He was described by Seneca the Elder as emotional and impulsive by nature. He attracted the patronage of the Roman general and important patron of the arts, Marcus Valerius Messalla Corvinus, and became a friend of Horace. He held some minor public posts, but eventually resigned even these in order to pursue poetry in earnest. He came from a well-to-do equestrian family, and he and his brother were educated in Rome, with the intention of their pursuing careers in public life.Īfter the death of his brother, though, Ovid renounced the study of law and politics and began a period of travel in Athens, Asia Minor and Sicily. Publius Ovidius Naso was born in 43 BCE in the town of Sulmo (modern-day Sulmona) in the Apennines to the east of Rome. His poetry, especially the epic poem “Metamorphoses”, was much imitated during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, and is considered to have decisively influenced European art and literature, including Chaucer, Dante, Shakespeare and Milton.īiography – Who is Ovid (Publius Ovidius Naso) He is considered a master of the elegiac couplet, and is traditionally ranked alongside Vergil and Horace as one of the three canonic poets of Latin literature. Ovid was a prolific Roman poet, straddling the Golden and Silver Ages of Latin literature, who wrote about love, seduction and mythological transformation. Introduction | Biography | Writings | Major Works Introduction

(Epic, Elegiac and Didactic Poet, Roman, 43 BCE – c.

Miser Catulle, desinas ineptire (Catullus 8).

Vivamus, mea Lesbia, atque amemus (Catullus 5).

Passer, deliciae meae puellae (Catullus 2).

Ovid latin