This passage provides an example of the technique pointed out in the _Amores_ by Douglass Parker ("The Ovidian Coda", _Arion_ 8 [1969]) whereby Ovid unexpectedly modifies a poem's tone in the concluding distich. In _Am_ I x Ovid rails against his girl because she has asked him for a present: 'nec dare, sed pretium posci dedignor et odi; / quod nego poscenti, desine uelle, dabo!' (63-64). In _Am_ II xiv Ovid scolds his girl for having an abortion: 'di faciles, peccasse semel concedite tuto, / et satis est; poenam culpa secunda ferat!' (43-44). In II xv, Ovid imagines that he becomes the ring he is giving his girl: 'inrita quid uoueo? paruum proficiscere munus; / illa data tecum sentiat esse fide!' (27-28). _Am_ I vii, I xiii, I xiv, and II xiii are other examples of the device. =62. A GELIDO ... AXE.= Compare XV 36 'dura iubet _gelido_ Parca _sub axe_ mori' and _Her_ VI 105-6 (Hypsipyle to Jason) 'non probat Alcimede mater tua--consule matrem-- / non pater, _a gelido_ cui uenit _axe_ nurus'. XV. To Sextus Pompeius The poem, the fourth and last in the book to be addressed to Pompeius, is an elaborate appeal to him to continue his assistance. It starts with the assertion that Pompeius, after the Caesars, is principally responsible for Ovid's well-being (1-4). The favours Pompeius has done for Ovid are innumerable and extend throughout his life (5-10). Ovid will of his own volition declare that he is as much Pompeius' property as Pompeius' estates in Sicily and Macedonia, his house in Rome, or his country retreat in Campania; because of Ovid, Pompeius now has property in the Pontus (11-20). Ovid asks him to continue working on his behalf (21-24). He knows that he does not have to urge Pompeius, but he cannot help himself (27-34). No matter whether he is recalled or not, he will always remember Pompeius; all lands will hear that it is he who saved Ovid, and that Ovid belongs to him (35-42). The poem effectively combines a number of commonplaces of the works of exile, subordinating them to the central theme of Ovid's indebtedness to Pompeius. The topic of Ovid as Pompeius' property is to a certain extent foreshadowed in _EP_ I vii, throughout which Ovid refers to himself as a client of Messalinus' family: 'ecquis in extremo positus iacet orbe tuorum, / me tamen excepto, qui precor esse tuus?' (5-6); it is found explicitly at i 35-36 'sic ego sum rerum non ultima, Sexte, tuarum / tutelaeque feror munus opusque tuae'. Syme (_HO_ 156) believes that the addressing of the first and penultimate letters to Pompeius constitutes a dedication of the book to Pompeius. However, as Syme recognizes, the abnormal length of the book indicates that it may be a posthumous collection (see page 4 of the introduction); if so, the arrangement of the poems is presumably by Ovid's literary executor.