Ovid, or Publius Ovidius Naso, was born around March 20th, 43 B.C. in Sulmo, Italy.  He was the last of the Golden Age poets, such as Vergil and Horace, and was the first of the Silver Age poets, such as Luean and Stalius.  The death of his older brother made Ovid the focus of his family hopes and so he went to Rome, studied rhetoric with famous teachers, and began a career in government after successful graduation from law school.  Ovid spent an easy life in Rome in the enjoyment of a sufficient income.  He was in good relations with the family of Augustus, the emperor, and it is supposed that some serious offense give to some member of that family was the cause of an event which disrupted the poet's happy  condition of living and clouded the rest of his life.

        At the age of fifty, Ovid was banished from Rome, and was ordered to live in Tomi which lies on the Black Sea.  Here is where the poet spent the last ten years of his life, miserable and full of grief.  His only relief in exile was to write to his wife who was still in Rome.  All of his letters were poetical.  Ovid is believed to be one of the greatest story-tellers in Latin poetry.  Two great works of Ovid are his "Metamorphosis" and his "Fasti."  They both are mythological and most of our stories of Greek and Roman mythology are taken from "Fasti."
 

Visit some of these links:
Click this to see a translation into English verse of the Metamorphosis.
Click this to see visit another page on Ovidian stuff.
Click this to see visit another page on Ovid.
Click Project Muse for a searchable database for Ovid.
Click this to go and visit a similar Latin Page made by the B.H.S. Latin Club.
 

Return to the Latin Page
 
Works Cited:
A History of Private Life , Paul Veyne
The Oxford Classical Dictionary, Simon Horn Blower
The Legacy of Rome , Cyril Bailey

Page Composed by: Yusuf Ahmad