=45. LAVDVM.= 'Deeds meriting praise'; compare 87 'tuas ... laudes ... recentes'. The meaning is found even in prose: see Caesar _BC_ II 39 4 'haec tamen ab ipsis inflatius commemorabantur, ut de suis homines _laudibus_ libenter praedicant' and the other passages cited at _OLD_ _laus1_ 3b.

=46. ACTORVM.= AVCTORVM (_BCHL_) is possible enough; but _actorum_ accords better with the preceding _laudum_.

=46. CADVCA.= 'Impermanent'. The sense is frequent in Cicero: see _Rep_ VI 17 'nihil est nisi mortale et _caducum_ praeter animos' and _Phil_ IV 13. Elsewhere in Ovid the usual sense of the word is 'ineffectual': see _Fast_ I 181-82 'nec lingua _caducas_ / concipit ulla preces, dictaque pondus habent' and _Ibis_ 88 'et sit pars uoti nulla caduca mei'.

Similar uses at _Her_ XV 208 & XVI 169.

=47. CARMINE FIT VIVAX VIRTVS, EXPERSQVE SEPULCRI / NOTITIAM SERAE POSTERITATIS HABET.= For the immortality given by verse, compare from Ovid _Tr_ V xiv 5 (to his wife) 'dumque legar, mecum pariter tua fama legetur' and _EP_ III ii 35-36 (to those friends who assisted him) 'uos etiam seri laudabunt saepe nepotes, / claraque erit scriptis gloria uestra meis'. The topic is closely related to that of the poet's own immortality, for which, in Ovid, see xvi 2-3 'non solet ingeniis summa nocere dies, / famaque post cineres maior uenit' and _Met_ XV 871-79.

For other poets' treatment of the immortality given by verse, see Prop III ii 17-26, Hor _Carm_ IV ix, Pindar _Nem_ VII 11-16, Gow on Theocritus XVI 30, and Murgatroyd on Tib I iv 63-66.

=47. VIVAX VIRTVS.= Compare Hor _AP_ 68-69 'mortalia facta peribunt, / nedum sermonum stet honos et gratia _uiuax_'.

=47. EXPERSQVE SEPVLCRI.= The diction of this line is very elevated: Professor R. J. Tarrant compares _Met_ IX 252-53 (Jupiter speaking of Hercules) 'aeternum est a me quod traxit, et _expers_ / atque immune _necis_' and _Cons Liu_ 59-60 'Caesaris adde domum, quae certe _funeris expers_ / debuit humanis altior esse malis'. The following line's _notitiam ... habet_ is in comparison an anticlimax.

=49. TABIDA CONSVMIT FERRVM LAPIDEMQVE VETVSTAS.= Iron and flint were proverbial for hardness: compare x 3-4 'ecquos tu silices, ecquod, carissime, ferrum / duritiae confers, Albinouane, meae?', _Her_ X 109-10, _AA_ I 473-76, _Met_ XIV 712-13, _Fast_ V 131-32, _Tr_ IV vi 13-14, and _EP_ II vii 39-40; other passages are cited by Smith at Tib I iv 18 'longa dies molli saxa peredit aqua'. At I 313-16, Lucretius, discussing the invisible wearing away of substances, says 'stilicidi casus _lapidem_ cauat, uncus aratri / _ferreus_ occulte decrescit uomer in aruis, / strataque iam uolgi pedibus detrita uiarum / saxea conspicimus'.

=51. SCRIPTA FERVNT ANNOS.= The phrase completes the sentence begun in the previous distich, as is shown by the parallel passages _Am_ I x 61-62 'scindentur uestes, gemmae frangentur et aurum; / _carmina quam tribuent, fama perennis erit_' and _Am_ I xv 31-32 'ergo cum silices, cum dens patientis aratri / depereant aeuo, _carmina morte carent_'.

=51. FERVNT.= 'Withstand'; the same sense at _Tr_ V ix 8 'scripta _uetustatem_ si modo nostra _ferunt_', Cic _Am_ 67 'ea uina quae _uetustatem ferunt_', Silius IV 399-400 'si modo _ferre diem_ ... carmina nostra ualent', and Quintilian II 4 9 'sic et _annos ferent_ et uetustate proficient'.

=51-53. AGAMEMNONA ... THEBAS.= The two great cycles of Greek heroic mythology. The same conjunction at _Am_ III xii 15-16 'cum _Thebae_, cum _Troia_ foret, cum Caesaris acta, / ingenium mouit sola Corinna meum'

and _Tr_ II 317-20 'cur non Argolicis potius quae concidit armis / uexata est iterum carmine _Troia_ meo? / cur tacui _Thebas_ et uulnera mutua fratrum / et septem portas sub duce quamque suo'; compare as well Prop II i 21 '[canerem ...] nec ueteres _Thebas_ nec _Pergama_, nomen Homeri'. Lucretius, arguing that the world was created at a definite moment, wrote 'cur supera ['before'] bellum _Thebanum_ et funera _Troiae_ / non alias alii quoque res cecinere poetae?' (V 326-27).

=52. QVISQVIS CONTRA VEL SIMVL ARMA TVLIT.= The leaders of the Greeks and Trojans.

The line's structure parallels 54 'quicquid post haec, quicquid et ante fuit'. Both are conspicuous by their lack of adornment.

=55. DI QVOQVE CARMINIBVS, SI FAS EST DICERE, FIVNT.= This is possibly a reference to Herodotus II 53, where Herodotus says that Homer and Hesiod established the Greek pantheon; for Ovid's borrowings from Herodotus, see at iii 37 _opulentia Croesi_ (p 189). The same idea previously in Xenophanes (fr. 11 Diels).

The line looks ahead to 63-64 'et modo, Caesar, auum, quem uirtus addidit astris, / sacrarunt aliqua carmina parte tuum'.

=55. SI FAS EST DICERE.= Ovid here apologizes for the shocking statement he is making. Up to this point poetry has helped give lasting fame to what was already a fact, but here poetry is actually making something happen (or appear to happen). At _Am_ III xii 21-40 Ovid similarly describes how poets created the myths.

=57-64.= Ovid follows the same sequence in the _Metamorphoses_, describing the separation of Chaos at I 5-31, the attack of the Giants at I 151-55, Bacchus' conquest of India at IV 20-21 & 605-6, and Hercules' capture of Oechalia at IX 136; he foretells Augustus' apotheosis at XV 868-70.

Professor R. J. Tarrant points out that these lines may well be referring specifically to the earlier poem.

=57-58. SIC CHAOS EX ILLA NATVRAE MOLE PRIORIS / DIGESTVM PARTES SCIMVS HABERE SVAS.= 'Thus we know Chaos now has its divisions after having been arranged in order from the famous mass that was its previous nature'.

Ovid describes the separation of the elements at _Met_ I 25-31 and _Fast_ I 103-10; see also _Ecl_ VI 31-36.

I take _illa_ ('famous') to refer to the familiarity through the poets and philosophers of the notion of the separation of Chaos into the four elements. Alternatively, Professor A. Dalzell points out to me that _illa_ could have a pejorative sense.

=58. DIGESTVM.= 'Separated'. At _Met_ I 7 Ovid calls Chaos 'rudis _indigestaque_ moles'.

=59. ADFECTANTES CAELESTIA REGNA GIGANTAS.= At _Am_ III xii 27 Ovid, speaking of false legends created by the poets, says 'fecimus Enceladon iaculantem mille lacertis'.

In his youth, Ovid had attempted but later abandoned a poem on the battle of the Giants against Jupiter 'designed to glorify Augustus under the guise of Jupiter' (Owen _Tristia II_ p. 77): the language he uses at _Tr_ II 333-40 seems too explicit to be a mere instance of the love-poet's defence of his subject-matter: 'at si me iubeas domitos Iouis igne Gigantas [_Heinsius_: Gigantes _codd_] / dicere, conantem debilitabit onus. / diuitis ingenii est immania Caesaris acta / condere, materia ne superetur opus. / _et tamen ausus eram_; sed detrectare uidebar, / quodque nefas, damno uiribus esse tuis.[20] / ad leue rursus opus, iuuenalia carmina, ueni, / et falso moui pectus amore meum'. He refers to the same poem again at _Am_ II i 11-18 'ausus eram, memini, _caelestia_ dicere bella / centimanumque Gyen--et satis oris erat-- / cum male se Tellus ulta est, ingestaque Olympo / ardua deuexum Pelion Ossa tulit. / in manibus nimbos et cum Ioue fulmen habebam, / quod bene pro caelo mitteret ille suo-- / clausit amica fores! ego cum Ioue fulmen omisi; / excidit ingenio Iuppiter ipse meo'.

[Footnote 20: Compare Suet _Aug_ 89 3 'componi tamen aliquid de se nisi et serio et a praestantissimis offendebatur, admonebatque praetores ne paterentur nomen suum commissionibus obsolefieri ['be cheapened in prize declamations'--Rolfe]'.]

The actual descriptions of the Giants' rebellion in Ovid's surviving poems are brief (_Met_ I 151-62 & 182-86, _Fast_ V 35-42), but references to the rebellion are frequent (_Met_ X 150-51, _Fast_ I 307-8, _Fast_ IV 593-94, _Fast_ V 555, _Tr_ II 71, _Tr_ IV vii 17, _EP_ II ii 9-12). The accounts at _Met_ V 319-31 of the flight of some of the gods to Egypt and at _Fast_ II 459-74 of Venus' flight to the Euphrates are no doubt derived from Ovid's earlier researches.

=59. ADFECTANTES.= 'Unlawfully seeking to obtain'; compare _Met_ I 151-52 'neue foret terris securior arduus aether, / _adfectasse_ ferunt _regnum caeleste Gigantas_' and _Fast_ III 439 'ausos _caelum adfectare Gigantas_'. This sense is found in prose: compare Livy I 50 4 'cui enim non apparere _adfectare_ eum imperium in Latinos?'. At Livy I 46 2 the word is used without the conative sense: 'neque ea res Tarquinio spem _adfectandi_ regni minuit'.

=59. GIGANTAS= _Heinsius_. The manuscripts have GIGANTES, which Lenz, Wheeler, and Andre print. In classical Latin poetry, Greek nouns of the third declension with plural nominatives in _[Greek:-es]_ and plural accusatives in _[Greek:-as]_ retained these endings. Housman 836-39 gives many instances where metre demonstrates an accusative in _[Greek:-as]_. In Ovid when such an ending occurs, some manuscripts commonly offer the normalized _-es_; at _Tr_ II 333, as here, all manuscripts offer _Gigantes_, again corrected by Heinsius.

Such apparent violations of the rule as _Fast_ I 717 'horreat AeneadAs et primus et ultimus orbis', _Fast_ III 105-6 'quis tunc aut HyadAs aut Pliadas Atlanteas / senserat' and Virgil _G_ I 137-38 'nauita tum stellis numeros et nomina fecit, / PleiadAs, HyadAs, claramque Lycaonis Arcton' are of course no real exceptions, the lengthening of short closed vowels at the ictus being permitted (Platnauer 59-62).

=60. AD STYGA NIMBIFERI VINDICIS IGNE DATOS.= 'Hurled to the underworld by the lightning-bolt of cloud-gathering Jupiter'. This was Jupiter's first use of the weapon: see _Fast_ III 439-40 'fulmina post ausos caelum adfectare Gigantas / sumpta Ioui: _primo tempore inermis erat_'.

=60. NIMBIFERI VINDICIS IGNE= is my correction of the manuscripts'

NIMBIFERO and NVBIFERO. The unmodified _uindicis_ and modified _igne_ of the manuscript readings might be defended by _EP_ II ix 77 'quicquid id est [whatever Ovid has committed], habuit moderatam uindicis iram', but _uindicis_ is there defined by the following 'qui nisi natalem nil mihi dempsit humum', and _moderatam_ is a more suitable epithet for _iram_ than is _nimbifero_ for _igne_ in the present passage., At _Tr_ II 143-44 'uidi ego pampineis oneratam uitibus ulmum, / quae fuerat _saeuo fulmine_ tacta Iouis', the manuscripts divide between _saeuo_ and _saeui_, which has a good claim to be considered the true reading; in any case, _Iouis_ is less in need of a defining adjective than _uindicis_ in the present passage. Finally, the genitive here is strongly supported by _Ibis_ 475-76 'ut Macedo rapidis icta est cum coniuge flammis, / sic precor _aetherii uindicis_ igne cadas'.

The corruption may have been induced by a wish to introduce interlocking word order: for a similar instance see at ii 9 _Baccho uina Falerna_ (p 164). But in fact substantive and epithet are constantly found linked at the caesura of the pentameter: the strong break in the metre at that point no doubt made the construction more readily acceptable there than in other positions.

I have printed _nimbiferi_ in preference to _nubiferi_ because Jupiter is linked with _nimbi_ at two other passages. The first of these is _Am_ II i 15-16 'in manibus _nimbos et cum Ioue fulmen_ habebam, / quod bene pro caelo mitteret ille suo', and the second _Met_ III 299-301, where Ovid describes Jupiter's preparations to descend on Semele: 'aethera conscendit uultuque sequentia traxit / nubila, quis _nimbos_ immixtaque fulgura uentis / addidit et tonitrus et ineuitabile fulmen'.

=61-62. SIC VICTOR LAVDEM SVPERATIS LIBER AB INDIS ... TRAXIT.= Bacchus'

conquest of India is also mentioned by Ovid at _Fast_ III 465-66 'interea Liber depexos crinibus Indos / uicit et Eoo diues ab orbe redit', _Fast_ III 719-20, and _Tr_ V iii 23-24.

=61-62. VICTOR= should be taken both with _Liber_ and _Alcides_.

=61-62. LIBER ... ALCIDES.= The same pairing (both times in the context of Augustan panegyric) at _Aen_ VI 801-5 'nec uero _Alcides_ tantum telluris obiuit, / fixerit aeripedem ceruam licet, aut Erymanthi / pacarit nemora et Lernam tremefecerit arcu; / nec qui pampineis uictor iuga flectit habenis / _Liber_, agens celso Nysae de uertice tigris' and Hor _Carm_ III iii 9-15. Ovid may have made similar mention of Bacchus and Hercules in his panegyric of Augustus.

=61-62. SIC ... LAVDEM ... ALCIDES CAPTA TRAXIT AB OECHALIA.= Hercules attacked and captured Oechalia in order to carry off Iole, the king's daughter. This was his last exploit, for it led to Deianira's sending him the poisoned robe which caused his death. The capture of Oechalia is also mentioned at _Her_ IX _passim_ (the poem perhaps not by Ovid) and _Met_ IX 136-40.

=62. OECHALIA.= For the quadrisyllable ending to the pentameter, see at ii 10 _Alcinoo_ (p 164).

=63. AVVM.= Augustus. In AD 4 Augustus adopted Tiberius (son of Livia's first husband, Ti. Claudius Nero), and Tiberius adopted Germanicus, son of his brother Drusus.

=63. QVEM VIRTVS ADDIDIT ASTRIS.= Compare _Aen_ VIII 301 (of Hercules) 'salue, uera Iouis proles, decus _addite diuis_'.

Augustus died on 19 August AD 14; on 17 September the Senate decreed _caelestes religiones_ for him (Tac _Ann_ I 10 8; _Fasti Amiternini, Antiates, & Oppiani_, at Ehrenberg-Jones 52). Augustus' apotheosis is also mentioned at ix 127-32 and xiii 23-26.

=64. ALIQVA ... PARTE.= The same phrase in the same metrical position at _Fast_ I 133-34 (Janus speaking) 'uis mea narrata est. causam nunc disce figurae: / iam tamen hanc _aliqua_ tu quoque _parte_ uides'.

=64. CARMINA.= Ovid is referring to his own poems (in Latin and Getic) on Augustus' apotheosis, also mentioned at vi 17-18 'de caelite ... recenti ... carmen', ix 131-32 'carmina ... de te ... caelite ... nouo', and xiii 25-26.

=65-66. SI QVID ADHVC IGITVR VIVI, GERMANICE, NOSTRO / RESTAT IN INGENIO, SERVIET OMNE TIBI.= Compare Prop IV i 59-60 'sed tamen exiguo _quodcumque_ e pectore _riui_ / fluxerit, hoc patriae _seruiet omne meae_', which Ovid is clearly imitating. Hertzberg _ad loc_ conjectured RIVI for our passage, which may well be right; but _uiui_ seems to agree better with _restat_.

=67. VATIS ... VATES.= For an extreme instance of Ovid's favourite figure of _polyptoton_ (Quintilian IX 3 36-37), see the account at _Met_ IX 43-45 of Achelous' wrestling-match with Hercules: 'inque gradu stetimus, certi non cedere, eratque / cum _pede pes_ iunctus, totoque ego pectore pronus / et _digitos digitis_ et _frontem fronte_ premebam'. Other instances of polyptoton with _uates_ at _Fast_ I 25 (to Germanicus) 'si licet et fas est, _uates_ rege _uatis_ habenas' and _EP_ II ix 65 (to Cotys, king of Thrace, apparently a writer of poetry) 'ad _uatem uates_ orantia bracchia tendo',

=67. VATES.= Approximately nine hundred lines survive of a version of Aratus generally attributed to Germanicus, who might have been composing the poem at the time Ovid was writing: Augustus' apotheosis is mentioned at 558-60. It is possible however that Tiberius was the poem's author: he is known to have written a _Conquestio de morte L. Caesaris_ and to have composed Greek verse (Suet _Tib_ 70). For a full discussion see the introduction to Gain's edition of the _Aratus_.

=69-70. QVOD NISI TE NOMEN TANTVM AD MAIORA VOCASSET, / GLORIA PIERIDVM SVMMA FVTVRVS ERAS.= Compare _Met_ V 269-70 (the Muses to Minerva) 'o nisi te uirtus opera ad maiora tulisset, / in partem uentura chori Tritonia nostri'.

There is a striking parallel to this passage in Quintilian's address to Domitian in his catalogue of poets: 'hos nominamus quia Germanicum Augustum ab institutis studiis deflexit cura terrarum, parumque dis uisum est esse eum maximum poetarum' (X i 91-92).

=70. GLORIA PIERIDVM SVMMA.= _Gloria_ similarly used at _EP_ II xi 28 'maxima Fundani _gloria_, Rufe, soli', _Aen_ VI 767 'proximus ille Procas, Troianae _gloria_ gentis', and Val Max IV iii 3 'Drusum ... Germanicum, eximiam Claudiae familiae _gloriam_'. The term was used in particular of fine cattle: see _AA_ I 290 'candidus, armenti gloria, taurus', _Pan Mess_ (_Corp Tib_ III vii) 208 'tardi pecoris ... _gloria_ taurus' and _Aetna_ 597 '_gloria_ uiua Myronis' (on Myron's _Cow_ see at i 34 _ut similis uerae uacca Myronis opus_ [p 158]).