=71. CVM THESEA CARMINE LAVDES.= See at 4 _Albinouane_ (p 327).

=71. THESEA.= For Theseus as the type of loyalty, compare _Tr_ I iii 66 'o mihi Thesea pectora iuncta fide!', I v 19-20, I ix 31-32, V iv 25-26 (Ovid's letter speaking) 'teque Menoetiaden, te qui comitatus Oresten, / te uocat _Aegiden_ Euryalumque suum', and _EP_ II iii 43, II vi 26 & III ii 33-34 'occidit et Theseus et qui comitauit Oresten; / sed tamen in laudes uiuit uterque suas'. From other authors, Otto _Theseus_ cites Prop II i 37-38, Martial VII xxiv 3-4 & X xi 1-2, Claudian _Ruf_ I 107, Ausonius _Epist_ XXV 34, Apollinaris Sidonius _Ep_ III xiii 10, _Carm_ V 288 & _Carm_ XXIV 29. Professor R. J. Tarrant notes that in Bion fr. 12 (Gow) there is a pairing of Theseus/Pirithous and Orestes/Pylades similar to what we find in Ovid.

=72. TITVLOS.= 'Claims to glory'; compare _Met_ VII 448-49 (to Theseus) 'si _titulos_ annosque tuos numerare uelimus, / facta prement annos' and _Met_ XII 334 'uictori titulum ... Dictys Helopsque dederunt'.

=73. VETAT ILLE PROFECTO.= 'I am quite certain that he does not allow ...'

=74. TRANQVILLI ... TEMPORIS= implies _sed non temporis aduersi_.

=75. CONDITVR A TE.= Ovid does not elsewhere use a person as the object of _condere_, although at _Tr_ II 335-36 he uses a person's achievements as object: 'diuitis ingenii est immania Caesaris acta / condere'.

=76. TANTVS QVANTO= _L_ TANTO QVANTVS _BacCFHITpc_ TANTus QVANTVS _M2c_ TANTO QVANTO _BpcTac_ QVANTO TANTVS _fort legendum_. The transmitted reading, _tanto quantus_, can be construed: Professor E. Fantham translates 'a man so great as should have been sung with this mighty style'. This however subordinates Theseus to Albinovanus, while the purpose of the line is to emphasize Theseus' greatness. _Tanto quanto_ is generally printed: it is acceptable enough (compare _EP_ II ix 11-12 'regia, crede mihi, res est succurrere lapsis, / conuenit et _tanto_, _quantus_ es ipse, uiro'), but is very weakly attested, and does not explain the transmitted reading. I have printed _L_'s _tantus quanto_; _quanto tantus_ might also be read.

=76. QVANTO ... ORE.= For _os_ 'grandness of utterance' Professor R. J.

Tarrant compares _Am_ II i 11-12 'ausus eram, memini, caelestia dicere bella ... et satis _oris_ erat'.

=78. INQVE FIDE THESEVS QVILIBET ESSE POTEST.= For the use of mythological figures as character types, compare _RA_ 589 'semper habe Pyladen aliquem qui curet Oresten' and Martial VI xi 9-10 'ut praestem Pyladen, aliquis mihi praestet Oresten. / hoc non fit uerbis, Marce: ut ameris, ama'.

=79-82.= Professor R. J. Tarrant points out to me how the example of Theseus balances the comparison with Ulysses at the start of the poem.

Earlier Ovid argued against a difference of scale between his own case and the mythic figure's: here he insists on it.

=79. HOSTES ... DOMANDI.= For lists of these enemies, see _Her_ II 69-70 'cum fuerit Sciron lectus toruusque Procrustes / et Sinis' and the Athenians' hymn of praise to Theseus at _Met_ VII 433-50.

=79. CLAVAQVE.= For Theseus' club see _Her_ IV 115-16 (Phaedra to Hippolytus) 'ossa mei fratris _claua_ perfracta trinodi / sparsit humi'

and _Her_ X 77 'me quoque, qua fratrem, mactasses, improbe, _claua_'.

Ovid mentions the club of Hercules about a dozen times.

=80. VIX ILLI.= For _uix_ 'with difficulty' _OLD uix_ 1 cites _Fast_ I 508 'uix est Euandri uixque retenta manu'.

Most editors print VIX VLLI (_BCT_), which is possible enough. _Vix illi_ seems rather more forceful, however, as making the point that even Theseus was able to make the dangerous journey only with difficulty, and that before him the road was impassable. Compare _Met_ VII 443-44 'tutus ad Alcathoen, Lelegeia moenia, limes / composito Scirone patet'.

=81. OPEROSA.= The word in the sense 'troublesome' seems confined to prose except for this passage and _Her_ II 63-64 'fallere credentem non est _operosa_ puellam / gloria; simplicitas digna fauore fuit'.

=83. PERSTAS= _IPF2ul_. Compare _Tr_ IV i 19-20 'me quoque Musa leuat Ponti loca iussa petentem: / sola comes nostrae _perstitit_ illa fugae'

and _Tr_ V xiv 19-20 'quae ne quis possit temeraria dicere, persta [_uar_ praesta] / et pariter serua meque piamque fidem'. PERSTAS, the reading of most manuscripts, would have no acceptable meaning in the present passage; it has no object, and the intransitive meaning, 'stand out', is clearly inappropriate. The error may have been induced by _Tr_ IV v 23-24 'teque, quod est rarum, _praesta_ constanter ad omne / indeclinatae munus amicitiae'; more probably, it is an aftereffect of _praestandus_ in 81.

=83. INDECLINATVS= governs _amico_. The only other instance of the word in classical Latin seems to be _Tr_ IV v 24, quoted at the end of the last note.

=84. LINGVA QVERENTE.= Ovid elsewhere uses persons as the subject of _queri_, except for similar uses of metonymy at xiv 26 '_littera_ de uobis est mea _questa_ nihil' and _Tr_ V xi 1-2 'Quod te nescioquis per iurgia dixerit esse / exulis uxorem, _littera questa_ tua est'.

XI. To Gallio

The poem is a letter of condolence to the famous rhetor Junius Gallio, an old friend of Ovid (see at 1). Ovid starts the poem by saying that Gallio should certainly be mentioned in his poetry, because he helped Ovid at the time of his catastrophe (1-4). This one misfortune should have been enough for him, but now he has lost his wife (5-8). Ovid wept on receiving the news, but will not attempt to comfort him, since by now the grief is in the past, and he would risk renewing it (9-20). Also (and he hopes this will turn out to be the case), Gallio may already have remarried (21-22).

The poem is one of the shortest in Ovid's canon (_Am_ II iii is shorter), and has few parallels with his other poems. The one that comes closest is _EP_ I ix, addressed to Cotta Maximus, which describes Ovid's reaction on hearing of the death of Celsus. There are some verbal parallels as well with _EP_ I iii, Ovid's answer to Rufinus' letter of consolation on his exile. In the commentary I cite passages from Ser.

Sulpicius Rufus' famous letter to Cicero on the death of his daughter Tullia (_Fam_ IV v) and from Seneca's treatises of consolation; Ovid was clearly making use of the common topics of the genre.

=1. GALLIO.= Junius Gallio[24], adoptive father of the younger Seneca's elder brother, is often cited by the elder Seneca, who considered him one of the four supreme orators of his time (_Contr_ X praef. 13). At _Suas_ III 6-8, Seneca discusses Gallio's fondness for the Virgilian phrase _plena deo_ (which, oddly, is not found in our text of the poet), and quotes Gallio as saying that his friend Ovid was also very fond of the phrase. Quintilian and Tacitus did not share Seneca's high opinion of Gallio: Quintilian criticizes the lack of restraint in his style (IX ii 92), while at _Dial_ 26 1 Tacitus has Messalla say how he prefers 'G.

Gracchi impetum aut L. Crassi maturitatem quam calamistros ['curling irons' = 'excessive ornament'] Maecenatis aut tinnitus Gallionis'.

[Footnote 24: _PIR_1 I 493; _PIR_2 I 756; PW X,l 1035 26; Schanz-Hosius 349 (-- 336)]

In AD 32 Gallio proposed in the Senate that ex-members of the Praetorian guard be permitted to use the theatre seats reserved for members of the equestrian order; this resulted in a bitter and sarcastic letter from Tiberius to the Senate attacking Gallio's presumption; he was first exiled, then brought back to custody in Rome after it was decided that Lesbos, chosen by him, was too pleasant a place of exile (Tac _Ann_ VI 3; Dio LXVIII 18 4).

=1. EXCVSABILE.= The word is extremely rare, and is not found in verse outside the _Ex Ponto_: compare I vii 41-42 'quod nisi delicti pars _excusabilis_ esset, / parua relegari poena futura fuit' and III ix 33-34 'nil tamen e scriptis magis _excusabile_ nostris / quam sensus cunctis paene quod unus inest'.

=2. HABVISSE= could have the usual past sense of the perfect infinitive, but more probably is equivalent to _habere_: compare ix 20 'gauderem lateris non _habuisse_ locum' and see at viii 82 _imposuisse_ (p 282).

=3-4. CAELESTI CVSPIDE FACTA ... VVLNERA.= 'Wounds inflicted by no human weapon'. The _cuspis_ is attributed to Mars at _Am_ I i 11, to Neptune at _Met_ XII 580, and to Athena at _Fast_ VI 655. At Sen _Ag_ 368-71 'tuque, o magni nata Tonantis / inclita Pallas, / quae Dardanias saepe petisti / cuspide terras', R. J. Tarrant cites _HF_ 563 (Dis), _HF_ 904 & _Phaed_ 755 (Bacchus), _HO_ 156 (Hercules), and Juvenal II 130 (Mars).

Professor Tarrant points out to me that the _cuspis_ does not seem to be attributed to Jupiter, no doubt because the _fulmen_ was too firmly established as his weapon. Ovid is therefore not making his customary specific equation of Augustus with Jupiter.

=4. FOVISTI.= _Fouere_ was a technical term in medicine for bathing something in a liquid (Cato _Agr_ 157 4, Celsus IV 2 4, Columella VI 12 4). The word occurs in this sense in poetry: see _Met_ II 338-39 'nomen ... in marmore lectum / perfudit lacrimis et aperto pectore _fouit_', _Met_ VIII 654 (perhaps spurious; the passage is one where textual doublets occur), _Met_ X 186-87 (Hyacinthus has just been struck by Apollo's discus) 'deus conlapsos ... excipit artus, / et modo te _refouet_, modo tristia uulnera siccat', _Met_ XV 532 'et lacerum _foui_ Phlegethontide corpus in unda', and _Aen_ XII 420 '_fouit_ ea uulnus lympha longaeuus Iapyx'.

=5. RAPTI.= The word could be taken to mean 'dead'; compare xvi 1 'Nasonis ... rapti', where the context shows this is the meaning, and _EP_ I ix 1-2 (to Cotta Maximus) 'Quae mihi de _rapto_ tua uenit epistula Celso, / protinus est lacrimis umida facta meis'. For the similarly ambiguous use of _ademptus_, see at vi 49 _qui me doluistis ademptum_ (p 243).

=6. QVOD QVERERERE.= For the phrase, compare _Am_ I iv 23-24 (Ovid is listing the signals his girl should use at the dinner-table) 'si quid erit de me tacita _quod_ mente _queraris_, / pendeat extrema mollis ab aure manus', _Tr_ V i 37 (of Fortune) '_quod querar_, illa mihi pleno de fonte ministrat', _Her_ XIX 79, and _Her_ XX 34 & 94.

=7-8. PVDICA / CONIVGE.= Being _pudica_, she deserved to survive--Professor E. Fantham points out to me here Ovid's use of what could be called the _quid profuit_ topic.

The reference to Gallio's wife seems rather cool in tone. For some very warm descriptions of recently deceased wives, see Lattimore 275-80.

=8. NON HABVERE NEFAS.= This sense of _habere_, very common in prose, does not seem to occur elsewhere in Ovid; but Professor R. J. Tarrant cites _Aen_ V 49-50 'dies ... adest quem semper acerbum, / semper honoratum ... _habebo_'.

=9. LVCTVS= = _causae luctus_. Other instances of this sense of _luctus_, which seems to be confined to poetical passages of great emotional content, at _Met_ I 654-55 (Inachus to Io) 'tu non inuenta reperta / _luctus_ eras leuior', _Met_ IX 155, and _Aen_ VI 868 (Aeneas has just seen Marcellus) 'o nate, ingentem _luctum_ ne quaere tuorum'.

=10. LECTAQVE CVM LACRIMIS SVNT TVA DAMNA MEIS.= Compare _EP_ I ix 1-2 (quoted above at 5 _rapti_) and _Fam_ IV v 1 (Ser. Sulpicius Rufus to Cicero) 'Postea quam mihi renuntiatum est de obitu Tulliae, filiae tuae, sane quam pro eo ac debui grauiter molesteque tuli communemque eam calamitatem existimaui'.

=10. TVA DAMNA.= Compare _Fast_ II 835-36 (Lucretia has just killed herself) 'ecce super corpus _communia damna_ gementes / obliti decoris uirque paterque iacent' and _Tr_ IV iii 35 'tu uero tua damna dole, mitissima coniunx'.

=11. SED NEQVE SOLARI PRVDENTEM STVLTIOR AVSIM.= Compare _Fam_ IV v 6 'plura me ad te de hac re scribere pudet, ne uidear _prudentiae_ tuae diffidere'. For the opposite reasoning, see Sen _Cons Marc_ 1 1 'Nisi te, Marcia, scirem tam longe ab infirmitate muliebris animi quam a ceteris uitiis recessisse et mores tuos uelut aliquod antiquum exemplar aspici, non auderem obuiam ire dolori tuo'.

=12. VERBAQVE DOCTORVM NOTA.= Compare _EP_ I iii 27-30 (to Rufinus, who has written him a letter of consolation on his exile) 'cum bene firmarunt animum _praecepta_ iacentem, / sumptaque sunt nobis pectoris arma tui, / rursus amor patriae _ratione ualentior omni_, / quod tua fecerunt scripta retexit opus', and Sen _Cons Marc_ 2 1 'scio a praeceptis incipere omnes qui monere aliquem uolunt, in exemplis desinere'.

=13-14. FINITVMQVE TVVM ... DOLOREM / IPSA IAM PRIDEM SVSPICOR ESSE MORA.= Compare _EP_ I iii 25-26 'cura quoque interdum nulla medicabilis arte est-- / aut, ut sit, longa est extenuanda mora', _Fam_ IV v 6 'nullus dolor est quem non longinquitas temporis minuat ac molliat', and _Cons Marc_ 8 1 'dolorem dies longa consumit'. For a variation of the theme, see _Cons Marc_ 1 6 'illud ipsum naturale remedium temporis, quod maximas quoque aerumnas componit, in te una uim suam perdidit'.

The topic of time as the healer of pain is common in ancient literature from New Comedy on: see Tarrant on Sen _Ag_ 130 'quod ratio non quiit, saepe sanauit mora', Otto _dies_ 6, and Kassel 53.

=13. SI NON RATIONE.= _Ratio_ similarly used to counter strong emotion (without success) at _EP_ I iii 27-30 (quoted at 12), _Met_ VII 10-11 (Medea falls in love with Jason) '_ratione_ furorem / uincere non poterat', and _Met_ XIV 701-2 (similar phrasing for Iphis' falling in love with Anaxarete).

=14. IPSA ... MORA.= 'By the mere passage of time'.

=15-16. DVM TVA PERVENIENS, DVM LITTERA NOSTRA RECVRRENS / TOT MARIA AC TERRAS PERMEAT, ANNVS ABIT.= Similar phrasing at _EP_ III iv 59-60 'dum uenit huc rumor properataque carmina fiunt / factaque eunt ad uos, annus abisse potest'.

=15. PERVENIENS= is my correction for the manuscripts' _peruenit_. The perfect tense of _peruenit_ conflicts with the following _permeat_ and _abit_. It might be argued that the perfect is acceptable, since Ovid is speaking of a past event; but he would not have used the perfect of an action which took place over a considerable period of time. For _perueniens ... permeat_ referring to a past event, compare Ovid's use of the present _uenit_ in the very similar passage _EP_ III iv 59-60 (quoted at the end of the last note).