=62. OECHALIA.= For the quadrisyllable ending to the pentameter, see at ii
10 _Alcinoo_ (p 164).
=63. AVVM.= Augustus. In AD 4 Augustus adopted Tiberius (son of Livia's
first husband, Ti. Claudius Nero), and Tiberius adopted Germanicus, son
of his brother Drusus.
=63. QVEM VIRTVS ADDIDIT ASTRIS.= Compare _Aen_ VIII 301 (of Hercules)
'salue, uera Iouis proles, decus _addite diuis_'.
Augustus died on 19 August AD 14; on 17 September the Senate decreed
_caelestes religiones_ for him (Tac _Ann_ I 10 8; _Fasti Amiternini,
Antiates, & Oppiani_, at Ehrenberg-Jones 52). Augustus' apotheosis is
also mentioned at ix 127-32 and xiii 23-26.
=64. ALIQVA ... PARTE.= The same phrase in the same metrical position at
_Fast_ I 133-34 (Janus speaking) 'uis mea narrata est. causam nunc disce
figurae: / iam tamen hanc _aliqua_ tu quoque _parte_ uides'.
=64. CARMINA.= Ovid is referring to his own poems (in Latin and Getic) on
Augustus' apotheosis, also mentioned at vi 17-18 'de caelite ... recenti
... carmen', ix 131-32 'carmina ... de te ... caelite ... nouo', and xiii
25-26.
=65-66. SI QVID ADHVC IGITVR VIVI, GERMANICE, NOSTRO / RESTAT IN INGENIO,
SERVIET OMNE TIBI.= Compare Prop IV i 59-60 'sed tamen exiguo
_quodcumque_ e pectore _riui_ / fluxerit, hoc patriae _seruiet omne
meae_', which Ovid is clearly imitating. Hertzberg _ad loc_ conjectured
RIVI for our passage, which may well be right; but _uiui_ seems to agree
better with _restat_.
=67. VATIS ... VATES.= For an extreme instance of Ovid's favourite figure
of _polyptoton_ (Quintilian IX 3 36-37), see the account at _Met_ IX
43-45 of Achelous' wrestling-match with Hercules: 'inque gradu stetimus,
certi non cedere, eratque / cum _pede pes_ iunctus, totoque ego pectore
pronus / et _digitos digitis_ et _frontem fronte_ premebam'. Other
instances of polyptoton with _uates_ at _Fast_ I 25 (to Germanicus) 'si
licet et fas est, _uates_ rege _uatis_ habenas' and _EP_ II ix 65 (to
Cotys, king of Thrace, apparently a writer of poetry) 'ad _uatem uates_
orantia bracchia tendo',
=67. VATES.= Approximately nine hundred lines survive of a version of
Aratus generally attributed to Germanicus, who might have been composing
the poem at the time Ovid was writing: Augustus' apotheosis is mentioned
at 558-60. It is possible however that Tiberius was the poem's author:
he is known to have written a _Conquestio de morte L. Caesaris_ and to
have composed Greek verse (Suet _Tib_ 70). For a full discussion see the
introduction to Gain's edition of the _Aratus_.
=69-70. QVOD NISI TE NOMEN TANTVM AD MAIORA VOCASSET, / GLORIA PIERIDVM
SVMMA FVTVRVS ERAS.= Compare _Met_ V 269-70 (the Muses to Minerva) 'o
nisi te uirtus opera ad maiora tulisset, / in partem uentura chori
Tritonia nostri'.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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