=18. CONSPICVVM ... SIGNIS EBVR.= _Signis_ = 'bas-relief'; the sense is confined to verse (_OLD signum_ 12b). Compare ix 27 'signa ... in sella ... formata curuli', _Met_ V 80-82 'altis / extantem signis ... cratera', _Met_ XII 235-36 'signis extantibus asper / antiquus crater', _Met_ XIII 700, Lucr V 1427-28 'ueste ... purpurea atque auro signisque ingentibus apta', _Aen_ V 267, V 536 & IX 263, Prop IV v 24, Statius _Theb_ I 540, and Silius II 432. =18. CVM PREMET ALTVS EBUR.= 'When he sits tall on the curule chair'. The same situation similarly described at _Fast_ I 81-82 'iamque noui praeeunt fasces, noua purpura fulget, / et noua conspicuum pondera sentit ebur'; compare as well _Med Fac_ 13 'matrona _premens altum_ rubicunda sedile' and _Met_ V 317 'factaque de uiuo _pressere_ sedilia saxo'. =19. REDITVS ... COMPONET.= 'Will be arranging the [state's] income'. For _reditus_ compare _Am_ I x 41 'turpe tori _reditu_ census augere paternos' and _EP_ II iii 17-18 'at _reditus_ iam quisque suos amat, et sibi quid sit / utile sollicitis supputat ['calculates'] articulis'. For _componet_ compare Cic _II Verr_ IV 36 '_compone_ hoc quod postulo de argento' and Tac _Ann_ VI 16 5. =19. POSITAM ... AD HASTAM.= A spear placed in the ground was a symbol of magisterial authority, and as such was always present at the letting of tax contracts. For the language compare Cic _Leg Agr_ II 53 'ponite ante oculos uobis Rullum ... _hasta posita_ ... auctionantem'. For _hasta_ with the specific meaning of 'contract-letting', see Livy XXIV 18 11 'conuenere ad eos frequentes qui _hastae huius generis_ adsueuerant'. The practice is recalled in the modern Italian term for 'auction', _uendita all'asta_. =20. MINVI MAGNAE.= A word play on _minus_ and _magis_ at least; but Professor E. Fantham points out to me that Ovid probably had in mind the phrase _maiestatem populi Romani minuere_ (Cic _Inu_ II 53 & _Phil_ I 21); Pompeius will not allow the interests of the state to be damaged. =21. IN IVLIA TEMPLA= = _in curiam Iuliam_. Caesar had started the construction of a new senate-house in 44; it was opened by Augustus in 29. The building, as restored by Diocletian, survives substantially intact: see Nash I 301. =22. TANTO DIGNIS CONSVLE REBVS.= Note the separation of the epithets from the nouns, and the high level of diction produced by the hyperbaton. =23. AVT FERET ... SOLITAM ... SALVTEM= = _aut, ut solet, salutabit_. =23. NATOQVE.= Tiberius, son of Ti. Claudius Nero, had been adopted by Augustus in AD 4.