=29. A DEMENS.= _A_ indicates a certain amount of sympathy with the person
addressed, as can be seen from _Tr_ V x 51-52 'quid loquor, _a demens_?
ipsam quoque perdere uitam, / Caesaris offenso numine, dignus eram' and
_Ecl_ II 60-61 'quem fugis, _a demens_? habitarunt di quoque siluas /
Dardaniusque Paris'. _O_ (_M1FILT_) would indicate rather less sympathy:
compare _Met_ III 640-41 'dextera Naxos erat: dextra mihi lintea danti /
"quid facis, _o demens_? quis te furor" inquit "Acoete?"'.
=29. RECEDAT= (_TM2_) is no doubt a scribal conjecture, but a correct one:
'Why, in case disaster should strike ...'. Most manuscripts have
RECEDIT.
=31. ORBE= probably means 'wheel'; compare Tib I v 70 'uersatur celeri
Fors leuis orbe _rotae_' and _Cons ad Liuiam_ 51-52 (quoted in the next
note). However, Professor E. Fantham points out to me that it could also
mean 'sphere': she cites Pacuvius 366-67 Ribbeck2 (_Rhet Her_ II 36)
'Fortunam insanam esse et caecam et brutam perhibent philosophi, /
_saxoque_ instare in _globoso_ praedicant _uolubilei_'. Smith at Tib I v
70 gives numerous instances of both images.
=32. QVEM=, found in Heinsius' _fragmentum Boxhornianum_ (=Leid. Bibl.
Publ. 180 G), must be right as against the QVAE of the other
manuscripts; if a definition is to be given after the preceding 'haec
dea non stabili quam sit leuis orbe fatetur', it should be a definition
of the wheel, not the goddess. But the resulting _quem summum dubio_
seems very awkwardly phrased, and further emendation is probably needed.
The obvious solution would be to read 'quem summo [_C_ in fact reads
_summo_] _dubium_ sub pede semper habet'. This would give _orbis_ a
standard epithet, as at _Tr_ V viii 7-8 'nec metuis _dubio_ Fortunae
stantis in _orbe_ / numen' and _Cons ad Liuiam_ 51-52 'nempe per hos
etiam Fortunae iniuria mores / regnat et _incerta_ est hic quoque nixa
_rota_'. In support of the rather more difficult _summo ... pede_
(='toes') Professor R. J. Tarrant cites Sen _Suas_ II 17 'insistens
_summis digitis_ ['toes']--sic enim solebat quo grandior fieret', Sen
_Tro_ 1090-91 'in cacumine / erecta _summos_ [_uar_ summo] turba
librauit _pedes_', and _Met_ IV 562 'aequora destringunt _summis_
Ismenides _alis_'; compare as well _Met_ IX 342-43 'in adludentibus
undis / _summa pedum_ taloque tenus uestigia tingit'.
A second solution might be to read 'quem _dubio summum_ sub pede semper
habet'; the transfer of _dubius_ from _orbis_ to _pes_ seems acceptable
enough, and _Met_ IV 134-36 'oraque buxo / pallidiora gerens exhorruit
aequoris instar, / quod tremit exigua cum summum stringitur aura' offers
a good parallel to _summum_.
The image of Fortune standing on her wheel occurs elsewhere in Ovid's
poems of exile at _Tr_ V viii 7-8 (quoted above) and _EP_ II iii 55-56
'scilicet indignum, iuuenis carissime, ducis / te fieri comitem stantis
in orbe deae'.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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