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OVID, TRISTIA 2.7–8 REVISITED*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 December 2016

Barak Blum
Barak Blum*
Affiliation:
Wolfson College, Oxford
*
[email protected]
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Extract

At the beginning of Tristia 2, a single long apologetic elegy, Ovid struggles with making sense of his continued occupation with poetry, despite the disaster it has brought upon him. In lines 7–8 he broods over Augustus’ displeasure, roused by the Ars Amatoria, which led to his reproach. The passage is also sometimes adduced as a reference to the removal of the Ars from Rome's public libraries.1

Type
Research Article
Information
The Classical Quarterly , Volume 66 , Issue 2 , December 2016 , pp. 598 - 604
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Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 2016 

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Footnotes

*

I would like to thank Professors A. Rotstein, J. Price, M. Finkelberg and S.J. Harrison for reading and commenting on earlier versions of this article. Thanks are also due to the CQ editor Prof. B.J. Gibson and to the anonymous referee for their comments.

References

1 E.g. Ehwald, R., Ad historiam carminum Ovidianorum recensionemque symbolae II (Gotha, 1892), 10 Google Scholar; Owen, S.G. (ed.), Ovidi Nasonis Tristium Libri quinque, Ibis, Ex Ponto Libri quattuor, Halieutica, Fragmenta (Oxford, 1915 [reprint: 1959])Google Scholar, critical apparatus ad loc.; id., P. Ovidi Nasonis Tristium liber secundus (Oxford, 1924 [reprint: Amsterdam, 1967]), 45, 123; Wheeler, A.L. (ed.), Ovid: Tristia, Ex Ponto (London and New York, 1924 [reprint: Cambridge, MA, 1975])Google Scholar, 56 n. 1 (though he is aware that ‘the text is not certain’), and the revised, corrected second edition of Wheeler by G.P. Goold (Cambridge, MA, 1996), 56 n. 1 reproduces the same note; W. Kraus, in RE 18.2 (1942), s.v. ‘Ovidius Naso P., der Dichter’, cols. 1910–86, at 1919; André, J. (ed.), Tristes / Ovide (Paris, 1968), xvi n. 2, 36 n. 2Google Scholar; Luisi, A. and Berrino, N.F., Culpa silenda: le elegie dell'error Ovidiano (Bari, 2002), 148 Google Scholar; White, P., ‘Ovid and the Augustan milieu’, in Weiden Boyd, B. (ed.), Brill's Companion to Ovid (Leiden, Boston and Köln, 2002), 1–25, at 17Google Scholar.

2 Passages of the Tristia appearing in this article are cited from Owen (n. 1 [1915]). Translations from Latin are mine.

3 The manuscript sigla employed in this critical apparatus mostly correspond to Luck, G. (ed.), Tristia / P. Ovidius Naso, Band I: Text und Übersetzung (Heidelberg, 1967)Google Scholar. Variant readings and corruptions at the end of line 8 do not appear in the apparatus and the discussion of the tradition below, since they have no substantial bearing on the present argument. For further specifications of sigla and variants, see below and notes 6–7, 9–10.

4 Owen (n. 1 [1915]), ad loc. For other modern editions which print the same reading, see e.g. Landi, C. (ed.), P. Ovidii Nasonis Tristia (Turin, 1917)Google Scholar; Ehwald, R. and Levy, F.W. (eds.), Tristium libri V, Ibis, Ex Ponto libri IV (Leipzig, 1922)Google Scholar and cf. R.S. Deferrari, M. Inviolata Barry and R.P. Martin McGuire, A Concordance of Ovid (Washington, 1939 [reprint: Hildesheim, 1968]), amongst the verses s.v. demo, -ere; Wheeler (n. 1); André (n. 1); Hall, J.B. (ed.), P. Ovidi Nasonis Tristia (Stuttgart, 1995). Also cf. Luisi and Berrino (n. 1), 60Google Scholar.

5 Ehwald (n. 1).

6 A more detailed apparatus and sigla can be found in Owen, S.G. (ed.), P. Ovidi Nasonis Tristium Libri V (Oxford, 1889)Google Scholar, ad loc. and cxi-cxiii, 48; Luck (n. 3), ad loc. and 21–6; Hall  (n. 4), ad loc. and v-viii.

7 The Angeli Politiani Marcianus (A); Guelferbytanus Gudianus lat. 192 (G); Holkhamicus 322, also called Londiniensis Bibl. Brit. Add. 49368 (H); Palatinus, also called Vaticanus Palatinus, lat. 910 (P); and the Vaticanus lat. 1606 (V), as well as one minor manuscript, the Guelferbytanus extr. 76.3.

8 Possibly only Ripert, E. (ed.), Ovide: Les Tristes, Les Pontiques, Ibis, Le Noyer, Halieutiques (Paris, 1957)Google Scholar, ad loc. For earlier editorial support, see the discussion below and notes 40–1, 44.

9 Gothanus membr. II 122 (D); Turonensis 879 (T). Also some minor manuscripts, e.g. Londiniensis Mus. Brit. Add. 18,384; Berolinensis lat. Octau. 67.

10 Leidensis, bibl. publ. 177 (K); Vaticanus, Palatinus 1668 (Pa). In addition, some minor ones, e.g. Leidensis bibl. publ. 191; Londiniensis, Mus. Brit. Add. 18,384 [manus altera]; Bodleianus Auct. F. 1.18; Berolinensis Lat. Octau. 67 [manus altera]. Also all the ueteres editiones. A similar reading, iam pridem iussa is found in one manuscript: Vaticanus Ottob. lat. 1469 (Ob); cf. Tarrant, R.J., ‘Ovid’, in Reynolds, L.D. (ed.), Texts and Transmission: A Survey of the Latin Classics (Oxford, 1983), 257–84, at 283 n. 8Google Scholar.

11 See e.g. Luck (n. 3), 18, who recognizes the problem, yet supplies a tentative stemma.

12 Magnus, H., ‘P. Ovidius Naso, Vol. III Fasc. I Tristium libri V Ibis Ex Ponto libri IV. Ediderunt Rudolphus Ehwald et Fridericus Waltharius Levy Leipzig 1922’, Philologische Wochenschrift 44 (1924)Google Scholar, cols. 244–53, at 250; Luck, G., ‘Textprobleme der Tristien’, Philologus 103 (1959), 100–13CrossRefGoogle Scholar, at 101; Luck, G. (ed.), Tristia / P. Ovidius Naso, Band II: Kommentar (Heidelberg, 1977), 170 Google Scholar; Traill, D.A., ‘Ovid, Tristia 2.8, 296, and 507: happier solutions’, Hermes 120 (1992), 504–7Google Scholar, at 504.

13 Owen (n. 1 [1924]), 123.

14 Magnus (n. 12), cols. 251–2. For editions in favour of iam pridem uisa, see e.g. Loers, V. (ed.), P. Ovidii Nasonis Tristium Libri V (Trier, 1839), 138 Google Scholar; Riese, A. (ed.), P. Ovidii Nasonis Carmina. Vol. III: Fasti. Tristia. Ibis. Ex Ponto. Halieutica. Fragmenta (Leipzig, 1874), 134 Google Scholar.

15 Luck (n. 12 [1959]), 102; id. (n. 3), 14.

16 Traill (n. 12), 504.

17 Luck (n. 3), ad loc. See also Luck (n. 12 [1959]), 102; Luck, G., ‘Notes on the language and text of Ovid's Tristia ’, HSPh 65 (1961), 243–61, at 244Google Scholar. Note that there is a precedent for this emendation, raised, according to Ehwald (n. 1), 8, by E. Baehrens in 1881.

18 Adopted by, for example, Diggle, J., ‘Notes on Ovid's Tristia, Books I-II’, CQ 30 (1980), 401–19, at 401CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Green, P., Ovid. The Poems of Exile: Tristia and the Black Sea Letters (Berkeley and London, 2005), 222 Google Scholar; Ingleheart, J., A Commentary on Ovid, Tristia Book 2 (Oxford, 2010), 32, 68Google Scholar.

19 Traill (n. 12), 504.

20 Binsfeld, J.P., Observationes Ovidianae criticae (Bonn, 1860), 7 Google Scholar, on the grounds of a parallel with Ov. Met. 13.391. Binsfeld was given credit (though not assent) for this emendation by Owen (n. 6), 224, as well as Ehwald (n. 1), 8. Traill (n. 12), 504 n. 6 does not refer to Binsfeld (and is perhaps unaware of him), but mentions that Magnus had already considered tum instead of iam. Magnus, H.R., ‘R. Ehwald, Ad historiam carminum Ovidianorum recensionemque symbolae. II. III. Programm des Gymn. zu Gotha, 1892’, Berliner Philologische Wochenschrift 12 (1892), cols. 1485–7, at 1486Google Scholar, in turn, mentions that this had been proposed before, meaning perhaps Binsfeld.

21 I.e. ‘just / only at that point in time’, more vividly expressed by virtue of the use of iam, which like nunc (L&S s.v. nunc II.A.1; OLD s.v. 3.a) can be used to describe actions taking place in the past (L&S s.v. jam I.B). Moreover, iam used in this way would increase the irony, for which see below.

22 2.9: deme.

23 Tr. 2.23–5: Caesar… | … dicere iussit … | iusserat … dici …. Cf. also Tr. 1.3.5–6: discedere Caesar | … iusserat …; Tr. 1.3.85: iubet … discedere Caesaris ira.

24 Traill (n. 12), 504–5.

25 Perhaps also ‘inspired’ by Tr. 2.539: nos quoque iam pridem scripto peccauimus isto.

26 See Traill (n. 12), 504, explicitly concurring with Ehwald (n. 1) and Magnus, H., ‘Magdalena Schmidt, De Ovidii Tristium libro II. 1923’, Philologische Wochenschrift 43 (1923), cols. 817–21, at 820Google Scholar, who in turn mentions his debt to Ehwald in this point.

27 See Binsfeld (n. 20), 7: ‘ipsa … dicendi formula neque Ovidius umquam, neque aliorum quisquam scriptorum usus est.’

28 Spalding, G.L. (ed.), M. Fabii Quintiliani De Institutione Oratoria Libri duodecim, Volumen III: Continens Libros VII-IX (Leipzig, 1808 [reprint: Hildesheim, 1969]), 208. Cf. Binsfeld (n. 20), 7Google Scholar; Ehwald (n. 1), 8; Owen (n. 1 [1924]), 123.

29 Mostly by enclosing iam with incriminating square brackets, e.g. Radermacher, L. (ed.), M. Fabi Quintiliani Institutionis Oratoriae Libri XII, Pars Secunda: Libros VII-XII continens (Leipzig, 1959), 77 Google Scholar; Winterbottom, M. (ed.), M. Fabi Quintiliani Institutionis Oratoriae Libri duodecim, Tomus II: Libri VII-XII (Oxford, 1970), 429 Google Scholar; Rahn, H. (ed.), Marcus Fabius Quintilianus: Ausbildung des Redners, Zweiter Teil, Buch VII-XII (Darmstadt, 1975), 148 Google Scholar; Cousin, J. (ed.), Quintilien: Institution Oratoire, Tome V, Livres VIII et IX (Paris, 1978), 59 Google Scholar. Sometimes by omitting iam from the text altogether, as e.g. in Russell, D.A. (ed.), Quintilian: The Orator's Education, Books 6–8 (Cambridge, MA, 2001), 338 Google Scholar. Editions printing iam demum in their text without any qualifying brackets are very few, e.g. Halm, C. (ed.), M. Fabi Quintiliani: Institutionis Oratoriae Libri duodecim, Pars posterior (Leipzig, 1869), 66 Google Scholar, who none the less remarks in his critical apparatus that ‘id demum probabiliter coni. Spalding’, and Butler, H.E. (ed.), Quintilian: Institutio Oratoria, Books VII-IX (Cambridge, MA, 1921 [reprint 1996]), 208Google Scholar.

30 Spalding (n. 28), 208.

31 E.g. by Owen (n. 1 [1924]), 123.

32 OLD s.v. dudum 1b, 2b and 3, and s.v. pridem 3 and 4. Cf. TLL 7.1.112.66, 7.1.114.80–1, s.v. iam I.D.3.a, and 5.1.2177.62–5.1.2180.57, s.v. dudum II. For the distribution of those two adverbs after iam in Ovid, see also Deferrari, Inviolata Barry and McGuire (n. 4), s.v. iam.

33 L&S s.v. demum I.B.a-c; OLD s.v. demum 1b. Cf. TLL 5.1.513.45–5.1.514.71, s.v. demum I.A.1.c, d. For those combinations specifically in Ovid, see Deferrari, Inviolata Barry and McGuire (n. 4), s.v. demum.

34 TLL 7.1.102.74–8, s.v. iam I.B.

35 E.g. the combination iam iam has the same meaning as that of iam nunc (L&S s.v. jam I.A.1.b.α and I.A.1.b.β respectively).

36 L&S s.v. jam I.A.2.b; OLD s.v. tandem 2b.

37 L&S s.v. demum I.B.a.

38 L&S s.v. demum I and tandem; OLD s.v. demum 1a and 3a, and s.v. tandem 2.

39 On Ovid's linguistic innovations, see e.g. De Jonge, T.J., Publii Ovidii Nasonis Tristium Liber IV, Commento exegetico instructus (Groningen, 1951), 3–4 Google Scholar; Booth, J., ‘Aspects of Ovid's language’, ANRW 2.31.4 (1981), 2686–700, esp. at 2688, 2700Google Scholar; E.J. Kenney, ‘Ovid's language and style’, in Weiden Boyd (n. 1), 27–89, at 29, 42, 44, 45, 65–6.

40 See e.g. Burmann, P. (ed.), Publii Ovidii Nasonis Opera omnia. Tom. 3, Pars 2: Tristium Lib. V. Ex Ponto Lib. IV (Amsterdam, 1727), 503 Google Scholar; Güthling, O. (ed.), P. Ovidi Nasonis carmina in exilio composita, Tristium libri, Ibis, Epistulae Ex Ponto, Halieutica (Leipzig, 1884), 20 Google Scholar. Traill (n. 12), 504 is also aware that this variant was ‘often adopted’.

41 R. Ehwald (ed.), Ovidii Tristia, in P. Ovidius Naso, ex iterata R. Merkelii recognitione, Vol. III: Tristia. Ibis. Ex Ponto Libri. Fasti (Leipzig, 1884), 22 ad loc.

42 Ehwald (n. 1). And thus he was, in all probability, highly motivated to maintain the superiority of its readings over others.

43 Ehwald and Levy (n. 4).

44 Owen (n. 6), ad loc.

45 Owen (n. 1 [1915]), ad loc.

46 Luck (n. 12 [1959]), 103; Luck (n. 3), 13.

47 On the poor textual tradition of the Tristia in general, see Luck (n. 12 [1959]), 100; Luck (n. 17), 243; Luck (n. 3), 11; Luck (n. 12 [1977]), 9; Diggle (n. 18), 401.

48 Cf. Magnus (n. 12), col. 252.

49 See Riese (n. 14), vii-viii; Luck (n. 3), 12; Tarrant (n. 10), 283 and n. 6; J. Richmond, ‘Manuscript traditions and the transmission of Ovid's works’, in Weiden Boyd (n. 1), 443–83, at 477.

50 Owen himself (n. 1 [1924], 83), while maintaining that TR and L preserve the ‘true reading’ in line 2.8, acknowledged that these two manuscripts also have ‘corruptions peculiar’ to them, and that A G H P V, by virtue of partial kinship with them, ‘are valuable for elucidating the corruptions of those manuscripts’. Perhaps, then, Owen should have applied this insight here, especially as he identified corruptions in the reading of TR and L in the two immediately adjacent lines (2.7 and 2.9).

51 Traill (n. 12), 504.

52 For which, also see Tr. 2.219–40, and cf. S.G. Nugent, ‘Tristia 2: Ovid and Augustus’, in Raaflaub, K.A. and Toher, M. (eds.), Between Republic and Empire: Interpretations of Augustus and his Principate (Berkeley and LA, 1990), 239–57, at 251–2Google Scholar; Barchiesi, A., Il poeta e il principe: Ovidio e il discorso Augusteo (Rome and Bari, 1994), 22 Google Scholar; Ingleheart (n. 18), 207.

53 Or, indeed, both senses at the same time.

54 Cf. e.g. Green (n. 18), xxiv; Volk, K., Ovid (Chichester and Malden, MA, 2010), 31, 101CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

55 Luck (n. 12 [1959]), 101 and (n. 3), 14, following Magnus (n. 12), col. 250, does not attribute a special meaning connected with libraries to Tr. 2.8. Luck (n. 12 [1959]), 102 presents emissa as meaning ‘published’. Traill (n. 12) briefly mentions that iam demi iussa (which he does not accept, but maintains is superior to iam demum) ‘… was held to be a reference to Augustus’ removal of Ovid's “Ars” from all public libraries’. However, he does not discuss the ramifications of his emendation (tum demum inuisa) on the issue.

56 I.e. all except TR and L.