=73. SI QVAE DABIT AVRA SINVM.= 'If some wind should give the opportunity of filling my sails'. _Quae_ is my correction for QVA (_CMFHIL_), which would make the sentence mean 'If the wind should in some way ...'. The difficulty here is with the apparently already existing _aura_: what breeze is Ovid referring to? QVEM (_BT_) presents the same difficulty ('If the breeze should offer any opportunity ...') and in any case looks like a scribal correction. I take _qua_ to be an unmetrical form corrupted from the rare form _quae_ of the indefinite adjective. For the form, compare Ter _Heaut_ 44 'si _quae_ [_Bembinus (saec iv-v)_: qua _recc_] [_sc_ fabula] laboriosast, ad me curritur', Hor _Sat_ I iv 93-95 'mentio si _quae_ [_uar_ qua] ... te coram fuerit, defendas, ut tuus est mos', Hor _Sat_ II vi 10 'o si urnam argenti fors _quae_ mihi monstret', and _CIL_ I 583 37 'SEIQVAE CAVSA ERIT'. _Quae_ in the present passage offers the same notion of a fresh breeze rising as is found at viii 27-28 'quamlibet exigua si nos ea [_sc_ ara] iuuerit _aura_, / obruta de mediis cumba resurget aquis' and _Tr_ IV v 19-20 'remis ad opem luctare ferendam / _dum ueniat_ placido mollior _aura_ deo'. _Quae_ should possibly be written at _Met_ VI 231-33 'praescius imbris ... rector / carbasa deducit ne _qua_ leuis effluat aura', but Professor R. J. Tarrant points out that _qua_ can be defended by taking _leuis_ to mean 'nimble', a sense supported here by _effluat_. A strong case could be made for reading _quae_ at Hor _Carm_ III xiv 19-20 'Spartacum si _qua_ potuit uagantem / fallere testa'. =73. SINVM.= _Sinus_ in the sense of 'sail' is common enough (_Am_ II xi 38, _AA_ III 500, _Fast_ V 609, and _Aen_ III 455 & V 16; the origin of the metonymy seen at Prop III ix 30 'uelorum plenos ... sinus'); but the brachylogy here 'opportunity of filling my sails' is remarkable. =73. LAXATE= _editio princeps Romana_ IACTATE _codd_. Korn, Lenz, and André print the manuscript reading, and Korn offers three parallel passages in its defence, none of which stands up to examination. The first is _EP_ III ii 5-6 'cumque labent alii _iactataque_ uela relinquant, / tu lacerae remanes ancora sola rati', where _iactata_ means 'storm-whipped'; compare Statius _Theb_ VII 139-41 'uento / incipiente ... laxi _iactantur_ ubique rudentes'. At Cic _Tusc_ V 40 (a Spartan to a wealthy sea-merchant) 'non sane optabilis quidem ista ... rudentibus apta fortuna', 'Well, your fortune depends on your cables, and I don't think it something to be sought for', _iactare_ does not appear. The third passage, Virgil _G_ II 354-55 'seminibus positis superest diducere terram / saepius ad capita ['roots'] et duros _iactare_ bidentis', hardly seems relevant.