoco lacrimas meritum quibus ora rigabas, / cum mea concreto sicca dolore forent'.

=26. PASSVROS POENAM CREDERET ESSE DVOS.= Compare _Tr_ V iv 37-38 (Ovid's letter speaking) 'quamuis attonitus, sensit tamen omnia, _nec te / se minus aduersis indoluisse suis_'.