The Augustan Revolution
writingfromafterhisexileshowsprofoundcontinuities,ingeneralandin
detail,withthatfromtheyearsbeforeit.And,secondly,bybeingcompelled
tore-imaginewhatwasoccurringinRomeheconfersonitagenericsig-
nificancewhichamerereportmightlack.
The poems ‘‘addressed’’ to named persons arevery important for histo-
rians, not because theyactually ‘‘are’’ petitions for intercession (we do not
knowwhethertheywereornot),butbecausetheyareremarkablyvividrep-
resentations of the central rolewhich the arrival of monarchic power had
conferredonpetitioning;andbecause,moreprecisely,theyaretestimonyto
thealreadyestablishedsignificanceofwhatRichardSallerhascalled‘‘bro-
kerage’’:thecustomofdirectingappealsandrequeststowell-placedinter-
mediaries,who—itwastobehoped—wouldintercedewiththerealholders
ofpower.^37 Preciselybecauseoftheimportanceofbrokerageintheirstruc-
ture, the poems inEx Pontoin particular go beyond the representation of
theimperialhouseandthestructureofpowerwithinit,tospeakofleading
senatorsandtheirimaginedrelationshiptotheregime.Ovid’sevidenceis
thusofimmensecomplexityandsignificance,allthemoreimportantforre-
flectingaperiodattheendofAugustus’reignandthebeginningofTiberius’
whichisrelativelylittleknown.
Asisobvious,therepresentationofpublicscenesandpoliticalrelations
inRomeisonlyoneaspectofthepoetryofexile;^38 andevenasregardsthis
aspectIpickoutheremerelyafewexamplesofthreeoverlappingthemes:
emperor and public in Rome, consuls and the emperor, and the changing
structureoftheimperialhouse.
EmperorandRomanPeople
I begin with an event which never occurred, the triumph over Germany
whichOvidwasexpectingin...^39 Asindicatedearlier,eventsandinter-
connections which had literally to be imagined, and presented in poetic
form, could be thought of as even more significant than those, described
at second hand on the basis of actual reports,which had in realityalready
occurred,likethetriumphof..towhichwecomenext.
Writingthepoeminquestion(Tr.IV,),Ovidexplicitlyrepresentshim-
. R.Saller,‘‘PromotionandPatronageinEquestrianCareers,’’JRS():,and
Personal Patronage in the Early Empire().
. ForthefullestrecentdiscussionseeH.B.Evans,Publica Carmina: Ovid’s Books from
Exile().
. Syme(n.),–.