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Th e third of the major Augustan poets was Publius Ovidius
Naso (43 b.c.e.–17 c.e.), or Ovid. From an aristocratic family,
Ovid studied rhetoric in Rome in preparation for a career in
law, but he soon abandoned law in favor of poetry. Much of
Ovid’s verse is written in elegiac couplets, of which he was
considered in his time and later to be the master. Two of his
major subjects are seduction and erotic love, neither of which
endeared Ovid to Augustus, who was attempting to reform
the morals of Romans. Additionally, Ovid oft en wrote irrev-
erently about the emperor and his policies. One or more of
Ovid’s indiscretions—exactly which remains a mystery to
this day—earned him permanent exile to Tomis on the Black
Sea in 8 c.e.
Ovid’s fi rst work was the fi ve-book Amores (Loves), be-
gun around 20 b.c.e. It describes, mockingly at times, Ovid’s
aff air with a woman he named Corinna. Ovid followed with
Ars amatoria (Th e Art of Love) (ca. 1 b.c.e.), a step-by-step
guide to seduction, particularly of married women. In the
Heroides (Heroines) (ca. 2 c.e.), Ovid collected 20 poems that
were supposedly love letters from famous women to their
husbands or lovers.
Ovid’s major work was the Metamorphoses (Transfor-
mations), a 15-book poem completed by 8 c.e. that Ovid
may have considerd an epic because he abandoned the ele-
giac couplet for dactylic hexameter. Th e Metamorphoses
describes the creation and history of the world mostly by
telling tales in which divinities or humans are transformed.
Th e poem begins with Prometheus, who changes earth into
humankind, and ends with the assassinated Julius Caesar
changing into a star. Ovid’s theme, as usual, is human pas-
sion, as seen in the actions of both his divine and human
characters. Th e Metamorphoses is told with wit, a mature
and elegant style, and a deep knowledge of Greek and Ro-
man literature and myth.
During his exile Ovid continued to write. His collection
of elegies Tr i s t i a (Sorrow), written between 8 and 12 c.e., and
Epistulae ex Ponto (Letters from Pontus), written between
12 and 16 c.e., were more sober and personal than his previ-
ous work and were unsuccessful pleas for an end to his exile.
His last work was the Fasti, a description in verse of the Ro-
man calendar and religious festivals. It was unfi nished at his
death.
THE SILVER AGE
Th e death of Ovid in 17 c.e. marked the end of the Roman
literary golden age and the beginning of the silver age, which
lasted for a little over a century. Although none of this peri-
od’s writers would match in stature those of the golden age,
the era did produce a number of notable poets and prose
writers.
Among these poets were Martial, Juvenal, and Lucan.
Marcus Valerius Martialis (ca. 40–ca. 103 c.e.), or Martial,
was from Spain, and wrote mostly epigrams using the ele-
giac couplet. In his Epigrams, consisting of 12 books pub-
lished between 86 and 101 c.e. and containing more than
1,500 epigrams, Martial satirized the outrageous behavior
of his friends; depicted realistically life in Rome, even as
he satirized it; and idealized his childhood in Spain. Deci-
mus Junius Juvenalis (ca. 60–ca. 127 c.e.), or Juvenal, was
a sharp-tongued satirist who attacked with vigor injustice
and vice in Roman society. His 16 Saturae (Satires) (110–127
c.e.) are fi lled with cynicism, pessimism, and venom. In his
short life Marcus Annaeus Lucanus (39–65 c.e.), or Lucan,
produced a number of poems, the most famous of which was
De bello civili (On the Civil War), sometimes also know as
the Pharsalia, an epic about the battle between Julius Caesar
and Pompey.
Th e silver age produced one of the foremost Roman his-
torians, Publius (or Gaius) Cornelius Tacitus (ca. 56–ca. 117
c.e.). Tacitus’s most important works were his Historiae (His-
tories) (106–107 c.e.) and Annales (Annals; ca. 116 c.e.). Th e
former covers the period between the death of the emperor
Nero in 68 c.e. and that of the emperor Domitian in 96 c.e.,
while the latter covers the time from Augustus’s death in 14
c.e. to that of Nero. Complementing Tacitus’s histories were
the biographies of Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus (ca. 70–ca.
14 0 c.e.), whose De vita Caesarum (Lives of the Twelve Cae-
sars, as it appears in English), published sometime aft er 122
c.e., contains biographical sketches of Julius Caesar and the
fi rst 11 emperors. Suetonius also wrote other biographies of
famous orators, poets, and historians.
Among other noted prose writers were Pliny the El-
der, Pliny the Younger, Seneca the Younger, and Petronius.
Despite much public and military service, Pliny the Elder
(Gaius Plinius Secundus) (23–79 c.e.) found time to write
histories, biographies, and a work on natural history, the
37-volume Naturalis historia (Natural History) (77 c.e.). Th e
latter compiled—without any attempt to separate fact from
fi ction—every report about the world that Pliny could dis-
cover. Pliny died while trying to obtain a closer look at the
erupting Mount Vesuvius that buried the city of Pompeii.
His nephew Pliny the Younger (Gaius Plinius Caecilius Se-
cundus) (ca. 61–ca. 111 c.e.) was a noted orator and prolifi c
letter writer, the latter of which covered many topics, such as
his vivid description of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius that
killed his uncle.
Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca) (4 b.c.e.–
65 c.e.) wrote extensively on Stoic philosophy, explaining
that self-control, moderation, and detachment from pleasure
and pain were necessary to fi nd truth. Petronius (oft en iden-
tifi ed as Titus or Gaius Petronius) (ca. 27–66 c.e.) wrote one
of the fi rst novels, the Satyricon, or more properly Satyrica
(Tales of the Satyrs; ca. 60 c.e.), which chronicles the misad-
ventures of two young Greeks. Th e highlight of the novel is a
banquet thrown by a wealthy former slave, Trimalchio—an
extravagant and vulgar display of the host’s wealth.664 literature: Rome