=35. VLTIMA.= 'Smallest, least important'. For this rare sense compare Hor _Ep_ I xvii 35 'principibus placuisse uiris non ultima laus est', _Cons ad Liuiam_ 44 'ultima sit laudes inter ut illa tuas', Vell Pat I 11 1, and the other instances cited by _OLD ultimus_ 9. =35. SVM= ('I am not the least of your possessions') seems unobjectionable enough; most editors have, however, accepted PARS from the _excerpta Politiani_. =36. MVNVS OPVSQVE= is a Latin phrase with the general meaning of 'creation'. It is used in this sense at Cic _Tusc_ I 70 'haec igitur et alia innumerabilia cum cernimus, possumusne dubitare quin iis praesit aliquis uel effector ... uel ... moderator tanti _operis et muneris_?', _ND_ II 90, _Off_ III 4 'nulla enim eius ingenii [_sc_ Africani] monumenta mandata litteris, nullum _opus_ otii, nullum solitudinis _munus_ extat', and _Met_ VII 435-36 (to Theseus) 'quodque suis securus arat Cromyona colonus, / _munus opusque_ tuum est'. II. To Cornelius Severus Cornelius Severus (Schanz-Hosius 268-69 [§ 317]) was one of the most famous poets contemporary with Ovid; of him Quintilian said 'etiam si uersificator quam poeta melior ['even if his facility outruns his inspiration'], si tamen (ut est dictum) ad exemplar primi libri bellum Siculum perscripsisset, uindicaret sibi iure secundum locum [_sc_ after Virgil]' (X i 89). The elder Seneca quoted with approval Severus' lines on the death of Cicero, as the finest lament produced on the subject (_Suas_ VI 26: Winterbottom _ad loc_ refers to a commentary by H. Homeyer, _Annales univ. Saraviensis [phil. Fak.]_ 10 [1961], 327-34). _EP_ I viii was addressed to a different Severus: in the third and fourth lines of the present poem, Ovid expresses his embarrassment at having addressed no poem to Severus previously, and in the earlier poem no mention is made of the addressee's poetry. The poem is an apology to Severus for Ovid's not having sent a poem to him before; he offers two excuses for the omission. In the first fourteen lines, he flatters Severus by saying that so good a poet hardly needs to receive verse from someone else; in the twenty-four lines that follow he describes how his poetry, because of the conditions at Tomis, is now less abundant and of poorer quality than before. The subject is one Ovid had employed before: _Tr_ III xiv, a request for indulgence to Ovid's verse, and _Tr_ V xii, a reply to a friend who had urged him to write more poetry, treat the same topic in much the same way. The theme is similar to that of Catullus LXVIII 1-40, where the poet explains that his brother's death has caused his lack of interest in poetry. In 39-46 Ovid moves to the somewhat discordant topic (which serves however to re-emphasize his misery at Tomis) of how he continues to write poetry to take his mind off present evils, a theme he had used several times before, most notably in _EP_ I v. He ends the poem with a request that Severus send him some of his recent work (47-50).