=11. ADVNCO.= The spear had hooks. Compare _Met_ VI 252-53 'quod [_sc_ ferrum] simul eductum est, pars et pulmonis _in hamis_ / eruta cumque anima cruor est effusus in auras', where Bömer cites among other passages Curtius IX 5 23 'corpore ... nudato animaduertunt _hamos inesse telo_ nec aliter id sine pernicie corporis extrahi posse quam ut secando uulnus augerent' and Prop II xii 9 'et merito _hamatis_ manus est armata sagittis'. =13-14. ATQVE VTINAM PARS HAEC TANTUM SPECTATA FVISSET, / NON ETIAM PROPRIO COGNITA MARTE TIBI.= A similar opposition at _Met_ III 247-48 (of Actaeon) _'uelletque uidere, / non etiam sentire_ canum fera facta suorum'. =15. TENDITVR= _Owen_ TENDITIS _codd_. The number of _tenditis_ is inappropriate to the context. Owen's _tenditur_, independently conjectured two years later by Ehwald (_KB_ 84), seems a somewhat more elegant solution to the problem than Merkel's TENDISTI. It puts the weight of the line on _ad primum ... pilum_ rather than on Vestalis himself; the pentameter, with its emphasis on the _honor_, suggests that this is right. =15. PRIMVM PILVM.= Compare _Am_ III viii 27-28 'proque bono uersu _primum_ deducite _pilum_! / nox [_A. Y. Campbell_: hoc _uel_ hic _codd_] tibi, si belles [_Madvig_: uelles _codd_], possit, Homere, dari'. The _primipilaris_ was the commander of the first century of the first cohort of the Roman legion, and hence first in rank among the legion's centurions. =17. PLENIS= is the reading of all but two of the manuscripts collated. For this sense of _plenus_ ('abundant'), compare _Am_ I viii 56 '_plena_ uenit canis de grege praeda lupis', _Nux_ 91-92 'illa [the tree that is not near a road] suo quaecumque tulit dare dona colono / et _plenos_ fructus adnumerare potest', Hor _Sat_ I i 57, and Cic _Sex Rosc_ 6 'alienam pecuniam tam _plenam_ atque praeclaram'. Ehwald read PLENVS (_FacI_), joining _ingens_ with _uirtus_ in the following line, arguing that the honour would not seem a great one to a member of a royal family. But Ovid devoted four lines to describing Vestalis' new rank: he must have believed that Vestalis would consider it a very great honour indeed. As well, if _ingens_ is connected with _titulus_, _uirtus ... maior_ gains point. =17. PLENIS ... FRVCTIBVS.= For the wealth of the _primipilaris_, see _Am_ III viii 9-10 'ecce recens diues parto per uulnera censu / praefertur nobis sanguine pastus eques'. In that poem the newly-rich _primipilaris_, Ovid's rival in love, is given a character very different from that of Vestalis. =17. INGENS= is used at ix 65 of another office, the consulship. =18. IPSA TAMEN VIRTVS ORDINE MAIOR ERIT.= A similar sentiment at _EP_ II ix 11-14 (to king Cotys) 'regia, crede mihi, res est succurrere lapsis ... fortunam decet hoc istam ['this befits your position'], _quae maxima cum sit, / esse potest animo uix tamen aequa tuo_'.