6 NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2019PROFILES
Loves and
Lossesa.d. 17
Having written the
Tristia (Lamentations),
and after years of trying
unsuccessfully to return to
Rome, Ovid dies in exile.a.d. 8
Ovid completes
his masterwork,
Metamorphoses. In the
same year he is exiled
from Rome by Augustus.a.d. 2
Ovid’s publication of the
Ars amatoria (The Art of
Love), a “self-help” work
on romance, causes a
sensation in Rome.16 b.c.
After studying in Athens,
Ovid settles in Rome
where he publishes his
love poetry, Amores (The
Loves), to great acclaim.43 b.c.
Publius Ovidius Naso is
born in Sulmo (in eastern
Italy), into a well-off
family of the equestrian
class.Ovid: The Poet
Exiled by an Emperor
Author of the Metamorphoses, Ovid was one of Rome’s favorite poets, but he died in exile,
banished from Rome by Augustus for reasons that history cannot identify.
EMPEROR AUGUSTUS, FIRST-CENTURY AUREUS. STATE MUSEUMS, BERLINAugustus’ motives for
banishing Ovid have intrigued
historians for many centuries.P
ublius Ovidius Naso—the poet
known today as Ovid —tried
to write his own epitaph. In a
series of poems composed near
the end of his life, he asked for
these lines to mark his final resting place:I who lie here was a writer
Of tales of tender love
Naso the poet, done in by my
Own ingenuity.
You who pass by, should you be
A lover, may you
Trouble yourself to say that Naso’s
bones
May rest softly.Recognized today for the Metamorpho-
ses, his dazzling reworking of Greek and
Latin myths, Ovid was known during
his time for vibrant, controversial love
poetry, including the Amores (The Loves)
and the Ars amatoria (The Art of Love).
These frank poetic reflections on Roman
sexual customs brought him fame but
also played a role in his downfall.
After publishing his magnum opus,
Ovid fell out of imperial favor, was forced
to leave Rome, and exiled to Tomis, a city
on the Black Sea. It
was here, on the
fringes of theempire, that Ovid pined for his beloved
Rome and begged to return.
By Ovid’s own account, the exile was
punishment for an “error” that enraged
the emperor Augustus. Ovid considered
himself lucky that he escaped execution
for the offense but never recorded any
specific details about what he did wrong.
Scholars have puzzled over the cause of
the exile for centuries, which remains
unsolved to this day.Scandalous Success
Ovid was born in 43 B.C. in Sulmo (now
Sulmona) 100 miles east of Rome. His
letters and the Tristia (Lamentations), a
five-book collection of poems written
in exile, have given historians a wealth
of autobiographical details.
He describes himself as a natural poet
from his youth: “Poetry in meter comes
unbidden to me.” After a brief stint trav-
eling and then studying in Athens, he
turned his back on a political career, and
went instead to Rome to become a poet.
He fell in love with the city, and it em-
braced his poetry.
Completed in 16 B.C., Ovid’s first ma-
jor work was the Amores, a collection of
poems charting a love affair with a young
woman called Corinna. In this first book
of poems, Ovid employed an urbane,BPK/SCALA, FLORENCE