Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 August 2010
* The idea for this paper grew out of the work on my book The Poetics of Latin Didactic: Lucretius, Vergil, Ovid, Manilius (Oxford, 2002), in which I briefly mention the problem discussed in the following on pp. 203–4, n. 16. My thanks for comments and suggestions go to Robert A. Kaster and to CQ’s anonymous reader. I would also like to express my gratitude to the Fondation Hardt pour l’Étude de l’Antiquité classique (Vandœuvres, Switzerland), where I was able to engage in Manilian research during an enjoyable stay in the summer of 2001.