LIFE OF OVID. PUBLIUS OVIDIUS NASO, from whose writings we derive the principal details of his life, was born in the country of the Peligni, March 20, A. U. C. 711 (B. C. 43), at Sulmo, now Sulmona, a small provincial town about ninety miles in an easterly direction from Rome. He belonged to an ancient and wealthy equestrian family, and, in accordance with the custom of the times, was at an early age taken to Rome, to prepare himself, by the usual course of rhetorical and forensic studies, for the political career to which his father had destined him. Here he received the best instructions which the capital afforded, to which were added several years of travel and study in the Greek cities of Sicily, Attica, and Asia Minor. After his return to Rome he held some minor offices; but for the severer duties of political service he had neither taste nor sufficient energy of will, while his poetic genius, which had already been exhibited during the period of his youthful studies, was developed and stimulated by intercourse with many of the poets of his day, and by the successes which had been realized by the great writers of the Augustan age, of which he was to be a shining light. His first pub lished work was the Amores. This was followed by the Medicamina Faciei, describing the various arts of the toilet then in use, a part only of which is extant, and by the Heroides, in which the legendary love stories are reproduced in the form of Epistles. Later appeared, more perfect in form and richer in contents, the Ars Amandi, or Amatoria, and about two years afterwards the Remedia Amoris. Of Medea, a tragedy, which was praised as a masterpiece, nothing remains. But more important than all the rest are two works of a widely different character, the Fasti, a summary of the religion, history, and civil institutions of Rome, and the Metamorphoses, in which the poet treats with masterly skill and luxuriant fancy of those transformations which formed so large an element in the ancient mythology, and for the materials of which he was mainly indebted to the Greeks. But the Metamorphoses lacked the finishing touches, and the Fasti was but half completed, when, by a special decree of Augustus, about 7 A. D., Ovid was banished to Tomi, a city of Thrace, on the Black Sea. The real cause of this misfortune has never been discovered. Ovid admits an error, and refers to the Ars Amandi as an ostensible reason. But whatever it was, no lamentations, no entreaties, could effect a revocation of the decree. Yet even in banishment-for it was not a formal exile, as he lost neither property nor citizenship -his poetic genius was still active in the production of the Tristia, and the Epistulae ex Ponto, and some minor works; but solitude, despair, and advancing age gradually chilled the poet's spirits, and at length death ended his hardships, 17 A. D., three years after the decease of Augustus. P. OVIDII NASONIS METAMORPHOSEON LIBER I. THE FOUR AGES. v. 89. AUREA prima sata est aetas, quae vindice nullo, 1. Aurea] The emphatic word stands at the beginning of the sentence. Hesiod reckons five ages; Ovid, four; Arātus, three; Virgil and Tibullus, two. -vindice nullo] Without any avenger (of wrong)'—the ablative absolute. 3. minacia] Referring to the edicts of the praetors and censors.fixo aere] The ablative of place without in, as often in the poets. In early times the laws were set up for public view on tablets of bronze. 5 10 and their friends, who were wont with appeals, tokens of grief, and entreaties, to try to obtain a favorable verdict from the judges. 5. erant] Sc. homines. 6. Nondum] Belongs to descenderat.-suis] 'Its native,' opposed to peregrinum. 7. pinus] By synecdoche, the material for the thing made of it. 8. norant] The pluperfect of this verb has the force of an im perfect. Cf. II. v. 192. 10. directi] Sc. aeris, the geni、 tive of characteristic and of ma 4. supplex turba] The accused terial at the same time. Non galeae, non ensis erant. Sine militis usu Mollia securae peragebant otia gentes. Ipsa quoque immunis rastroque intacta, nec ullis 15 20 Postquam, Saturno tenebrosa in Tartăra misso, ⚫25 Sub love mundus erat, subiit argentea proles, Auro deterior, fulvo pretiosior aere. 12. Mollia-otia] calm repose.' 'Enjoyed etic for 'wine.' Cf. passim rivis currentia vina repressit. Verg. G. 13. immunis] Explained by nul- I. 132. lo cogente, v. 15. 24. mella] According to the 14. per se] i. e. sua sponte, 'spon- ancients, honey was an ethereal Iuppiter antiqui contraxit tempora veris, Perque hiemes aestusque et inaequales autumnos Tum primum siccis aër fervoribus ustus Canduit, et ventis glacies adstricta pependit. C worse,' in comparison with bad. aere] For aerea, sc. aetate, as auro for aureā. 30 35 40 45 38. ingeniis] The ablative of specification. 40. venae] A term transferred Before this ver from the human body to mining, as we say a 'vein of metal.' 28. contraxit] erat aeternum, v. 19. 29. Perque-autumnos] A spondaic verse, so called from the fifth foot. 30. spatiis] The ablative of cause, manner, etc. 33. domus] Observe the quantity of the ultimate of the second domus. 35. Cerealia] Ceres first taught men agriculture and the use of corn as food.-sulcis] The ablative of place without in. 41. -que--que] Often used thus in poetry for etet, in combining single terms; seldom in prose. 45. quaeque-altis] Construe: et (-que) carinae, quae steterant (ut arbores). 46. insultavere] Here means 'bounded upon,' without the accessory notion of contempt. 47. lumina auras] Accusatives, by attraction, for ceu lumina solis et aurae communes sunt. |