=49. TABIDA CONSVMIT FERRVM LAPIDEMQVE VETVSTAS.= Iron and flint were proverbial for hardness: compare x 3-4 'ecquos tu silices, ecquod, carissime, ferrum / duritiae confers, Albinouane, meae?', _Her_ X 109-10, _AA_ I 473-76, _Met_ XIV 712-13, _Fast_ V 131-32, _Tr_ IV vi 13-14, and _EP_ II vii 39-40; other passages are cited by Smith at Tib I iv 18 'longa dies molli saxa peredit aqua'. At I 313-16, Lucretius, discussing the invisible wearing away of substances, says 'stilicidi casus _lapidem_ cauat, uncus aratri / _ferreus_ occulte decrescit uomer in aruis, / strataque iam uolgi pedibus detrita uiarum / saxea conspicimus'.
=51. SCRIPTA FERVNT ANNOS.= The phrase completes the sentence begun in the previous distich, as is shown by the parallel passages _Am_ I x 61-62 'scindentur uestes, gemmae frangentur et aurum; / _carmina quam tribuent, fama perennis erit_' and _Am_ I xv 31-32 'ergo cum silices, cum dens patientis aratri / depereant aeuo, _carmina morte carent_'.
=51. FERVNT.= 'Withstand'; the same sense at _Tr_ V ix 8 'scripta _uetustatem_ si modo nostra _ferunt_', Cic _Am_ 67 'ea uina quae _uetustatem ferunt_', Silius IV 399-400 'si modo _ferre diem_ ... carmina nostra ualent', and Quintilian II 4 9 'sic et _annos ferent_ et uetustate proficient'.
=51-53. AGAMEMNONA ... THEBAS.= The two great cycles of Greek heroic mythology. The same conjunction at _Am_ III xii 15-16 'cum _Thebae_, cum _Troia_ foret, cum Caesaris acta, / ingenium mouit sola Corinna meum' and _Tr_ II 317-20 'cur non Argolicis potius quae concidit armis / uexata est iterum carmine _Troia_ meo? / cur tacui _Thebas_ et uulnera mutua fratrum / et septem portas sub duce quamque suo'; compare as well Prop II i 21 '[canerem ...] nec ueteres _Thebas_ nec _Pergama_, nomen Homeri'. Lucretius, arguing that the world was created at a definite moment, wrote 'cur supera ['before'] bellum _Thebanum_ et funera _Troiae_ / non alias alii quoque res cecinere poetae?' (V 326-27).
=52. QVISQVIS CONTRA VEL SIMVL ARMA TVLIT.= The leaders of the Greeks and Trojans.
The line's structure parallels 54 'quicquid post haec, quicquid et ante fuit'. Both are conspicuous by their lack of adornment.
=55. DI QVOQVE CARMINIBVS, SI FAS EST DICERE, FIVNT.= This is possibly a reference to Herodotus II 53, where Herodotus says that Homer and Hesiod established the Greek pantheon; for Ovid's borrowings from Herodotus, see at iii 37 _opulentia Croesi_ (p 189). The same idea previously in Xenophanes (fr. 11 Diels).