Ovidius Naso Essay

Publius Ovidius Naso, better known as Ovid, was born March 20th, 43 B.C. in the town of Sulmo, Italy. At an early age, his father wanted him to pursue a career in law as a lawyer due to the family’s strong ties to the equestrian order. Ovid went on to Rome to study rhetoric and law; however, he was only able to acquire minor legal positions. Realizing that his passion did not lie in the political field, he turned to poetry.
Focusing and improving on his poetry by writing full-time, most of his personal life was discovered through his multiple works. By the age of 30, Ovid had already married three times, divorced twice, and had one daughter. One of Ovid’s first major pieces of work was written in 16 B.C., titled Amores (Loves). Many of Ovid’s works centered around the concept of love, and this collection of poems was no different as it focused on his love of an imaginary woman named Corinna. After his first major success, he wrote a series of letters titled Heroides, which was published between the years 8 B.C. to 5 B.C. Heroides described the heroines of both Greek and Roman mythology writing letters to their absent husbands or lovers. Finally, considered as Ovid’s most famous piece of work, Metamorphoses was written in 8 A.D. Spanning over fifteen books, Metamorphoses told the tale of legendary heroes from Greek …show more content…
Because of this, his works became banished in many Roman libraries. The real reason for Ovid’s exile is unknown, but in his poem Epistulae ex Ponto, he explained the reason to be “a poem and a mistake”. This has led historians to believe that Amores was the cause of Ovid’s exile as the piece ridiculed conventional love poetry and provided intense descriptions of contemporary Roman society. In addition to Epistulae ex Ponto, Ovid also described his sadness and longing to return to Rome in his poem Tristia. Ovid died in Tomis in 17 A.D., though his works still live on