=32. SVPPLICIBVS FACILEM.= See on iv 30 _faciles in tua uota_, and compare _Am_ II iii 5-6 (to his girl's eunuch) 'mollis in obsequium _facilisque rogantibus_ esses, / si tuus in quauis praetepuisset amor' and _Her_ XVI 197-98 'da modo te _facilem_, nec dedignare maritum ... Phrygem'.
Ovid is here indirectly referring to his own situation: compare _EP_ III iii 107-8 'at tua _supplicibus_ domus est adsueta _iuuandis_, / _in quorum numero me precor esse uelis_'.
=33. LEGIS VINDICTA.= 'The exacting of punishment on behalf of the law'. The law has been broken, and therefore demands retribution; Brutus acts on its behalf. For the sense of the genitive compare Val Max I 1 ext 3: (Dionysius of Syracuse committed many acts of sacrilege, but punishment was visited on him after his death in the form of his son's ignominious career) 'lento enim gradu ad _uindictam sui_ diuina procedit ira tarditatemque supplicii grauitate pensat'.
=33. LEGIS ... SEVERAE.= _Seuerae_ here serves as a standard epithet and has no such special force as at _EP_ III iii 57-58 'uetiti ... _lege seuera_ / credor adulterii composuisse notas'.
=34. VERBA VELVT TAETRVM SINGVLA VIRVS HABENT.= The same image at _EP_ III iii 105-6 'ergo alii noceant miseris optentque timeri, / _tinctaque mordaci spicula felle gerant_'.
=34. TAETRVM= _R. J. Tarrant_ TINCTV _Ehwald_ TINCTVM _codd_. _Tinctum_ is impossible: if the word were used, it would have to go with _uerba_. Compare _Ibis_ 53-54 'liber iambus / _tincta_ Lycambeo sanguine _tela_ dabit', _Ibis_ 491 '[tamque cadas domitus ...] quam qui _dona_ tulit Nesseo _tincta_ ueneno', _EP_ III i 26 _'tinctaque_ mortifera tabe _sagitta_ madet', and _EP_ III iii 106 _'tinctaque_ mordaci _spicula_ felle gerant'. Ehwald's _tinctu_ is linguistically and palaeographically somewhat better than Merkel's _tinguat_: for similar corruptions compare _Fast_ III 612 'flet tamen _admonitu_ motus, Elissa, tui', where many manuscripts read _admonitus_, and _Tr_ I iv 9 'pinea texta sonant pulsu [_Rothmaler_: pulsi _codd_], stridore rudentes'. Even so, 'Each of your words carries poison, as though it had been dipped in it' seems awkward. For Professor Tarrant's _taetrum_ compare Lucretius I 936 'absinthia taetra', _Dirae_ 23 'taetra uenena', and _Hal_ 131 'nigrum ... uirus'.
