Rome, the Greek World, and the East, Vol. 1 - The Roman Republic and the Augustan Revolution

 The Augustan Revolution

workof inheritedtradition,thesameisalsotrueofOvid’sgreatestwork,
theMetamorphoses.LookingbackinTristiaonhispoeticachievementbefore
hisexile,Ovid,ifanything,ratherunderstatedjusthowprofoundlyshaped
byAugustanloyalismthisworkhadbeen(–):

Dictaquesuntnobis,quamvismanusultimacoeptis

defuit,infaciescorporaversanovas.

atqueutinamrevocesanimumpaulisperabira,

etvacuoiubeashinctibipaucalegi,

pauca,quibusprimasurgensaboriginemundi

intuadeduxitempora,Caesar,opus:

aspicies,quantumdederismihipectorisipse,

quoquefavoreanimitequetuosquecanam.

Wesangtoo,thoughthefinaltouchwasmissingfromthe

undertaking,/ofbodiestransformedintonewappearances./Ifonly

youputyourangerbrieflyfromyourmind,/andinanidlemoment

haveafewlinesfromthisworkreadtoyou:/afew,inwhich

startingfromthefirstoriginoftheworld/Ispunoutaworkdown

toyourtime,Caesar./Thenyouwillseehowmuchheartyouput

intome,/andwithwhatwholeheartedsupportIsingofyou

andyours.

As Denis Feeney has recently shown, it is not merely that Ovid’s brilliant
retelling of myths of transformation does in fact culminate in the deifica-
tionofJuliusCaesarandtheprospectivedeificationofAugustus.Itisthatthe
entireworkisframedbytheveryrecentRomaninstitutionofthelegaltrans-
formationof humansintodeities.^34 Thusbookintroducestheextremely
boldreversalofrepresentingIuppiterassummoningallthegodstoconclave
in a context which is explicitly compared to the Palatine (, –): ‘‘hic
locus est, quem si verbis audacia detur,/haud timeam magni dixisse Pala-
tiacaeli’’(thisistheplacewhich,ifmywordsbeallowedsomeboldness,I
shouldnotfeartocallthePalatineofthegreatheaven).Soonaftercomesa
crucialreferencetothemurderofCaesar,andthecontinuingpietas(piety)
showntoAugustusbyhispeople,asbytheothergodstoIuppiter(–).
But even that hardly prepares the reader for the culmination in books –
,inwhichAeneasistoplaythecentralrole,withdiversionarysub-plots,
before the emphasis shifts to Romulus, and then Numa (with further sub-
plots); then to the importation of the cult of Aesculapius—and finally, by

. See D. C. Feeney,The Gods in Epic: Poets and Critics of the Classical Tradition(),
chap..