- Ovid (43 BCE-c. 18 CE) was a Roman Poet during the Golden Age of Roman Literature, whose contemporaries were Virgil and Horace.
- Ovid was born in Sulmona, Italy, on the 20th March 43 BCE and died in Tomis (Constanta) on the Black Sea in c.17-18 CE.
Works
- ‘Amores’ (16-15 BCE)
- In 5 books, addressed to Corinna, his lover.
- Book II, Elegy VI: The Death of Corinna’s Pet Parrot.
- ‘Medea’ (15-8 BCE)
- A Tragedy, but no longer exists.
- ‘Ars Amatoria’ (2 CE)
- The Art of Love in 3 Books.
- ‘Remedia Amoris’ (2 CE)
- Metamorphoses (8 CE)
- A Work in 15 Books consisting of 250 Greek and Roman Myths.
- It is one of the most influential Works from Antiquity, influencing Medieval, Middle Age and Western Culture today.
- ‘Fasti’ (8 CE)
- 6 Books about the Roman Calendar and Roman Astronomy covering January to June, then abandoned due to his Banishment.
Works written in Exile in Tomis (8-17 CE)
- ‘Tristia’
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- A collection of Poetry in five books.
- ‘Epistulae ex Ponto’
- A collection of Letters to friends in Rome in four books.
Banishment
- 8 – 17 CE, Augustus banished the Poet Ovid to Exile in Tomis, Constanta, Roumania) on the Black Sea, for reasons unknown. He was banished at the age of 50 and died in Exile.
- There was no Judgement passed by a Roman Court nor by the Senate, and the reason for his Exile remains a mystery.
- Coincidentally, Augustus banished his grandchildren Julia the Younger for adultery with a Senator in 8 CE and her brother Agrippa Posthumus in 9 CE, possibly because he stood in the way of the future Tiberius. Augustus‘ wife Livia may have plotted to have them removed.
- Ovid himself wrote that it was ‘Carmen et Error’, ‘a poem and a mistake’.
Tomis (Constanta), Roumania