=16. FORTVNAM, QVAE MIHI CAECA FVIT.= The image of Fortune being blind to a single individual seems very strange. Professor R. J. Tarrant suggests that _caeca_ could mean 'unforeseeing', and by _fortunam_ Ovid could be referring to his own previous circumstances; alternatively, _caeca_ might be a corruption induced 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_ was not hereditary except in the case of a senator's son. The Paeligni did not receive the citizenship until after the Social War; to be born to equestrian status, and to assume that he could have had a senatorial career (_Tr_ IV x 35), Ovid must have belonged to one of the dominant families of the region.
=17. EXCVTIAS.= 'Examine'. Ovid plays on the primary meaning of the word, 'shake out', at _Am_ I viii 45-46 'has quoque quae frontis rugas in uertice portant [_Burman_: quas ... portas _codd_] / _excute_; de rugis crimina multa cadent'. The transferred meaning had lost any sense of metaphor by Ovid's time, however; see especially _Tr_ II 224 '_excutiasque_ oculis otia nostra ['the product of my leisure hours'--Wheeler] tuis'.
=19-20. SIVE VELIS QVI SINT MORES INQVIRERE NOSTRI, / ERROREM MISERO DETRAHE, LABE CARENT.= A similar claim of no fault beyond his _error_ at _EP_ II ii 15-16 'est mea culpa grauis, sed quae me perdere solum / ausa sit, et _nullum maius adorta nefas_'.
=20. ERROREM ... DETRAHE.= At _Met_ II 38-39 the same phrase with a different meaning: (Phaethon to his father) 'pignora da, genitor, per quae tu uera propago / credar, et hunc animis _errorem_ ['doubt'] _detrahe_ nostris*.
=20. LABE CARENT.= The same sense of _labes_ at _Tr_ I ix 43 'uitae _labe carentis_' and Prop IV xi 41-42 'neque ulla _labe_ mea nostros erubuisse focos'; compare as well the phrase _sine labe_ at _Tr_ II 110 (_domus_), _Tr_ IV viii 33 (_decem lustris ... peractis_), _EP_ I ii 143 (_praeteriti anni_), _EP_ II vii 49 (_uita prior_), _Her_ XVII 14 (_tenor uitae_), and _Her_ XVII 69 (_fama_).