Book ii
. 1. 300. See the Note to the passage.]
[Footnote 636: Proportion of their wheat.--Ver. 30. With less corn than had been originally sown.]
[Footnote 637: The law-giving Mims.--Ver. 41. Minos is said to have been the first who gave laws to the Cretans.]
[Footnote 638: Late have the horns.--Ver. 6. This figure is derived from the horns, the weapons of the bull. 'At length I have assumed the weapons of defence.' It is rendered in a singular manner in Nisard's Translation, 'Trop tard, helas 1 J'ai connu l'outrage fait a mon front.' 'Too late, alas! I have known the outrage done to my forehead.'!!!]
[Footnote 639: Have patience and endure.--Ver. 7. He addresses himself, recommending fortitude as his only cure.]
[Footnote 640: The hard ground.--Ver. 10. At the door of his mistress; a practice which seems to have been very prevalent with the Roman lovers.]
[Footnote 641: I was beheld by him.--Ver. 15. As, of courser, his rival would only laugh at him for his folly, and very deservedly.]
[Footnote 642: As you walked.--Ver. 17. By the use of the word 'spatiantis,' he alludes to her walks under the Porticos of Rome, which were much frequented as places for exercise, sheltered from the heat.]
[Footnote 643: The Gods forsworn.--Ver. 22. This forms the subject of the Third Elegy of the present Book.]
[Footnote 644: Young mem at banquets.--Ver. 23. See the Fifth Elegy of the Second Book of the Amores.]
[Footnote 645: She was not ill.--Ver. 26. When he arrived, he found his rival in her company.]
[Footnote 646: I will hate.--Ver. 35. This and the next line are considered by Heinsius and other Commentators to be spurious.]
[Footnote 647: She who but lately.--Ver. 5. Commentators are at a loss to know whether he is here referring to Corinna, or to his other mistress, to whom he alludes in the Tenth Elegy of the Second Book, when he confesses that he is in love with two mistresses. If Corinna was anything more than an ideal personage, it is probable that she is not meant here, as he made it a point not to discover to the world who was meant under that name; whereas, the mistress here mentioned has been recommended to the notice of the Roman youths by his poems.]
[Footnote 648: Made proclamation.--Ver. 9. He says that, unconsciously, he has been doing the duties of the 'præco' or 'crier,' in recommending his mistress to the public. The 'præco,' among the Romans, was employed in sales by auction, to advertise the time, place, and conditions of sale, and very probably to recommend and praise the property offered for sale. These officers also did the duty of the auctioneer, so far as calling out the biddings, but the property was knocked down by the 'magister auctionum.' The 'præcones' were also employed to keep silence in the public assemblies, to pronounce the votes of the centuries, to summon the plaintiff and defendant upon trials, to proclaim the victors in the public games, to invite the people to attend public funerals, to recite the laws that were enacted, and, when goods were lost, to cry them and search for them. The office of a 'præco' was, in the time of Cicero, looked upon as rather disreputable.]
[Footnote 649: Thebes.--Ver. 15. He speaks of the Theban war, the Trojan war, and the exploits of Caesar, as being good subjects for Epic poetry; but he says that he had neglected them, and had wasted his time in singing in praise of Corinna. This, however, may be said in reproof of his general habits of indolence, and not as necessarily implying that Corinna is the cause of his present complaint. The Roman poet Statius afterwards chose the Theban war as his subject.]
[Footnote 650: Poets as witnesses.--Ver. 19. That is, 'to rely implicitly on the testimony of poets.' The word 'poetas' requires a semicolon after it, and not a comma.]
[Footnote 651: The raging dogs.--Ver. 21. He here falls into his usual mistake of confounding Scylla, the daughter of Nisus, with Scylla, the Nymph, the rival of Circe, in the affections of Glaucus. See the Note to 1. 33 of the First Epistle of Sabinus, and the Eighth and Fourteenth Books of the Metamorphoses.]
[Footnote 652: Descendant of Abas.--Ver. 24. In the Fourth Book of the Metamorphoses he relates the rescue of Andromeda from the sea monster, by Perseus, the descendant of Abas, and clearly implies that he used the services of the winged horse Pegasus on that occasion. It has been suggested by some Commentators, that he here refers to Bellerophon; but that hero was not a descendant of Abas, and, singularly enough, he is not on any occasion mentioned or referred to by Ovid.]
[Footnote 653: Extended Tityus.--Ver. 25. Tityus was a giant, the son of Jupiter and Elara. Offering violence to Latona, he was pierced by the darts of Apollo and hurled to the Infernal Regions, where his liver was doomed to feed a vulture, without being consumed.]
[Footnote 654: Enceladus.--Ver. 27. He was the son of Titan and Terra, and joining in the war against the Gods, he was struck by lightning, and thrown beneath Mount Ætna. See the Pontic Epistles,