OVIDIUS, P. NASO

OVIDIUS, P. NASO, one of the most celebrated of the Roman poets, was born at Sulmo, a city of the Peligni, on the 20th of March, B.C. 43., the very year in which Cicero lost his life. His father, who was of equestrian rank, bestowed on his son the best education that Rome could furnish, and this was afterwards improved by a residence at Athens. On his return to Rome he applied himself to law, and we find him in succession triumvir, centumvir, and decemvir. He soon found, however, that such a course of life did not suit his inclination; and withdrawing himself from active business, he devoted his whole time to the study of poetry. He was three times married; but his first two wives he divorced, and to his third, who was of the family of the Fabii, he was passionately attached. His daughter Perilla appears also to have been a favourite. With Virgil he could have been but little acquainted, as the Mantuan bard died when Ovid had scarcely attained his twenty-fifth year; but he was the intimate friend of Propertius, Catullus, and Cornelius Gallus. He passed many peaceful years in Rome, enjoying all the pleasures of a luxurious capital, and pursuing his favourite studies; but at last some of his proceedings having excited the displeasure of Augustus, he was ordered to retire from Rome, and take up his residence at Tomi, a city of the Getæ, situated near the mouth of the Danube. What really was the cause of his banishment is a point which has been much discussed by

the learned; but as the poet always speaks of it in dark and obscure terms, no satisfactory solution has as yet been suggested. It would appear to have been something of which he had been an innocent witness, and which he had been indiscreet enough to mention to his friends on some convivial occasion. As Julia, the niece of Augustus, was at this time banished on account of her shameless debaucheries, some have imagined that Ovid's punishment might have arisen from participation in her pleasures, or from some indiscreet disclosure of them. It has even been suggested that the lady whom he celebrates under the name of Corinna was no other than Julia; but this is impossible, as he himself states that he was only about his twentieth year when he sung her praises; and his banishment took place about his fiftieth year. Others have suggested that it arose from the disclosure of some state secret respecting Agrippa, the nephew of Augustus, who had been banished to Campania; but there is nothing in the works either of Ovid or of any ancient author that can enable us to come to any satisfactory conclusion. Ovid did not submit to the inconveniences of exile without murmuring, nor was he willing to allow himself to be forgotten. He showed that his mind was completely enervated by the luxurious life he had led at Rome; and he allowed himself to make the most abject entreaties to Augustus to procure his recall; but neither Augustus, nor after him Tiberius, would listen to his request. He remained at Tomi till the time of his death, which happened in the eighth year of his banishment, and the fifty-ninth of his age, A. D. 16.

Ovid's principal work is entitled Metamorphoseon Libri, probably from the Latin language not affording a word equally expressive of the author's meaning. They contain, in fifteen books, a series of about three hundred and fifty fables, which begin with Chaos, and end with the death of Cæsar; and they are so arranged that one fable seems to arise naturally from the other. The poet has shown much art in selecting those fables which were suited to his purpose, and in uniting into one consistent whole, materials which differ so much in form and in character. He has also contrived to throw into his work much dramatic spirit, which keeps up the attention of the reader, and gives a liveliness to every scene which he describes. No poet has succeeded better in painting the passions and affections which agitate the breast of man. The materials for his work are no doubt mainly drawn from the Greeks, and more particularly from the Alexandrine school, by which this subject had been frequently treated. He has borrowed much from Nicander, who also afforded materials for the work of Antoninus Liberalis, a Greek of the later ages. We possess a Greek translation of the Metamorphoses by Manuel Planudes.

His work entitled Amorum Libri consists of forty-nine elegies, and was originally divided, as he himself states, into five books; but he omitted two. The subject of these elegies is the poet himself and his love-adventures, which he describes with the utmost freedom and sincerity. The passions which moved him, and the feelings he experienced, are expressed with all the lightness of touch and grace so peculiar to the poet, and which has taken off much of the grossness that is natural to such a subject. According to a German critic, this work must have been published somewhere between 744 and 752 U. C. (B. C. 10-2).

His work entitled Tristia, in fifty elegies, and Epistole ex Ponto, forty-six elegies, in four books, were both composed at Tomi during his exile, the first between the years 762-765 (A. D. 9-12), and the second between 765-969 (A. D. 12-16). Both contain heavy and unceasing complaints of the unhappiness of his fate; but the constant repetition of the same idea produces a disagreeable effect; and the unmanliness of his grief does not tend to raise his character in the mind of the reader. The versification of these works, however, is perfect.

The Heroides are a series of love-letters written by heroines of the mythological age, to their absent lovers. Ovid does not appear to have borrowed the idea of this species of elegy from any Greek writer, though some have been inclined to suspect that such was the case. We possess twenty-one of these letters, but the genuineness of the last six has been doubted, some ascribing them to the pen of Aulus Sabinus. Love forms the subject of them all, with complaints of the absence of lovers; but the different circumstances in which each is placed have enabled the poet to throw much agreeable variety into the letters. The feelings are described with much truth; and though the simplicity of an earlier age is sometimes to be regretted, still they must be considered as one of the most successful of his works.

The Fasti is another work of very high merit, in which he describes the origin and customs observed in different Roman festivals, in chronological order. The six books which we possess include only the first six months of the year, though the poet intended to have completed in the same manner the circle of the year, but was prevented probably by his banishment. The subject is one which enabled him to display his historical and mythological learning; and as he seems to have taken much interest in the investigation of the ancient native religion of Italy, this poem is one of the chief sources from which we gather the customs and superstitions of those early times.

The bibliography of Ovid is immense; indeed the different editions of his works, together with the commentaries, and the translations, would fill a volume. We shall here confine ourselves to the citation of the principal editions. These are, 1. The Bologna edition, Azzoguidi, 1471, in folio, being the first book printed at Bologna; 2. That of Rome, Conrad Sweynheim and Arnold Pannartz, 1471, in two volumes folio, published under the auspices of the Bishop of Alenia; 3. Those published by the Alduses, at Venice, about the beginning of the sixteenth century, which are greatly esteemed, particularly that of 1502, 1503, in three vols. 8vo, and that of 1515, 1516, also in three vols. 8vo, with notes by Navagero; 4. The Leyden edition, 1661, 1662, in three vols. 8vo, cum notis variorum, brought out under the superintendence of Snipping; and, 5. That of Amsterdam, 1727, in four vols. 4to, being the beautiful edition of Burmann. The French translations are exceedingly numerous, and, upon the whole, the best that have appeared in any modern language.