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 André gives 'et déjà 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.