Propertius uses _Musa leuis_ of his verse (II xii 22); compare as well _Tr_ II 354 'Musa iocosa' (Ovid's amatory verse), _EP_ I v 69 'infelix Musa', Lucretius IV 589 & _Ecl_ I 2 'siluestrem ... Musam', and Quintilian X i 55 'Musa ... rustica et pastoralis' (the poetry of Theocritus). _Leuis_ is used of comedy at _Fast_ V 347-48 'scaena _leuis_ decet hanc [_sc_ Floram]: non est, mihi credite, non est / illa coturnatas inter habenda deas' and Hor _AP_ 231 'effutire _leues_ indigna Tragoedia uersus'. =30. MELISSE.= Thanks principally to Suetonius _Gram_ 21, we are comparatively well informed about Melissus (Schanz-Hosius 176-77 [§ 277]; Bardon 49-52). Brought up a slave (his father had disowned him at birth), he was given a good education by the man who accepted him, and was given to Maecenas, who manumitted him. He wrote one hundred and fifty books of _Ineptiae_. 'Fecit et nouum genus togatarum inscripsitque trabeatas'; it is no doubt these plays that Ovid is here referring to. =31. VARIVS.= Possibly the famous author of the _Thyestes_ and editor of the _Aeneid_ (Schanz-Hosius 162-64 [§ 267]; Bardon 28-34; fragments at Morel 100-1 and Ribbeck 265). Riese objected to the identification on chronological grounds (the _Thyestes_ was produced in 29 BC), but the date of his death is unknown, and he may have survived to the time of Ovid's exile. =31. GRACCHVSQVE.= The manuscripts omit the aspirate, and Ehwald cites _CIL_ VI 1 1505 for a mention of _Ti. Sempronius Graccus_, but in his discussion of the aspirate Quintilian makes it clear that _Graccus_ was an obsolete spelling (I v 20). Gracchus (Bardon 48-49) is mentioned by Priscian, Nonius, and the author of the _De dubiis nominibus_, who among them preserve four fragments and three titles (Ribbeck 266). One of the titles is a _Thyestes_; Professor R. J. Tarrant plausibly suggests that Ovid may here be alluding to the plays by Varius and Gracchus on the theme with his words _cum ... darent fera uerba tyrannis_, Atreus being the archetype of the tyrant in tragedy. Nipperdey proposed that Ovid's Gracchus was the Sempronius Gracchus implicated in the disgrace of Julia (Vel Pat II 100 5); see Syme _HO_ 196 and Furneaux on Tac _Ann_ I 53 4. The identification is however far from certain. =32. CALLIMACHI PROCVLVS MOLLE TENERET ITER.= Proculus is otherwise unknown. Ehwald suggested (_JAW_ 43 [1885] 141) that he was a dramatic poet like Varius and Gracchus, citing a mention of the '[Greek: satyrika dramata, tragôidiai, kômôidiai]' of Callimachus in the _Souda_. But Callimachus' primary reputation was hardly that of a tragedian; and _molle ... iter_ must be a reference to _Aetia_ 25-28: '[Greek: kai tod' anôga, ta mê pateousin hamaxai / ta steiben, heterôn d' ichnia mê kath homa / [_Hunt: _diphron el]ain mêd' hoimon ana platyn, alla keleuthous / [_Pfeiffer: _atripto]us, ei kai steinoterên elaseis]'.