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228 BOOK REVIEWs/COMPTEs RENDUS
erotic art (769-808). The note on poetic lama is also interesting (405-32).
but Gibson is too quick to write off the possibility that Ovid is referring
to a real decline in Augustus' interest in patronizing poetry. He may be
closer to the mark when he suggests (on 387ff.) that Augustus might not
have been attuned to eulogy in the "playful Hellenistic style." Some
readers will be a bit more sceptical than Gibson in finding allusions to
earlier literature. We have grown accustomed to the observation that
any occurrence of arma at or near the beginning of a book or poem
must be a reference to the Aeneid. as Gibson duly notes on I. But when
at 77-8 we are told that "Ovid is referring particularly to Tib. 1.4.35f....
one might ask how so. since the context is altogether different and the
lexical resemblances are slight. Likewise. it is hard to see how interpretation
is assisted at 128 by positing Horace as an intertext. The parallels
to the Georgics and didactic in general. adduced by Gibson on 149-52.
are apt. but it hardly seems the case that these are specific allusions
rather than the common stock of the genre. It would be possible to multiply
the examples where Gibson sees intertexts and I see texts. but prevailing
tastes at present tend to err on the side of seeing allusion always.
coincidence never. On lexical matters Gibson most often defers to other
authorities with frequent. salutary reference to McKeown. But this
sometimes leads him astray. At 226. for instance. he refers to Palmer on
Her. 6.156 for temporal abo a precarious instance of the usage. There are
a few too many notes like the following (on 13) for my taste: "Oeclides is
very rare in Latin (see Bomer on Met. 8.317)." If the point is relevant.
then it is worth saying just why it would be worth the reader's while to
scurry after a copy of Bomer.
A good commentary tends to elicit marginalia. Herewith a few examples
from my own:
1 The elision of dem may be harsh. but Gibson's point about the resulting ambiguity
depends upon a scarcely creditable view of its pronunciation, on which see
J. Soubiran. L'Elision dans la poesie latine (1966) 55-91.
19-20 Gibson's remark that "Her story [sc. Alces is'] is not otherwise mentioned
by the elegists" is a bit odd with Pont. 3.1.105-6 cited in the following note. Cf..
in addition. Trist. 2.403. 5.5.55-56. Prop. 2.6.23-4.
63 The reference is not to the adynaton of reversing the course of rivers. associated
with witchcraft. but to the passage of time and Heraclitus' celebrated saying
that you would never step twice into the same river (PI. erat. 402a).
95 The sense of non expedit is not "it is not advantageous," but"it doesn't suit
me." as examples at TLL S.v. 1614.33ff. show.
111-12 Gibson's translation. "Doubtless-a beautiful wife-you would have approached
Ajax," is not only awkward. it is wrong. since it both misconstrues the
meaning of ornata and misses the predicative force: "you would corne dressed
up."
206 Gibson repeats the old misunderstanding of TVT66v at Call. fro 1.5 as an epi-