=57-64.= Ovid follows the same sequence in the _Metamorphoses_, describing the separation of Chaos at I 5-31, the attack of the Giants at I 151-55, Bacchus' conquest of India at IV 20-21 & 605-6, and Hercules' capture of Oechalia at IX 136; he foretells Augustus' apotheosis at XV 868-70. Professor R. J. Tarrant points out that these lines may well be referring specifically to the earlier poem. =57-58. SIC CHAOS EX ILLA NATVRAE MOLE PRIORIS / DIGESTVM PARTES SCIMVS HABERE SVAS.= 'Thus we know Chaos now has its divisions after having been arranged in order from the famous mass that was its previous nature'. Ovid describes the separation of the elements at _Met_ I 25-31 and _Fast_ I 103-10; see also _Ecl_ VI 31-36. I take _illa_ ('famous') to refer to the familiarity through the poets and philosophers of the notion of the separation of Chaos into the four elements. Alternatively, Professor A. Dalzell points out to me that _illa_ could have a pejorative sense. =58. DIGESTVM.= 'Separated'. At _Met_ I 7 Ovid calls Chaos 'rudis _indigestaque_ moles'. =59. ADFECTANTES CAELESTIA REGNA GIGANTAS.= At _Am_ III xii 27 Ovid, speaking of false legends created by the poets, says 'fecimus Enceladon iaculantem mille lacertis'. In his youth, Ovid had attempted but later abandoned a poem on the battle of the Giants against Jupiter 'designed to glorify Augustus under the guise of Jupiter' (Owen _Tristia II_ p. 77): the language he uses at _Tr_ II 333-40 seems too explicit to be a mere instance of the love-poet's defence of his subject-matter: 'at si me iubeas domitos Iouis igne Gigantas [_Heinsius_: Gigantes _codd_] / dicere, conantem debilitabit onus. / diuitis ingenii est immania Caesaris acta / condere, materia ne superetur opus. / _et tamen ausus eram_; sed detrectare uidebar, / quodque nefas, damno uiribus esse tuis.[20] / ad leue rursus opus, iuuenalia carmina, ueni, / et falso moui pectus amore meum'. He refers to the same poem again at _Am_ II i 11-18 'ausus eram, memini, _caelestia_ dicere bella / centimanumque Gyen--et satis oris erat-- / cum male se Tellus ulta est, ingestaque Olympo / ardua deuexum Pelion Ossa tulit. / in manibus nimbos et cum Ioue fulmen habebam, / quod bene pro caelo mitteret ille suo-- / clausit amica fores! ego cum Ioue fulmen omisi; / excidit ingenio Iuppiter ipse meo'. [Footnote 20: Compare Suet _Aug_ 89 3 'componi tamen aliquid de se nisi et serio et a praestantissimis offendebatur, admonebatque praetores ne paterentur nomen suum commissionibus obsolefieri ['be cheapened in prize declamations'--Rolfe]'.]