=39. MATERIA= = 'means' (_OLD materia_ 8).
=41. NEC VINVM NEC ME TENET ALEA FALLAX.= The same statement at _EP_ I v 45-46 'nec iuuat in lucem nimio marcescere uino, / nec tenet incertas alea blanda manus'. For Ovid's temperance, compare _EP_ I x 30 'scis mihi quam solae paene bibantur aquae'.
_Me tenet_ in the present passage should perhaps be translated 'holds my attention' (_OLD teneo_ 22) rather than 'attracts' (Wheeler).
=41. VINVM.= For wine as a diversion from sorrow, compare Tib I ii 1 'Adde merum uinoque nouos compesce dolores' (with Smith's note) and Tib I v 37 'saepe ego temptaui curas depellere uino'.
=42. TACITVM TEMPVS.= Similar phrases at _AA_ II 670 'iam ueniet _tacito_ curua senecta pede', _Fast_ VI 771 '_tacitis_ ... senescimus annis', _Tr_ III vii 35-36 'senectus / quae _strepitus passu non faciente_ uenit', _Tr_ IV vi 17 '_tacito_ pede lapsa uetustas' and _Tr_ IV x 27 '_tacito_ passu labentibus annis'.
=43. QVOD CVPEREM.= At _EP_ I viii 39-62 Ovid, having detailed the urban pleasures he has lost, speaks of his agricultural pursuits in Italy, and laments that this diversion is not available to him at Tomis. The two passages add personal meaning to his description at _Met_ XIV 623-34 of Pomona's gardening and his prescription at _RA_ 169-98 of agriculture as a diversion from an unhappy love-affair.
=43. SI PER FERA BELLA LICERET.= Compare _EP_ II vii 69-70 'tempus in agrorum cultu consumere dulce est: / non patitur uerti barbarus hostis humum' and _EP_ III viii 6 'hostis 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 vi 13.
=45. RESTANT= is not strictly logical, but a similar attraction of number is confirmed by metre at _Tr_ I ii 1 'Di maris et caeli--quid enim nisi uota _supersunt_?'; RESTAT (_IP_) must therefore be rejected.
Similar confusions occur in the manuscripts at _Met_ XIV 396 'nec quicquam antiqui [_Berolinensis Heinsii_: antiquum _codd plerique_] Pico nisi nomina _restant_' and _Tr_ IV x 85 'si tamen extinctis aliquid nisi nomina _restant_'.