iure bono: justly; apparently with the meaning of the familiar iure optimo, though not found elsewhere. The conjunction of iure with merito, as here (v. 2), was common; cf. Pl. Most. 713 “te ipse iure optumo merito incuses licet” ; Cic. Catil. 3.6.14 “merito ac iure laudantur” ; Juv. 2.34 “iure ac merito vitia ultima fictos contemnunt Scauros” .
sacer: cursed; cf. Catul. 14.12.
alarum hircus: cf. Catul. 69.6n.
obstitit: i. e. hindered him from being an attractive lover, while the gout hindered him from being a happy one.
[2] tarda podagra: the limping gout, the adjective being used in thc factitive sense; cf. Hor. S. 1.9.32 “tardo podagra” .
[2] secat: torments; cf. Mart. 9.92.9 “tortorem metuis? podagra cheragraque secatur Gaius” .
[3] qui vestrum exercet amorem: if it be true that there are no cases so early as this period of vester for tuus, the meaning must be somewhat as follows: ‘your rival has usurped your place entirely, and now himself enjoys all that love shared mutually by you and your mistress (vestrum) before she was corrupted.’ But the passage is at best unsatisfactory. With exercet amorem cf. Catul. 61.235 “exercete iuventam” ; Catul. 68.66 “exerceremus amores” .
[4] a te nactus: i. e. in succeeding to your place in the affections of your mistress he has also succeeded to your diseases, and thereby brings upon himself and her the punishment due to false friend and faithless mistress. In the character of the consolation administered there seems to be a back-handed slap for the person addressed, in implying that he was himself thus afflicted with diseases arising from habits of dissipation.
[6] podăgra: but v. 2 podāgra; with the variation in quantity of the syllable containing a short vowel before a mute and a liquid cf. Lucr. 4.1222 “quae pătribus pātres tradunt ab stirpe profecta” ; Verg. A. 2.663 “gnatum ante ora pătris, pātrem qui obtruncat ad aras” ;
; Ov. Met. 13.607 “ et primo similis volŭcri, mox vera volūcris” .
