20 25 30 nec mihi materia est numeris levioribus apta, 'quod' que 'canas, vates, accipe' dixit 'opus!' uror, et in vacuo pectore regnat Amor. sex mihi surgat opus numeris, in quinque residat: Iusta precor. 3 quae me nuper praedata puellast, aut amet, aut faciat cur ego semper amem! 5 10 ah, nimium volui! tantum patiatur amari: accipe, qui pura norit amare fide! . si me non veterum commendant magna parentum nudaque simplicitas purpureusque pudor. 3. 12. hinc Merkel haec PS hac Palmer. at me Merkel ut me P et me S. 13. at Ehwald et 0. your lover, though I bring you neither nobility, nor wealth; 11-16: but I have the favor of the gods, fidelity and constancy. 17-26: Love me, live with me; and I will make your name as well known throughout the world as the names of the heroines of old.' 1. praedata ... est: has captivated me'; cf. Am. 1, 2, 19: tua sum nova praeda, Cupido. 2. amet: his petition to Venus is in the third person, appropriately, in an address to his lady love. 3. tantum: 'simply.' 4. Cytherea cf. Am. 2, 17, 4. 5. accipe: the poet addresses the unknown lady, whose shadowy personality receives the name Corinna first in 1, 5, 9. 7. With this passage cf. Prop. 3, 2, 11 sqq. 8. eques: Ovid was proud that his equestrian rank was not of the parvenu type; cf. Am. 3, 15, 5; and Trist. 4, 10, 7, to which he adds: non modo fortunae munere factus eques. 9. renovatur: cf. Tib. 3, 3, 5, n; Prop. 3, 5, 5. 10. But the poet's biography in Trist. 4, 10, and the manner of his life at Rome do not indicate straitened circumstances. Cf. Tib. I, I, 5, n. II. comitesque novem: the Muses. vitisque repertor: Bacchus, who also inspired poetry and song; cf. Tib. 1, 7, 29, n.; Prop. 4, 1, 62. 12. hinc faciunt: are on my side'; cf. Cic. Ad Att. 7, 3, 5: dignos illinc facere. 14. purpureusque pudor: i.e. modesty such as would cause a 'rosy blush'; cf. Am. 2, 5, 34: 15 20 25 non mihi mille placent, non sum desultor amoris : te mihi materiem felicem in carmina praebe: carmine nomen habent exterrita cornibus Io nos quoque per totum pariter cantabimur orbem, 15 Quid mihi, Livor edax, ignavos obicis annos conscia purpureus venit in ora 15. desultor: the figure is from the circus rider who leaped from one horse to another; cf. Prop. 4, 2, 36: traicit alterno qui leve pondus equo. 16. cura: cf. 3, 3, 32, n. 17. fila sororum: cf. Hor. Car. 2, 3, 15: dum res et aetas et sororum fila trium patiuntur atra. 19. in carmina: purpose acc. 20. causa = materie: cf. Prop. 2, I, 12: invenio causas mille poeta novas. 21. cornibus Io: cf. Prop. 2, 28, 17, n. 22. quam Leda, wooed by Juppiter (adulter) in the form of a swan (fluminea . . . ave). 23. quaeque: Europa; cf. Prop. 2, 28, 52, n. 25. Cf. Am. I, 15, 8. I, 15 The poet justifies his profession. 1-6: Envy says, I am wasting my time in poetry, which has no practical value. 7-30: Nay! my work will be immortal, like that of my great Greek and Roman predecessors. 31-34: Then let all bow before poetry. 35-42: The rabble be wedded to their idols, but if Apollo fosters my art, I shall have undying fame after envious tongues have ceased to wag.' With the thought as a whole cf. Prop. 3, I. may 5 ΤΟ 15 non me more patrum, dum strenua sustinet aetas, nec me verbosas leges ediscere, nec me ingrato vocem prostituisse foro? mortale est, quod quaeris, opus; mihi fama perennis vivet Maeonides, Tenedos dum stabit et Ide, 1. Livor edax: cf. Prop. 1, 8, 5. verbosas. . . ediscere: a regular exercise for incipient Roman citizens, and recognized as a necessary part of their education. 6. Cf. Prop. 4, I, 134. — prostituisse probably implies not merely public use, but also venality. 12. Ceres arista. = 13. Battiades cf. Cat. 65, 16, n. Callimachus; 14. A most acute characterization of the weakness of Callimachus and the other Alexandrians; cf. Intr. § 7. 15. Sophocleo: Sophocles, chronologically the middle one of the great group of authors of Greek tragedy, may well typify this remarkable branch of Greek literature. cothurno i.e. tragedy. 16. Aratus : an astronomical poet from Soli in Cilicia, who flourished in the third century B.C., and wrote Φαινόμενα καὶ Διοσημεία, a work much used by Roman authors, eg. by Cicero, fragments of whose Aratea still survive. 17. fallax servus : with this group of representative characters 20 25 vivent et meretrix blanda, Menandros erit. casurum nullo tempore nomen habent. Tityrus et segetes Aeneiaque arma legentur, 15. 19. Accius S Actius P. PS. 25. segetes (restored by Bentley) o fruges from the New Attic Comedy, described in the apt series of individual epithets, cf. the more complete list of stock characters found in Quint. 11, 3, 74 and 178; Apul. Flor. 3, 16. 18. Menandros: the most celebrated of the writers of the New Comedy. 19. Ennius: the father of Roman poetry' properly heads this part of the list of poets; cf. Prop. 3, 3, 6.- arte carens: Ovid repeats this judgment in Trist. 2, 424: Ennius ingenio maximus, arte rudis; cf. Hor. A. P. 259: Enni magno cum pondere versus aut operae celeris nimium curaque carentis aut ignoratae . . . artis; Prop. 4, 1, 61. — animosique Accius oris: Accius was the last and probably the most finished of the great Roman writers of tragedy; with this reference to his sublime manner cf. Hor. Ep. 2, |