Chapter 53

'Felix, exilium cui locus ille fuit!'

The design is stated at the outset, i. 1-8,

'Tempora cum causis Latium digesta per annum lapsaque sub terras ortaque signa canam ... Sacra recognosces annalibus eruta priscis, et quo sit merito quaeque notata dies.'

The work is thus a medley of religion, history, and astrology, and in its explanations of customs may be compared to the +Aitia+ of Callimachus. For information about religious rites, and for derivations of names (_e.g._ _Agnalia_, i. 317-332), he would have recourse to Varro; for history, to Livy (cf. ii. 193-242, the story of the Fabii, from Livy, ii. 49, and vi. 587, etc., the story of Tullia, from Livy, i. 48); for astronomy, to Clodius Tuscus.

It was begun some time after Augustus regulated the Julian calendar in B.C. 8, and was originally addressed to Augustus, as Ovid himself says (_Tr._ ii. 552 above); 'Caesar' is addressed ii. 15, vi. 763, and elsewhere. After the death of Augustus, Ovid began to remodel it and dedicate it to Germanicus. Cf. i. 3,

'Excipe pacato, Caesar Germanice, voltu hoc opus et timidae dirige navis iter.'

But the task was stopped by his death; and while Book i. has the remodelled form, Books ii.-vi. remain as first written.

_Poems written in exile._--9. _Tristia_, five Books of letters to Augustus, to Ovid's wife and friends (who, however, are not named), praying for pardon or for a place of exile nearer Rome. Book i. was written on the journey to Tomi, the other books not after A.D. 11 or 12, Cf. v. 10, 1,

'Ut sumus in Ponto, ter frigore constitit Hister.'

10. The _Ibis_ was written at the beginning of his exile. Cf. l. 1,

'Tempus ad hoc, lustris bis iam mihi quinque peractis.'

The title was taken from the poem in which Callimachus attacked Apollonius Rhodius under the name of Ibis. Cf. l. 55,

'Nunc, quo Battiades inimicum devovet Ibin, hoc ego devoveo teque tuosque modo.'

Ovid studiously conceals the identity of the enemy whom he attacks; l. 61,

'Et quoniam, qui sis, nondum quaerentibus edo, Ibidis interea tu quoque nomen habe.'

He had once been a friend of the poet, but had proved false to him, doubtless in connexion with the circumstances which caused his banishment; cf. l. 85, 'capiti male fido,' l. 130, 'perfide.' He persecuted Ovid's wife, and tried to get possession of his property.

The conjectures that the unknown was Messalla Corvinus or the poet Manilius may be dismissed at once. Many hold that Hyginus is meant; Prof. Ellis suggests the _delator_ Cassius Severus (Tac. _Ann._ iv. 21), or T. Labienus (Sen. _Contr._ x. praef. 4), or the astrologer Thrasyllus (Tac. _Ann._ vi. 20). To the same person probably are addressed _Tr._ iii. 11, iv. 9, v. 8; _Pont._ iv. 3.

11. The _Epistulae ex Ponto_, in four Books, were written A.D. 12-16. In tone they resemble the _Tristia_, but the composition is more careless, and the friends to whom he writes are mentioned by name.

12. _Halieuticon_, a poem on fish, in hexameters, in a fragmentary condition. Ovid wrote this towards the end of his life.

Pliny, _N.H._ xxxii. 152, 'His adiciemus ab Ovidio posita nomina quae apud neminem alium reperiuntur, sed fortassis in Ponto nascentium, ubi id volumen supremis suis temporibus incohavit.'

MANILIUS.

Manilius is not mentioned by any other writer, and his own poem gives no particulars of his life. There is uncertainty even as to the true form of his name, the MSS. giving variously M. Mallius, Manlius, or Manilius, with the addition in one case of EQOM (probably = equitis Romani). In some MSS. the poem is wrongly attributed to Aratus or Boetius, both of whom wrote on the same subject as Manilius.

Bentley conjectured that Manilius was an Asiatic Greek, but the poet speaks of Latin as 'nostra lingua' (ii. 889), while Greek is 'externa lingua' (iii. 40), and he uses no Greek constructions.

His poem, the _Astronomica_, in its present form, consists of five Books of hexameter verse: probably a sixth Book has been lost. It may have been wholly composed in the reign of Tiberius, or begun under Augustus. Book v. was written under Tiberius, if the burning of Pompey's theatre in A.D. 22 is alluded to in ll. 513-515. The earlier Books contain nothing which might not have been written after the death of Augustus--the allusions to the disaster of Varus in A.D. 9 (i. 899), and to the sojourn of Tiberius at Rhodes (iv. 764). Either Augustus or Tiberius may be the 'Caesar' of i. 7 and i. 386. On the other hand, if Ovid is referring to Manilius (as Prof. Ellis suggests) in _Tr._ ii. 485,

'Ecce canit formas alius iactusque pilarum, hic artem nandi praecipit, ille trochi,'

it would follow that the whole poem had been published before the death of Augustus, for the descriptions of ball-play and swimming occur in v. 165-171 and 420-431.

Astronomy is treated only in Book i.; the rest of the poem is devoted to astrology. This is in accordance with the author's statement of his theme (i. 1-3), which he was the first Roman to treat in verse (i. 4, 113, ii. 57). As his object is to convey instruction rather than to give pleasure (iii. 36-39), he does not scruple to use Greek technical terms (ii. 693, 829, 897, iii. 40). The subject does not lend itself readily to verse (i. 20, iii. 31), and the poem is intolerably dry, except the introductions to each Book, which reveal considerable poetical power. The chief peculiarities of Manilius' language are his strange use of prepositions and his fondness for alliteration; imitations of Virgil are found throughout.

Manilius is a fatalist (iv. 14 and 22): still fate does not abolish the moral quality of actions (iv. 108-118). The universe is directed by a 'vis animae divina' or 'divinum numen' (i. 250, 491).

LIVY.

There is no ancient biography of Livy, and very little light is thrown on his life by his own writings or by allusions in other authors.

Titus Livius was born at Patavium (the modern Padua) B.C. 59: Jerome yr. Abr. 1958, 'T. Livius Patavinus scriptor historicus nascitur.' (The Armenian version gives _Ol._ 180, 4 = B.C. 57.) Near Patavium there was a famous sulphur spring known as Aponus or Aponi fons, whence Martial calls the district Apona tellus (i. 61, 3, 'Censetur Apona Livio suo tellus'). There is no reason to suppose from this that Livy's birthplace was not Patavium itself, but a village Aponus, which is nowhere mentioned. Statius (_Silv._ iv. 7, 55) calls him 'Timavi alumnus.' For Livy's acquaintance with Patavium cf. x. 2, 14 and 15.

From his tone we may infer that he came of a good family, and he must have possessed a fair income. The charge against his style of _Patavinitas_ implies that he spent a considerable part of his life in his native town, but he probably settled at Rome about B.C. 30. That he took no part in public life is clear from his own words: i. praef. 5, 'Hoc laboris praemium petam, ut me a conspectu malorum, quae nostra tot per annos vidit aetas, tantisper certe, dum prisca illa tota mente repeto, avertam, omnis expers curae, quae scribentis animum etsi non flectere a vero, sollicitum tamen efficere posset.'

He enjoyed the intimacy of Augustus, whom he himself mentions, iv. 20, 7, 'hoc ego cum Augustum Caesarem ... se ipsum ... legisse audissem.' Tac. _Ann._ iv. 34, 'T. Livius, eloquentiae ac fidei praeclarus in primis, Cn. Pompeium tantis laudibus tulit, ut Pompeianum eum Augustus appellaret; neque id amicitiae eorum offecit.' It was at Livy's suggestion that the future emperor, Claudius, started to compose a history: Sueton. _Claud._ 41, 'historiam in adulescentia, hortante T. Livio, Sulpicio vero Flavo etiam adiuvante, scribere adgressus est.' On the other hand, Caligula would have liked to remove Livy's writings and his bust from all the libraries, calling him 'verbosum in historia neglegentemque' (Sueton. _Calig._ 34).

Nothing more is known of his life, except that he visited Campania,