Ovid
(43 B.C.–A.D. 17)

When Ovid was a small boy, Octavian defeated Antony. Octavian, who later became emperor Caesar Augustus, worked to unify Rome and improve Roman lives. Ovid, therefore, grew up in a Rome that was untroubled by the heartaches of war, which appeared in many of the works of earlier writers.

Although Ovid fulfilled the wishes of his father by entering the legal profession, he still pursued his goal as a poet. His original groups of works focused on pleasure and love. His literature proved to be too provocative for the society of Augustus, and he quickly changed his topics to those less controversial.

As a result of his change, Ovid created his greatest masterpiece, the Metamorphoses. The poem of 12,000 lines proves to be of great literary and historical value as it records famous myths. Shortly after the completion of the Metamorphoses, Caesar Augustus banished Ovid to a remote village on the Black Sea. Although the reasons for the banishment are not clear, the emperor may have thought he was a threat to public morals. Her remained in the village of Tomis until his death and was never allowed to return to Rome.

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