Bucula sum, caelo ['chisel'] genitoris facta Myronis aerea: nec factam me puto, sed genitam, sic me taurus init, sic proxima bucula mugit, sic uitulus sitiens ubera nostra petit. miraris quod fallo gregem? gregis ipse magister inter pascentes me numerare solet.
The statue was in Athens during Cicero's lifetime (_II Verr_ IV 135); Ovid is likely to have seen it during his visit to the city (_Tr_ I ii 77). He would certainly have seen the four statues of cattle sculpted by Myron which Augustus placed in his temple of Apollo, and which Propertius described: 'atque aram circum steterant armenta Myronis, / quattuor artificis, uiuida signa, boues' (II xxxi 7-8).
=35. VLTIMA.= 'Smallest, least important'. For this rare sense compare Hor _Ep_ I xvii 35 'principibus placuisse uiris non ultima laus est', _Cons ad Liuiam_ 44 'ultima sit laudes inter ut illa tuas', Vell Pat I 11 1, and the other instances cited by _OLD ultimus_ 9.
=35. SVM= ('I am not the least of your possessions') seems unobjectionable enough; most editors have, however, accepted PARS from the _excerpta Politiani_.
=36. MVNVS OPVSQVE= is a Latin phrase with the general meaning of 'creation'. It is used in this sense at Cic _Tusc_ I 70 'haec igitur et alia innumerabilia cum cernimus, possumusne dubitare quin iis praesit aliquis uel effector ... uel ... moderator tanti _operis et muneris_?', _ND_ II 90, _Off_ III 4 'nulla enim eius ingenii [_sc_ Africani] monumenta mandata litteris, nullum _opus_ otii, nullum solitudinis _munus_ extat', and _Met_ VII 435-36 (to Theseus) 'quodque suis securus arat Cromyona colonus, / _munus opusque_ tuum est'.
Cornelius Severus (Schanz-Hosius 268-69 [§ 317]) was one of the most famous poets contemporary with Ovid; of him Quintilian said 'etiam si uersificator quam poeta melior ['even if his facility outruns his inspiration'], si tamen (ut est dictum) ad exemplar primi libri bellum Siculum perscripsisset, uindicaret sibi iure secundum locum [_sc_ after Virgil]' (X i 89). The elder Seneca quoted with approval Severus' lines on the death of Cicero, as the finest lament produced on the subject (_Suas_ VI 26: Winterbottom _ad loc_ refers to a commentary by H. Homeyer, _Annales univ. Saraviensis [phil. Fak.]_ 10 [1961], 327-34). _EP_ I viii was addressed to a different Severus: in the third and fourth lines of the present poem, Ovid expresses his embarrassment at having addressed no poem to Severus previously, and in the earlier poem no mention is made of the addressee's poetry.