Photo: Lucasaw, CC BY-SA 4.0

Ovid

43 BCE – 17 · died at about 60^[1][2]

Literature

Fun Facts About Ovid

• Ovid was banished by Emperor Augustus to Tomis on the Black Sea, now Constanța in Romania. He gave the reason only as "a poem and a mistake," and the exact cause is still debated.^[1][3][4]
• Ovid's father wanted him to practice law, but after his brother died at 20, Ovid gave up law and traveled to Athens, Asia Minor, and Sicily.^[1]
• Ovid married three times and had divorced twice by the time he was thirty. His third wife helped him during his exile.^[1]
• In exile, cut off from Rome's libraries, Ovid learned the local Sarmatian and Getic languages. His poem on the Roman calendar survives only for January through June.^[1]
• In 1599 the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of London ordered a translation of Ovid's love poems to be publicly burned.^[1]
• Bob Dylan's 2006 album Modern Times contains lines borrowed from a translation of Ovid's poems of exile.^[1][5][6]
• Ovid was alive at the same time as Paul the Apostle — their lives overlapped for about 12 years (c. 5–17).^[1][2][7][8]
• Ovid lived to about 60, from 43 BCE until 17.^[1][2]

Publius Ovidius Naso, known in English as Ovid, was a Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a younger contemporary of Virgil and Horace, with whom he is often ranked as one of the three canonical poets of Latin literature. The Imperial scholar Quintilian considered him to be the last of the Latin love elegists. Although Ovid enjoyed enormous popularity during his lifetime, the emperor Augustus exiled him to Tomis, the capital of the newly organized province of Moesia, on the Black Sea, where he remained for the last nine or 10 years of his life. Ovid himself attributed his banishment to a carmen et error, but his reluctance to disclose specifics has resulted in much speculation among scholars.^[1]

Contemporaries

Augustus

57 yr overlap

Horace

35 yr overlap

Virgil

24 yr overlap

Jesus

21 yr overlap

Cleopatra

13 yr overlap

Paul the Apostle

12 yr overlap

Questions About Ovid

When was Ovid born?

Ovid was born in 43 BCE and died in 17.

How old was Ovid at death?

Ovid died in 17 at about 60 years old (43 BCE–17).

What was Ovid known for?

Ovid was known for: Roman poet of the Metamorphoses. Publius Ovidius Naso, known in English as Ovid, was a Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a younger contemporary of Virgil and Horace, with whom he is often ranked as one of the three canonical poets of Latin literature. The Imperial scholar Quintilian considered him to be the last of the Latin love elegists. Although Ovid enjoyed enormous popularity during his lifetime, the emperor Augustus exiled him to Tomis, the capital of the newly organized province of Moesia, on the Black Sea, where he remained for the last nine or 10 years of his life. Ovid himself attributed his banishment to a carmen et error, but his reluctance to disclose specifics has resulted in much speculation among scholars.

Who was alive at the same time as Ovid?

Ovid's closest contemporary was Augustus. Their lives overlapped for 57 years.