Ovid in Exile

The Roman poet Ovid (43 B.C.-A.D. 17) was a rock star of the newly-founded empire ruled by Caesar Augustus. A sensitive, artistic soul, his verse, focused on the art of love, attracted the Roman youth of his day and made him a celebrity in the imperial city. But while his erotic poems attracted a mass following, his profound masterpiece, Metamorphoses, deeply rooted in the legends and traditions of ancient Rome and Greece, confirmed his creative genius and established him as one of the leading literary voices of all of antiquity, forging an enduring legacy that has impacted world literature for over two millennia. At the pinnacle of his career, however, Ovid became embroiled in one of the great scandals of his day, the details of which remain shrouded in mystery, resulting in his sudden banishment from Rome in A.D. 8 at the order of the Emperor. Augustus sent the Roman bard to the farthest reaches of the empire, exiling him to the Greek port city of Tomis, on the Black Sea coast, to live out the remainder of his days.