=36. DOCTA= (_B_; _C_ has DOCTVS) seems clearly preferable to DICTA, offered by most of the manuscripts, which cannot be construed with _hoc ... indice_. The difficulty with _docta_ is that the passive of _docere_ seems in general to have been used of the person taught, not the thing; this is no doubt what induced Riese to print NOTA, found in certain of Heinsius' manuscripts. Still, the construction seems logical enough in view of the double accusative construction of the verb in the active. =38. SCEPSIVS.= Metrodorus[28] of Scepsis (a town on the Scamander, about 60 kilometres upstream from Troy) was famous for his hatred of Rome; see Pliny _NH_ XXXIV 34 'signa quoque Tuscanica per terras dispersa quin [_Detlefsen_: quae _codd_] in Etruria factitata sint non est dubium. deorum tantum putarem ea fuisse, ni Metrodorus Scepsius, cui cognomen [Professor R. J. Tarrant suggests that '[Greek: Misorômaios]' has fallen out of the text around this point] a Romani nominis odio inditum est, propter MM statuarum Volsinios expugnatos obiceret'. According to Plutarch (_Lucullus_ 22) and Strabo (_Geog_ XIII 1 55), he was a close confidant of Mithridates; apparently, when on a mission to Tigranes, he privately advised him not to give Mithridates the requested assistance against Rome. Tigranes reported this to Mithridates; Metrodorus was either executed by Mithridates, or died of natural causes while being sent back to him. Cicero mentions Metrodorus and his phenomenal memory at _de Or_ II 360. [Footnote 28: PW XV,2 1481 3; Jacoby _FGrH_ no. 184.] The present passage is more specific than any other surviving reference to Metrodorus' anti-Roman sentiments; Ovid had perhaps read the _scripta_ in question. As both Cicero and Pliny use the epithet 'Scepsius', Ovid's reference would have been immediately understood: _MEtrodOrus_ could not be used in elegiac verse. =38. ACTAQVE ROMA REA EST.= Similar verse-endings at _RA_ 387-88 'si mea materiae respondet Musa iocosae, / uicimus, et falsi criminis _acta rea est_', _Fast_ IV 307-8 'casta quidem, sed non et credita: rumor iniquus / laeserat, et falsi criminis _acta rea est_', and _Tr_ IV i 26 'cum mecum iuncti criminis acta [_sc_ Musa] rea est'; other instances of _reus agi_ at _Her_ XIV 120, _Met_ XV 36, _Tr_ I i 24, _Tr_ I viii 46, and _Her_ XX 91. See at xv 12 _nil opus est legum uiribus, ipse loquor_ (p 434) for a full discussion of Ovid's use of legal terminology. =39. FALSA ... CONVICIA= has a place in the rhetoric of Ovid's argument, balancing _uerissima crimina_ at 29. =40. OBFVIT AVCTORI NEC FERA LINGVA SVO.= _Obesse_ is used of Ovid's own situation at _Tr_ I i 55-56 'carmina nunc si non studiumque quod _obfuit_ odi, / sit satis', IV i 25 'scilicet hoc ipso nunc aequa [_sc_ Musa], quod _obfuit_ ante', IV iv 39 'aut timor aut error nobis, prius _obfuit_ error' & V i 65-68. Compare as well _Tr_ II 443-44 'uertit Aristiden Sisenna, nec _obfuit_ illi / historiae turpis inseruisse iocos'.