Eiarinon tamen poetae, / sed Graeci, quibus est nihil negatum, / et quos [Greek: Âres Ares] decet sonare: / nobis non licet esse tam disertis / qui Musas colimus seueriores', Rutilius Namatianus 419-22 (of Volusianus [short 'o', 'u', and 'i'] Rufius) 'optarem uerum complecti carmine nomen, / sed quosdam refugit regula dura pedes. / cognomen uersu ueheris [_Préchac_: ueneris _uel_ uenens _codd_], carissime Rufi; / illo te dudum pagina nostra canit', and Apollinaris Sidonius _Carm_ XXIII 485-86 'horum nomina cum referre uersu / affectus cupiat, metrum recusat'. Professor C. P. Jones cites the discussion at Pliny _Ep_ VIII iv 3-4. Pliny, writing to Caninius, who is composing a poem in Greek on the Dacian war, discusses the difficulty of using _barbara et fera nomina_ in the poem: 'sed ... si datur Homero et mollia uocabula et Graeca ad leuitatem uersus contrahere extendere inflectere, cur tibi similis audentia, praesertim non delicata sed necessaria, non detur?'. For a further discussion of the topic, see L. Radermacher, "Das Epigramm des Didius", _SAWW_ 170,9 [1912] 1-31. =1. QVOMINVS= is rare in Augustan verse; but compare _AA_ II 720 'non obstet tangas quominus illa [_sc_ loca] pudor'. =3. AVT= _BC_ AST _MFHILT_. The false reading was probably induced by a failure to understand the meaning of _aut_ 'otherwise', for which compare iii 21 '_aut_ age, dic aliquam quae te mutauerit iram', _Met_ VII 699, _Met_ X 50-52 'hanc [_sc_ Eurydicen] simul et legem Rhodopeius accipit heros, / ne flectat retro sua lumina donec Auernas / exierit ualles; _aut_ inrita dona futura', and _Tr_ I viii 43-45 'quaeque tibi ... dedit nutrix ubera, tigris erat. / _aut_ mala nostra minus quam nunc aliena putares'. =2. CONDICIONE.= 'Nature'. Compare Lucretius II 300-1 'et quae consuerint gigni gignentur eadem / _condicione_ et erunt et crescent uique ualebunt'. =4. SI MODO.= 'If, that is ...' Compare 43-44 'quid mandem quaeris? peream nisi dicere uix est, / _si modo_ qui periit ille perire potest'. =5. LEX PEDIS.= 'The rules of metre'. _Lex_ used similarly at Hor _Carm_ IV ii 10-12 'per audaces noua dithyrambos / uerba deuoluit numerisque fertur / _lege_ solutis', Cic _Or_ 58 'uersibus est certa quaedam et definita _lex_', and Columella XI 1 1.