Ovid
Ovid (Publius Ovidius Naso, 43 BC–AD 17),poet, was born at Sulmo in the Abruzzi on 20 March. Our chief source for his life is one of his own poems, Tristia 4. 10. As the son of an old equestrian family, Ovid was sent to Rome for his education. His rhetorical studies under Arellius Fuscus and Porcius Latro, in which he evidently acquitted himself with distinction, are described by the elder Seneca (Controversiae 2. 2. 8–12; cf. 9. 5. 17). His education was rounded off by the usual Grand Tour through Greek lands (Tristia 1. 2. 77–8, Epistulae ex Ponto 2. 10. 21ff.). After holding some minor judicial posts, he apparently abandoned public life for poetry—thus enacting one of the commonplaces of Roman elegiac autobiography. With early backing from Marcus Valerius Messalla Corvinus (Epistulae ex Ponto 1. 7. 27–8) Ovid quickly gained prominence as a writer, and by AD 8 he was the leading poet of Rome. In...
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