HKB
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Often appears with: language, naming, and meaning · justice as a virtue · poetry and the poets · history and the writing of history · doubt, skepticism, and certainty · translation and the transmission of texts · reason and the intellect · myth and the gods of the nations · logic, method, and demonstration · counsel and advisers to rulers · wordplay with excutias · wordplay
Usually: commentary or gloss (13) · detachment (10) · curiosity (7) · skepticism (6) · crisis of belief (2) · grief and loss (1) · injustice endured (1)
“Ovid begins the poem by stating that he has heard about his friend's faithlessness; he asks what possible excuse there might be for this behaviour (1-28).” Ovid, The Last Poems of Ovid · observation
“They [the Black Sea] in winter, spurs of the Siberian anticyclone (clear, dry, high-pressure air mass) create a strong current of cold air.” Ovid, The Last Poems of Ovid · observation
“Pompeius is kept in the third person through line 10; Ovid thereby indicates that he is making a public declaration.” Ovid, The Last Poems of Ovid · observation
A critical note identifies Saianfu/Siang-yang, reconstructs a discrepancy between Marco Polo’s account and Chinese histories about the siege’s timeline, and explains why chronology strains the claim about Polo’s family assisting in the fall.
bears some similar evidence. One of the Tartar characteristics reported by a fugitive Russian Archbishop, in Matt. Paris (p. 570 under 1244), is: “*Machinas habent multiplices, recte et fortiter jacientes*.” It is evident, therefore, that the Mongols and Chinese *had* engines of war, but that they were deficient in some advantage possessed by those of the Western nations. Rashiduddin’s expression as to their h…
The editor discusses differences between Ramusio’s and older versions of Polo’s text, refusing to substitute Ramusio entirely because some passages raise doubts, despite objectionable dismemberment.
so interpolated without taking liberties with one or both texts. The picture in Ramusio, taken as a whole, is so much more brilliant, interesting, and complete than in the older texts, that I thought of substituting it entirely for the other. But so much doubt and difficulty hangs over *some* passages of the Ramusian version that I could not satisfy myself of the propriety of this, though I feel that the d…
This passage is editorial material about a specific line of Ovid, noting a Greek sea tradition, a textual variant “Dii/Di majorum,” and that the Bell version follows the intended reading.
--: as they really happened [happen] I. VI Footnote 38: Di majorum gentium [Di imajorum] *intended text may have been “Dii majorum”* [... the sea joined in its waters] --: the tradition here followed by Ovid [that tradition]
The passage is a historical commentary note supporting Josephus’s early dating and textual details, discussing reductions of Benjamite numbers and how certain copy variants affect chronology.
up as own him for their supreme King, and aim to govern according to his laws, he hath admitted of them, and protected them and their subjects in all generations.] 12 (return) [ Josephus's early date of this history before the beginning of the Judges, or when there was no king in Israel, Judges 19;1, is strongly confirmed by the large number of Benjamites, both in the days of Asa and Jehoshaphat, 2 Chronicles 14:8, …
Final notes clarify wordplay and mythic references about Helen, Menelaus, and related figures, including explanations of etymology and whether textual variants are spurious.
the peculiar bitterness with which he is treated, his conquest turning to ashes in his mouth, and his love a confused turmoil of hunger and hatred, contemptible and yet terrible. The exit of the scene would leave a modern audience quite in doubt as to what happened, unless the action were much clearer than the words. But all Athenians knew from the *Odyssey* that the pair were swiftly reconciled, and lived happily t…
The commentary explains Ovid’s complaints about lacking a responsive audience in exile, identifies Hister as the Danube’s lower course, and discusses textual variants and the meaning of related lines.
ab agricola uix sinit illa [*sc* loca] fodi'. At *Tr* III x 57-66 Ovid gives a vivid description of what could happen to the farmers of Tomis in a raid. =44. NOVATA= = 'restored to fertility through ploughing'. Ovid more commonly uses *renouare*, as at *Tr* V xii 23-24 'fertilis, assiduo si non renouetur aratro, / nil nisi cum spinis gramen habebit ager', *Am* I iii 9, *Met* I 110 & XV 125, *Fast* I 159, and *Tr* IV…
The commentary continues textual and interpretive notes, explaining the meaning of ‘commodo’/anger-like terms, reading variants for lines about blame and assistance, and clarifying idioms like “in three words.”
meaning, *ira* not being found even as a predicative dative; but compare the use of *laudes* to mean 'acts deserving praise', as at viii 87 'tuas ... laudes ... recentes'. =23. QVOD TE NVNC CRIMEN SIMILEM= seems to be the correct reading; the line connects with the *an crimen ...* of 24. QVAE TE CONSIMILEM RES NVNC (*FIL*) looks like a rewriting of the line, perhaps following the loss of *crimen* by haplography (*cr…
Further notes compare readings and meanings for phrases in Ovid, debating variants like “deceived ear,” “true words,” and the sense of seeing the consul without obstruction.
=12. DECEPTA ... AVRE.= Compare *Met* VII 821-23 'uocibus ambiguis *deceptam* praebuit *aurem* / nescio quis nomenque aurae tam saepe uocatum / esse putat nymphae'. =14. VERA, MINVS= *Hilberg* VERBA MINVS *codd*. For the phrase _uera fateri* Hilberg (35-36) cited as parallels *Met* VII 728 & IX 53, *Tr_ I ix 16, *EP* III i 79 'si uis *uera fateri*', *EP* III ix 19 'quid enim dubitem tibi *uera fateri*?', to which ad…
Continuing the Suillius/Germanicus commentary, the editor treats textual and social claims about equestrian heredity, explains wordplay (excute/excutias), and discusses how Ovid frames his own fault as an error rather than a deeper moral stain.
by the familiar image of the blind goddess, replacing an original SAEVA (Riese) or LAEVA, for which compare Silius III 93-94 'si promissum uertat *Fortuna* fauorem, / _laeuaque sit coeptis_'. =17-18. SEV GENVS EXCVTIAS, EQVITES AB ORIGINE PRIMA / VSQVE PER INNVMEROS INVENIEMVR AVOS.= A similar claim at *Tr* IV x 7-8 'usque a proauis uetus ordinis heres, / non modo fortunae munere factus eques'. The status of *eques*…
Further notes continue the textual commentary, including a date hint for the poem’s setting in the summer of AD 14, grammar and style for Ovid’s prayer, and explanations of specific lexical choices like “inter conuexa sidera.”
=122. CARPO ... OPES.= For the sense of *carpo* see at viii 32 _carpsit opes ... meas_ (p 266). =126. ILLVM= *CMFHILTB2* ILLI *B1*. Either accusative or dative would be acceptable enough with *latere*. The earliest instances from verse given by *TLL* VII.2 997 49 are Lucretius III 280 for the dative and *Aen* I 130 for the accusative. I retain the accusative because it is the reading of most manuscripts, including *…
Further commentary analyzes several proposed ways to scan Tuticanus’s name without cretic patterns, discussing textual readings and metrical “lengthening” and “shortening” rules, with explanations of specific terms.
an objection he would then counter, or he could have represented Tuticanus as saying 'at ... possum'; but it is hard to see how he could have written 'at potes'. =13. PRODVCATVR= *MHI* VT DVCATVR *LTB2F2ul* VT DICATVR *B1CF1*. *Producere* is the correct technical term for 'lengthen'; compare Quintilian VII ix 13 '*productio* quoque in scripto et correptio in dubio relicta causa est ambiguitatis' & IX iii 69 'uoces […
Commentary explains textual and grammatical choices in the opening of Ovid’s poem to Pompeius, including who receives credit among the emperors, and notes Ovid’s public declaration style and legal-interest themes.
=1. SI QVIS ... EXTAT.= Pompeius is kept in the third person through line 10; Ovid thereby indicates that he is making a public declaration. =1. EXTAT.= As Riese pointed out, the choice in 1-2 is between _extat ... requirit* and *extet ... requirat_; the problem is that the manuscripts give *extat ... requirat*, *requirit* being found only in a few manuscripts of Heinsius, while *extet* is a conjecture of Guethling.…
The editor identifies an eminent Cynic referenced elsewhere and discusses how Christian paraphrases preserve a corrupted or variant Greek reading in Epictetus’ text.
1. An eminent Cynic (also mentioned by Seneca and Tacitus). 1. This is the reading of one of the Christian Paraphrases. The other versions add the words [Greek: pros allelous] after [Greek: ex hon ou diapherometha], giving the sense "from things in which we do not differ from each other." It is no uncommon thing for all the versions of Epictetus to unite in a manifestly corrupt reading, and though in this case the r…